New cast members have been announced for the live-action film adaptation of the popular soccer manga "Blue Lock" (directed by Yusuke Taki, opening August 7th). It has been revealed that K from the boy group "＆TEAM," actors Keito Tsuna and Kohei Higuchi will be appearing in the film.
K will Seishiro Nagi, who possesses genius-level soccer skills; Tsuna will play Reo Mikage Mikage, the brilliant and athletic heir to a major corporation; and Higuchi will play Zantetsu Tsurugi, whose weapons are explosive acceleration and shots fired from his left foot. The three will be members of "Team V," a team full of talented players who stand in the way of "Team Z," led by the protagonist Yoichi Isagi(Fumiya Takahashi).
K, who is making his solo film debut, commented, "Since this is my first time appearing in a film on my own, I was initially more anxious and worried than anything else. However, because I used to play soccer and I became a huge fan of the original work as I read it, my desire to play Seishiro Nagi grew stronger than any of those anxieties." Reflecting on the filming, he said, "Nagi is a character whose words have a low emotional temperature and are difficult to portray, so I made a point of conveying emotions through my eyes without showing a smile."
Tsuna, who plays Reo, Nagi's partner, said, "I made sure to cherish the relationship I had with K, who plays Nagi, outside of filming. I thought that the way we both acted normally would definitely be reflected in our roles, so I was especially conscious of that. It had been a while since I'd worked with Kohei (Higuchi), but before I knew it, the three of us had become close and we had become the best team."
Higuchi, who has a background as a youth player for a J.League club, said, "I was so dedicated to soccer that I even came to Tokyo with the goal of seriously playing in the J.League, so I never thought that the day would come when I would be involved in a soccer-related project as an actor. I feel like I've been able to put my experience to good use, and I'm really glad that I continued playing soccer since I was a child, as it makes me think, 'Maybe I've been playing soccer all this time for this day.'"
"Blue Lock" is a manga series written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura, serialized in "Weekly Shonen Magazine" (Kodansha) since 2018. The cumulative circulation of the comic books exceeds 50 million copies. The Japan Football Association launches the "Blue Lock" project to train strikers who will lead Japan to victory in the FIFA World Cup, and 300 high school forwards gathered from all over the country engage in a fierce survival competition. The film is being produced by CREDEUS, the production company behind popular works such as the "Kingdom" series, the "Golden Kamuy" series, and "National Treasure".
