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2nd Live-Action Gintama Show Casts Rie Kugimiya

The official Twitter account for the tie-in live-action Gintama 2: Yo ni mo Kimyō na Gintama-chan show revealed on Thursday that voice actress Rie Kugimiya will appear in the show in a voice role. The announcement did not reveal what role she will play.

Kugimiya plays the character Kagura in the Gintama television anime, but Kanna Hashimoto plays the character in the live-action series and films. Kugimiya commented that her appearance in the live-action show is very "Kagura-like, in a certain way."

Yūichi Fukuda is writing and directing the new live-action Gintama 2: Yo ni mo Kimyō na Gintama-chan show, just as he has done for both films and for the first live-action show. The show will premiere on August 18 on Docomo's dTV streaming service, and will have three episodes. The three episodes are titled "I Can't Sleep," "Hijikata Smoking Ban," and "No Matter How Old You Are You Hate Going to the Dentist."

ENDRECHERI, the solo project of KinKi Kids member Tsuyoshi Dōmoto, will perform the show's theme song "one more purple funk… -Kōmei katana-." Dōmoto previously played the character Shinsuke Takasugi in the first live-action Gintama film, and will reprise his role in the upcoming sequel film.

Returning from the first live-action show are Shun Oguri as Gintoki Sakata, Kankurō Nakamura as Isao Kondou, Yuuya Yagira as Toushirou Hijikata, and Ryō Yoshizawa as Sougo Okita. Joining them in the second live-action show is Kanna Hashimoto as Kagura. Voice actor Fumihiko Tachiki will reprise his role as Taizō Hasegawa (Madao) for the show. As seen in the trailer above, the character Maetel from Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 manga appears in the show. Mizuki Yamamoto plays Maetel, and Yūma Yamoto plays the character Tetsurō from the same manga.

Gintama 2: Okite wa Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru (The Law is Surely There to be Broken), the second live-action film based on Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama manga, opens in Japan on Friday. The story will cover both the "Shinsengumi Crisis" and the "Shogun Reception" arcs, the latter of which features the introduction of the Shogun.

The film stars:

• Shun Oguri as Gintoki Sakata
• Masaki Suda as Shinpachi Shimura
• Kanna Hashimoto as Kagura
• Masami Nagasawa as Tae Shimura
• Masaki Okada as Kotarō Katsura
• Tsuyoshi Muro as Gengai Hiraga
• Midoriko Kimura as Otose
• Yuuya Yagira as Toushirou Hijikata and his otaku split personality "Tosshi"
• Kankurō Nakamura as Isao Kondou
• Ryō Yoshizawa as Sougo Okita
• Tsuyoshi Dōmoto as Shinsuke Takasugi
• Haruma Miura as Kamotaro Ito
• Masataka Kubota as Bansai Kawakami
• Shinichi Tsutsumi as Katakuriko Matsudaira
• Ryo Katsuji as the Shogun
• Natsuna Watanabe as Ayame Sarutobi
• Jirō Satō is returning but in a different, as-yet unannounced role

Rock band back number will perform the film's theme song "Daifuseikai."

The first film opened in Japan last July, and it earned 980 million yen (US$8.9 million) in its first four days. The film also inspired a live-action net show that debuted on Docomo's dTV streaming service one day after the film's opening. The film had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July 2017, and Azoland Pictures screened the film in the United States and Canada starting on January 19.

Well Go USA released the first film on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and DVD combo pack, and Digital HD on March 6.

Sources: Gintama 2: Yo ni mo Kimyō na Gintama-chan show's Twitter account (link 2), Comic Natalie