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JoJo's Creator's 'Prison Break' Stage Play Casts Eriko Hatsune

The staff of the stage play adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki's "Jikei Shikkō-chū Datsugoku Shinkō-chū" manga short story has cast Eriko Hatsune (Norwegian Wood, live-action Gatchaman) as a "mysterious girl" who will appear in the the parts of the stage play based on the "Dolche ~Die Hard the Cat~" short.

Hatsune is joining Mirai Moriyama, who plays the story's protagonist. The rest of the cast includes Naoki Iimura, Manji Edogawa, Ōmiya Daisuke, Ryōji Sasamoto, Aiichirō Miyagawa, and Hirokazu Morikawa.

The suspense story follows a man (Moriyama) who has been handed a death sentence. He is sent to a prison with luxurious accomodations and furnishings comparable to a high-class home. Nevertheless, he tries to break out of the prison.

The play will run from November 20 to November 29 at the Galaxy Theatre (Tennōzu Ginga Gekijō) in Tokyo. The production then plans to tour the country at various locales starting in December.

Araki published the original manga in Shueisha's defunct Super Jump magazine in 1995. It became the first story in a 1999 collection of four short stories published under the same Jikei Shikkō-chū Datsugoku Shinkō-chū title. The collection also includes the short "Dolche ~Die Hard the Cat~," and the upcoming stage play incorporates story elements from that short. Araki commented on his first stage play adaptation, "There is an unpredictable sense of anticipation and amusement."

Up-and-coming creator Nei Hasegawa is drafting, directing, choreographing, and overseeing the production company Fujiyama Annette on the new play. Moriyama will also direct the choreography alongside Hasegawa. Hasegawa and Moriyama had previously collaborated on the 2010 music video "Yoake no Beat" for Fujifabric. Tadahiro Sai of the band bonobos will handle the music, alongside Shōnen Yoshida and Yūji Tanaka. Asuka Yamamoto of fashion brand FUGAHUM will design the costumes. Itaru Sugiyama is in charge of art design, while Kenta Okuda of the Colore stage lighting design team is directing the stage production's lighting, and Takashi Amano is credited for sound effects.

Akiyoshi Mishima is handling the art direction for the production's advertising. Hideki Namai is serving as photographer, and Tsukuru Ōta is producing the art for the advertising.

Source: Comic Natalie