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Ajin - Demi Human Manga Gets Live-Action Film With Rurouni Kenshin's Takeru Satoh

A live-action film adaptation of Gamon Sakurai's Ajin - Demi-Human manga has been green-lit for next year. Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass, Space Travelers, Bayside Shakedown) is directing the film, and Takeru Satoh (live-action Rurouni Kenshin films' Kenshin Himura, seen right) will play main character Kei Nagai. The film's setting will be Tokyo in 2017. In the film, Kei is a medical intern, with his age changed to match Satoh's.

The live-action film project has invited the action filming team of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films to work on the project. Satoh said that he read the original manga two years ago, and as a reader himself, he enjoyed it and wanted to make it into a film.

In the original manga's story, an immortal first appeared on an African battlefield 17 years ago. Later, rare, unknown new immortal lifeforms began appearing among humans, and they became known as "Ajin" (demi-humans). Just before summer vacation, a Japanese high school student named Kei Nagai is instantly killed in a traffic accident on his way home from school. However, he is revived, and a price is placed on his head. Thus begins a boy's life on the run from all of humankind.

The manga already inspired 3D CG anime film trilogy, two television anime seasons, and three original anime DVDs by Polygon Pictures. The first film, titled Ajin: Shōdō, opened in Japan in November 2015. The second film, titled Ajin: Shōtotsu, opened on May 6. The third film, Ajin: Shōgeki (Ajin: Crash), opened in Japan on September 23.

The first season of the television anime premiered on January 15 and ran for 13 episodes. Netflix streamed new episodes in Japan three days after they premiered on Japanese television, and it began streaming the entire first season outside of Japan on April 12. The second season premiered in Japan on October 7, and is currently running.

The limited edition of the eighth and ninth volume of the manga both bundle original anime DVDs on May 6 and October 7, respectively. The 10th volume will bundle a new OAD on April 7.

Sakurai launched the manga in Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine in 2012, and Kodansha published the ninth compiled book volume in Japan on October 7. Vertical published the seventh volume in North America on February 23. Crunchyroll is posting new chapters as Kodansha publishes them in Japan.

The manga ranked as a top manga series on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2014 list and in the 2014 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook. The series also received a nomination for the 18th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize "Reader Award" in 2014.

Source: Comic Natalie