Category: TV

The official website for Hiroshi Yoshino’s Hotaru no Hikari movie has been updated with a new full trailer.

“Hotaru no Hikari” was originally a manga by Satoru Hiura which was adapted to a TV drama in 2007. Haruka Ayase played a quirky interior design company employee named Hotaru Amemiya who had no interest in relationships. She instead spent most of her free time laying around her messy rented house, earning herself the title “himono-onna” (dried-up woman). During the course of the series, she falls in love with her boss, Seiichi Takano (Naohito Fujiki) and by the end of the second season in 2010, they were finally preparing to get married.

The film is set two years after the second season. Hotaru and Takano-bucho are taking their first overseas trip together on their honeymoon in Italy. Hotaru meets another “himono-onna” named Rio Saeki (Yasuko Matsuyuki) by chance in Rome and gets caught up in a situation Rio’s younger brother Yu (Yuya Tegoshi) has stirred up. Later, she gets cut off from Bucho and runs frantically through the streets of Rome to find him.

“Hotaru no Hikari” will be released by Toho in Japan on June 9, 2012.

An official website for Yasuhiro Kawamura’s Kochikame: The Movie - Save the Kachidoki Bridge! has been launched with a teaser trailer.

The film is a continuation of the 2009 TBS drama which was based on Osamu Akimoto’s “Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo” (1996-2009) manga series, also known as “Kochikame” for short.

As previously reported by Tokyograph, the live-action version stars Shingo Katori of SMAP as a police officer named Kankichi Ryotsu who gets involved in various misadventures adventures involving the people around his police box in front of Kameari Park in Katsushika Ward.

In the new film, Ryo-san has a chance encounter with a former grade school classmate and crush named Momoko (Kyoko Fukada), causing his heart to flutter. Soon after, the National Police Agency chief’s granddaughter is kidnapped. When Ryo-san discovers Momoko may be involved in some way, he sets out to discover the truth. Returning cast members from the TV show include Karina, Mocomichi Hayami, and Masato Ibu.

“Kochikame” will be released by Shochiku in Japan on August 6, 2011.

The official website for Shinji Higuchi’s upcoming kaiju TV drama MM9 (short for Monster Magnitude 9) has been updated with a 30-second TV spot. Unfortunately, there are no actual monsters to be seen, but you gotta love Anna Ishibashi’s delayed thumbs up at the end.

Based on a story by sci-fi writer Hiroshi Yamamoto, the show centers around a special “living creatures” division of the Japan Meteorological Agency which predicts the appearance of monsters. When an attack does occur, a team of monster specialists called “Kitokutai” is sent to the front lines, even if the Japan Self-Defense Force is unavailable. As ordinary public servants, these unsung heroes have no weapons, and must rely only their skills, knowledge, and experience to minimize the damage caused by monsters.

Ishibashi (17) and Machiko Ono (28) are the show’s two main stars. Ishibashi plays Sakura Fujisawa, a rookie member of the team, and Ono plays Mikazuki, the member responsible for Fujisawa’s training.

Higuchi, who’s probably best known for his work on the Heisei era Gamera trilogy, is supervising production of the show. The screenplay was written by Kazunori Ito (Patlabor, Gamera) and some of the directors include Tomoyuki Furumaya (Bushido Sixteen), Kiyotaka Taguchi (Gehara), and Ataru Oikawa (Tomie).

The drama will begin airing in Japan next week, from July 7th.

Shinji Higuchi (44), known as the “Heisei special effects king” for his work on the Heisei era Gamera trilogy, is supervising the production of his first TV drama. The show is called MM9 (Monster Magnitude 9) and is set in an alternate version of modern-day Japan in which monster attacks are the norm and are treated as another form of natural disaster. The show is based on a story by sci-fi writer Hiroshi Yamamoto which was originally serialized in Tokyo Sogensha’s “Mysteries!” from 2005-2006 and published as a book in 2007.

The project was first hinted at through an April Fools joke which presented it as a “sci-fi epic” called XX9. Higuchi released a photo of the cast dressed up in traditional sci-fi outfits and wielding futuristic rifles.

The show centers around a special “living creatures” division of the Japan Meteorological Agency which predicts the appearance of monsters. When an attack does occur, a team of monster specialists called “Kitokutai” is sent to the front lines, even if the Japan Self-Defense Force is unavailable. As ordinary public servants, these unsung heroes have no weapons, and must rely only their skills, knowledge, and experience to minimize the damage caused by monsters.

Anna Ishibashi (17) and Machiko Ono (28) are the show’s two main stars. Ishibashi plays Sakura Fujisawa, a rookie member of the team, and Ono plays Mikazuki, the member responsible for Fujisawa’s training. The rest of the cast includes Issei Takahashi, Yasuhi Nakamura, Satoru Matsuo, Sarutoki Minagawa, Takako Kato, and Yutaka Matsushige.

The show’s screenplay was written by Kazunori Ito (Patlabor, Gamera) and some of the directors include Tomoyuki Furumaya (Bushido Sixteen), Kiyotaka Taguchi (Gehara), and Ataru Oikawa (Tomie).

The late-night MBS drama will begin airing weekly in Japan from July 7, 2010.

Sources: Sports Hochi, Official website

Big thanks to Hiroshi Sagae, a designer and sculptor who’s a member of the show’s crew.