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Live-Action I''s Series Casts Konatsu Katō

The staff of the live-action series adaptation of Masakazu Katsura's I''s manga revealed on Wednesday that Konatsu Katō will play Aiko Asō, a native of Akita prefecture and Ichitaka's neighbor in the apartment building.

The 13-episode series will premiere on December 21 at 9:00 p.m. and air on SKY PerfecTV!'s BS Skyper! channel and Skyper! on Demand service. A special behind-the-scenes program will air first on December 14.

The series stars:

Amane Okayama (live-action Lychee Light Club's Jacob) as Ichitaka Seto

Sei Shiraishi as Iori Yoshizuki

Kyōka Shibata as Itsuki Akiba, Ichitaka's younger childhood friend

Ku Ijima as Yasumasa Teratani

Yūki Ogoe as Jun Koshinae

Keisuke Tomita as Mokichi Kida

Atomu Mizuishi as Samejima

Takashi Ukaji as Hiromi Hanazono

Minori Hagiwara as Izumi Isozaki

Both Keisuke Toyoshima and Mari Asato are directing the series, and Takashi Watanabe is composing the music.

Viz Media published all 15 volumes of Katsura's original manga, and it describes the story:

Shy Ichitaka has a crush on his high school classmate Iori, but ever since she posed for semi-provocative swimsuit photos in a magazine, she's had a lot of sleazy guys hitting on her. Ichitaka's afraid to make his feelings known in case she thinks he's just another creep.

Torn between his physical feelings for Iori and his desire for real love, Ichitaka's life gets more complicated when his childhood friend Itsuki moves back from America and ends up living in his house!

Itsuki's no longer the young girl Ichitaka remembers - she's a babe who is open with her feelings and not shy about walking around in a towel!

The manga ran in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1997 to 2000. The original manga has 10 million copies in print. The series inspired a two-part OVA in 2002, and a six-part OVA titled I''s Pure in 2006. Viz Media released both OVAs in one DVD box set in 2009.

Source: Comic Natalie