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Hakuōki SSL's Live-Action High School Spinoff Film's Trailer Highlights Theme Song
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The entertainment company Cinem@rt began streaming a theatrical trailer on Thursday for the upcoming live-action film of Hakuōki SSL ~sweet school life~, the popular high school spinoff of the Hakuōki game franchise. The video previews the film's theme song "Refrain" by Blu-BiLLioN.
The film will open in Japan on February 6. Cinem@rt previously streamed a teaser for the film last month.
The film will feature the same cast as the previous live-action television series and stage play:
Toshiyuki Someya (The Prince of Tennis musical) as Hajime Saitō
Atsushi Kimura as Sōji Okita
Mashu Ishiwatari as Heisuke Tōdō
Seiya Nagaki as Sanosuke Harada
Katsuhiko Ibuka as Chikage Kazama
Miku Ōno as Chizuru Yukimura
The stage play is running from December 11-20 at the Theater Sun Mall in Tokyo, and the Japanese news website Anime! Anime! has posted pictures from the play (see gallery below).
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The film will also feature as special guest stars the musical group Blu-BiLLioN and actor Kazuki Katō (Kamen Rider Kabuto, The Prince of Tennis musicals).
Idea Factory launched the original Hakuōki romance adventure game on the PlayStation 2 console in 2008. The first game centered around the player character Chizuru Yukimura and members of the legendary Shinsengumi police force in the Bakumatsu era, the end of the shoguns' rule over Japan. The franchise has since expanded to the PSP, Nintendo DS, and smartphones. The games also inspired three television anime, an original video anime project, two anime films, stage plays, and stage musicals.
Unlike the other games in the franchise, Hakuōki SSL ~sweet school life~ is set in an academy in the present day, and the characters are now high school students and teachers. Also unlike the other games, this spinoff has no scenes of bloodshed. The school romantic comedy story begins when the former boys' school Hakuō Academy enrolls its first and only female student. The film will pick up the story just before the regular February exams.
The spinoff originally debuted as a bonus when a player collected certain items in the Hakuōki: Zuisōroku fan disc in 2009. This bonus scenario proved so popular that it became a standalone game for the PS Vita in March 2014.
Stage play images © 2015 IF, DF / Stage Play "Hakuōki SSL ~sweet school life~" Production Committee
Source: Anime! Anime!
