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The Kindaichi Case Files Detective Manga Gets New Live-Action Show Starring Naniwa Danshi's Shunsuke Michieda

Fumiya Sato and Seimaru Amagi's detective manga The Kindaichi Case Files (Kindaichi Shōnen no Jikenbo) is inspiring a new live-action series this April. Johnny & Associates' Naniwa Danshi band member Shunsuke Michieda is the fifth actor to play the titular detective Hajime Kindaichi, and this will be his first solo starring role in a live-action series. The new series will adapt selected cases and set them in modern-day Japan.

The Kindaichi Case Files manga centers around a high school boy named Hajime Kindaichi who usually seems dull. However, when there is a case, he demonstrates an IQ of over 180 and remarkable deductive skills inherited from his famous detective grandfather. He solves crimes with his childhood friend Miyuki Nanase and Inspector Isamu Kenmochi.

Yuuko Kawabe (episodes of Ergo Proxy, Tweeny Witches: The Adventures) and Tetsuya Ōishi (Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, live-action Death Note and Blade of the Immortal) are writing the scripts, and Hisashi Kimura (live-action Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo: Hong Kong Kyūryū Zaihou Satsujin Jiken, Nagasawa-kun) is directing. NTV is presenting the series in collaboration with Office Crescendo. The series will air on NTV on Sundays at 10:30 p.m.

Amagi and Sato launched the original manga in 1992, and Tokyopop published it in English. The manga inspired other spinoff manga, anime movies, original video anime (OVA) projects, and a television anime series.

The four previous actors who played Kindaichi in live-action are KinKi Kids group member Tsuyoshi Dōmoto in 1995, Arashi member Jun Matsumoto in 2001, KAT-TUN member Kazuya Kamenashi in 2005, and Hey! Say! JUMP member Ryōsuke Yamada from 2013 to 2014.

Amagi and Sato launched the Kindaichi Shōnen no Jikenbo R (The File of Young Kindaichi Returns) follow-up manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in March 2012, and ended the manga in October 2017. The follow-up manga itself also inspired two television anime series.

Sato also drew the Akechi Keibu no Jikenbo spinoff manga for the franchise. The manga launched in Kodansha's Magazine Special in May 2014, and ended August 2018 with five volumes. The manga received a television anime special titled The File of Young Kindaichi Returns: The File of Inspector Akechi in December 2015.

Amagi and Sato launched the Kindaichi 37-sai no Jikenbo (The Case Files of 37-year-old Kindaichi) manga in January 2018. Kodansha published the manga's 11th compiled book volume on October 21. The manga went on hiatus on this month, but Kodansha's Evening magazine did not announce when the manga will return.

Sato launched a new manga spinoff titled Kinnyaichi Shonen no Jikenbo in Evening this month. The four-panel comedy manga stars the titular character turned into a cat.

Under various pen names, Amagi has drafted the stories for The Drops of God, Psychometrer, GetBackers, The Knight in the Area, and Bloody Monday.

Update: Comic Natalie reported that this is Michieda's first starring role in a live-action series, although he starred in the live-action My Love Mix-Up! series last fall. Oricon clarified that this is Michieda's first solo starring role in a live-action series. (Michieda co-starred with Snow Man group member Ren Meguro in the My Love Mix-Up! series.) Thanks, Neverwhere.

Sources: The Kindaichi Case Files' website, Comic Natalie