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Saint Young Men Manga Gets 1st Live-Action Film on December 20

Kodansha announced on Thursday that Hikaru Nakamura's Saint Young Men (Saint Oniisan) manga is inspiring its first live-action film titled Saint Oniisan The Movie ~Holy Men vs Akuma Gundan~ (Holy Men vs Demon Army). TOHO will open the film on December 20.

The returning cast and staff from the manga's previous live-action series adaptations include Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Promare's Galo Thymos) as Jesus and Shōta Sometani (BELLE's Kamishin, Suzume's Minoru Okabe) as Buddha. Yūichi Fukuda (live-action Gintama, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. films) is returning to direct the film and pen the script based on an extended story ("Screen e no Nagai Michi" or The Long Road to the Big Screen) that Nakamura created for the film.

The staff members have deemed the 23rd of every month as "Oniisan no Hi" (Young Men Day) as a wordplay on Japanese pronunciation, and they will announce more information on the movie on that day every month until the film's opening. TOHO posted a special roundtable discussion between the two stars and the writer-director to announce the film:

The first 10-episode live-action season premiered on Kakao Japan's Piccoma TV streaming service in October 2018. The second season began streaming on Piccoma TV in June 2019, and also screened in theaters. The third season premiered on NHK in January 2020. Each season has 10 episodes.

The comedy manga imagines if Buddha and Jesus shared a low-rent Tokyo apartment with no bathroom. Nakamura launched the manga in Kodansha's Morning two magazine in 2006. The manga won the Short Story award at the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009, and was also nominated for a Manga Taisho award in the same year.

The manga inspired an anime film that premiered in Japan in May 2013. The manga's eighth and ninth volumes both bundled original anime DVDs when they shipped in December 2012 and July 2013, respectively.

Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga digitally in English.

Source: Eiga Natalie