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Mahiro Takasugi, Ryusei Yokohama Star in Yami Kariudo Stage Play

A stage play adaptation of Iku Sakaguchi's Yami Kariudo (Dark Hunter) manga has been green-lit. The play will debut in Tokyo's Galaxy Theatre (Ginga Gekijō) on May 13, with runs in Kitakyushu and Osaka also planned. Mahiro Takasugi (Kamen Rider Gaim, seen right in below picture) will play the protagonist Takeshi Hazama, and Ryusei Yokohama (Ressha Sentai ToQger, seen left) will play treasure hunter Kyōsuke Garyū.

The rest of the cast includes:

• Katsuhiro Suzuki as Shō Saegusa
• Atsushi Arai as Chikara Jinnai
• Atsushi Maruyama as Seima Miyuki
• Seiya Inagaki
• Ayaka Morita
• Hidekazu Ichinose
• Seijirō Nakamura

Kenta Fukasaku (Battle Royale) will direct the stage play, and Tetsuya Suzuki will pen the script. The pair previously collaborated on such stage plays as Curry Life in 2011, and Satomi Hakkenden in 2012.

The manga centers on Takeshi Hazama, who on the surface is a high school student aiming to be a manga creator, but in truth works as a "Yami Kariudo" or Dark Hunter, an assassin who works on behalf of victims and the bereaved to slay evil. As a Dark Hunter, he wields a stainless steel ruler and pen as his weapons. His constant rival includes fellow Dark Hunter Kyōsuke Garyū, a treasure hunter who is at different times an ally or enemy to Takeshi.

Sakaguchi published the one-shot manga "Dark Hunter" in Shueisha's now-defunct Monthly Shonen Jump magazine in 1987, before launching the Yami Kariudo series in the magazine in 1988. He ended the series in 1990. Shueisha published six compiled book volumes for the series.

Source: Comic Natalie