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AKB48's Yuko Oshima Joins Osamu Tezuka Biography Show Cast
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Additional cast for Fuji TV's live-action adaptation of the Kami-sama no Beret Bō ~Tezuka Osamu no Black Jack Sōsaku Hiwa (God's Beret: The Untold Story of How Osamu Tezuka Created His Black Jack) manga were revealed on Thursday. AKB48 idol Yuko Oshima (Ushijima the Loan Shark) is joining the cast as original character Sakura Odamachi. Sakura is a modern-day novice editor who is uninterested in manga. However, she travels back in time to the lifetime of manga and anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka.
Additional supporting class include Naoki Matayoshi of the comedy duo Piece as manga creator Fujio Akatsuka, Kei Tanaka as Sakura's superior and senior editor, Yoshinori Okada as Showa-era editor Akagi, Hidekazu Mashima as Tezuka's manager, model Maggie as Tezuka Production's chief assistant, Yosuke Asari as a college student and part-timer at Tezuka Productions, Yasuhi Nakamura as aspiring manga creator Hazama, Kōichi Otake and Satoru Matsuo as other company editors, Yumi Asou as a owner of Taizō Kabemura's favorite bar, and Fumiyo Kohinata as the mysterious man who sends Sakura into the past.
SMAP band member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi (Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta, The Diary of Anne Frank, Yume o Kanaeru Zō) will play Tezuka himself in the fall series. Kōichi Satō (Sukiyaki Western Django, Kamui Gaiden) will play Taizō Kabemura, Tezuka's acclaimed editor-in-chief at Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine.
In the original nonfiction manga, Masaru Miyazaki and Kōji Yoshimoto recount the true story of how Tezuka (Astro Boy/Mighty Atom, Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor, Phoenix) created Black Jack, his classic tale of a brilliant maverick doctor. Miyazaki and Yoshimoto used firsthand accounts from people who were actually at Tezuka's studio to give their behind-the-scenes account.
Black Jack Sōsaku Hiwa ranked #1 among the "Top 10 Manga for Male Readers" in the 2012 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook. The manga ran in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion (the very same magazine that serialized the original Black Jack manga from 1973 to 1978) and Bessatsu Shōnen Champion.
Kami-sama no Beret Bō ~Tezuka Osamu no Black Jack Sōsaku Hiwa will premiere on Fuji TV on September 24.
Source: Comic Natalie (Link 2), Cinema Today
