Interest
'Dragon Quest-Style' Live-Action Show to Air in July
posted on by Egan Loo
27-year-old actor Takayuki Yamada (Densha Otoko/Train Man film, H2: Kimi to Ita Hibi) will star in a "Dragon Quest-style" live-action television series called Yūsha Yoshihiko to Maō no Shiro (The Hero Yoshihiko and the Devil King's Castle) starting on July 8 on the TV Tokyo network. Yūïchi Fukuda (live-action One-Pound Gospel, Saru Lock) is writing and directing this project, which is Yamada's first starring role in a live-action television series.
Yamada said, "I think people who have played a certain adventure RPG can enjoy this of course, but even people who haven't played it will be drawn into Fukuda's comedy. We'll do our best to aim for Level 99!"
The story is set in an era when the entire country was still overgrown with verdant forests. A mysterious plague has spread across the land, and many have succumbed to it. Somehow, a pure young man named Yoshihiko (Yamada) was chosen to be a hero, and he embarks on a quest to save a village. He has another objective — his father never returned from his own quest to retrieve the cure, and Yoshiko hopes to rescue his father.
Haruka Kinami (20th Century Boys) will play the somewhat helpless companion who Yoshihiko meets along the way, Tsuyoshi Muro (Ōoku, Yatterman) will play a wizard who can only cast weak spells, and Shin Takuma (live-action Touch) will play a fierce warrior. The cast also includes Azusa Okamoto (Moyashimon).
Source: Oricon via Hachima Kikō
Image © TV Tokyo Corporation
Update: Typos fixed. Thanks, Sakurazuka_Reika and Emerje.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history