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Live-Action Sazae-san TV Special Casts Taiiku Okazaki, Kenta Satoi
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 Taiiku Okazaki (first image below) will play a 31-year-old Nakajima, while Kenta Satoi (second image below) will play Hiramasa, an original character for the special's live-action segment.
In the original anime, Nakajima was Katsuo's classmate in elementary school, and they were together in whatever they did. Now Nakajima has been a company employee for 10 years, and went straight into work right after graduating. While he is the opposite of Katsuo, who cannot hold a long-term job, they remain close friends. While Nakajima continues to worry about Katsuo, Nakajima supports Katsuo in his current job at a restaurant.
Hiramasa is a fireworks specialist in his 70s. He has been sending fireworks above the skies of Asahigaoka for the past 50 years, but has decided to retire after this year's festival in the shopping district. Sazae and Nanbutsu Isasaka, who are on the committee in charge of the festival, want to celebrate Hiramasa's retirement with a perfect night, but a storm is coming to Asahigaoka. Meanwhile, Katsuo and Tarao encounter Hiramasa on the eve of the festival, and he talks to them about his work dealing with fireworks.
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
Other cast members include:
- Shinya Kote as Masuo's co-worker Anago
- Norito Yashima as Sazae's cousin Norisuke Namino
- Taiki Nakabayashi as Wakame's boyfriend Takeshi Kaizuka
- Yū Inaba as Norisuke's son Ikura Namino
- Kazuyuki Asano as Sazae-san's neighbor Nanbutsu Isasaka.
- Keiko Horiuchi as Taiko Namino, the wife of Sazae-san's cousin Norisuke
- Kunikazu Katsumata as delivery man Sabu-chan
- Tomoka Kurokawa as Kaori, one of Katsuo's classmates
- Rena Matsui as Hayakawa, one of Katsuo's classmates
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, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Comic Natalie
