Are you ready for another take on the world’s greatest detective?
Sherlock Gakuen (シャーロック学園, sometimes apparently translated as/called Puppet Entertainment Sherlock Holmes or just Sherlock Holmes) is a new NHK TV series developed by popular Japanese playwright and director Koki Mitani. He’s adapted Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective stories in to a 20-episode series for NHK about a teenage Sherlock and Watson attending a London boarding school.
This isn’t Mitani’s first literature-based puppet series; he previously made the 40 episode series Renzoku Ningyo Katsugeki: Shin Sanjushi (Action Series Puppets: New Three Musketeers) for NHK in 2009.
I haven’t been able to uncover many puppetry credits for Sherlock Gakuen yet, but its distinctive rod puppets were designed by painter Bunta Inoue, who also designed the puppets for Shin Sanjushi.
Several episodes of Sherlock Holmes were previewed on NHK TV over the summer and the series is set to begin a regular run on NHK TV in early October. If you’d like to see more, the first three episodes of Sherlock Gakuen are currently available on DVD
