With the film Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1 coming up with a theatrical release on June 8th, 2018 in the US and Canada, we learned just about a week ago that there was going to be a dub for it. That came with the reveal of Mimi Torres in the leading role and now Eleven Arts has revealed more of the main cast for the film with:
- Mimi Torres as Benio Hanamura
- Robbie Daymond as Shinobu Ijuin
- Keith Silverstein as Tosei Aoe
- Kirk Thornton as Shingo Onijima
- Cristina Vee as Tamaki Kitakoji
The Japanese cast includes Saori Hayami as Benio Hanamura, Mamoru Miyano as Shinobu Ijuin, Takahiro Sakurai as Tosei Aoe, Kazuya Nakai as Shingo Onijima, Yuki Kaji as Ranmaru Fujieda, Asami Seto as Tamaki Kitakouji, Unshou Ishizuka as Major Hanamora, Reiko Suzuki as Baaya, Kenta Miyake as Ushigorou, and Shizuka Itou as Kichiji.
The original manga was serialized in Shoujo Friend and had eight compiled volumes originally before getting a four-volume bunko edition. Here’s hoping Kodansha USA will take a chance on bringing out the bunko version here to help celebrate.
Waki has been creating manga for fifty years this year and it serves as a great anniversary present of sorts for her and longtime older fans out there. The property previously received an anime TV series back in 1978 but it ended abruptly along the way. it had a follow-up of a couple of live-action shows and a theatrical film in the years since.
Plot Concept: Benio Hanamura is a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Tokyo during the Taisho era. Benio lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy—contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions, and isn’t as interested in housewife duties as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman’s right to a career and to marry for love. Benio’s best friends are the beautiful Tamaki, who is much more feminine than Benio but equally interested in women’s rights, and Ranmaru, a young man who was raised to play female roles in the kabuki theater and as a result has acquired very effeminate mannerisms.
