Interest
Evangelion's Anno, Tsurumaki Work on Live-Action Andō Lloyd Show
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
Japanese television channel TBS opened a website on Thursday for a live-action series titled Andō Lloyd ~A.I. knows LOVE?~. Hideaki Anno, the director of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise and the lead voice actor in Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises, is collaborating on story concepts, and Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of the Evangelion films, FLCL, Gunbuster 2: Diebuster) and Mahiro Maeda (Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Animatrix's Second Renaissance) are also contributing.
The drama will star singer and actress Kou Shibasaki as series heroine Asahi Andō, and SMAP member Takuya Kimura as Reiji Matsushima and Lloyd Andō. Shibasaki and Kimura last co-starred in a live-action television series in Good Luck!! a decade ago.
The story by author Yumie Nishiogi starts when genius physics scholar Reiji Matsushima is killed one day in 2013. Although his name was known around the world as a college professor, he was also a researcher investigating wormholes. It's unknown why he was killed, but he left behind his fiancee Asahi Andō in the world of the living. Asahi, a businesswoman at the IT Company, is suddenly targeted by an unknown person. However, although she first felt danger to her life one night, she sees that the person who was following her is a man named Lloyd. To her surprise, Lloyd looks exactly like her deceased fiancee. Lloyd is an android sent from 100 years in the future in order to protect Matsushima's beloved, Asahi. As Lloyd spends time with Asahi, he comes to feel various emotions, including love.
The drama will premiere this October on TBS, and will air every Sunday.
[Via Hachima Kikō]
Update: Shibasaki appeared in other live-action television projects in the last nine years. Thanks, Sylvia
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