MOVIES/TV Idols Minami Akina, Yabuki Haruna and others lined up in swimsuits on Friday for a promotional shoot for the dramatization of Weekly Shonen Magazine-manga Kenkō Zenrakei Suieibu Umishō.

MOVIES/TV Fuji TV announced Thursday that they would adapt singer-songwriter-turned-novelist Masahi Sada’s best-selling novel “Bizan” to a television series, with 34-year-old Takako Tokiwa playing the leading part.

GAMES The dates for the DVD release of the Devil May Cry animated series have been decided. Volume 1 will be in stores from September 21, with volumes 2 through 6 following on a roughly monthly basis. Each volume will contain two episodes.

MOVIES/TV The TBS variety game show “Captain Domino,” hosted by Minomonta will be ending its run after only three months. The network cited low ratings as the reason for its termination. [TOKYOGRAPH]

MOVIES/TV Voice actor and narrator Nake Shinji, real name Yoshitaka Sato, died Thursday in hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer).

MOVIES/TV Ryoko Hirosue and Masahiro Motoki will star in the Yojiro Takita film “Okuribito.” The story is inspired by author Shinmon Aoki’s “Coffinman,” the tale of a man coming to grips with his new job of preparing bodies for coffins. [TOKYOGRAPH]

MOVIES/TV Actress Hitomi Kuroki will star in a drama special titled “Kazoku e no Love Letter,” part of Fuji TV’s 4-night project based on Masafumi Akikawa’s hit song, “Sen no Kaze ni Natte.” [TOKYOGRAPH]

MOVIES/TV Fourteen “geniuses” in a variety of anime-related fields are invited to give the world a taste of where this iconic Japanese industry is headed. [JAPAN TIMES]

MOVIES/TV An American movie about Japan’s mass slaughter of Chinese citizens in the World War II era will be released in the country in two weeks, amid debate over the atrocity’s death toll, the film’s publicists said Monday. [MSN MAINICHI]

MOVIES/TV The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry plans next year to create a so-called content trading market that would facilitate the use of past TV programs in formats, including online videos or DVDs, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

MOVIES/TV Japanese actress Yuko Takeuchi (27) greeted the audience Saturday at the premier showing of the Kichitaro Negishi directed movie ”Sidecar ni inu” (”A dog in the sidecar”, English title TBC) in which she plays the female lead, at Cineswitch Ginza in Ginza, Tokyo. The movie is Takeuchi’s first after playing the lead in ”Haru no yuki” in 2005.

MOVIES/TV ENTERTAINMENT. Veteran director and TV personality Takeshi Kitano’s new movie Kantoku Banzai (”Hurray for the director”) and long time TV celebrity Hitsohi Matsumoto’s first movie Dainihonjin (”Big Japanese”) both premiered Saturday.

MOVIES/TV ENTERTAINMENT. Movie director Naomi Kawase whose latest movie “Mogari no Mori” won the Cannes festival’s second most prestigious award, the Grand Prix, held a press conference on the 30th at Kansai International Airport.