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Live-Action Saki Film's 2 Trailers Reveal February 3 Debut

The official website of the live-action project for Ritz Kobayashi's Saki manga began streaming a 60-second and a 30-second trailer on Friday. The trailers revealed that the film will premiere in Japan on February 3. The two videos feature the main cast competing in an inter-school mahjong competition, and also feature the songs "No More Cry" and "Kimi ni Waltz" performed by members of the show's cast.

The staff also revealed a new poster visual on Friday.

The project's previously announced cast members include:

Minami Hamabe as Saki Miyanaga

Nana Asakawa as Nodoka Haramura

Aika Hirota as Yūki Kataoka

Mai Kikuchi as Koromo Amae

Rena Takeda as Kana Ikeda

Seika Furuhata as Hisa Takei

Anna Yamada as Mako Someya

Mariya Nagao as Tōka Ryūmonbuchi

Kyōka Shibata as Hajime Kunihiro

Ena Koshino as Jun Inoue

Rie Kaneko as Tomoki Sawamura

Mami Kamura as Mihoko Fukuji

Aya Yoshizaki as Miharu Yoshitome

Mizuki Hoshina as Sumiyo Fukabori

Yuzu Higuchi as Seika Bundō

Natsumi Okamoto as Yumi Kajiki

Ano as Momoko Tōyoko

Aguri Ōnishi as Satomi Kanbara

Marina Nagasawa as Kaori Senō

Mari Yamachi as Mutsuki Tsuyama

Natsuna as Yasuko Fujita, a pro mahjong player, and Takei's acquaintance

Hinako Sano as Takako Kubo, the hardline Kazekoshi coach

Yuki Tamaki as Hagiyoshi, the Ryūmonbuchi butler, and assistant to Koromo

The project previously streamed a 15-second commercial for the live-action series, and the project's official Twitter account revealed four poster visuals last month.

The live-action project will consist of a live-action series and a film. The series will consist of four episodes, as well as a television "special." The series premiered on MBS on December 4, and on TBS on December 6. The special will air on MBS on January 8, and on TBS on January 10.

Yūichi Onuma is directing, while Hiroyuki Ishikawa is co-directing. Hayashi Mori is penning the script. T$UYO$HI (The BONEZ) is composing the music.

Yen Press is publishing the original Saki manga in North America digitally, and it released the sixth volume on October 25. Yen Press 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 manga in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine in 2006, and Square Enix will publish the 16th compiled volume on December 24. The manga has since inspired five spinoff manga series. The manga was on hiatus beginning in October, and returned on December 2.

The original manga was adapted into a 25-episode television series in 2009, and a new television anime project titled Saki - The Nationals launched in 2014. The Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A spinoff manga also inspired a television anime in 2012. The four-panel spinoff manga Saki Biyori also inspired an anime DVD last year.

Visual image via Comic Natalie