News

Kenshin's Takeru Satoh & Ryunosuke Kamiki Star in Live-Action Bakuman Film

A live-action film adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Bakuman. manga has been green-lit for release in 2015.

Takeru Satoh (Kamen Rider Den-O, Beck, Kanojo wa Uso o Ai Shisugiteru, Ryōmaden) plays Moritaka Mashiro, a boy who aspires to be a manga artist, and Ryunosuke Kamiki (Howl's Moving Castle, Summer Wars, The Secret World of Arrietty, The Princess and the Pilot) plays his classmate and story collaborator Akito Takagi. The film follows Mashiro and Takagi as they walk the path to becoming manga creators. The two lead actors happen to also co-star as Kenshin Himura and Sōjirō Seta in the upcoming live-action sequel film Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen).

Satoh said that he wants to convey the history, present, and marvelousness of Japanese manga and "Japanimation" to the people of the world. Kamiki commented that he considers it an honor to be able to work on such a amazing story. He added that he himself loves the original manga.

Hitoshi Ōne (Moteki, Koi no Uzu/The Vortex of Love) is directing the film. Obata emphasized that he is not just credited as a creator of the film's concept, but also as a staff member directly involved in the production. His own art will appear in the film as the various manga that Mashiro draws.

The two creators of Death Note serialized the Bakuman. manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 2008 to 2012, and Shueisha published over 15 million copies of the manga's 20 compiled volumes. The manga inspired three television anime series from 2010 to 2013. Viz Media publishes the manga in North America, and Media Blasters released part of the television anime on DVD in North America. The manga topped the Male category of the "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" list in 2010.

Sources: Comic Natalie, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Image © 2015 Bakuman. the Movie Production Committee
© Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata/Shueisha