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Live-Action Yu Yu Hakusho Series Casts Takumi Kitamura (Updated)
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Entertainment news magazine Variety reported on Friday that Netflix's upcoming live-action series based on Yoshihiro Togashi's Yu Yu Hakusho manga has cast actor Takumi Kitamura (live-action Tokyo Revengers, Let Me Eat Your Pancreas). Kitamura, who is also the vocalist and guitarist for rock band DISH//, will portray the role of Yusuke Urameshi in the series.
The series will debut in December 2023. It will stream on Netflix simultaneously worldwide.
Netflix contents acquisition director Kazutaka Sakamoto (live-action Alice in Borderland, Ride or Die, The Naked Director) is the executive producer, and Akira Morii (Wild 7, Brave Heart Umizaru) is producing at Robot.
Sho Tsukikawa (live-action Let Me Eat Your Pancreas) is directing the series, and Tatsurō Mishima is writing the script. Ryō Sakaguchi is the VFX supervisor.
Sakamoto noted that he grew up with the original manga, and he still vividly remembers its excitement and impact. He added that it now has fans throughout Asia and the rest of the world. He said that Netflix is assembling a team of the best talent from Japan and abroad.
The manga follows 14-year-old delinquent Yusuke Urameshi, who dies after saving a child in a car accident. The Spirit World is surprised by his death and offers him a chance to come back as a "spirit detective" who is tasked with defeating demons.
TOHO Studios and Netflix signed a multi-year contract to lease two of TOHO's stage facilities in Tokyo starting in April 2021. Netflix's first production there is the live-action Yu Yu Hakusho series.
Netflix is leasing two of TOHO Studios' 10 sound stages, Stage 7 and Stage 10, in addition to two acting centers and a production center, for its original programming.
Togashi (Hunter X Hunter) published the original Yu Yu Hakusho manga from 1990 to 1994. Viz Media began publishing the manga in its English edition of Shonen Jump in 2002, and it also released all 19 volumes in print.
A television anime adaptation ran from 1992 to 1995, and spawned two films and two original video anime (OVA) releases. Funimation released the television series and OVAs on home video in North America. Media Blasters and later Funimation released the first film, and Central Park Media released the second film. The television series ran on Adult Swim and later Toonami.
A new OVA debuted at a screening event in October 2018, and later shipped with the fourth part of the anime's 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Box collection in the same month. The new anime adapted the "Two Shot" bonus chapter from the manga's seventh volume, as well as the manga's penultimate chapter "All or Nothing."
The manga inspired a stage play (pictured left) that ran in Japan from August to September 2019.
Update: Added in character image and more staff members. Source: Comic Natalie
Source: Variety (Mark Schilling)
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