Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Shōta Sometani return as Jesus, the Buddha
Kodoani.com – Kodansha announced on Thursday that the manga Saint Young Men (Saint Oniisan) by Hikaru Nakamura is inspiring the first live-action film titled Saint Oniisan The Movie Holy Men vs Akuma Gundan (Holy Men vs Demon Army). The film will be released by TOHO on December 20.
Returning cast and crew from the previous live-action adaptation of the manga include Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Promare's Galo Thymos) as Jesus and Shōta Sometani (BELLE's Kamishin, Suzume's Minoru Okabe) as Jesus. Buddha role. Yūichi Fukuda (live-action Gintama, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.) will direct the film and write the script based on an expanded story that Nakamura created for the film.
The staff considers the 23rd of every month as “Oniisan no Hi” (Youth Day) which is a play on words in Japanese pronunciation, and they will release more information about the film on that day every month until the series is released. movie released. TOHO posted a special roundtable discussion between the two stars and the writer-director to announce the film.
The 10-episode live-action first season aired on Kakao Japan's Piccoma TV streaming service in October 2018. The second season began airing on Piccoma TV in June 2019 and was also shown in theaters. The third season premiered on NHK in January 2020, with each season consisting of 10 episodes.
Comedy manga about Buddha and Jesus living together in a cheap apartment in Tokyo without a bathroom. Nakamura launched the manga in Kodansha's Morning two magazine in 2006. The manga won the Short Story award at the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Awards in 2009, and was also nominated for the Manga Taisho award in the same year .
The manga inspired an anime film that premiered in Japan in May 2013. The manga's eighth and ninth volumes both came with the original anime DVD when they were released in December 2012 and July 2013.