2018 will see a new live-action series based on Katsura Masakazu’s manga Video Girl Ai. Titled, Denei Shoujo ~VIDEO GIRL AI 2018~, it was announced on the show’s official website, and on its Twitter page, that Nogizaka46 member Nishino Nanase will play the lead role of Amano Ai, with a post of Nanase in costume as Ai.

The manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1989 to 1992 and saw a live-action film and anime adaptation in the 1990s. The story focused on Yota Moteuchi, who decides to hire a video from the ‘Paradise’ video store after finding out that his crush is in love with his best friend. The ‘video girl’ in Moteuchi’s video introduces herself as Ai Amano, who comes to life and tries to help his love life. However, because Moteuchi played the video back on a defective VCR, Ai suffers a few side-effects.

The new live-action series is directed by Kazuaki Seki and follows on from the manga. Updated to 2018, Sho Moteuchi (Shuhei Nomura) is living with his uncle following the divorce of his parents. Upon finding his uncle’s broken VCR, he attempts to repair it, only for Video Girl Ai to appear on screen… and then step out of the screen.

The series will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in Japan a week before it airs on TV Tokyo from January 2018.