It has been announced that Maika Sasaki from the idol group "=LOVE" will be appearing in the TBS Sunday Theatre "Caster" (Sundays at 9pm) which will start in April. She will play Saya Toyama, a student working part-time on the news floor, commonly known as "Group C".
The drama is a social entertainment drama set in a TV news program, where the truth buried in the darkness is pursued and evil is punished. Shindo Soichi (Hiroshi Abe), a man who believes that "the truth moves the world!", is a reporter and newscaster in the social affairs department of a public broadcasting station, but is poached by the president of the commercial TV station JBN and becomes the main newscaster of "Newsgate", a news program suffering from low ratings. In order to "communicate the truth", he will use any means necessary, conducting interviews and investigations according to his own rules, without caring about existing rules. He draws in those around him with his overwhelming presence.
In addition to her idol activities, Sasaki played a young artist aiming to make it big in the drama "Maybe: I Can Hear Love," which aired on TBS from October 2023, and also appeared in the same station's morning variety show "Love it!", which attracted a lot of attention.
The main job of Saya Toyama, played by Sasaki, is odd jobs, and she usually does things like making copies of manuscripts and replenishing consumables peacefully. However, when new news comes in or the main newscaster Shindo behaves unexpectedly, causing chaos on the news floor, Toyama also gets caught up in the hasty program staff.
◇Comment from Maika Sasaki
I'm Maika Sasaki from =LOVE, who plays Saya Toyama. I'm very honored to be able to appear in the historic Sunday Theatre. I'm nervous every day because I'll be working with such a renowned cast, but I'll do my best.
Saya Toyama is a straightforward girl who works hard while clinging to those around her and is genuinely happy or sad about things. Although she can be a little absent-minded and has trouble reading the mood, she is somehow lovable because she never loses her "I can do my job" face. I will do my best to play the role of Saya so that I don't lose to her.
