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Rurouni Kenshin's Tatsuya Fujiwara, More Join Live-Action Moribito TV Series Cast
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The staff of NHK's live-action TV adaptation of Nahoko Uehashi's Moribito novel series announced at an event in Tokyo on Monday that 9-year-old actor Kai Kobayashi (2013 live-action Chibi Maruko-chan, pictured second from left in image below) will co-star in the show as the Chagum, the second prince of the New Yogo Empire.
The following cast members were also announced:
- Fumino Kimura (Piece of Cake, Initiation Love, pictured at left) as Chagum's mother the 2nd Empress
- Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note's Light, Rurouni Kenshin's Makoto Shishio, pictured second from right) as the Emperor and Chagum's father
- Reiko Takashima (Space Battleship Yamato [2010]'s Dr. Sado, L DK's Sayoko, pictured at right) as the shaman Torogai
- Masahiro Higashide (xxxHOLiC's Dōmeki, Blue Spring Ride's Kou Mabuchi) as Torogai's apprentice and Balsa's friend Tanda
- Mikijirō Hira (Ninja Kids!!!, Rampo) as a star diviner and the emperor's aide
Haruka Ayase (Umimachi Diary, Hotaru no Hikari, Himitsu no Akko-chan, pictured center) was previously announced to be starring in the series as Balsa.
The series will premiere in March 2016 as NHK's Taiga Fantasy drama. The series will have 22 episodes that NHK will broadcast over three years. The show will adapt all 10 of Uehashi's novels, and the whole drama will be shot in 4K. The first season of the show will consist of four episodes.
Hiroshi Kataoka (Soko wo Nantoka, Last Dinner) is directing the series, and Sumio Ōmori (Akumu-chan) is writing the show's script.
Production I.G and Kenji Kamiyama (Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) adapted the first book in Uehashi's series into a 26-episode television anime series that originally aired in 2007.
Uehashi's novel series centers on a traveling spear-weilding bodyguard named Balsa who has sworn to save the lives of eight people to atone for a past sin. In the first novel, Balsa meets Chagum, the second prince of the New Yogo Empire, whose life is in danger because he is possessed by a sacred spirit that poses a danger to his country. Balsa swears to protect Chagum, and the two undertake a journey to find out how to rid Chagum of the spirit possessing him.
Media Blasters previously licensed the series and released it on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America between 2009-2011. Viz Media licensed the series again last year, and released the series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in August 2014.
Scholastic has released the first two books in Uehashi's novel series in English. Uehashi, who also wrote the Kemono no Sou-ja Erin novel series, won the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Author Award in 2014.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
