Commentary:Becoming the "morning face" from autumn! Expectations are rising for "Bakebake" heroine Akari Takaishi, who rose to fame from her role as a beautiful assassin

Akari Takaishi is an actress who has been chosen to play the heroine in the NHK Asadora drama series "Bakebake " in the second half of 2025. She was selected through an audition from 2,892 applicants, and has already been greeted with comments such as "It feels like it's been a while since we've had a fresh actress in the lead role," and "I'm happy that a typical Asadora heroine has been chosen." We would like to introduce what kind of actor Takaishi is, who is likely to liven up living rooms as a "morning face" from this fall.

◇ Her first starring movie becomes an unusually long-running hit

Takaishi was born on December 19, 2002, and is 22 years old and from Miyazaki Prefecture. After being a member of the dance and vocal group "α-X's (Across)", he began working full-time as an actor in 2019.

His most famous work is the "Baby Warukyure" series. The first film was released in theaters in 2021 as Takaishi's first starring role (co-starring with Izawa Ayori). The film is a youth violence action movie about a pair of beautiful assassins who cannot adapt to society. Although the number of theaters showing the film was not particularly large, its reputation spread by word of mouth and it became an unusually long-running hit.

The series later spawned sequel films and a TV drama, and has become an essential part of any discussion of Takaishi.

In the movie "My Happy Marriage" to be released in 2023, she plays the half-sister who bullies the heroine, and in the NHK "night drama" "My Worst Friend" in the same year, she plays the childhood friend who could be called the "worst friend" to the protagonist. Her weak image as a traditional heroine is, in a way, attractive. What kind of face will she show in "Bakebake"?

Expectations are only rising for this "Cinderella girl" who has risen from playing a beautiful assassin to becoming the heroine of a Asadora in just four years.

◇ The Asadora CP made me want to watch it for the longest time

So what kind of drama is "Bakebake"? Takaishi plays the heroine Matsuno Toki, the daughter of a fallen samurai from Matsue, modeled after Yakumo Koizumi(Lafcadio Hearn) wife Setsu. The story is about a couple who love "ghost stories" together with their foreign husband, who shed light on the "nameless people" who have been forgotten in Meiji Japan as it becomes increasingly westernized, and who tell the tales of these people as their spokespersons.

Considering her career thus far, Takaishi will be taking on an unknown role, but according to "Bakebake " production manager and chief producer Hashizume Kuniomi, at the audition "when Takaishi walked in she shone so brightly that we thought, 'This is the girl.'"

He went on to explain the reason for his casting, saying, "I had Takaishi wear a costume, a wig, make-up, and step inside the set to act out the script that Mitsuhiko Fujiki wrote, but rather than Takaishi acting, it seemed like he really lived there," and "Takaishi was the one who made me want to watch for the longest time." He was able to see how satisfied he was with the role.

In January, Takaishi will appear in the TBS Sunday Theatre drama " Mikami Sensei ," starring Tori Matsuzaka , alongside other promising young actors who will lead the next generation, including Daiken Okudaira Daiken, Aju Makita, Makita Aju, and Sakura Kiryu. In a previous interview, Takaishi said, "I'm colorless and transparent, and can take on any role. I hope to become an actor like a chameleon." True to his words, we can expect to see him show off a different side of himself in each production in 2025.