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Mackenyu Reprises Live-Action Chihayafuru Role in Full Circle Sequel
posted on by Anita Tai
Actor Mackenyu announced on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Wednesday he will reprise his role as Arata Wataya in Chihayafuru: Full Circle (Chihayafuru -Meguri-), the new live-action television series inspired by Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga. The character appears to be a Meijin," or "master," of karuta in the new series, and will appear in the seventh episode on August 20.
Mackenyu previously played the character in the Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku and Chihayafuru: Shimo no Ku films.
The series premiered in Japan on July 9 on NTV and affiliated channels. Netflix began streaming the series on July 17.
Ami Tōma stars as Meguru Aizawa, a second-year high school student who quietly takes part in a competitive karuta card-playing club that is in danger of disbanding due to the lack of members. Mone Kamishiraishi returns to her role as Kanade Ōe, now a part-time teacher who serves as the adviser of the karuta club. Mone Kamishiraishi returns as Kanade Ōe. Suzu Hirose returns as Chihaya, a karuta queen title holder who became the adviser of the Mizuawa High School karuta club, but who is now on a leave of absence from her job for some reason. Shūhei Nomura returns as Taichi, now a resident doctor. Yūma Yamoto returns as Nishida, who now runs an okonomiyaki shop. Yūki Morinaga returns as Komano, now a pharmacist. Hayato Sano and Mio Yūki both return as Tsukuba and Sumire, respectively.
Manga creator Suetsugu is involved with the new show, which is set a decade after the live-action films. The original films' director Norihiro Koizumi is serving as the showrunner. Naoya Fujita, Daisuke Honda, Chiaki Matsumoto, and Kazuhiro Yoshida are directing the series. Monogatari Lab and Suzuyuki Kaneko are credited with the screenplay. Masaru Yokoyama is composing the music. Pop group Perfume is returning to perform the series' theme song "Megu (from the series title's "Meguri") Loop." Perfume previously performed the theme song for the 2016 two-part Chihayafuru live-action films.
Suetsugu launched the original manga in Kodansha's Be Love monthly magazine in December 2007. Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga digitally in English.
The manga's final chapter debuted in Be Love in August 2022. Be Love published a spinoff side story in November 2022. The manga's 50th and final compiled book volume shipped in December 2022 with the spinoff manga. A sequel manga titled Chihayafuru plus Kimi ga Tame launched in Be Love in December 2023.
The manga has inspired three television anime seasons. Crunchyroll streamed all three seasons as they aired. Sentai Filmworks released all three seasons with an English dub on home video. HIDIVE is also streaming the seasons with Japanese subtitles and an English dub.
Sources: Mackenyu's X/Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
