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Live-Action Saki's Lead Actress Returns to Play Saki's Big Sister

The official website for the live-action film and television series adaptations of Ritz Kobayashi and Aguri Igarashi's Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A mahjong spinoff manga revealed on Monday that Minami Hamabe (seen below) will play the role of Teru Miyanaga. Teru is Saki's older sister, and is an ace from Shiratodai High School. Hamabe previously played Saki herself from the live-action film adaptation of the original manga.

The main cast includes:

Hiyori Sakurada as Shizuno Takakamo

Yuri Tsunematsu as Kuro Matsumi

Momoka Itō as Ako Atarashi

Kōme Watanabe as Yuu Matsumi

Riko Nakayama as Arata Sagimori

Nao Minamisawa as Harue Akado

Nana Asakawa as Nodoka Haramura (reprising her role from the Saki film)

Nao Sakura as Toki Onjōji

Yuka Ogura as Ryūka Shimizudani

Mizuha as Sera Eguchi

Rino Shimazaki as Hiroko Funakubo

Manami Arai as Izumi Nijō

Mikoto Hibi as Sumire Hirose

RaMu as Takami Shibuya

Karen Iwata as Seiko Matano

Yūmi Shida as Awai Ōhoshi

Yūka Yano as Kirame Hanada

Rio Kotomi as Yoshiko Yasukōchi

Haruka Iwasaki as Hitomi Ezaki

Riho Takada as Mairu Shirōzu

Sae Okazaki as Himeko Tsuruta

Mio Kudō as Hatsuse Okahashi

Jun Amaki as Yae Kobashiri

Arisa Sonohara as Noriko Maruse

Yui Kitamura as Ryōko Ueda

Asuka Kawazu as Yuka Tatsumi

Momoko Okazaki as Hyakka Kurumai

Other cast members include:

• Ayu Higashi as Sukoya Kokaji
• Anna Yano as Nozomi Atarashi
• Satomi Kawaguchi as Kōko Fukuyo

The cast for the characters in elementary school includes:

• Rena Suzuki as Nodoka Haramura
• Miyū Okazaki as Shizuno Takakamo
• Kanon Matsuzawa as Kuro Matsumi
• Moka Mineta as Ako Atarashi
• Kokoro Hirasawa as Arata Sagimori

The live-action television series premiered on December 3 at 24:50 (effectively December 4 at 12:50 a.m.), and its special aired on MBS on Sunday, and will air on TBS on Tuesday. The live-action film will open on January 20.

Similar to the live-action television adaptation of the Saki manga, the new series will have a special and four regular episodes. Yūichi Onuma is again directing the series, and Hayashi Mori is returning to write the script.

The live-action television adaptation of the original Saki manga debuted in December 2016, followed by a live-action film last February.

The Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A manga focuses on a different cast of characters at Achiga Girls' Academy in Nara Prefecture. The series ran in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine from 2011 to 2013, with six compiled book volumes. The manga also inspired a television anime adaptation in 2012.

Yen Press is publishing the original Saki manga in North America digitally, and it describes the series:

Saki's never been a big fan of mahjong. A lifetime of being forced to play with family at holidays (and losing her money as a consequence...) has left a foul taste for the game in her mouth. When she's convinced, though, to play a game with her classmates, she discovers that not only has fending off her family left her with an uncanny ability for the game but, more surprisingly, that it can even be fun!

Is this revelation enough to cleanse Saki's distaste for the game? Can her classmates convince her to join their club, or is there just too much baggage to make it worth her while?

If you're looking for the number one mahjong manga out there, you've found it!

Kobayashi launched the original manga in the magazine in 2006. The manga has since inspired five spinoff manga series.

The original manga inspired a 25-episode television series in 2009, and a new television anime project titled Saki - The Nationals launched in 2014. The four-panel spinoff manga Saki Biyori inspired an anime DVD in 2015.

Source: Comic Natalie