EXCLUSIVE: Netflix’s City Hunter Actor Ryohei Suzuki Embraces Ryo Saeba’s Cartoony Personality & Expresses His Love for the Manga 

Serial flirt and adept gunslinger Ryo Saeba is about to rid Tokyo of crime in Netflix’s City Hunter movie adaptation in a few weeks. As the film’s release came closer, we got the opportunity to interview actor Ryohei Suzuki about his role as Ryo Saeba.

For the uninitiated, City Hunter is a movie adaptation of the 1980s manga of the same name by author Tsukasa Hojo and follows the exploit of Ryo Saeba, a “sweeper” and a private detective running the titular business to rid Tokyo of crime.

Ryohei Suzuki will be playing Ryo Saeba in the show, an actor with quite a colorful career, starting his career in the early 2000s and gained popularity with leading roles in films such as Swing Me Again (2009), and HK: Hentai Kamen (2013), as well as TV series “Hanako to An”. He is also best known as the Japanese voice of Buzz Lightyear in Disney’s Lightyear (2022).

The interview was slightly edited for clarity.

Reaction to Getting the Role 

The original manga series was first serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 1985 and has since become a highly acclaimed franchise. By 2016, the manga series had sold over 50 million Tankōbon volumes worldwide and had spawned various other media adaptations including an anime series by Sunrise Studios and several film and television adaptations.

And now, the franchise is getting another movie adaptation under the distribution of Netflix. Considering how much of an icon the City Hunter brand is, we asked Ryohei Suzuki about his reaction to getting the role of protagonist Ryo Saeba, in which he expressed that he is a huge fan of the manga and wants to do right by the franchise.

“It wasn’t actually an offer or anything,” said Suzuki. “The producers knew my passion for wanting to make a live-action version of City Hunter because I’ve been a huge fan of the series for decades.”

“So they approached the studios, TV stations, and streaming platforms, and eventually Netflix gave it a green light. When I heard about that, I thought I would be really happy about the news. But what came to my mind was tremendous pressure, because I love the City Hunter IP so much that I never wanted to ruin it. You know, I was, and still under strong pressure.”

“I’m, of course, really happy at the same time. I have to carry this incredible story to old fans of City Hunter, but also to the new generation who have no idea what City Hunter is. I think we’ve done a good job and I think every generation from all over the world can enjoy this story very much.”

Suzuki’s Romantic Pick 

Throughout the City Hunter manga series, Ryo Saeba has his fair share of beautiful ladies falling in love with him. As a fun question, we asked Suzuki if he was Ryo Saeba for real, which lady would he pick as his romantic interest.

Immediately, Suzuki looked at me with a smile and responded, “If I was the real Saeba? There’s only one option – Kaori. She is the only one for Ryo Saeba. No other option. She is the goddess among us, among the fans.”

Misato Morita as Kaori 

Speaking of Kaori Makimura, Ryo and Kaori gradually develop a strong, lovely relationship with one another as the story progresses. In the movie, Kaori will be played by Misato Morita and we wondered what was it like for Suzuki to be working alongside her to bring this iconic couple to life on the big screen.

“It was a great experience,” replied Suzuki as he praised his co-star. “She has this special talent for getting into the character and she is hardworking, a very hardworking actress.”

“Like there is a scene where she had to use the hammer. She was practicing all day with that hammer, how to handle the hammer. She was asking me how to, you know, how to do this and do these moves like how Kaori does. And she was practicing it all the time in the set and I was looking at her and wow, you know, what an actor she is. And then as the filming went on, she got into the character more and more, and how she delivered her lines was exactly the same as the original voice actor who played Kaori in the animation adaptation of City Hunter. So it was like watching a magic.”

Stunts 

As a story all about fighting crime, there are going to be plenty of action scenes to be excited for. Even from the trailer, Suzuki showcases some impressive stunts to be seen in the movie.

Talking about the stunts, Suzuki expressed his gratitude to Netflix and said that because of the platform, they had enough time to prepare the stunts. “Thanks to Netflix, we had enough time to prepare for the action scenes. So yeah, I felt more comfortable than what I usually do with, you know, regular Japanese films.”

“Also, I had a very good relationship with the stunt coordinator. We talked about how we choreograph that fighting and everything. And we talk about how we edit the action sequences and everything. So we had the same image, the same vision of action sequences, how Ryo Saeba would fight. So it was not really hard to make it a good action scene.”

Apart from hand-to-hand combat and other athletic stunts, Suzuki specifically highlights the action sequences involving firearms.

“The only thing I had to practice a lot was how to handle guns, especially reloading. When I reload the guns, Ryo Saeba has to reload really quickly. He does it with, you know, unbelievable speed, the quickness to reload the guns. So I had to practice a lot and I had to figure out how he reloads the guns.”

“I mean, there are many ways to reload revolver guns. You can, for instance, you can reload here, but in the film, you sometimes have to reload in this frame, within this frame when it’s a close-up shot. So I have to reload right here. I have to practice how to reload so quickly in the right here by my face. So I had to train that kind of thing for such a long time. And there is also a scene where I have to disassemble a gun without looking at it in like two seconds. So that was hard too.”

Having watched the reloading scene, I complimented Suzuki for how superbly done the sequence is and he quickly responded with a thank you and said, “No CGI! No VFX!”

Ryo Saeba

Ryo Saeba as a character can come off as cartoony at times, despite having many serious moments. He was, after all, a comic book character, so speaking about that side of Ryo’s attitude, we asked Suzuki if there were any challenges when portraying him.

“That’s a very good question. You know, sometimes Ryo gets really cartoony, and it is not always easy for actors to embody cartoon characters into the real world. And there are always options when you play cartoon characters, which is you can make it as realistic as possible. You know, realistic acting like many Marvel live-action that many Hollywood movies do. And there is also a choice that you keep that cartoony expression as it is and then make it live, and then make it a live action. And we try, we tried this time.”

“We tried not to be afraid to be cartoony. Because if we get rid of that cartoony part of Ryo Saeba, we’re going to lose something iconic to City Hunter. So, yes, we try to make it a little closer to the original animation and original comic book. And I’m, and I think we succeeded in it. Or some people may think it is. No, a little overacting.”

“But for the Japanese style of making live-action, I think many audiences, especially Asian audiences can enjoy this kind of ups and downs in one character. Especially your side has a really big gap between two sides of his personality. So he sometimes, you know, this time he goes, he gets really serious, but at the next moment, he gets really funny, goofy. These two sides can exist to one character in Ryo Saeba if it’s if it is Ryo Saeba. So we try to make it happen in live action too. We try to portray but funny, interesting essence of Ryo Saeba, even if it’s a live-action adaptation.”

Here concludes our interview with Ryohei Suzuki, the actor of Ryo Saeba in Netflix’s City Hunter, which will begin airing on April 25, 2024.

We would love to thank Ryohei Suzuki for taking the time to answer our questions with passion, and Netflix for this interview opportunity.

Once again, Netflix’s City Hunter is slated to air exclusively on Netflix on April 25, 2024.

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