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Live-Action Mars TV Series Reveals Staff, More Cast
posted on by Kyle Hallmark
The official website of the live-action adaptation of Fuyumi Soryo's Mars shōjo manga revealed the drama's staff and additional cast this week.
The additional cast includes: Marie Iitoyo (live-action anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day's Chiriko "Tsuruko" Tsurumi) as Kira Asō, Hirona Yamazaki (live-action Prison School's Mari Kurihara) as Harumi Sugihara, and Yū Inaba (Kamen Rider Drive's Go Shijima) as Tatsuya Kida.
The series will also star: Gōki Maeda (Death Note TV series' Tōta Matsuda, Kamen Teacher's Kotaro), Yuuka Suzuki, Kanako Tahara, Makoto Okunaka (Kamen Rider Wizard's Koyomi), Yūtarō Watanabe (Tonari no Seki kun to Rumi chan no Jisho's Seki Toshinari), and Masaya Kikawada (Kamen Rider the First's Takeshi Hongo) in unknown roles.
Saiji Yakumo and Kōji Shintoku will direct the Mars ~Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru! (Mars ~But, I Love You~) series. Tetsuya Ōishi (Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, live-action Death Note: The Last Name) will provide the screenplay, and Tarō Makido (Kamen Teacher) will compose the music.
The cast joins Kis-My-Ft2 member Taisuke Fujigaya (Nobunaga Concerto's Inuchiyo Maeda, Kamen Teacher's Gota Araki) as Rei Kashino and Masataka Kubota (Death Note TV series' Light Yagami) as Masao Kirishima. Both actors are listed as "double stars" of the series.
The website also provides a synopsis of the first episode. While drawing on the beach during spring break, high school student Kira Aso meets the playboy Rei Kashino. The two get off to a bad start when Kira, unaccustomed to men, speaks too bluntly. When the new school term starts, the two meet again as classmates. Rei begins develop an interest in Kira, much to the surprise of his best friend Tatsuya and his admirer Harumi. The bond between Kira and Rei continues to grow, but when Rei's middle school classmate Masao suddenly transfers to their school, the three students' fates begin to change.
The series will premiere on January 24 and it will air on NTV on Saturdays from 12:55 a.m. to 1:25 a.m.
Soryo (ES, Cesare) published the 15-volume series in Bessatsu Friend from 1996-2000. Soryo also penned a one-volume Mars Gaiden prequel manga. The manga series has more than 5 million copies in print. Tokyopop published all 15 volumes of the manga and the Mars Gaiden prequel in 2002-2004.
The manga revolves around Kira and Rei, two high school students. Kira is an extremely introverted artist, and Rei is an outgoing playboy with a frightening violent side. The two start a friendship and eventually a romance after Rei sees a drawing that Kira drew on the back of a map she gave him. However, both Kira and Rei are hiding troubled pasts, and through their relationship they confront their past demons. Masao, a student at Kira and Rei's school, has a connection to Rei's violent past. He enters Kira and Rei's lives to try to force Rei to return to the person he used to be.
The manga received the Taiwanese Mars [2004] live-action TV series adaptation that aired in 2004-2005. The adaptation starred Vic Zhou and Barbie Hsu.
