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Gegege no Kitaro Live-Action Sequel to Open in Summer
posted on by Egan Loo
Actor Eiji Wentz (Brave Story, Lovely Complex) is reprising his Kitaro role in the second Gegege no Kitarō live-action supernatural movie, which will open this summer. Like the first movie, the second movie adapts Shigeru Mizuki's classic shōnen manga about a young yōkai (supernatural being) who walks the blurry line between the human world and the yōkai world.
The first movie opened last April 28 as that weekend's #2 movie, and eventually became Japan's #21 grossing movie of 2007. The movie helped restore the spotlight on the orginal manga, and the first Gegege no Kitarō anime in nine years followed soon after with a premiere last May. (A new Kitaro anime series, Hakaba Kitarō, will begin on January 10.)
The first movie's director, Katsuhide Motoki, began shooting the second movie on December 11. In addition to Wentz, Yō Ōizumi (Nezumi Otoko), Rena Tanaka (Neko Musume), Kanpei Hazama (Konaki Jijii), and Shigeru Muroi (Sunakake Baba) are reprising their respective roles from the first movie, although the first movie's leading actress, Mao Inoue (Mika Miura), is not. Ken Ogata joins the cast as Kitaro's powerful enemy Nurarihyon, as do Shinobu Terajima (Nure Onna), Shirō Sano (Jakotsu-Baba), and Takashi Sasano (Ido-Sennin).
Source: Sankei Sports
Image © 2007 Gegege no Kitarō Film Partners