Shinya Shokudō Manga Gets 2nd Live-Action TV Series

A second live-action television series based on Yarō Abe's manga Shinya Shokudō (Midnight Cafeteria) will begin airing on Japan's TBS and MBS networks on October 20. The first series ran for 10 episodes in 2009. The Shinya Shokudō 2 series will also have 10 episodes.

The manga, which was nominated for the bookseller-selected Manga Taishō ("Cartoon Grand Prize") in 2009, tells the story of the people who work in a small, mysterious cafeteria in Shinjuku. The cafeteria opens at midnight to fix customers any dish they request.
 
The Shinya Shokudō manga won the general category award at the 55th Shogakugan Manga Awards last year, and it was won the grand prize at the 39th Japan Cartoonist Awards that same year. Shōgakukan's monthly manga anthology Big Comic Original currently serializes the manga. The seventh compiled book volume (tankōbon) of the manga was released in Japan in February.

Kaoru Kobayashi, an actor who has been a fixture in Japanese dramas and movies for over thirty years, will again play the lead role in the drama. The actor voiced the character of Jiko-Bō in Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, and won the 2008 Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Tokyo Tower. Shōtarō Kobayashi (live-action Mainichi Kaasan film) will direct the otherwise mostly new staff and cast of Shinya Shokudō 2.