TV series starts in December, followed by TV special, film

The official website for the live-action film and television series adaptations of Ritz Kobayashi and Aguri Igarashi's Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A spinoff manga revealed four new poster visuals, one for each of the main schools, on Thursday. The Shiraitodai High School visual, pictured fourth below, teases the character Teru Miyanaga, whose cast member has not yet been announced.

Achiga Girls' Academy

Senriyama Girls' High School

Shindōji Girls' High School

Shiraitodai High School

The live-action television series will premiere in a late-night time slot in December, followed by its special in January. The live-action film will also open in January. Similar to the live-action television adaptation of the Saki manga, the new series will have a special and four regular episodes. Yūichi Onuma is again directing the series, and Hayashi Mori is returning to write the script.

The main cast includes:

Hiyori Sakurada as Shizuno Takakamo, the protagonist and member of Achiga Girls' Academy's mahjong team

Momoka Itō as Ako Atarashi, Shizuno's childhood friend

Yuri Tsunematsu as Kuro Matsumi, the mahjong team's top member

Kōme Watanabe as Yuu Matsumi, Kuro's older sister

Riko Nakayama as Arata Sagimori, a huge fan of Harue

Nao Minamisawa as Harue Adako, the mahjong team's coach

The project marks the first time that Sakurada has a leading role in a live-action television series or film.

The cast also includes:

Nao Sakura as Toki Onjōji

Yuka Ogura as Ryūka Shimizudani

Mizuha as Sera Eguchi

Rino Shimazaki as Hiroko Funakubo

Manami Arai as Izumi Nijō

Mikoto Hibi as Sumire Hirose

RaMu as Takami Shibuya

Karen Iwata as Saiko Matano

Yūmi Shida as Awai Ōhoshi

Yūka Yano as Kirame Hanada

Rio Kotomi as Yoshiko Yasukōchi

Haruka Iwasaki as Hitomi Ezaki

Riho Takada as Mairu Shirōzu

Sae Okazaki as Himeko Tsuruta

The live-action television adaptation of the original Saki manga debuted last December, followed by a live-action film in February.

The Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A manga focuses on a different cast of characters at Achiga Girls' Academy in Nara Prefecture. The series ran in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine from 2011 to 2013, with six compiled book volumes. It also inspired a television anime adaptation in 2012.

Yen Press is publishing the original Saki manga in North America digitally, and it released the 12th volume on Tuesday. Yen Press describes the series:

Saki's never been a big fan of mahjong. A lifetime of being forced to play with family at holidays (and losing her money as a consequence...) has left a foul taste for the game in her mouth. When she's convinced, though, to play a game with her classmates, she discovers that not only has fending off her family left her with an uncanny ability for the game but, more surprisingly, that it can even be fun!

Is this revelation enough to cleanse Saki's distaste for the game? Can her classmates convince her to join their club, or is there just too much baggage to make it worth her while?

If you're looking for the number one mahjong manga out there, you've found it!

Kobayashi launched the original manga in the magazine in 2006, and Square Enix published the 16th compiled volume on December 24. The 17th volume is slated to ship on November 25. The manga has since inspired five spinoff manga series.

The original manga inspired a 25-episode television series in 2009, and a new television anime project titled Saki - The Nationals launched in 2014. The four-panel spinoff manga Saki Biyori inspired an anime DVD in 2015.

Source: Comic Natalie