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Hanzawa Naoki: A Successful Literary Adaptation

  • amycheung2000621
  • 2021年4月2日
  • 讀畢需時 3 分鐘

Hanzawa Naoki is a Japanese drama series based on a novel series by Jun Ikeido, and it has two seasons broadcasting in 2013 and 2020. It is a fictional story revolving around Hanzawa Naoki, who is a banker and works for the largest bank in Japan. He aims to become the upper management and exposes the wrongdoing of the bank to protect the livelihood of ordinary people in society.

(Figure 1: Poster of Hanzawa Naoki season 2 on https://www.tbs.co.jp/hanzawa_naoki/)


Hanzawa Naoki series makes a remarkable success in that it is the most-watched Japanese television drama in three decades. The TV rating of the last episode of season 1 reached 42.2%, and it achieved the highest rating of a drama after 1989. (The Nikkei, 2013) Although season 2 could not break this record, it also made a big hit in Japan. During the broadcast, “#HanzawaNaoki” will be the top on Twitter world trend with ten episodes in a row. (Sponichi Annex, 2020) This is an unexpected success since there are not any romance scenes, most of the actor are middle-aged men and only a few actresses acting in this series. (Tomoyuki, 2013) All these elements led nobody can imagine the popularity after broadcasting.


I think this series shows a good example of literary adaptation. It has brought many benefits to the original novel writer. The familiarity of the original novel and the book sales got a rocket climb. The book sales of the Hanzawa Series increased 25 times due to the hit of drama in 2013. (Oricon News, 2013) Since the hit of drama, the original novel has changed the name. The first novel of this series was called “We Bubble-Economy Hires” and it was changed into “Hanzawa Naoki 1 We Bubble-Economy Hires”. Besides, this novel series was called the “Bubble Series” before the drama broadcast, but now it is called the “Hanzawa Series”. Not just the novels which made into drama got a “Hanzawa’s effect”, but the newest novel of Ikeido “Hanzawa Naoki Arlequin and Pierrot” also made a good selling in 2020.

(Figure 2: (Left side) Novel cover of “Hanzawa Naoki 1 We Bubble-Economy Hires”. (Right side) Novel cover of “We Bubble-Economy Hires”)


To conclude, a successful literary adaptation is a mutual benefit to both television drama producers and original writer. The producers can get a basic core storyline from the original one, so they do not need to waste enormous time and effort to create a story that may not be popular. On the other side, the original writer and his novels can get publicity after the adaptation drama broadcast. The adaptations can add elements to improve the storyline too. I have read the original story after I watched the drama series. Honestly, I think the story after adapting is more interesting and attractive than the original story. The story became more dramatic and many impressive signature lines by the characters were added in the drama version. Maybe some of you have heard the motto “If your enemies hurt you, take double the payback!” by Hanzawa Naoki. Have you ever heard about Hanzawa Naoki? Please share your thoughts with us under the comments section below.

References:


The Nikkei. (2013). 「半沢直樹」最終回の視聴率、関東42.2%・関西45.5%. The Nikkei. [Online] Available at:


Oricon News. (2013). 【オリコン年間】『半沢直樹』原作、昨年から“25倍返し” シリーズ年間総売上270.1万部. Oricon News. [Online] Available at:


Sponichi Annex. (2020). 「半沢直樹」最終回　SNS「半沢ロス」一色に！第3弾期待の声も続々　全10話連続世界トレンド1位. Sponichi Annex. [Online] Available at:

Tomoyuki, H. (2013). 監督も想定外！｢半沢直樹｣メガヒットの裏側. Tokyo Keizai Online. [Online] Available at: https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/17385 [Accessed: 1 April 2021].


 
 
 

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