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Osamu Mukai to Play a Samurai in Nobunaga Concerto
posted on by Egan Loo
Actor Osamu Mukai will play Nobunaga's head vassal Ikeda Tsuneoki in the live-action television series of Ayumi Ishii's historical manga Nobunaga Concerto. This will be the first period drama in three years for Mukai.
The story centers around Saburō, a high school boy who time-travels to Japan's Sengoku Era. He must become Oda Nobunaga, the famed warlord who helps unite Japan. As someone who grew up with Nobunaga since childhood, Tsuneoki becomes the one person who Saburō trusts the most. In this adaptation, Tsuneoki — sometimes gently, sometimes strictly — encourages Saburō, whose first impulse otherwise is to run away if anything happens.
Shun Oguri (Lupin III, Captain Harlock, Detective Conan, Hana Yori Dango, Space Brothers) will play the title warlord and his modern counterpart Saburō in the live-action series and then the film. Kou Shibasaki (Dororo's titular character, Ōoku: The Inner Chambers's Yoshimune) will play the show's heroine Kichō, who is Oda Nobunaga's wife. Takayuki Yamada (Crows Zero, Densha Otoko, Gantz) will play Kinoshita Tōkichirō/Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Mr. Children will perform the show's theme song.
Shogakukan's Gessan (Monthly Shonen Sunday) magazine announced in May that Ishii's manga is inspiring a television anime, a live-action television series, and a live-action film. Yūki Kaji and Mamoru Miyano star as Oda Nobunaga and Saburō, respectively, in the anime. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.
Ishii launched the manga in the inaugural issue of Gessan in 2009, and Shogakukan will release the 11th compiled volume on Friday. The manga ranked #10 in the Male Readers category of the "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" list by Takarajimasha Inc. in 2012. The manga was nominated for the fifth Manga Taisho awards in 2012, and it won the Boys' Category of the 57th Shogakukan Manga Awards later that year.
(Historical Japanese names are listed family name first, while modern names are listed family name last.)
Source: Comic Natalie
Image © Fuji TV
