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Live-Action Blade of the Immortal Film Reveals 9 Additional Cast Members
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official website of the live-action film of Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal "neo period drama" manga revealed nine additional cast members for the film on Monday. The additional cast includes:
(Top row, from left to right):
- Sōta Fukushi as Kagehisa Anotsu
- Hayato Ichihara as Shira
- Erika Toda as Makie Otono-Tachibana
- Kazuki Kitamura as Sabato Kuroi
- Chiaki Kuriyama as Hyakurin
- Shinnosuke Mitsushima as Taito Magatsu
- Ichikawa Ebizō XI as Eiku Shizuma
- Min Tanaka as Kagimura Habaki
- Tsutomu Yamazaki as Kensui Ibane
The site also revealed a visual of Takuya Kimura as Manji (seen below).
They additional cast joins lead actors Takuya Kimura and Hana Sugisaki (seen right). Kimura (Howl's Moving Castle, Redline, live-action Space Battleship Yamato) plays the lead character Manji, a rōnin warrior cursed with an immortal body. Sugisaki (When Marnie Was There, live-action Humanoid Monster Bem, Tsukuroi Tatsu Hito) plays heroine Rin Asano.
Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Yatterman, As the Gods Will, Crows) is directing the film. The film will open in Japan on April 29. The manga follows Manji's journey of revenge as the yōjinbō (bodyguard) of Rin, a young woman who swears vengeance against a group of sword fighters who murdered her parents.
Samura launched the Blade of the Immortal manga in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine in December of 1993, and he completed the series in 2012. The manga's 30 volumes have 5 million copies in print, and the series has been published in 22 countries and territories. The manga earned an Excellence Prize in the manga category of the 1st Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 1997, and it won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 2000. The manga is getting a reprint in Japan with new covers.
Dark Horse Comics published the Blade of the Immortal manga in North America, and plans to rerelease it in omnibus form. The manga already inspired a television anime in 2008, and Media Blasters released it in English. The manga also inspired a stage play in February that starred Tomokazu Seki, who reprised his role from the anime as Manji.
Source: Comic Natalie
