07/21/03 (Tokyo, Japan) - The popular manga series, Ninja Hattori-kun, will be transformed into a live action movie. This series was created by Fujiko Fujio, who was part of the two-man team that created the famous Doraemon series. Ninja Hattori-kun was published in 1964 and ran for three years in the manga magazine Gekkan Shonen. In 1981, the series was created into an anime series and ran alongside other anime shows such as Doraemon and O-Bake Q-Taro.

Ninja Hattori-kun is about a character named Hattori Kanzou who travels to Tokyo to become a respectable ninja. He has special fighting talents such as transforming into a shadow and other skills ninja are known to have. His character is also known to have a strong dislike of frogs.

The new live action movie version of Ninja Hattori-kun will be directed by Masayuki Suzuki. The hero of the series, Hattori Kanzou will be portrayed by famous boy band idol Shingo Kattori, the youngest member of Smap. Kattori is also famous for his character Shingo Mama. It has been reported that Kattori is very happy to play the role of Hattori-kun and was quoted, "I watched this anime when I was young. I am very happy! It's fun and I'm excited!"

The movie is scheduled to be released in Japan sometime next summer to a whole new generation of anime and manga fans.