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One of the most popular sub-genres within the anime world is the isekai. This is the type of story in which the main character is transported to a different world and has to learn the ins and outs of a different location in order to thrive and eventually return home. The format was subverted in Ya Boy Kongming!, an underrated 2022 anime series that was quickly adapted into live-action. Now, this adaptation is coming to Netflix, and you will be able to discover why the story managed to captivate a loyal fanbase. The live-action series debuts on Netflix this Friday, May 30.

Ya Boy Kongming! is a comedy series that centers around a famous military strategist from ancient Japan, Zhuge Kongming (Osamu Mukai). After wishing to live in a less chaotic time, he gets reborn in modern-day Japan and has to learn how to interact with technology and to live in a futuristic (for him) Tokyo.

The live-action movie for Ya Boy Kongming! (Paripi Kōmei) just dropped a brand-new trailer and poster, revealing more of the cast and teasing an exciting lineup of songs. The film is set to hit theaters on April 25, 2025 and takes place at the ‘Music Battle Awards 2025,’ where Japan’s biggest music labels go head-to-head.

A key highlight is the song lineup. The main character Eiko, played by Moka Kamishiraishi, performs the insert song ‘Count on me,’ written by Shinya Ishihara from the band SaucyDog. Utaha from Wednesday’s Campanella plays Shin and sings ‘again and again,’ a song composed by Sōshi Sakiyama.

Mia Iriomote, played by Koharu Sugawara, will perform ‘New Zone,’ a track composed by Zo Zhit of Dos Monos. The ending theme, ‘Sing along!!!,’ is composed by Lilas Ikuta, known as ikura from Yoasobi. She previously wrote the song ‘Dreamer’ for the live-action series.

Several actors return from the drama,...

The official website for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Yuto Yotsuba (story) and Ryo Ogawa's (art) comedy manga Ya Boy Kongming! (known as Paripi Koumei in Japan) revealed 12 additional cast members form the TV drama series. As reported , all four main cast members have already been confirmed to retaurn — Osamu Mukai as Zhuge Kongming, Moka Kamishiraishi as Eiko Tsukimi, Mirai Moriyama as Owner Kobayashi, and Dean Fujioka as Liu Bei. The 12 returning cast members include: Mia Iriomote played by Koharu Sugawara Kabetaijin played by Ryubi Miyase Nanami Kuon played by Rikako Yagi Keiji Maezono played by Mandu Sekiguchi Ryo played by Win Morisaki Sekitoba Kung Fu played by Elly Nanbou played by Kyujitsu Kacho Higahiyama played by Huwie Guan Yu played by Tomoaki Honma Zhang Fei played by Togi Makabe Steve Kido played by Ryosuke Nagaoka Megane Girl played by Riko Ishino Related : Ya Boy Kongming! Live-Action...

The official website for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Yuto Yotsuba (story) and Ryo Ogawa's (art) comedy manga Ya Boy Kongming! (known as Paripi Koumei in Japan) released a second teaser trailer today. The clip reveals that &Team , a nine-member global boy group, will appear in the film. The film's story centers on Music Battle Awards 2025, a music festival where Japan's three major music labels compete for the top spot, and &Team perform at the festival as themselves. Additionally, three members of the unit — Ej , Nicholas , and Harua — also try their hand at acting. Ya Boy Kongming! The Movie 2nd Teaser Trailer &Team has posted a following message on the film's official website: It is a great honor for us to be cast in the movie "Ya Boy Kongming!," which has been loved by many people for both the original manga and the drama. We were nervous to...

Following the TV drama series in 2023, a live-action feature film adaptation of Yuto Yotsuba (story) and Ryo Ogawa's (art) comedy manga Ya Boy Kongming! (known as Paripi Koumei in Japan) is set to release in Japan on April 25, 2025 . The movie's official website and X (formerly Twitter) have opened, releasing a teaser trailer and visual. Ya Boy Kongming! The Movie Teaser Trailer Teaser visual Related: Ya Boy Kongming! Manga Gets Live-Action Drama Adaptation This Fall The manga was first serialized in Kodansha's Comic Days website from December 2019 to November 2021, then transfering to Weekly Young Magazine, with 19 tankobon volumes released in Japan to date. The story centers on Zhuge Kongming, the legendary Chinese strategist who is reincarnated in a young body in modern Shibuya. He brings ingenious innovation to the Japanese music scene to fulfill the dream of Eiko Tsukimi, a fledgling singer he met there. The manga's live-action TV...

First Love Hatsukoi is a Netflix romantic drama series written and directed by Yuri Kanchiku and starring Hikari Mitsushima and Takeru Satō.

In nine episodes you can follow the stories of Yae and Hurimichi as they reminisce about the time they fell in love.

Premise

Their lives did not turn out to be as wondrous as they had expected when then were young, free and madly in love. Everything was so much easier as teenagers, they had everything they could dream of, especially, love. Now, grown and disenchanted with life they will lean on their memories to make it through the day, one dull day at a time. No amount of lackluster, no harsh reality, will take that away from them, they will always have those beautiful memories.

First Love Season 1. Chapters When the Lilacs Bloom

Yae drives through the streets of Sapporo as a taxi driver. Back in her rural hometown,...

As I have mentioned many times before, anime/manga adaptations form one of the largest categories of films in Japanese cinema, with a number of works being produced every year, frequently with great commercial result, although not so frequently with significant artistic value. In that fashion, it is great to see a title that manages to embrace this second aspect fully, in a movie that does not take itself seriously at all and succeeds just because of that.

“The Fable” is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

The story is based on Katsuhisa Minami’s manga, and revolves around an elite contract killer nicknamed Fable. His uncanny abilities are presented from the beginning of the film, in a scene that could be easily perceived as a parody of the initial scene of “Ghost in the Shell|” (closer to the Scarlet Johansson one than the actual anime). Eventually, his bosses,...

Directed by Takanobu Kanazawa, the project also stars Osamu Mukai (Hanamizuki) and Rena Tanaka (Omotenashi).

Japan’s Village Inc is launching sales at Efm on the latest Geki Cine production, Fortress Of Skulls, which features one of Japan’s biggest stars, Kenichi Matsuyama, in a lead role. Geki Cine produces filmed versions of its acclaimed stage plays in a single take and using multiple cameras, surround sound and high-end post-production.

Directed by Takanobu Kanazawa, the filmed version of Fortress Of Skulls also stars Osamu Mukai (Hanamizuki) and Rena Tanaka (Omotenashi). Matsuyama is best known internationally for the Death Note film...

Generally speaking, I don’t do romantic comedies or romantic dramas. They just don’t settle very well with me. I keep expecting a gunfight or a martial arts sequence to break out, and I’m often very disappointed when that doesn’t happen. Even though I’ve learned to keep my expectations under control, my love for visceral action and elaborately staged fight scenes simply cannot be contained. And while I seriously doubt there’s anything of the sort in writer/director Eriko Kitagawa’s “I Have to Buy New Shoes”, I’m still strangely drawn to the film for reasons I simply cannot explain. Am I going soft? Yikes. Here’s a short but effective synopsis from AsianWiki: Freelance writer Aoi Teshigahara (Miho Nakayama) lives in Paris, France. Sen Yagami (Osamu Mukai) is a photographer who came to Paris, France due to his younger sister Suzume’s (Mirei Kiritani) insistance.

Today it was announced that Osamu Mukai and Aoi Miyazaki will be co-starring for the first time as husband and wife in a new film by Ryuichi Hiroki called Kiiroi Zou (literally Yellow Elephant).

The movie is based on a popular 2006 novel by Kanako Nishi. In fact, when the book was first introduced in the literary magazine “Da Vinci”, Miyazaki was quoted as saying, “Someday, I want to play ‘Tsuma’ from this novel.” Mukai also reportedly shared her fondness of the original work.

The two protagonists of the story are a married couple who refer to one another simply as “Muko-san” and “Tsuma” (also the word for “wife”). Specifically, Miyazaki plays Aiko Tsumari, the loving, somewhat unworldly wife of an unsuccessful novelist named Ayumi Muko (Mukai). The couple share a peaceful, close relationship together, but they begin to grow apart little by little after a certain letter arrives addressed to Muko.

Back in January, a very brief news item was posted on the Iwai Shunji Film Festival website announcing the fact that Iwai would be producing a film by writer/director Eriko Kitagawa called Atarashii Kutsu wo Kawanakucha and it would be filmed entirely in Paris. Earlier today, further details came out of Paris, where filming is currently underway.

The movie stars Miho Nakayama—a Paris native since 2003—and Osamu Mukai. Nakayama plays a freelance writer named Aoi who breaks the heel of her shoe and has a chance encounter with a young photographer named Sen (Mukai), who was brought to Paris by his younger sister. The meeting sparks an immediate attraction between them even with their 12-year age gap, and their subsequent romance is depicted over a span of three days.

Iwai and Kitagawa previously partnered on the high school romance-themed film Halfway in 2009. Kitagawa was primarily a TV drama screenwriter up to that point.

A few days ago, Eiga.com posted a new trailer for Takehiko Shinjo’s Paradise Kiss, a live-action film adaptation of a manga by Ai Yazawa.

Plot: Yukari Hayasaka (Keiko Kitagawa) commutes to a prestigious private high school in Tokyo every day, but recently she’s been having doubts about her lifestyle which has her constantly bouncing back and forth between her normal classes and cram school as per her parents’ wishes. One day, she’s scouted as a model for an aspiring fashion designer named George Koizumi (Osamu Mukai). Yukari is puzzled by the fashion world at first, but witnessing people chase their dreams with a single-minded focus eventually inspires her to find her own path.

Warner Bros will be releasing “Paradise Kiss” in Japan on June 4, 2011.

Watch »...

The Japanese film site Movie Collection has uploaded the first teaser for Takehiko Shinjo’s Paradise Kiss to their YouTube channel. The film is a live-action adaptation of a manga by Ai Yazawa.

Plot: Yukari Hayasaka (Keiko Kitagawa) commutes to a prestigious private high school in Tokyo every day, but recently she’s been having doubts about her lifestyle which has her constantly bouncing back and forth between her normal classes and cram school as per her parents’ wishes. One day, she’s scouted as a model for an aspiring fashion designer named George Koizumi (Osamu Mukai). Yukari is puzzled by the fashion world at first, but witnessing people chase their dreams with a single-minded focus eventually inspires her to find her own path.

Warner Bros will be releasing “Paradise Kiss” in Japan sometime in May 2011.

28-year-old actor Osamu Mukai will get his first lead film role in Kenta Fukasaku’s Bokutachi wa Sekai wo Kaeru Koto ga Dekinai.

The film is based on a self-published novel by 26-year-old Kota Hada in which he relayed his experiences helping to fund and build a school in Cambodia with some classmates from Nippon Medical School. The students learned that 1,500,000 yen could pay for a 5-classroom school in rural Cambodia, so they traveled there and began volunteering in an area still scarred by civil war.

Mukai will play Hada; his castmates include Tori Matsuzaka (22), Eri Murakawa (23), Tasuku Emoto (22), and Masataka Kubota (22).

Filming began in Tokyo early this week and the production will move on to Cambodia in mid-November. A theatrical release is slated for fall 2011.

Sources: Tokyograph, Sankei Sports...

A trailer for Takuji Suzuki‘s adaptation of Gegege no Nyobo has been uploaded to the film’s official YouTube channel. The film is based on an autobiographical novel by Nunoe Mura, wife of “Gegege no Kitaro” creator Shigeru Mizuki, and comes on the heels of a TV drama based on the same work which is currently in the middle of its run on Nhk.

Like the drama, it covers the couple’s relationship as Mizuki, whose real name is Shigeru Mura, toiled in obscurity before finally becoming a famous manga writer after years of hard work. Back in June it was revealed that Kazue Fukiishi will play Nunoe and actor/playwright Kankuro Kudo will play Shigeru, taking over the roles played by Nao Matsushita and Osamu Mukai in the TV drama.

The film premiered at the Pia Film Festival on July 21, 2010 and will be publicly released by Phantom Film...

A trailer for Takuji Suzuki‘s adaptation of Gegege no Nyobo has been uploaded to the film’s official YouTube channel. The film is based on an autobiographical novel by Nunoe Mura, wife of “Gegege no Kitaro” creator Shigeru Mizuki, and comes on the heels of a TV drama based on the same work which is currently in the middle of its run on Nhk.

Like the drama, it covers the couple’s relationship as Mizuki, whose real name is Shigeru Mura, toiled in obscurity before finally becoming a famous manga writer after years of hard work. Back in June it was revealed that Kazue Fukiishi will play Nunoe and actor/playwright Kankuro Kudo will play Shigeru, taking over the roles played by Nao Matsushita and Osamu Mukai in the TV drama.

The film premiered at the Pia Film Festival on July 21, 2010 and will be publicly released by Phantom Film...

Shochiku has uploaded a new full trailer for Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s live-action adaptation of Beck to their YouTube channel and the film’s official website.

Based on Harold Sakuishi’s long-running manga, the film stars Takeru Sato as Koyuki, an ordinary high school student who’s encouraged to pick up guitar after a chance encounter with a talented guitarist named Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima). The two eventually form a band with bassist Taira (Osamu Mukai), lead vocalist Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), and drummer Saku (Aoi Nakamura). They name the band Beck after Minami’s dog and Koyuki discovers he has a natural gift for playing guitar. As his talent blooms, the band experiences more and more success, eventually getting invited to play at a rock festival.

Beck will be released in Japan on September 4, 2010.

Source: YouTube via @wildgrounds...

In mid-April, it was announced that an autobiographical novel by Nunoe Mura, wife of “Gegege no Kitaro” creator Shigeru Mizuki, would be released as a film shortly after a TV drama based on the same work aired on Nhk.

The film was directed by Takuji Suzuki. Like the drama, it covers the couple’s relationship as Mizuki, whose real name is Shigeru Mura, toiled in obscurity before finally becoming a famous manga writer after years of hard work. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Kazue Fukiishi will play Nunoe and Kankuro Kudo will play Shigeru, taking over the roles played by Nao Matsushita and Osamu Mukai in the TV drama.

Fukiishi recently revealed on her blog that a private preview screening was held back on the 27th of last month with Mizuki and Mura in attendance. After the screening, Mura grabbed hold of her hand and thanked her for her portrayal.

Shochiku has released a new, slightly longer second teaser trailer for Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s Beck, a live-action adaptation of Harold Sakuishi’s long-running band manga.

The film stars Takeru Sato as Koyuki, an ordinary high school student who’s encouraged to pick up guitar after a chance encounter with a talented guitarist named Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima). The two eventually form a band with bassist Taira (Osamu Mukai), lead vocalist Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), and drummer Saku (Aoi Nakamura). They name the band Beck after Minami’s dog and Koyuki discovers he has a natural gift for playing guitar. As his talent blooms, the band experiences more and more success, eventually getting invited to play at a rock festival.

Beck will be released in Japan on September 4, 2010.

Source: Yahoo! Eiga...

The Japanese website for the live-action adaptation of Harold Sakuishi’s Beck coming-of-age-and-rocking-the-world manga has been updated with a first teaser trailer showing Hiro Mizushima, Takeru Satoh, Kenta Kiritani, Aoi Nakamura and Osamu Mukai as the members of the band. The adaptation is directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (20th Century Boys) and is supposed to open in Japan in Fall 2010.

I stopped watching the anime adaptation after a few episodes because of too much angsty/driveless teens, so what do people who know the original manga and animation have say about this first footage?

[See post to watch Flash video]

[via Ann & Eiga.com]...