The Drops of God

神の雫

Kami no Shizuku

In "The Drops of God," Shizuku Kanzaki is the sole child of Yutaka Kanzaki, a world-famous wine critic. From a young age, Shizuku was put through intense wine training by his father, which involved learning to pour drinks gracefully and memorizing particular aromas. This upbringing caused Shizuku to develop a deep hatred for anything related to wine. Frustrated with his father, he moved out and took a job as a sales representative at a beer company, vowing to never touch wine again. After his father's sudden death, Shizuku is pulled back into the wine world he loathes. Yutaka's will states that the heir to his prized wine collection and estate must correctly identify the "12 Apostles" wines and the legendary "Drops of God." Shizuku has one year to complete this task to inherit the collection, and he finds the whole idea absurd since he is the only living blood relative. But Yutaka secretly adopted Issei Tomine, a celebrated wine critic known as "The Prince of Wine," just one week before his death. Now Issei competes with Shizuku for the estate. Without any formal wine-tasting abilities, Shizuku faces nearly impossible odds against his powerful rival and risks losing everything in the contest. Can Shizuku identify the mysterious "Drops of God" before his deadline runs out?

Adapted to anime

The Drops of God

Background

Kami no Shizuku is known to have boosted wine sales and popularized certain brands in the regions where it was published. La Revue du vin de France, the most prestigious wine magazine in France, awarded the series with the Special Award of the Year in 2010. The manga was featured in the New York Times' Best Selling List of Manga in 2011. The series was published in English as The Drops of God by Vertical Inc., who released the first eight volumes in 2-in-1 omnibuses from October 18, 2011, to June 19, 2012. Vertical released a fifth and final volume, subtitled New World, on September 25, 2012. By the authors' request, the omnibus contained the 22nd and 23rd volumes of the series. It was later published digitally in regular volume format from October 14, 2019, to May 18, 2021. The manga was adapted into a live-action TV show under the same name. Produced by Nippon TV, it was broadcast from January 13, 2009, to March 10, 2009. Another live-action TV series was released on Apple TV+ in 2023.

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