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Tobaku Haōden Zero Live-Action Series to Cast Role by Auditioning 9 Johnny's Jr.
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official Tobaku Haōden Zero gambling manga, revealed on Thursday that the staff will cast one of nine of the Johnny's Jr. male idol group for the role of Shirube, Zero's rival. The role will be chosen through an audition that will be shown in a four-episode program titled Jr. Senbatsu! Shirube e no Michi (Jr. Selection! The Path to Shirube).
The program will involve the Johnny's Jr. making a remake of four episodes from the Nekketsu Renai Dō series, and one episode from the Kowai Nichiyōbi series. Both 1999 series starred Johnny's Jr. at the time. NTV will air the audition program on July 2, 9, 11, and 16.
The other cast for the live-action Zero Ikkakusenkin Game series includes:
(Front row, left to right)
- Shōtarō Mamiya as Seigi Suezaki
- Shigeaki Katō as "Zero" Ukai
- Eiko Koike as Mineko Gotō
- Amane Okayama as Hiroshi Sashima
- Yūta Koseki as Yūki Hikawa
- Ryō Katō as Chikara Manabe
- Sunao Saotome
Shinji Obara is penning the scripts. The series will premiere on NTV on July 15 at 10:00 p.m., and the show will air every Sunday at 10:30 p.m. from the second episode onward.
In the manga's story, teenager "Zero" Ukai is a gambling genius who enters a trillion-yen ($12-billion) survival game. In the television show, Zero is a substitute teacher at a local cram school.
The manga launched in 2007 and took a two-and-a-half-year hiatus after finishing its first story arc. The manga Kodansha published the first part in eight compiled volumes and the second part in 10 compiled volumes.
Fukumoto is best known for his long-running premiere in July.
Fukumoto also drew the mahjong manga premiered on May 25.
Sources: Zero Ikkakusenkin Game series' official Twitter , Comic Natalie
