The new "Itazura na Kiss" live-action movie titled "Itazura na Kiss the Movie High School-Hen" ("Itazura na Kiss the Movie in High School") released its first teaser featuring Happiness' theme song "Always." The two- part movie adaptation will feature plot details written by the late "Itazura na Kiss" original creator Kaoru Tada that were not revealed in the manga and were not seen in any other animation or live-action adaptation of the said series.
"Itazura na Kiss the Movie in High School" will premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival before its official release in Japanese theaters on Nov. 25, Anime News Network reported.
Minoru Mizoguchi, who has experience in previous "Itazura na Kiss" projects, is the director of the film while the cast includes Reina Bisa as Kotoko Aihara, Kanta Satō as Naoki Irie, Shimon Okura as Kinnosuke Ikezawa, Atsuki Tomori as Jinko Komori, and Nonoka Yamaguchi as Satomi Ishikawa. Other cast members are Hidehiko Ishizuka as Irie's father, Hikari Ishida as Irie's mother, and Takanori Jinnai as Kotoko's father.
Tada's unfinished rom-com manga follows the story of airheaded but strong-willed Kotoko Aihara who falls in love at first sight with genius and talented Naoki Irie (he has an IQ of 200). Kotoko confesses her love for him but she gets rejected casually. A mild earthquake destroys Kotoko's house (only their house) and her father's old friend invited them to stay at their house. Coincidentally, that old friend's son is no other than Naoki. "Itazura na Kiss" follows the story of Naoki and Kotoko's bickering love-hate relationship from high school, college and beyond but was not finished since Tada's death in 1999.
The story was made into a television anime in 2008 and has inspired several live-action adaptations. The first is a Japanese television series in 1999. A two-season Taiwanese drama series titled "It Started with a Kiss" was made in 2005 and 2007, and a Korean version, "Playful Kiss" aired in South Korea in 2010. The most recent is another Japanese version "Itazura Kiss - Love in Tokyo" in 2013 followed by "Itazura Kiss 2 - Love in Okinawa" in 2014.
