The official website for Saint Oniisan The Movie ~Holy Men vs Akuma Gundan~ (Holy Men vs Demon Army), the first live-action film adaptation of Hikaru Nakamura's Saint Young Men (Saint Oniisan) manga, has revealed two new cast members for the film. Ryunosuke Kamiki (your name, Godzilla Minus One, left in the image below) plays Johane, while Taiga Nakano (live-action Daily Lives of High School Boys, Kyō Kara Ore Wa!!, right) plays Jūichimen Kannon/Ekādaśamukha, known collectively as Team Heavenly Realm 2. Johane, also known as John of Revelation, is a celebrity in heaven whose apocalyptic works are popular even with the archangel Michael. Jūichimen Kannon maintains a life as a blogger and YouTuber in the mortal world under the name “Aaaamen.”
Image via Comic Natalie
中村光／講談社 ©2024映画 「聖☆おにいさん」製作委員会
The staff also released a new re-creation video featuring the two actors:
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Image via Eiga Natalie
© 中村光/講談社 (c)2024映画 「聖☆おにいさん」製作委員会
The comic series imagines what it would be like if Buddha and Jesus shared a cheap Tokyo apartment with no bathroom.
Returning cast and staff from the manga's previous live-action film series include Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Promare's Galo Thymos) as Jesus and Shōta Sometani (BELLE's Kamishin, Suzume's Minoru Okabe) as Buddha. Yūichi Fukuda (live-action Gintama, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. films) will return to direct the film and write the script based on an extended story (“Screen e no Nagai Michi” or The Long Road to the Big Screen) Nakamura created for the film.
Other cast members include:
Ryo Katsuji as Taishakuten, the god of war and thunder Jirō Satō plays the film's original character, a fighting hermit Mai Shiraishi as Benzaiten, the goddess of music and art Kento Kaku as Brahmā, the personal conception of the cosmic principle Takanori Iwata as Archangel Michael Masataka Kubota as Mara, the embodiment of human desires who raises his daughter as a single father Seina Nakata as Mara's youngest daughter Mizuki Yamamoto as Mara's eldest daughter Hinako Sakurai as Mara's second eldest daughter
TOHO will release the film on December 20.
The staff considers the 23rd of every month as “Oniisan no Hi”(Young Men Day) as a pun on the Japanese pronunciation, and they will release more information about the movie on that day every month until the movie premieres.
The first 10-episode live-action season premiered on Kakao Japan's Piccoma streaming service in October 2018. The second season began streaming on Piccoma TV in June 2019 and was also shown in theaters. The third season premiered on NHK in January 2020. Each season has 10 episodes.
Nakamura debuted the manga in Kodansha's Morning two magazine in 2006. The manga won the Short Story Award at the 13th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009 and was also nominated for the Manga Taisho award in the same year.
The manga inspired an anime film that premiered in Japan in May 2013. The eighth and ninth volumes of the manga both bundled the original anime DVD when they were released in December 2012 and July 2013, respectively.
Publisher Kodansha USA is releasing the manga digitally in English.
Source: Saint Oniisan The Movie ~Holy Men vs Akuma Gundan~ website, Comic Natalie
