Sōta Fukushi, Kasumi Arimura Star in Strobe Edge

21-year-old actor Sōta Fukushi and 21-year-old actress Kasumi Arimura will star in the live-action film adaptation of Io Sakisaka's adolescent romance manga Strobe Edge. Fukushi will play the story's cool school idol, while Arimura cut her hair by 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) into a bob to play the heroine.

Both stars received their big break by appearing in the NHK serial television "novel" Amachan last year. Oricon ranked both #1 among up-and-coming actors and actresses for the last half of 2014. While this is the fourth time the two have co-starred together, this the first film in which they appeared together.

This will be the first film adaptation of Sakisaka's "traditional school romance" story, which has sold 4.5 million copies. The shōjo romance manga ran in Bessatsu Margaret from 2007 to 2009. Viz Media published the 10th and final volume of the manga in North America in May, and it describes the manga's story:

What is love, anyway? Ninako Kinoshita's friends tell her it's one thing, but Ninako wonders what this mysterious feeling really is. When she meets Ren Ichinose, a handsome, enigmatic guy who all the girls worship, her life takes an unexpected turn. With just a few words and a smile, he changes her world...

Fukushi (live-action Library Wars/Toshokan Sensō) is also starring in the live-action film adaptation of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Akeji Fujimura's Kami-sama no Iu Toori (As the Gods Will) manga on November 15. Arimura plays the title character in Studio Ghibli and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's When Marnie Was There film this summer.

American Library Association's (ALA's) Young Adult Library Services Association named the original manga in its 2014 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Sakisaka is now serializing another manga called Ao Haru Ride in Bessatsu Margaret, and that manga is inspiring both a television anime this summer and a live-action film this December.

Director Ryūichi Hiroki began filming the Strobe Edge movie in January in Niigata Prefecture, and the film will open in Japan next March.