News

Saiyuki: Ibun Stage Play Reveals Cast in Costume

The official website for Saiyuki Kageki-den -Ibun-, the new stage musical based on Kazuya Minekura's Saiyuki manga, revealed 13 cast visuals on Friday. The cast includes:

Shin Tamura as Hōmei

Shōta Ōnuma as Tōdai

Taiga Fukuzawa as Genkai

Yamato Furuya as Seiran

Yūki Maekawa as Dōtaku

Yū Futaba as Joan

Hirokazu Tsukioka as Ganpuku

Kenshin Saitō as Choun

Shōta Fukui as Gicho

Ryōta Yato as Ryuzen

Ujisuke as Priest Jikaku

Shun Mikami as Priest Kōmyō Sanzo

Mitsuru Karahashi as Priest Ukoku Sanzo

The story is set 400 years before the events of the main story at Taisōji, a priest training temple known as the greatest in Shangri-La.

The play will run from September 4-9 in Tokyo Dome City's Theatre G-Rosso. Kaori Miura will again direct the musical and write the script.

The most recent stage musical adaptation for the franchise, Saiyuki Kageki-den -Reload-, ran in September 2015. The manga inspired the Saiyuki Kageki-den -Burial- musical in January 2015, as well as the Saiyuki Kageki-den -God Child- musical in May 2014. The Saiyuki Kageki-den -Dead or Alive- musical ran in 2009, and the Saiyuki Kageki-den ~Go to the West~ musical debuted in 2008.

A series of live-action "Bullets" shorts premiered at the Saiyuki Festa 2017 event in January to mark the original manga's 20th anniversary. The 10 video shorts, which star the musicals' cast, shipped on the Saiyuki Kagekiden the Movie -Bullets- DVD on June 28.

The original Saiyuki manga series has also spawned the Saiyuki Gaiden and Saiyuki Ibun manga spinoffs, as well as three other television anime series, an anime film, and three OVA series. The Saiyuki Reload Blast sequel manga launched in Comic Zero Sum in 2009, but Minekura slowed down her publication of the manga in 2013 due to her health.

The Saiyuki Reload Blast anime premiered last July. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and Funimation offered a simuldub.

Sources: Saiyuki stage website, Comic Natalie