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Live-Action Hibiki: Shōsetsuka ni Naru Hōhō Film Casts Shun Oguri

The staff for the live-action film of Mitsuharu Yanamoto's Hibiki: Shōsetsuka ni Naru Hōhō (Hibiki ~How to Become a Novelist~) manga revealed on Tuesday that Shun Oguri (live-action Gintama's Gintoki) will play the character Shunpei Yamamoto, a novelist forced to live a bitterly frugal life even as he aims to win the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature. Oguri is seen in costume in the photograph below right, alongside Yurina Hirate as protagonist Hibiki Akui.

Principal photography for the film began on June 1.

The film will open in Japan on September 14.

The cast includes: (Top row, left to right in picture above)

• Keiko Kitagawa as Fumi Hanai, a young editor who discovers Hibiki's talent
• Keyakizaka46 member Yurina Hirate as protagonist Hibiki Akui, a gifted 15-year-old writer
• Ayaka Wilson as Rika Sobue, the president of the literature club at Hibiki's school

• Daisuke Kuroda
• Kazushige Komatsu
• Masanobu Takashima
• Yuuya Yagira
• Tōru Nomaguchi
• Mizuki Itagaki

Shō Tsukikawa (live-action Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas) is directing the film, with a script by Masafumi Nishida (Tiger & Bunny).

In the manga's story, a handwritten novel manuscript is sent into a rookie contest, but it doesn't meet the conditions and is thrown in the trash. Still, an editor named Hanai picks it up by chance and believes it is a revolutionary novel. The author's name is Hibiki Akui, but there is no contact address on the submission. Meanwhile, Hibiki – a 15-year-old student – joins her school's literary club, not knowing that Hanai is trying to track her down.

Yanamoto launched the manga in Big Comic Superior in August 2014. Shogakukan released the manga's ninth volume on April 27. The manga won the 10th Manga Taisho award last year.

Source: Comic Natalie