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Saint Young Men Anime Film Casts Its Jesus, Buddha

28-year-old actor Mirai Moriyama (Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, 20th Century Boys, Moteki) and 31-year-old SAKEROCK band leader Gen Hoshino (Akihabara @ DEEP) will play Jesus and Buddha, respectively, in the anime film adaptation of Hikaru Nakamura's Saint Young Men manga. The manga centers around the two religious figures as they share a low-rent apartment in Tokyo's Tachikawa neighborhood.

Moriyama noted that he was exposed to the stories of Jesus and Buddha in middle school via Osamu Tezuka's In The Beginning - The Bible Stories and Buddha manga. Hoshino added that he has been a fan of the original Saint Young Man manga, and a fan of anime in general, before being cast. Other cast members include Reiko Suzuki (Crayon Shin-chan's Old Lady Next Door, 2007 Gegege no Kitarō's Jakotsu-Baba) as Sachiko Matsuda, and Ryōko Kinomiya (Speed Racer's Aya Mifune, Phoenix's Himiko) as the narrator.

Noriko Takao (The IDOLM@STER's series direction) is directing the film at A-1 Pictures. Rika Nezu (Kimi ni Todoke: The Movie) wrote the screenplay, and Naoyuki Asano (Doraemon: Shin Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan - Habatake Tenshi-tachi's animation director) is designing the characters. Keiichi Suzuki (Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up) and Ryōmei Shirai (Kimagure Orange Road: The Movie's theme song arrangement) are scoring the music.

The anime movie will open in Japan next spring. A special edition of the eighth manga volume will come with an original anime DVD on December 3.

Sources: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Oricon