Wednesday, December 24, 2008

"City Hunter" Goes International


Tsukasa Hojo's most popular manga series, CITY HUNTER, has already been adapted into a long-running anime series in the '80's and '90's (most of which has been translated and sold in the US on DVD) and a goofy live-action early '90's Hong Kong movie starring Jackie Chan (also recently released in the US on DVD). Now comes word that a joint production between Korea's SSD and the US's Fox TV will release a live-action CITY HUNTER TV series in Japan, Korea, and the US. The episodes will be written in English, shot in Korea and Tokyo, and released worldwide.

Anime News Network reports that the series was originally going to feature a different cast in a different company each season, suggesting that the series was going to be a less than faithful adaptation of the manga (which was set almost entirely in Tokyo, and revolved around a single set of characters.) Current plans, however, are now to feature the same lead throughout the series.

Continuing the tradition set by Chan's CITY HUNTER, this production features a non-Japanese actor in the lead -- Korean actor Jung Woo-sung.

Here's the singularly stylish closing credits sequence from the first season of the CITY HUNTER animated TV series, circa 1987. We'll see if the live action series can achieve the same sense of style.

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