Sazae-san Manga Gets 3rd New Live-Action TV Special
33-year-old actress Alisa Mizuki is reprising the title housewife role in a third live-action television special based on Machiko Hasegawa's Sazae-san manga on January 2, 2011. The live-action special will air along with the anime version in a 3.5-hour-long block to celebrate the manga's 65th anniversary next year. Michitaka Tsutsui (Sazae-san's husband Masuo), Tsurutarō Kataoka (Sazae-san's father Namihei), and Keiko Takeshita (Sazae-san's mother Fune) are also reprising their respective roles in the new special.
In the Sazae-san 3 special, idol voice actress Aya Hirano will star in a scene where Sazae-san's brother Katsuo imagines his adult life in the future. She will play Kaori, Katsuo's classmate, while Toshi of the comedy duo Taka and Toshi will play the future Katsuo himself. Haruna Kondō of the comedy duo Harisenbon will play the future Hanazawa in Katsuo's vision, although model Nozomi Sasaki will play the future Hanazawa in Hanazawa's own vision.
Former martial artist Musashi will join the cast as Anago, a co-worker of Masuo. Former female professional wrestler Akira Hokuto will play Anago's wife. Sazae-san's family will also pay a New Year's visit to a shrine with three miko (shrine maidens). Fuji TV announcers Yōko Shōno ("Shōpan"), Ayako Katō ("Katopan"), and Mio Matsumura ("Miopan") will play the miko, complete with the traditional attire.
Mizuki is actually the fifth actress to portray Sazae-san in live-action, and the fourth to do so on television. Tonko Azumaya starred in a 1948-1950 series of live-action movies which predated the the more well-known anime by two decades. Chiemi Eri starred in a 1956 live-action film adaptation, as well as in a live-action television version that ran from 1965 to 1967 on TBS. Tomoko Hoshino played Sazae-san in yet another live-action television version on Fuji TV from 1981 to 1985. The last live-action version before Mizuki's was Atsuko Asano's 1992-1996 incarnation on Fuji TV.
Mizuki's first Sazae-san television special aired last November with a 20.9% rating in Tokyo's Kanto region, and the second special aired this past August with a 16.5% rating in the same area.
source: ANIME NEWS NETWORK