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Manga-Based Bad Boys J Live-Action Drama Gets Film

The live-action television drama Bad Boys J that premiered last April and was inspired by Hiroshi Tanaka's Bad Boys manga, is getting a film adaptation. The film, which will also be titled Bad Boys J, will open in Japan on November 9.

Kento Nakajima, the lead singer of the idol group Sexy Zone, will return to play the lead character Tsukasa Kiriki, who has a strong sense of justice, but rebels against his rich parents and joins a motorcycle gang called the Paradise Butterflies. In the drama that aired earlier this year, Tsukasa becomes the leader of the Paradise Butterflies. Kis-My-Ft2 member Takashi Nikaidō will return to play the leader of the Beast gang, the most powerful gang in Hiroshima, and A.B.C-Z member Ryōsuke Hashimoto will play the leader of Paradise Butterflies' rival gang, Hiroshima Knights. Takashi Kubota is returning to direct the film.

In the film, a new enemy appears to threaten all three gangs. The film will also feature the following cast: Hikaru Iwamoto, Tatsuya Fukasawa, Shōta Watanabe, Kentarō Yasui, Keigo Hagiya, Myūto Morita, Shōki Morohoshi, Ryūya Shimekake, Nanami Hashimoto, Sayuri Matsumura, Reina Triendl, and Tomomi Itano.

Tanaka's Bad Boys manga ran in Shonen Gahosha's Young King magazine from 1988 to 1996. The series has more than 50 million copies of its 22 compiled book volumes in circulation. A sequel manga, Bad Boys Glare, also ran in the same magazine from 1996 to 2003. Toei Animation and directors Osamu Sekita (Cross Game, Ichigo 100%) and Takeshi Yamaguchi (Happy Lesson, Slayers Next) adapted the manga into a five-part original video anime series from 1993 to 1998. A live-action film adaptation of the original manga opened in Japan in 2011.

Source: Comic Natalie