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City Hunter Spinoff Angel Heart Gets Live-Action Show
posted on by Egan Loo
A live-action television series adaptation of Tsukasa Hōjō's Angel Heart manga has been green-lit. The television series will premiere this October on the NTV network.
Angel Heart is a "what-if" story set in a parallel world with Ryō Saeba and other characters and concepts from Hojo's signature detective comedy action manga City Hunter. In this spinoff, Ryō lost his partner Kaori Makimura in a sudden accident, and he meets a girl who receives Kaori's transplanted heart.
Yuuya Takahashi (Laughing Under the Clouds, Lupin the IIIrd: Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone, Tiger & Bunny, 2015 Lupin III series, The File of Young Kindaichi N) is writing the scripts, and Shunsuke Kariyama (Nakuna, Hara-chan) is directing. Hisashi Tsugiya and Hibiki Itō are serving as producer and chief producer, respectively. Hojo himself notes that this is the first live-action show based on his works in Japan, and since he cannot possibly imagine what it will be like, he is looking forward to the results.
The Angel Heart manga already inspired a television anime in 2005, and the Angel Heart 2nd Season manga is now running in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Zenon magazine. Gutsoon! Entertainment's Raijin Comics published part of the first Angel Heart manga in English.
The original City Hunter manga is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The 1985 manga inspired four television anime series, one anime film, and several video and television specials. ADV Films released most of these anime projects in North America. Jackie Chan also starred in a 1992 live-action film that very loosely adapts the original manga. Actor Lee Min-Ho starred in a 2011 live-action Korean television series of City Hunter, and that version streamed with English subtitles on Hulu. "Ryō no Propose" (Ryō's Proposal), the new original anime DVD for the manga, will reunite four of the main cast members from the earlier City Hunter television anime.
Source: Comic Natalie
