Watching an anime series like Gintama will leave you breatheless most days – either from vociferous laughter or outright awe from the chaos and explosive twists and turns that occur as it explores the arcs. Coming into director Fukuda Yuichi’s own live-action adaptation, the current cast listing sums up what appears to be the Benizakara end of things and hopefully a full trailer will arrive soon to take a deeper visual dive to whet the appetite.
Until then, the promotional rollout has already begun as of late last year with a spate of character posters hailing the star trio of the saga with actor Oguri Shun and Suda Masaki, and actress Kashimoto Hanna. The three, based on Sorachi Hideaki’s popular Shonen Jump manga property and subsequent anime, lead the film as an Odd Jobs outlet in Edo period, Japan following the arrival of an alien race known as the Amanto, and a series of events that now culminate the near-end of the Samurai-era.
It’s also worth noting that while the film does definitely hint at Benizakura – the plot here involving a blind assassin who infuses his arm with a demonic, biomechanical sword, the story really does go much, much further beyond in ways that will absolutely suprise and thrill you. The action gets sicker and the character development gets even more gripping and addicting…save for our dear Joui rebel faction leader, Kotaro Katsura played by actor Okada Masaki, whose role, always in the company of an over-sized pet thing-in-a-duck/penguin costume, stands out in the series as the most melodramatic and eccentric of the bunch.
There’s never a dull moment with these two (especially when you get his name wrong), and these are just a totaling of five in the film thusfar with six months to go until the film’s Japan release. I’m hoping for sequels, because this film will be hardly a tip of the iceberg.
Check out Okada’s character poster in the album below along with the others and stay tuned!