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Live-Action Sazae-san TV Special Casts Kunikazu Katsumata as Liquor Shop's Sabu-chan
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 Kunikazu Katsumata (seen below) will play delivery man Sabu-chan in the special's live-action segment.
In the original Sazae-san anime, Sabu-chan is a gentle and always-positive delivery man for the Mikawa liquor store in the Asahigaoka shopping center. He makes regular deliveries of food and drinks to the Isono family, and the family treats him warmly. In the live-action segment set 20 years after the anime, Sabu-chan has become the proprietor of the Mikawa liquor store and still maintains his regular deliveries to the Isono family. But with the opening of a chain supermarket near the Asahigaoka shopping center, business has been slow, and the Mikawa liquor store is also in a tight spot. Despite it all, Sabu-chan maintains his positivity and continues his business with a smile on his face.
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 Masuo's co-worker 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 Norisuke's son Ikura Namino. Kazuyuki Asano will play Sazae-san's neighbor Nanbutsu Isasaka. Keiko Horiuchi will play Taiko Namino, the wife of Sazae-san's cousin Norisuke.
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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