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Minoru Furuya's Himeanōru Manga Gets Live-Action Film on May 28
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
This year's 48th issue of Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine is revealing on Monday that the live-action film adaptation of Minoru Furuya's Himeanōru manga will open in Japan on May 28.
The film, which was announced in March, stars Gaku Hamada (Miss Hokusai, live-action Space Brothers) as Susumu Okada, a 25-year-old ordinary man who works part time as a building cleaner. Murotsuyoshi plays Yūji Andō, Susumu's co-worker. Aimi Satsukawa (Kikaider Reboot) plays the heroine Yuka Abe, who is being stalked and who becomes Susumu's girlfriend. V6 member Gō Morita (Ningen Shikkaku, Risk no Kamisama) plays Shōichi Morita, Susumu's former high school classmate and serial killer. The role marks Morita's first starring role in a film.
Keisuke Yoshida (live-action Silver Spoon) is directing the film. Shooting for the film began in March.
In the manga, Susumu is an ordinary man who spends his days in isolation feeling anxious and dissatisfied with his life. He starts going out with cafe worker Yuka, but Yuka informs him that a man named Shōichi, who used to be Susumu's classmate in high school, is stalking her. Shōichi, the other protagonist of the manga, is in truth a serial killer who gets pleasure through killing. He was severely bullied when he was in high school.
Furuya (Himizu) serialized the six-volume manga in Weekly Young Magazine in 2008-2010.
Sion Sono directed an award-winning live-action film adaptation of Furuya's Himizu manga in 2011. Furuya's Ping Pong Club manga received an anime adaptation in 1995, which Central Park Media released in North America.
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