News
Miike, I.G Create Mobile Phone Detectives 7 TV Drama
posted on by Egan Loo
Director Takashi Miike (Crows Zero, Ichi the Killer, The Great Yokai War) is overseeing Production I.G's first live-action project, the 51-episode Keitai Sōsakan 7 (Mobile Phone Detectives 7) television drama series which will debut on TV Tokyo on April 2. Joining Miike is an all-star lineup of episode directors, including Manabu Asō (Sky High, Kaette Kita Jikō Keisatsu), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Mobile Police Patlabor, The Sky Crawlers), Shusuke Kaneko (Death Note, Azumi 2: Death or Love), Kazuya Konaka (Ultraman Dyna, Astro Boy), Hiroyuki Tsuji (Shura no Mure), Norio Tsuruta (Ring Ø: Birthday, Sky High), Takeshi Watanabe (Revolver - Blue Spring [based on Taiyo Matsumoto's manga]), and Kunihiko Yuyama (Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning, Pokémon).
19-year-old actor Masataka Kubota will play Keita Tsunashima, an ordinary high schooler who helps solve cyber-crimes with his transformable mobile Phone Braver 7 unit. Keita eventually becomes an agent of the secret organization called Under-Anchor. At the end of April, the mobile phone provider SoftBank will sell a functional Phone Braver 815T PB phone that transforms into a (non-functional) robot. The phone will feature simple artificial intelligence for a maturing, Tamagotchi-style personality, as well as mini-games related to the television series.
Atsuhiro Tomioka (Vandread, Samurai 7) is supervising the scripts. Dr. Hideto Tomabechi, a leading researcher in artificial intelligence and linguistics, is serving as a technical consultant on the project's cyber-crime storylines. Even though the project is largely live-action, Production I.G will be creating visual effects and animation for certain sequences.
Thank you to Brian Ruh for the news tip.
Image © WiZ, Production I.G, Buddy Mobile Project LLP/TV Tokyo
