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Live-Action Sazae-san TV Special Casts Kazuyuki Asano as Isasaka
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official Twitter account for the 50th anniversary special of the family television anime Sazae-san revealed on Monday that Kazuyuki Asano (seen below) will play the character Nanbutsu Isasaka in the special's live-action segment.
In the original anime, Isasaka is the neighbor of the Isono's, and is a romance novelist who has multiple bestselling books. In the live-action segment set 20 years after the anime, Isasaka has focused away from books, and seems to be more focused on his duties as committee member for the Bon dance at the local shopping district. But in truth, he is slowly but surely writing the manuscript for a new novel, which will be his first family novel, and the one he intends to be the capstone to his career.
The live-action segment's cast members include (from left to right in image above):
- Yoshie Ichige as Fune
- Masatō Ibu as Namihei
- Gaku Hamada as Katsuo
- Yūki Amami as Sazae
- Hidetoshi Nishijima as Masuo
- Mayu Matsuoka as Wakame
- Ryō Narita as Tarao
- Hiyori Sakurada as Hitode Fuguta
Shinya Kote will also play Anago in the live-action segment. Norito Yashima will play Sazae's cousin Norisuke Namino, and Taiki Nakabayashi will play Wakame's boyfriend Takeshi Kaizuka. Yū Inaba will play Ikura Namino.
The special will premiere on November 24, and will air for three and a half hours on Fuji TV. Masayuki Suzuki is directing the live-action segment, and Tomoko Akutsu is penning the script.
The live-action segment will depict the family 20 years into the future. This segment serves as a follow-up to the September 2018 sequel stage play that imagines the family 10 years into the future.
The anime segment of the special will bring in fantasy elements as it depicts the past of Sazae's family, as well as a family trip. Earlier this year, the staff chose 28 families from Tokyo's Asahigaoka district (the setting of the Sazae-san story) to be animated into the series, and this anniversary special's anime segment will feature three of those families. These families' names will even appear in the anime segment.
Sources: Sazae-san 50th anniversary special's Twitter account, Comic Natalie
Update: Nanbutsu Isasaka's name spelling corrected. Thanks, shosakukan
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