Fukushi Sota Racks Up More Manga Leading Man Credits in Live-action Strobe Edge Movie

There’s a new manga to live-action movie adaptation that hit the big screens in Japan this month. Starring Fukushi Sota and Arimura Kasuma as high school students in a sweet shoujo romance setting, Strobe Edge is the second popular manga by writer Sakisaka Io to get the big screen treatment after Blue Spring Ride (Ao Spring Ride) was turned into a movie last year. Her mangas are not my usual cup of tea, too cute and slow with not much happening, but there is a relaxing vibe that makes sense why it would appeal to the young girls demographic.

I like Strobe Edge the story more than Blue Spring Ride, plus Fukushi Sota is my lil’ boo more than Blue Spring Ride male lead Higashide Masahiro, so I checked out the movie preview and really liked the mood and the cast. Relative newcomer Arimura Kasuma looks like Nagasawa Masami‘s little sister and has a warm inviting aura, not to mention Sota is starting to rack up his manga male lead cred now that he’s also done Say I Love You with Kawaguchi Haruna. I especially love the pretty in pink but not saccharine movie posters. 

Movie preview for Strobe Edge (English subbed):


Comments

Fukushi Sota Racks Up More Manga Leading Man Credits in Live-action Strobe Edge Movie — 28 Comments

  1. Sorry but Fukushi Sota is a dull bad actor, I like Masahiro Higashide far better, but more importantly, in the new young generation of Japanese actors there are many who are such powerful talents and yet it’s the same story as with the talentless Miura Haruma, they keep casting the same supposedly pretty face over and over in everything and people just follow the dictat, it’s sad so see so much talented youngsters ( many of whom are far hotter than sota) be overshadowed by overrated boring doll faces, sad sad sad 🙁

    • Talentless Miura Haruma? He is a good actor. Don’t you know he’s the most popular and promising actor in this generation. Without talent, he can’t get his position today. But I can say sota is worse than haruma

      • Ok I agree that Miura Haruma is not terrible and he was good in bloody monday and can act what I meant is he not far from being as good as many young actors who don’t get the same chances as him even though sometimes he’s offered roles that clearly don’t suit him, the problem is with the industry sticking the same faces everywhere coz they think it’s going to sell

    • Fukushi Sota might be not great actor – i have to admit that he’s bland,
      but you can’t say that Miura Haruma is Talentless. Miura is good actor, esp in Bloody Monday, Boku Na Ita Jikan, Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta, and Koizora. he is able to deliver his emotions to viewer.

      • Miura Haruma- The talented actor?????????? hahaha. He has a damn ikemen face and pushed by a powerful company. He was given good projects.Koizora movie was a joke but it made tons of money from weepy fangirls. How can he be not famous? LMAO. His company mate Sato Takeru is not an acting genius, either, but at least he could something in Kenshin. Kamiki Ryonosuke slays them all.

      • Fukushi Sota is a one-note actor. Really wish he hadn’t been cast as Ren, who is actually a complex character (one that feels a lot but doesn’t show it – a bland face doesn’t convey that). (Strobe Edge is my favourite shoujo manga but I really wish they would have never made it into a movie.) Higashide Masahiro is significantly better for sure.

        Haruma Miura has quite a lot of dramas that are non-challenging acting wise and rely on ‘pretty face’. However, his performance in Boku no Ita Jikan is something else – that’s the drama where he shows his real potential. Wish he’d make more project choices of this sort, because then he might end up as a good actor one day.

        Takeru Sato has a limited range, sometimes he manages to convey emotion but he isn’t especially good and doesn’t challenge himself either. He’s serviceable in some roles, but there have been projects he did where other actors in mini-roles have outshone him by far (Odagiri and Sometani in Real, his kid-self in Tonbi etc.).

        But yeah, Kamiki slays them all. In acting talent, in acting range, in extremely diverse project choices that always serve as a challenge to himself, not as a means to gain popularity or fame.

        As for those saying any of these actors wouldn’t be popular if they couldn’t act… there are plenty of people in the Japanese acting industry (particularly in dramas but also in many light-weight films like shoujo manga adaptations that are soon forgotten) that have limited acting skills but are incredibly popular.

      • If miura acting is bad, why he does still become Japanese sweetheart? Don’t say because of fan girls. His acting is emotional. He is still so popular in Japan.

    • Miura is far far better than sota. Miura got even acclaim his acting from Japanese media and public. You say talentless?? Are you kidding? Sota is just a eye candy for me.

      • miura haruma better than sometani ?? are you serious ? have you watched sota’s movies ?

  2. Woohoo another Sakisaka Io manga which got live action !! i can’t wait to see both Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge since i really love both of it xD
    if only i can watch it in my country’s theatre.

  3. I hate those manga live-actions. One in a blue moon it works e.g. Nodame Cantabile, but 99.9% of the time they are completely unwatchable. But I agree about Strobe Edge being Sakisaka Io’s best manga. I absolutely could not stand the main male character in Ao Haru Ride, so I never really got the hype.

    • Pretty sure Nodame Cantabile probably had a completely different production model. Most shoujo manga adaptations are very light weight, probably not particularly high budget and are made for the fans of the manga but forgotten within a few months of their release. They aren’t made as films to “last” over time, just as short-time cash cows for whatever (and whoever) is most trendy at the moment. There is little thought that goes into the cinematography or anything else, they seem to rely on casting popular, pretty faces and not much else.

      Strobe Edge is my absolute favourite and I wish it hadn’t been adapted because Sakisaka’s manga is carefully thought out – but the movie adaptation is for sure going to be a “light” version that will wash out much of what made the manga so brilliant (remember High School Debut? Great manga, terrible movie.). The casting of Fukushi as lead makes says it all, since Ren is actually a very complex character that doesn’t show his feelings but hides them inside himself. Too complex for Fukushi’s limited acting range.

      Ao Haru Ride was a mess. I think even the mangaka stopped liking it by the end.

  4. Fukushi is a mediocre actor but he’s pretty to look at that’s why he gets roles as right now he is very popular among the ladies.
    Arimura is slowly getting more leading roles, she’s quite interesting we’ll see if she continues to get big parts.

  5. tbh the only decent actor I’ve seen in recent Japanese dramas and movies is takeru satoh, I liked nearly all of his works, from Q10 to tliar and his lover to one of his best potrayels yet – Rurouni Kenshin… He really gets into his role and makes you believe in the character. also he has an adorable smile!

  6. I haven’t seen him in anything..but he looks terribly bland and awkward in the trailer. I liked both animes..but don’t have high hopes for the live action versions. Nodame was the only one that worked for me.
    And since Miura is brought up, I thought he was serviceable, at least more natural but I don’t really think he is an ikemen lol. My personal taste really.

  7. He’s pretty and seems to work as an adequate foil to his leading ladies – they are the ones that actually look talented, and like in Say I Love You he seems to have good chemistry with his female lead here. But on his own? Nah.

  8. ren is soo cool
    i really loved him his height his hair i jus wish sota pulls off that character
    there is another ren i love tsuruga ren

  9. I still can’t believe Fukushi Sota won a best supporting actor award. He has a pretty face, but I literally fell asleep a few times watching him act, most recently Kyo wa Kaisha Yasumimasu.

  10. I watched it yesterday and for me Sota was the perfect Ren? I mean let’s be honest Ren’s character and expressions are pretty much the same.

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