This week on Anime Update: a Live Action Rurouni Kenshin (sometimes still referred to as “Samurai X” under the now defunct ADV Films) pic! Anime Streaming site Crunchyroll posted this fantastic teaser pic to their site today:
Here we see Kenshin portrayed by Japanese drama star Takeru Sato of Kamen Rider Den-O fame. Rurouni Kenshin, the story of the wandering samurai, was written by Nobuhiro Watsuki and ran in Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump from 1994 – 1999. The anime aired in Japan from ’96 to ’98 and was brought to Cartoon Network’s Toonami block shortly after.
The live action adaptation, which was first announced by Warner Bros. Japan in June, is scheduled to release on August 25th, 2012. Apparently the main goal of this release is to make the film an international success and feature a spin-off series shortly after the film’s release. No word yet on who is going to distribute the film in North America or when we’ll be seeing a translation.
For those of you that haven’t watched Rurouni Kenshin yet, you can rent the disks on Netflix in English. Here’s a video clip of the first Japanese opening that aired: If you’re looking for the full casting list, you can find a neat side-by-side look at the whole bunch here.