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Kids on the Slope Live-Action Film Reveals More Cast Members

The official blog for the live-action film adaptation of Yuki Kodama's Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope) manga revealed additional cast members for the film on Friday.

The additional cast includes (from left to right in picture above):

• Erina Mano as Yurika Fukahori, the mysterious woman whom Sentarō falls in love with at first sight
• Dean Fujioka as Junichi Katsuragi, whom Sentarō calls "Brother Jun," and looks up to like a real brother
• Baijaku Nakamura as Tsutomu Mukae, Ritsuko's father, and the proprietor of Mukae Records

Fujioka started taking trumpet lessons in August to prepare for the role.

The film stars Hey! Say! JUMP!'s Yuri Chinen as protagonist Kaoru Nishimi. Taishi Nakagawa (left in picture below) is playing Sentarō Kawabuchi, and Nana Komatsu (right) is playing Ritsuko Mukae.

The film is slated to open in 2018. Takahiro Miki (live-action Solanin, Aozora Yell) is directing the film, and Izumi Takahashi (live-action Solanin, Museum) is writing the script.

Chinen has been practicing the piano for the role since September. Likewise, Nakagawa bought his own drum set to practice at home. Nakagawa and Komatsu will both speak in the Sasebo dialect for their respective roles.

Seven people, including main cast members Chinen, Nakaga, and Komatsu, as well as two staff members, were injured in a boat accident earlier this month. The leads sustained light injuries, while two female staff members, aged 33 and 42, reportedly broke ribs. Those who were injured were brought to a hospital in Sasebo.

The manga follows a naive boy and a scruffy boy in a provincial town in Nagasaki Prefecture in the late 1960s. In the early summer of 1966, Kaoru transfers to the local high school from Yokosuka. Thanks to his family's nearly constant cycle of moving from town to town, Kaoru has only known school as a difficult place for readjusting. However, on his first day at this new school, he meets a boy and begins a new direction in life. The manga won the General Category of the Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2012.

Kodama launched the nine-volume manga in Monthly Flowers in 2007, and ended the series in March 2012. Shogakukan published a one-volume spinoff manga titled Sakamichi no Apollon: Bonus Track in November 2012.

The manga inspired a television anime adaptation on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina programming block in April 2012. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired under the title Kids on the Slope, and Sentai Filmworks released the series on home video in 2013.

Source: Comic Natalie