Live-action "Parasyte" supporting cast announced

By kevin on July 15, 2014 at 2:29pm EDT

Eight new cast members have been announced for Takashi Yamazaki’s 2-part live-action adaptation of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte manga.

In the films, Shota Sometani will play protagonist Shinichi Izumi, who fights against a race of invading parasitic aliens who have the ability to enter a person’s head through their nostril or ear canal and take over their brain. Because Shinichi is wearing headphones when one of the parasites attempts this, it instead takes up residence in his right hand, leading to a symbiotic relationship in which both retain their own separate intellects while working together to survive.

It was previously announced that Eri Fukatsu will play Ryoko Tamiya — one of Shinichi’s teachers whose brain gets taken over by a scientific-minded alien named Reiko — and Ai Hashimoto will play the heroine Satomi Murano.

The new cast additions include Masahiro Higashide as mysterious transfer student Hideo Shimada, Kimiko Yo as Shinichi’s mother Nobuko who becomes infected by a Parasite, Jun Kunimura as a detective named Hirama who’s been investigating the “minced meat murder case”, Kazuki Kitamura as mysterious man running for mayor named Takeshi Hirokawa, Tadanobu Asano as Hirokawa’s tremendously strong bodyguard Goto, Hirofumi Arai as a murderer named Uragami who kills people for fun, Pierre Taki as a man named Miki with an unnatural smile, and Nao Omori as a freelance writer named Kuramori.

The actor who will play “Migi”, the Parasite which lives in Shinichi’s right hand, has yet to be revealed.

Parasyte Part 1 will be released nation-wide in Japan on November 29, 2014 and Part 2 will follow sometime in 2015. Additionally, an anime adaptation will air on television this fall.

Sources: Eiga.com, Anime News Network