Chihayafuru Films' Main Cast Reunites in TV Sequel
The staff for Chihayafuru -Meguri-, the new live-action television series inspired by Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga, posted a new trailer for the series on Tuesday. The trailer announces that the main cast members of the earlier live-action Chihayafuru films will return to reprise their roles, a decade later as high school graduates, in the series.Suzu Hirose returns as Chihaya, a karuta queen title holder who became the advisor of the Mizusawa High School karuta club, but who is now on a leave of absence from her job for some reason. Shūhei Nomura returns as Taichi, now a resident doctor. Yūma Yamoto returns as Nishida, who now runs an okonomiyaki shop. Yūki Morinaga returns as Komano, now a pharmacist. Hayato Sano and Mio Yūki both return as Tsukuba and Sumire, respectively.The familiar cast members join Mone Kamishiraishi, who was already previously announced as returning as Kanade Ōe.The series will premiere on July 9 at 10:00 p.m. JST (9:00 a.m. EDT) on NTV and affiliated channels.Ami Tōma stars as Meguru Aizawa, a second-year high school student who quietly takes part in a competitive karuta card-playing club that is in danger of disbanding due to the lack of members. Mone Kamishiraishi returns to her role as Kanade Ōe, now a part-time teacher who serves as the adviser of the karuta club.Manga creator Suetsugu is involved with the new show, which is set a decade after the live-action films. The original films' director Norihiro Koizumi is serving as the showrunner. Naoya Fujita, Daisuke Honda, Chiaki Matsumoto, and Kazuhiro Yoshida are directing the series. Monogatari Lab and Suzuyuki Kaneko are credited with the screenplay. Masaru Yokoyama is composing the music. Pop group Perfume is returning to perform the series' theme song "Megu (from the series title's "Meguri") Loop." Perfume previously performed the theme song for the 2016 two-part Chihayafuru live-action films. The first live-action film, Chihayafuru: Kami no Ku (Chihayafuru: Upper Phrase), opened in Japan in March 2016. The second film, Chihayafuru: Shimo no Ku (Chihayafuru: Lower Phrase), opened in Japan in April 2016. The third film, Chihayafuru: Musubi, opened in Japan in March 2018. A five-episode live-action tie-in series, titled Chihayafuru -Tsunagu-, premiered on Hulu Japan in February 2018.The manga's final chapter debuted in Be Love in August 2022. Be Love published a spinoff side story in November 2022. The manga's 50th and final compiled book volume shipped in December 2022 with the spinoff manga. A sequel manga titled Chihayafuru plus Kimi ga Tame launched in Be Love in December 2023.The manga has inspired three television anime seasons. Crunchyroll streamed all three seasons as they aired. Sentai Filmworks released all three seasons with an English dub on home video. HIDIVE is also streaming the seasons with Japanese subtitles and an English dub.Sources: Chihayafuru -Meguri- live-action series' X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
