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Library Wars Anime Voice Actor Tatsuhisa Suzuki Also Stars in 2nd Live-Action Film
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The staff of the upcoming Toshokan Sensō: The Last Mission live-action film announced on Monday that Tatasuhisa Suzuki (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club's Makoto Tachibana, Kuroko's Basketball's Kazunari Takao), who played the main character Hikaru Tezuka in the franchise's anime adaptations, will play a minor role in the live-action film.
In addition, Suzuki (pictured below at left) and Sōta Fukushi (right), who plays Hikaru Tezuka in the film, were photographed together in costume.
In the film, Suzuki will appear in a scene alongside Fukushi and Chiaki Kuriyama (playing Asako Shibasaki). The film will premiere in Japan on October 10.
Hiro Arikawa's Toshokan Sensō (Library Wars) action novel series inspired the live-action franchise.
The film sequel's story is set one and half years after the story of the first film, and an accompanying television special is set a half year before the film sequel. In this world, the "Media Improvement Law" regulates all forms of media. There is a struggle between the Media Improvement Committee which strictly and brutally censors with military force, and the Library Defense Force that opposes censorship to protect the freedoms of press and expression.
The story centers on Atsushi (Junichi Okada) — an elite soldier with brawn and stoic judgment in the task force of the Kantō Library Defense Force — and Iku (Nana Eikura), the task force's only female member. She enlisted after admiring a member who rescued her when she was in high school.
Other cast members from the first film reprising their roles include: Fukushi as Hikaru Tezuka, Kuriyama as Asako Shibasaki Kei Tanaka as Mikihisa Komaki, Sōta Fukushi as Hikaru Tezuka, Kōji Ishizaka as Gen Nishina, Naomi Nishida as Maki Origuchi, and Jun Hashimoto as Ryūsuke Genda. Eikura notes that she did not have many action scenes in the first film, but she will have more in the sequel. Fukushi teased that the sequel will develop Hikaru Tezuka's love life.
Director Shinsuke Satō (Gantz, Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, The Princess Blade, Sand Chronicles) is returning for the sequel, and he began shooting the sequel in mid-December.
The television special will also air in Japan before the film's October 10 premiere. While the film sequel will depict the larger war story of the Library Defense Force, the television special will focus on the daily lives of the force members with elements of romantic comedy. The TV special will star Okada as Atsushi, Eikura as Iku, and Fukushi as Hikaru Tezuka.
The first film opened in Japan in April 2013. It screened at Montreal's Fantasia International Film Festival, in San Francisco at the J-Pop Summit Festival, and in Los Angeles at the L.A. EigaFest.
The novel series already inspired three manga series (two in the shōjo magazine LaLa, and another in the male-oriented Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh), a television anime series, and an anime film Toshokan Sensō: Kakumei no Tsubasa (Library War: The Wings of Revolution) in 2011. The first live-action film spawned its own series of Library "mini" Wars shorts.
Source: animeanime.jp via Hachima Kikō
Update: Fixed typo. Thanks rahzel rose!
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