Taisho Iwasaki Joins Cast of New Live-Action Kindaichi Case Files Series

The official website for the upcoming live-action series adaptation of Fumiya Sato and Seimaru Amagi‘s detective manga The Kindaichi Case Files (Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo) revealed on Saturday that Taisho Iwasaki of Bishonen and Johnny’s Jr. will play Ryuta Saki (pictured below on left), a first-year high school student who likes to film videos.

As previously announced, Johnny & Associates’ Naniwa Danshi band member Shunsuke Michieda (pictured right above and center below) 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.

Moka Kamishiraishi (left) will play Miyuki Nanase and Ikki Sawamura (right) will play Isamu Kenmochi. Kamishiraishi previously appeared in a different role in the Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo N (neo) live-action series, which aired in 2014.

The series will premiere in April and will air on NTV on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. The new series will adapt selected cases and set them in modern-day Japan.

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 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.

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.

Sources: Kindaichi Case Files live-action show’s website, Comic Natalie