Miyuki (みゆき) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi. It was published by Shogakukan from 1980 to 1984 in the biweekly manga magazine Shōnen Big Comic (precursor to the current Weekly Young Sunday). The series was adapted into a film, an anime television series, and a live-action television drama. It was very popular in Japan and was one of the winners of the 1982 Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen and shōjo manga, along with Adachi's Touch manga. Miyuki was Adachi's first manga adapted as an anime. The 37-episode anime series was broadcast from March 31, 1983, until April 20, 1984, on the Fuji Television network. The live-action film version was released on September 16, 1983. The television drama, produced by Fuji TV and Kyodo Television (a television production house), aired on August 4, 1986. The anime has been dubbed into several other languages including French and Spanish.

Plot

Masato Wakamatsu, 16 years old, is working at the beach one summer. Having made a bad impression on his classmate/crush Miyuki Kashima, he makes a pass at another pretty girl. To Masato's shock, the girl turns out to be his younger stepsister Miyuki (15), who has been living abroad with their father for the past six years. As school progresses, Masato starts dating Miyuki Kashima. He and his sister Miyuki are living alone together, and he is troubled by his conflicting emotions: filial and romantic feelings toward a sister who may or may not know she is not related to him by blood.

Characters

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Media

Manga

Anime

The anime television series aired from March 31, 1983, to April 20, 1984, on the Fuji TV network. Because Kitty Film was already producing the popular Urusei Yatsura anime television series, they asked Tomoyuki Miyata from Tatsunoko Pro to produce the Miyuki series, Mizuho Nishikubo to be the supervising director for the series, and had their own in-house studio (Kitty Mitaka Studio) handle the animation. Fuji TV had wanted Group TAC, the studio which had done the animation for the first Nine TV special, to do the animation, but arrangements had already been made. Subsequent Adachi works were all animated by Group TAC. The lead role of voicing Miyuki Wakamatsu was given to Yōko Oginome after she auditioned for Kitty Film's Shonben Rider. Masatoshi Nagase, the voice actor for Masato Wakamatsu, is known for his passionate acting and his love scenes. Kitty Records was contracted to provide the music for the series, and one group, H2O, supplied the opening theme and two of the three ending themes. H2O's song "'Full of Memories" (想い出がいっぱい) was a hit, reaching #6 on the Oricon charts. It is considered one of the "standard songs" from 1980's era Japan. The series uses four pieces of theme music: an opening and three closing themes. The opening theme is "10% Chance of Rain" (10%の雨予報) by H2O, with the lyrics of the chorus slightly altered from the original version to be more appropriate to the series. The first ending theme is "Full of Memories" (想い出がいっぱい) by H2O and was used up to episode 13 and returns for episodes 20 to 22. The second ending theme is "Summer Holiday" (サマー·ホリデー) by Michiko Kawai and was used between episodes 14 and 19. The final ending theme is "Good-bye Season" (Good-bye シーズン) by H2O and was used for the remaining episodes. After its original run on the Fuji TV network, the series was rebroadcast on the NTV network in 1986. A Spanish language dub of the anime series was made in Venezuela in 1992 and aired on Telecinco in Spain and in Latin America. The series is known as Vacaciones de verano ("Summer Vacation") in Spanish and the dubbers changed the given names of most of the main characters, with Masato becoming Tony, Miyuki Kashima changed to Katia, and Miyuki Wakamatsu altered to Monica. Sources:

Film

The Miyuki anime television movie aired in the Fuji TV Nissei Family Special slot on September 16, 1983. It was directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu. Screenwriter Yumiko Takaboshi later worked on the composition of Touch anime series. It came out at the same time the Nine the Original movie was released in theaters. The Nine movie was made by the same staff which later worked on the Touch anime series.

TV drama

The TV drama special aired as part of the Monday Dramaland (月曜ドラマランド) on Fuji TV on August 4, 1986. Sources: