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Live-Action Video Girl Ai Sequel Series Adds 11 Cast Members
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
TV Tokyo announced more cast on Wednesday for Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Mai 2019~, the sequel to the live-action Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Ai 2018~ television series based on Masakazu Katsura's Video Girl Ai (Den'ei Shōjo) manga.
(Top row, left to right, in image above):
- Yoshinori Okada as Naoto Matsui, a teacher
- Masaki Miura as Kazumi Osanai, a cameraman
- Ryū Morioka as Yūsuke Sawamura, a teacher
- Hikari Kuroki as Anna Kawashima, a student
- Reiya Masaki as Tomonori Yanagi, a student
- Kazushige Komatsu as Kazuo Ōta, a teacher
- Yume Shinjō as Miyu Satake, a student
- Hiroto Ōshita as Kōhei Mizutani, a student
- Kōsuke Kubota as Mori Todoroki, a student
- Nashiko Momotsuki as Sayaka Katō, a student
- Shōma Kai as Yūki Sugizaki, a student
Nogizaka 46 member Mizuki Yamashita is starring as a new Video Girl, Video Girl Mai/Mai Kamio. The Den'ei Shōjo ~Video Girl Ai 2018~ Tokubetsu-hen television special ended with a picture of Mai on January 19.
Rena Takeda will play Yuna Asakawa, a fashion model and high school girl who transfers into Taketo's class.
Shigeyuki Totsugi is reprising his role from the first series as Yōta Moteuchi.
Riku Hagiwara will also star as Taketo Kanō.
The new series will premiere on TV Tokyo on April 12 at 1:00 a.m., and it will debut on BS-TV Tokyo on April 17 at 12:00 a.m.
Kazuaki Seki (music videos for Perfume, Gen Hoshino) is returning as the chief director of the sequel. Kōhei Kiyasu, Yoshitatsu Yamada, and Minato Takano are penning the scripts. The directors are Yukinori Makabe, Hiroaki Yuasa, Santa Yamagishi, and Hayato Kawai.
The first live-action series premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in January 2018, but episodes streamed one week earlier on Amazon Prime Video in Japan. Seki directed the first television series and the special, and Kiyasu penned the script for both alongside Yamada. The first season and the special starred: Nanase Nishino (Nogizaka 46), Shūhei Nomura, Marie Iitoyo, Hiroya Shimizu, Karen Ōtomo, Jun Murakami, and Shigeyuki Totsugi. tofubeats composed the music and performed the theme song.
The live-action television series resets the original manga's timeframe to modern-day 2018, and it centers around Yōta's nephew, high school student Shō Moteuchi. Shō harbors a secret crush on his beautiful classmate Nanami. One day, he discovers an old broken videocassette recorder at his uncle Yota's home. He fixes the recorder, and a mysterious girl named "Video Girl Ai" springs out.
Katsura published the manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from 1989 to 1992. Shueisha published 15 compiled book volumes, and then reissued the manga in nine volumes for its keepsake and trade paperback editions. In addition to the six-volume 1992 anime, the manga also inspired an earlier 1991 live-action film. Viz Media released the manga and its 1992 original video anime adaptation in North America.
Sources: TV Tokyo, Comic Natalie
