Kusanagi Tsuyoshi to play Tezuka Osamu in drama SP "Kamisama no Beretbou ~ Tezuka Osamu no Black Jack Sousaku Hiwa ~"

SMAP's Kusanagi Tsuyoshi will be playing the late manga master Tezuka Osamu in the upcoming FujiTV drama SP "Kamisama no Beretbou ~ Tezuka Osamu no Black Jack Sousaku Hiwa ~ " (The God's Beret ~ The untold story of Tezuka Osamu's Black Jack" which is due to be shown on TV this autumn. The drama features how Tezuka created his signature work Black Jack in the later part of his career before he passed away at the age of 60 in 1989.

This production which happens to be the commemorative work of Kansai TV's 55th anniversary, shows how Tezuka was viewed as an old-school manga artist after his earlier works like "Tetsuwan Atom" made it big and found his popularity slipping by 1973 and his agency was weighed down with lots of debt. However, he did not give up his passion for manga and finally revived his career due to the success of "Black Jack".

Filming will begin soon and also features Sato Koichi as the late publishing editor Kabemura Taizo who had worked with Tezuka on "Black Jack". This will be the first time that Kusanagi and Sato are working together on TV although they had worked together in the film "Anata e" released last August.

Source: Sanspo 1 / Sanspo 2