Drops of God
Drops of God is a Japanese manga series about wine. It is written by Tadashi Agi, a pseudonym employed by creative team of sister and brother Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, and illustrated by Shu Okimoto. The story is told in two parts – the first part focusing on protagonist Shizuku Kanzaki and his rival Issei Tomine on their search of the "Twelve Apostles" wines, and the second focusing on finding the "Drops of God". A third part of the series serves as short sequel details Shizuku's life after the competition and taking Issei's daughter under his wing.
The series was first published in November 2004 in Weekly Morning magazine in Japan and ended in June 2014, with the final volume out in July. A sequel manga series, titled Drops of God: Mariage continued where the original manga left off, focusing on Shizuku traveling abroad to deepen his knowledge of wine and his search for the "Drops of God". The manga's theme is the "marriage" between wine and food, exploring the many different combinations between them. Serialization began on May 28, 2015, a few months after the original manga ended its serialization, and was completed on October 15, 2020, collected into a total of 26 volumes.
On September 13, 2023, another sequel was announced, titled Drops of God deuxième and began publication in Weekly Morning magazine on September 21 and ended on April 18, 2024. The story takes place after Mariage, with an older Shizuku traveling the world and arriving in Paris to teach Issei's daughter about wine. It ran for only two volumes.
Drops of God is widely successful, receiving praise for its accurate knowledge of wines, characters, story, and art, and is famous for its global impact on the wine market, especially the sales of wines profiled in the manga. Drops of God also inspired two live-action television adaptations. An anime television series adaptation produced by Satelight is set to premiere in April 2026.
Plot
Shizuku Kanzaki is a junior employee in a Japanese beverages company, Taiyo Beer mainly focusing on selling beers. As the story opens, he receives news that his father, from whom he is estranged, has died. His father was the world-renowned wine critic Yutaka Kanzaki, who owned a vast and famous wine collection. Summoned to the family home, a splendid European style mansion, to hear the reading of his father's will, Shizuku learns that, in order to take ownership of his legacy, he must correctly identify, and describe in the manner of his late father, thirteen wines, the first twelve known as the "Twelve Apostles" and the thirteenth known as the "Drops of God", that his father has described in his will. He also learns that he has a competitor in this, a renowned young wine critic called Issei Tomine, who his father has apparently recently adopted as his other son.Shizuku has never drunk wine, in part a reaction against the ruling passion of his late father, nor had any previous knowledge about wines. However, with strong senses of taste and smell, and an uncanny ability to describe his experiences from those senses, Shizuku submerges himself in the world of wine and tries to solve the mysteries of the 13 wines and defeat Issei. In this, he is also helped by knowledge gained from his time as a child with his father, and supported by his friends, including trainee sommelier Miyabi Shinohara and colleagues in the newly formed wine department of his company, which he now joins.
Following a draw on the "Apostles" wines, Shizuku and Issei received a near year-long grace period before the search for the "Drops of God" resumed. They are tasked by The Order of the Drops of God, a social club created by Yutaka and seven of his closest friends and fellow wine experts, to overcome each of their respective challenges to gain the seven pages of describing the "Drops of God" in Yukata's will. Aiding Shizuku in his competition are the family that operates the Western-style Izakaya Mama-Miya and other chefs, where Shizuku find temporary employment to study wine and food pairing.
Production
Development
All the wines that appear in the comic are authentic, with Yuko and Shin Kibayashi being passionate wine lovers and even owned a 3,000-bottle collection. Neither of the authors have professional wine qualifications, but they grew up learning about French food and wine from their grandfather and drank wine every day as a hobby. One day, the siblings tried a 1985 DRC Échezeaux and become more entranced in the deeper aspects of the wine world, stating "when had it, it made us think about the culture, the people, and we started to see these complex pictures and patterns like a rug. It made us see these illusions."Whenever the siblings drank wine, they played a game of describing the "image" of wine, much like how characters in manga tend to do, and realized they shared "similar imagery without much diversion of vision from each other". Wanting to share their visions with other people, Shin suggested creating a manga centered around wine. When deciding which wine to feature in the manga, they researched and consulted with wine experts, and every wine that appeared in manga the siblings tasted. Based on a certain standard, they tasted various kinds of wine at all price ranges and from different parts of the world, even ones that don't appear in the manga. They excluded wines they thought readers would be disappointed in, regardless of price, or wines they personally found "unattractive", though they made sure no negative thoughts about wines were shown in the manga.
For the sequel series, the siblings became more interested in food pairing after introduced the pairing of oysters and Chablis wine in The Drops of God. In the depiction of Drops of God: Mariage, they wanted to emphasize how food and wine were intrinsic with each other, as there "are combinations that complement each other and that work against each other". To find an exquisite food pairing, they choose to spend time in their kitchen and at restaurants trying out different ingredients from Japanese, Chinese, and Western cuisines in order to find out what pairs best with wine.
Theme
As frequently shown in the manga, the theme of the manga centered around the deep complexity of wine and the "story" behind it, and how wine "mirrors a country's food culture and lifestyle." According to the Kibayashis, they stated that wine is the "main character" of the story, instead of the protagonists Shizuku and Issei.In series, the word "tenchijin" is used, which refers to the "elements that create wine: heaven/vintage, earth/terroir and man." A Japanese winemaker, Koji Nakata, used this on his wine label and was one of the inspirations for the sibling writers as they realized that "every amazing wine has these essences. It needs good terroir, vintage, and more than anything, a good winemaker... None of these essences can be absent to create a good wine. Even if one of them overpowers the other, it'll offset the balance. It's not simply an industrial product. When a person receives the gift from heaven and the earth, he can create wine. In the back of our mind, we always wanted to convey how amazing that is."
Characters
;Shizuku Kanzaki;Miyabi Shinohara
;Yutaka Kanzaki
;Issei Tomine
;Christopher Watkins
;Ryouko Kiryuu
;Shiro Fujieda
;Soichiro Mishima
;Maki Saionji
;Robert Doi
;Sarah
;Kawarage
;Chosuka Honma
;Ryusuke Kido
;Kyrgyz Loulan
;Junya Ishikawa and Kenya Ishikawa
;Ryo Takasugi
;Moegi Tanaka
;Honoka Tomine
;Charles Watkins
;Yoshida
;Komi Mamiya
;Kurazo Mamiya
;Tohru Kamoshida
;Count Romano Visconti
;Francoise Black
;Lord Henry Gilbert
;Andrew Wang
;Émilie Mikasa
;Louis Bernard
;Jiro Bernard
;Harashima
The "Twelve Apostles" and "The Drops of God"
To win each round of the competition to identify the 13 mystery wines, Shizuku and Issei have to present a correct choice of wine and a justification of the choice which most closely matches Yutaka's description of the wine in his will. The judge is Yutaka's old friend Robert Doi. The thirteenth wine, "The Drops of God", is never revealed in the series, stating every person has own personal "Drops of God" because every person's taste is different.| Shizuku's choice | Country | Issei's choice | Country | References | |
| First Apostle | 2001 Georges Roumier Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses | France | 1999 Georges Roumier Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses | France | |
| Second Apostle | 2000 Château Palmer | France | 1999 Château Palmer | France | |
| Third Apostle | 2000 Santa Duc Gigondas | France | 1981 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape | France | |
| Rematch | 2000 Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo | France | 2000 Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo | France | |
| Fourth Apostle | 1992 Château Lafleur | France | 1994 Château Lafleur | France | |
| Fifth Apostle | 2000 Marc Colin Montrachet | France | 2000 Michel Colin-Deléger Chevalier-Montrachet | France | |
| Sixth Apostle | 2001 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Cannubi Boschis | Italy | 2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falleto | Italy | |
| Seventh Apostle | 2003 Glaetzer Amon-Ra Shiraz Barossa Valley | Australia | 2003 Sine Qua Non The Inaugural Syrah Central Coast AVA | USA | |
| Eighth Apostle | Jacques Selosse Cuvée Exquise NV | France | 2000 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Brut Rosé | France | |
| Ninth Apostle | 2005 Brunello di Montalcino Poggio di Sotto | Italy | 2005 Brunello di Montalcino Poggio di Sotto | Italy | |
| Tenth Apostle | 2002 Grands Échezeaux Grand cru Robert Sirugue | France | 2007 Grands Échezeaux Grand cru Robert Sirugue | France | |
| Eleventh Apostle | Priorat 2008, Les Manyes - Terroir Al Limit | Spain | Priorat 2008, domaine Ferrer Bobet - Seleccio Especial | Spain | |
| Twelfth Apostle | Château d'Yquem 1976 | France | Château d'Yquem 1975 | France | |
| Drops of God |
Green background means the competitor won the round and picked the correct wine.
Both choices were judged to be incorrect, therefore a rematch was held.
Although they selected the same wine, as Issei refused to describe his wine, he was judged to have lost this round of the competition.
Christopher also participated in this contest and found the correct wine. However, Issei's description of the wine was closest to Yutaka's understanding, and was judged as the victor by Robert
Media
Manga
Drops of God was serialized was in Kodansha's Weekly Morning magazine from November 2004 to June 2014 in Japan. It is also published in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Since April 2008, volumes have also been published in France by Glénat. By December 2007, the series had registered sales of more than 500,000 copies. By May 2021, Drops of God had sold over half a million copies, more than 3.5 million. By August 2021, series has cumulativated over 15 million copies in circulation.Vertical Inc. published the series in North America under the title The Drops of God. After publishing four volumes, the fifth volume jumped ahead to the story arc for the Seventh Apostle, published under the name The Drops of God: New World. Vertical stated that this was done "by author request" and urged readers to "tell all your friends about the series so there will be second and third seasons to fill in the gap!"
Starting on October 14, 2019, Vol. 1-11 of the English translation were available digitally through ComiXology on Kindle, with plans to have all 44 volumes in English translation by Kodansha. These were available free for Amazon Prime members. In May 2020, Vol. 12-22 of the English translation were released and Vol. 23–33 in October 2020. They released the final volumes, Vol. 34-44, in May 2021. In Fall 2025, Kodansha USA started reprinting the printed, 2-in-1 omnibus editions of the manga.
Drops of God: Mariage
Drops of God: Mariage's serialization began on May 28, 2015, a few months after the original manga ended its serialization, and was completed on October 15, 2020, collected into a total of 26 volumes.On August 31, 2023, Kodansha USA revealed they licensed the sequel and the first volume was initially to be release digitally on September 26, 2023, but was pushed back to October 3, 2023.
Drops of God deuxième
Another sequel manga, titled Drops of God deuxième, began serialization in Weekly Morning magazine on September 21, 2023, and ended on April 18, 2024.Live-action TV series
2008 Korean TV series project
In 2008, a Korean adaptation was in the works, with actor Bae Yong-joon expressing interested in it, but ultimately fell through and was never greenlit.2009 Japanese TV series
A live action television adaptation, also titled Kami no Shizuku, was broadcast by Nippon Television in January 2009.2023 multinational TV series
On August 24, 2021, a multinational, multi-lingual TV series was announced. The series is a co-production between Legendary Television, Dynamic Television, France Télévisions and Nippon Television-owned Hulu Japan and in partnership with Adline Entertainment. Legendary Television will handle worldwide sales for all territories apart from France and Japan. Apple TV+ picked up streaming rights for the series. It consists of two seasons, with Season 1 airing in 2023 and Season 2 in 2026.Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced by Pony Canyon on November 20, 2025. The series will be produced by Satelight and directed by Kenji Itoso, with Yū Mitsuru writing and supervising scripts, Takehiro Suwa designing the characters, and Eishi Segawa composing the music. It is set to premiere in April 2026 on Tokyo MX and other channels. Crunchyroll will stream the series.Others
A social game based on Drops of God and created by Mobage was released on February 9, 2011, and is only available in Japan. In November 2007, a music album inspired by the series was released.On January 22, 2009, a diary book detailing the Kibayahi siblings creative process about the manga and columns of their research was released. A photo book about Kazuya Kamenashi and the 2009 TV series on March 3, 2009.
Reception and impact
The series has received both local and global critical acclaim, being praised for its story, art, and educational knowledge of wine. It has been featured in the New York Times Best Selling list of manga many times.Drops of God was also featured in The New York Times Dining and Wine section, highlighting the wines shown in the manga and their impact of sales.
The success, popularity, and cultural impact of Drops of God has been credited to its influence for increasing interest in wines, especially the ones introduced in the manga, most notably, propelling obscure winemakers to celebrity status, increasing domestic and international sales, and even fed into wine speculation with bottles that were usually priced around $20 reaching the thousands overnight. In 2018, online wine magazine Grape Collective that French wine producers, such as Château Calon-Segur, Château Palmer, Saint-Estèphe, and Château Le Puy, gained 130% rise in sales in Japan during the first year of the manga's publication. In 2013, the mention of Château Poupille in the series had increased sales by 20 to 30% in Japan and around 50% in Taiwan, China and Korea.
When French comic book publisher Glénat translated Drops of God, the French wine market experienced visible changes in their stocks, particularly for three producers in their international and abroad sales. One of the most memorable wines covered in the Drops of God is Château-Mont-Perat, with its normal price of €15 changing to €150 per bottle and rise annual production of 25,000 cases to 50,000. In L'Expansion, the manga is cited to be "an extraordinary lever, much more effective than the Parker points". In France, the French government acknowledged that contribution, and the writers were presented with two awards, Order of Agricultural Merit in 2011, and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2018 for their influential impact in their economy and help in maintaining interest in wine in young people. In 2010, prestigious La Revue du vin de France awarded the Drops of God staff their "Special Award of the Year", making them the first Japanese people to receive the award. In July 2009, Drops of Gods was even featured the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Hall of Fame.
The Japanese importer Enoteca has stated that the character Shizuku has begun to influence its stock ordering decisions. The sale of fine wines in South Korea has increased significantly as a result of the popularity of the comic, with the sale of wine rising from less than a third of the market to around 70 per cent of alcohol sales. In 2005, elite South Korean companies was even reported to had bought all the wines introduced in The Drops of God as a way to “educate” their employees.
Youth demand for wine in Taiwan is largely driven by Drops of God. After an issue with a mention of lesser known producer Château Mont-Pérat came out, a Taiwanese importer sold 50 cases of Mont-Pérat in two days. Sales of Umberto Cosmo's Colli di Conegliano Rosso also leaped 30% after being mentioned in the Manga series. All Nippon Airways reported it had to recraft the in-flight wine lists to accommodate the increased interest.
After being featured in the finale of the Japanese television adaptation series of Kami no Shizuku in March 2010, the little-known Bordeaux wine 2003 Château le Puy became significantly popular in Japan. In September 2010, the proprietor of Château le Puy, Jean-Pierre Amoreau, made public his intention to cease international sales of their 2003 vintage in order to deter wealthy speculators, so that the wine remains within reach of everyone. In 2018, Berkeley's Broc Cellars reported that the Zinfandel called the "Vine Starr" helped increased sales and interest with their Japan base.
A 2007 Reuters feature asserted that "wine industry experts believe part of the manga's appeal is that it teaches readers enough about wine to understand the drink and impress their friends, but does so in an entertaining way". In the July 2009 Decanter publication of "The Power List" ranking of the wine industry's individuals of influence, Shin and Yuko Kibayashi placed at number 50, citing that the work was "arguably the most influential wine publication for the past 20 years". In 2012, the Kibayashi siblings were nominated Wine Intelligence Business Award for their contribution in the wine industry. In 2016, the Kibayashis was awarded with the Asian Wine Personality award by The Drinks Business and Vinexpo for their influence on the wide trade, acknowledging wide readership across Asia, including Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The 2023 live-action TV series has also received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the 2023 series has an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 24 critic reviews.
By 2023, the franchise has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
An Indie game titled "Drops of God: Creating your Ambrosia" is based on the series.
Wine Salon and WineGame app
In 2019, the Kibayashis siblings collaborated with President of Bijou USA and Vice President of Bijou Japan, Peter Chiang, whose family the Napa Valley estate Kanpai Wines, on two Drops of God-themed projects, the Wine Salon and WineGame app. From October 20–21, the Kibayashis assisted in preparing the wine menu for a two-day event, choosing 30 different wines from 9 different producers. The Kibayashis also spend the event singing books and interacting with fans. During a press released, Shink and Yuko stated that they approached the event the same way they did with the series:Winemakers that also attended the event credited the Kibayashis for their influence and praised Drops of God for its storytelling and creativity, as " these virtues in the wines that it folds into its stories" and emphasizes "The magic of wine is that it is as much a story as it is a beverage: a marriage of place, process, and people. Drops of God celebrates this magic.”
Following the venture, online wine salon for US consumers and a Wines of God app, a branded version of the WineGame app, both named after the manga, was launched. Drops of God-themed Wine Salon and WineGame app features an interactive educational wine game, personal wine recommendations for individual members, special offers from restaurants and hotels, and notify members of wine-related events.