New face Hikaru Yamamoto cast as female lead in Yudai Yamaguchi's "Elite Yankee Saburo"

by Chris MaGee

Back at the beginning of July we ran a story that "Battlefield Baseball" and "Akanbo Shojo" director Yudai Yamaguchi was going to be helming a feature film version of the "Elite Yankee Saburo" with the originals cast from the Tokyo TV series. Now news comes from Tokyograph that Yamaguchi has recast one of the main characters. Instead of Kana Kurashina relative newcomer Hikaru Yamamoto (above left) will be playing Haruna, the girlfriend of lead character Ōkochi Saburo, played by Ishiguro Hideo (above). Although she has made some minor appearances on Japanese TV this will be the 17 year-old actress's first major role.

"Elite Yankee Saburo" tells the story of Ōkochi, a nerdy teen who enrolls at Tokumaru Academy. It turns out that Saburo’s two older brothers were legendary delinquents at the high school, so when Ōkochi shows up the students and staff brand him a dangerous “elite yankee”. The film version is currently filming and is set for release next spring.