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Live-Action Gintama Film's On-Set Photos Show Beetle Hunting, More

Comic Natalie and other websites posted on-set photographs from the live-action film of the Gintama manga on Wednesday. The photos are from an on-set press visit in Ibaraki Prefecture on August 24 of last year. The photos in Comic Natalie's tweet below show the three main cast members hunting rhinoceros beetles and apparently reviewing footage with director Yūichi Fukuda.

Comic Natalie posted more photographs in a gallery. Among them are Fukuda (in a Monty Python's Spamalot T-shirt) giving Ogura feedback from the script (pictured above), the Kabukichō set, Okada with Elizabeth (who will be replaced with CG), and two staff members supervising operations on set.

The film will open in Japan on July 14.

The film's cast includes:

Shun Oguri as Gintoki Sakata, the protagonist who runs the Yorozuya shop

Masaki Suda as Shinpachi Shimura, who works at Yorozuya

Kanna Hashimoto as Kagura, another Yorozuya employee

Masaki Okada as Kotarō Katsura, Gintoki's longtime sworn friend, alongside Elizabeth

Masami Nagasawa as Tae Shimura, a physically strong girl and sister of Shinpachi

Tsuyoshi Muro as Gengai Hiraga, the proprietor of Karakuri-dō

Jirō Satō as Henpeita Takechi

Nanao as Matako Kijima

Tsuyoshi Dōmoto as Shinsuke Takasugi (left), Hirofumi Arai as Nizō Okada (right)

Ken Yasuda as Tetsuya Murata

Akari Hayami as Tetsuko Murata

Kankurō Nakamura VI as Isao Kondo, a Shinsengumi commander

Yuuya Yagira as Toshiro Hijikata, a Shinsengumi member who is most popular with girls

Ryō Yoshizawa as Sougo Okita, a sharp-tounged Shinsengumi member

Fukuda (live-action HK/Hentai Kamen, Mr. Nietzsche in the Convenience Store) is directing the film, as well as penning the script.

Sorachi began the manga in 2004 and it continues to be ranked among the top-selling manga in Japan. The manga has more than 50 million copies in print in Japan. Viz Media published the first 23 volumes in English. Shueisha published the manga's 67th volume in Japan on December 31. The manga entered its final arc last July.

The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in 2006 and continued (with several extended hiatuses) until 2013. The fifth and latest Gintama television anime series premiered on January 8, and the most recent episode teased on Sunday that the next episode will have an important announcement. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs in Japan, and is also streaming English-dubbed episodes. The manga also inspired two anime films, including the "final" Gekijōban Gintama Kanketsu-hen: Yorozuya yo Eien Nare film that opened in 2013, and various OVAs and event anime.

Source: Comic Natalie