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Live-Action Rurouni Kenshin's Photos Reveal More of Shishio's Costume
posted on by Egan Loo
The press visited the sets for this year's two live-action Rurouni Kenshin sequel films in early November, and previewed the scenes when the title character Kenshin faces the former government assassin Shishio. At the Shōnai Movie Village studio set in Yamagata Prefecture on November 3, the crew filmed the scenes where Kenshin (Takeru Satoh) is taken by Shishio's right-hand man Sōjirō (Ryunosuke Kamiki) to the residence of Shishio (Death Note's Tatsuya Fujiwara). There, Kenshin and Shishio meet face-to-face for the first time.
Kazuhiro Sawataishi, the character costume designer for all three live-action Rurouni Kenshin films, explained that the crew took great pains to recreate Shishio's signature head-to-toe bandage wrapping. While the costume looks like realistic bandaging, it is actually a suit fabricated out of material similar to hard plaster to Fujiwara's dimensions.
Director Keishi Ōtomo (Ryōmaden) revealed that it takes about an hour for Fujiwara to put on the costume. When asked whether the costume is comfortable, Fujiwara laughed. He said it is hard to hear in it, and that it is a good way to be isolated mentally. He commented that wearing the costume "flicks a switch" and lets him embody the role. He added that it feels like wearing a heavy wetsuit.
Satoh remarked that while he had not shot an action scene with Fujiwara at the time, Fujiwara as Shishio carries "a convincing sense of powerfulness." Kamiki was already a fan of Fujiwara since Death Note and was thrilled to get a chance to co-star with him.
The Comic Natalie website posted more on-set photos, including several that Kakken Marketing's Cinema★Cinema magazine also published this month.
The two new films will cover the Kyoto arc from Nobuhiro Watsuki's original historical action manga. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The Great Kyoto Fire) will open in Japan on August 1, and Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The End of a Legend) will open on September 13. Principal photography on the two films ended on December 27 after six months of filming.
The films star:
- Takeru Satoh as Kenshin Himura
- Emi Takei as Kaoru Kamiya
- Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara
- Yū Aoi as Megumi Takani
- Yōsuke Eguchi as Hajime Saitō
Additional cast members include:
Tao Tsuchiya as Misao Makimachi
Ryunosuke Kamiki as Sōjirō Seta
Yusuke Iseya as Aoshi Shinomori
68-year-old Min Tanaka (Tekkonkinkreet, The Twilight Samurai, 47 Ronin remake) as Nenji Kashiwazaki/Okina
47-year-old Kazufumi Miyazawa (The Boom music band) as Toshimichi Ōkubo
39-year-old Yukiyoshi Ozawa (Umi no Hotaru) as Hirobumi Itō
12-year-old Kaito Ōyagi (Ninja Kids!!! Summer Mission Impossible) as Yahiko Myōjin
25-year-old model Maryjun Takahashi as Yumi Komagata
The cast of the Juppongatana (Ten Swords), a group of elite swordsmen led by Shishio, include:
- Ryōsuke Miura as Chō Sawagejō
- Kenichi Takitō as Hōji Sadojima
- Tomomi Maruyama as Anji Yūkyūzan
- Matsu Murata as Usui Uonuma
- Hiroko Yashiki as Kamatari Honjō
- Yuuya Hara as Henya Kariwa
- Takao Yamada as Iwanbō
- Kentarō Shimazu as Saizuchi
- Kōta Yamaguchi as Fuji
Taketo Tanaka played Yahiko in the first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film.
The first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film opened in Japan in 2012. The film had its North American premiere in Los Angeles in December 2012.
Watsuki's manga ran from 1994 to 1999 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and the creator also drew the Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration retelling in Jump Square that launched in May 2012 and ended last year. He is now planning a new Rurouni Kenshin spinoff manga about enemy characters.
An anime series aired in Japan from 1996 to 1998 and spawned several anime film and video projects. Viz Media publishes both manga in North America, while Media Blasters released the television anime. ADV Films released two later original video anime projects and a film on DVD, and Aniplex released these three titles on Blu-ray Disc. Sentai Filmworks released the two more recent video anime series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, which also covered the Kyoto arc.
Source: Comic Natalie
Images © Nobuhiro Watsuki/Shueisha © 2014 Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen/Densetsu no Saigo-hen Production Committee
