Takumi Saitoh

Takumi Saitoh 斎 藤 工 Saitō Takumi Tokyo Japan August 22 1981 is a Japanese actor singer and model Saitoh was born on August 22 1981 in the city of Tokyo Japan He made his acting debut in 1992 playing a small role in the Japanese drama Ippai no kakesoba In the following years he worked as a model for companies like Calvin Klein and Issey Miyake In 2001 he starred in the movie Toki no kaori Remember me a remake of the Korean film Ditto while in 2006 he participated as Yūshi Oshitari in the musical adaptation of the manga The Prince of Tennis a role that made him gain popularity as an actor Also in 2006 he played Shūya Arisada in the drama Princess princess D an adaptation of the homonymous manga by Mikiyo Tsuda However his most important role was undoubtedly that of Noeru Kisaragi in the directtovideo movie BOYS LOVE The film tells the story of a magazine editor who meets and interviews a young model later he also discovers that he is a gigolo and the immediate attraction that arises between them After the success of the film the following year a theatrical successor to it was released titled Schoolboy Crush in the West but with a different plot and without Saitohs involvement Another of his most important works is Sukitomo another homosexualthemed film released in 2007 and Itsuka no kimi e also released that same year The expressiveness of Saitoh as an actor and his natural way of embarking homosexual characters has contributed to give a normalized image of homosexual love in Japan to the point of making it accessible and understandable to the general public However he ran the risk of being caught in a series of characters of that nature so he joined the cast of the lightweight 2007 drama Delicious Gakuin He participated in the 2009 graduation special of the Gokusen drama series and in HANAKIMI 2011 the second Japanese TV adaptation of the comics of the same title