'Tokyo Ghoul' Anime To Get Live-Action Adaptation With 'Death Note' Star

By Emily Marks

Jun 28, 2016 07:02 AM EDT

Sui Ishida's "Tokyo Ghoul" anime and manga series will be having a live-action adaptation. The film is expected to be released next year.

Anime News Network reported that the official website of the live-action adaptation of the "Tokyo Ghoul" anime has announced the two lead cast members last Friday.

Masataka Kubota, who starred in live-action "Death Note," "Mars" and TV series "Photo Braver 7," will be portraying protagonist Ken Kaneki. Fumika Shimizu, who starred in live-action "My Neighbor Seki," "HK/Hentai Kamen," "Kamen Rider Fourze" and "Mare," will take the role of heroine Toka Kirishima.

Kentaro Hagiwara is directing the live-action adaptation of the "Tokyo Ghoul" anime. The principal photography is said to last from July to September. The film is slated for release in Japan next summer.

"Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way - except their craving for human flesh," the story's description read. "Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize."

"But it turns out that she's only interested in his body - eating it, that is. When a morally questionable rescue transforms him into the first half-human half-Ghoul hybrid, Ken is drawn into the dark and violent world of Ghouls, which exists alongside our own."

According to Den of Geek, the "Tokyo Ghoul" anime and manga series is set in an alternate world where ghouls live with human beings. The series was first published in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump in 2011.

The "Tokyo Ghoul" anime and manga series has inspired light novel spin-offs as well as stage and video games. The sequel entitled "Tokyo Ghoul: re" began serialization in Oct. 2014.

It was previously reported that the "Tokyo Ghoul" season 3 release date has been confirmed for this year. FUNimation president Gen Fukunaga confirmed the anime's upcoming return this year. No specific release date was given but fans believe that the next installment of the series will air this summer.