The live-action BL drama Youkya Shudan ni Iru Serizawa wa Ore no Mae da to Yousu ga Okashii (Serizawa from the Popular Crowd Acts Weird Around Me) will begin airing in Japan this August, with new cast details, character photos, scene stills, and TVer streaming now confirmed.
The drama is based on Yuzu Tsubaki’s BL novel of the same name, published through Starts Publishing’s BeLuck Bunko label. The story follows Hajime Suzuki, a lonely high school student who loves BL and secretly writes his own fantasy romance novel. His model is Haruto Serizawa, a bright, popular classmate who belongs to the school’s outgoing friend group. That private fantasy becomes the catalyst for the actual story when Serizawa reads Suzuki’s writing. Suzuki expects to be laughed at or rejected for it, but Serizawa responds with interest instead. From there, the distance between them begins shrinking faster than Suzuki knows how to handle.
Kousaku Koizumi, a member of the dance-vocal group Genin wa Jibun ni Aru, stars as Hajime Suzuki, while Ryoto Shisaka plays Haruto Serizawa.
Three additional cast members have also been announced, filling out Serizawa’s friend group. Kaiki Kimura plays Tomoaki Takeuchi, a cool, intelligent classmate who has known Serizawa for a long time and notices the change between him and Suzuki. Shotaro Tanaka of DXTEEN plays Yuma Saeki, a stylish, considerate member of the group who is popular but devoted to his girlfriend. Yuki Hayama plays Shun Iwasaki, a judo club member whose size and presence make him feel like an accidental bodyguard whenever Suzuki is bothered by others.
Kimura’s comment on the official site also suggests the adaptation may show personal sides of the supporting characters that were not depicted in the original novel. That could give the live-action version a little more room to explore the friend-group dynamic around Suzuki and Serizawa, rather than using the classmates only as background color.
The staff also connects the drama to several recent Japanese BL and romance projects. Subaru Yamashita is writing the script, with Ryo Kawasaki, Koichiro Oyama, and Takeshi Shioguchi directing. The icon is handling production.
Youkya Shudan ni Iru Serizawa wa Ore no Mae da to Yousu ga Okashii will air on Yomiuri TV’s DramaDiVE slot beginning August 10. New episodes are scheduled for Mondays at 1:29 a.m., with free missed-episode streaming planned on TVer after broadcast. The official hashtag is #陽キャ集団.