BLEACH movie update: MIYAVI cast to play Kuchiki Byakuya, Yoshizawa Ryo as Ishida Uryu and Saotome Taichi as Abarai Renji

With the live action film “BLEACH” set for July 20th (the national road show), a few cast were announced.

Singer/songwriter/musician/producer MIYAVI was cast for the role of Kuchiki Byakuya, Yoshizawa Ryo as Ishida Uryu and Saotome Taichi as Abarai Renji.

“Bleach” was one of the most successful anime and manga titles in Japan and well-known to anime/manga fans all over the world.

“Bleach” has a strong fan following and since its run began back in 2001, series creator, writer and illustrator Kubo “Tite” Noriaki has been hard at work, continuing to crank chapter after chapter for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan and with the success of the series extending out to films, OVA’s, feature films and video games and other merchandise.  The manga was serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump” from 2001-2016 with 74 volumes created and a total of over 120 million copies sold.

“Bleach” is a story about a guy named Kurasaki Ichigo who has a gift in which he can see spirits.  One day, he saw a Soul Reaper (one who can govern the flow of souls between the human world and the afterlife) named Kukichiki Rukia who has come to find a Hollow (a lost soul).  She ends up being wounded in battle when she tried to defend Ichigo and so she illegally transfers her reiatsu (spiritual pressure) to him, so that he can defeat the Hollow.  But during the process, he nearly takes all of her energy and becomes a Soul Reaper himself and defeats the Hollow quite easily.

Rukia now powerless, is stranded in the human world until she has the time to recover her true powers, while Ichigo fills in and battles Hollows in her place.  And with each fight, Rukia starts to notice something special about Ichigo’s abilities.

But with Rukia giving her power to Ichigo, she has broken the rules of the Soul Society and now her brother, Captain Kuchiki Byakuya and his lieutenant Abarai Renji are sent to capture Rukia and kill Kurosaki Ichigo.

Filming began in September 2016 and the CG team who handled the live-action film “GANTZ” is working on “BLEACH”.

This would be MIYAVI’s first major role, but he has starred in other films such as “Unbroken” directed Angelina Jolie, “Kong: Skull Island” and “Stray”. Yoshizawa Ryo is best known for his role as Sakuta Ryusei in “Kamen Rider Fourze”, while Saotome Taichi starred in two of Kitano Takeshi’s films, “Zatoichi”and “Takeshis”.  He is best known for his onnagata roles of women and young men on stage.

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