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New Live-Action Rurouni Kenshin Films Cast Sōjirō, Aoshi
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
The September issue of Shueisha's Jump Square magazine is announcing on Saturday that actor Ryunosuke Kamiki will play Sōjirō Seta, the right-hand man of the former government assassin Makoto Shishio, in the two live-action Rurouni Kenshin sequel films. Yusuke Iseya will play Aoshi Shinomori, the head of the Oniwabanshū ninja.
The two films, which will cover the Kyoto arc from Nobuhiro Watsuki's original historical action manga, will be titled Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The Great Kyoto Fire) and Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The End of a Legend). The films are slated to open next summer.
Kamiki played Markl in Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle film, as well as various roles in other Studio Ghibli films. Kamiki also played Kyū in the live-action adaptation of Tadashi Agi and Fumiya Satō's Tantei Gakuen Q manga. Iseya played Shinobu Morita in the live-action adaptation of Chika Umino's Honey & Clover manga. More recently, he was cast as Tōru Rikiishi, the rival of the title character in the live-action film of Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba's classic boxing manga Ashita no Joe.
Takeru Satoh is reprising his lead role as Kenshin Himura, and Keishi Ōtomo is also returning to direct the films. Satoh, Ōtomo, and Iseya all worked on the historical action television series Ryōmaden.
Joining the cast is Tatsuya Fujiwara, who will play Makoto Shishio. Besides Satoh, the other returning cast members include Emi Takei (Kaoru Kamiya), Yū Aoi (Megumi Takani), and Yōsuke Eguchi (Hajime Saitō).
Ōtomo directed the first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film, which opened in Japan last August. The film starred Satoh and Takei (Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu, For Love's Sake/Ai to Makoto). It had its North American premiere in Los Angeles in December, and it will play in San Francisco on August 1.
Watsuki's manga ran from 1994 to 1999 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and the creator also drew the Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration retelling in Jump Square that launched in May 2012 and ended last month.
An anime series aired in Japan from 1996 to 1998 and spawned several anime film and video projects. Viz Media publishes both manga in North America, while Media Blasters released the television anime. ADV Films released two later original video anime projects and a film on DVD, and Aniplex released these three titles on Blu-ray Disc. Sentai Filmworks released the two more recent video anime series on Blu-ray Disc and DVD, which also covered the Kyoto arc.
