The TV Asahi drama series "Reborn ~The Last Hero~" (Tuesdays at 9 PM), starring actor Issei Takahashi, will begin airing on April 14th. The drama tells the story of a man who is reborn as a different person and given a second chance at life. This will be Takahashi's first leading role in a prime-time drama series on the network, and he will play two roles: Mitsunori Neo, an IT company president who has achieved great wealth and fame and is called a "charisma of the times," and Hideto Nomoto, the heir to a dry cleaning business.
Mitsumasa, the president of the up-and-coming IT company "NEOXIS," is pushed down the stairs one day and dies, but when he wakes up in 2012, he has been reincarnated as Hideto, a person who looks exactly like him. He is forced to live the complete opposite life as the heir to a dry cleaning shop in downtown Tokyo, but he decides to find the person who pushed him in 2026, and starts his life over while searching for the meaning of his reincarnation. The script is written by Hiroshi Hashimoto, who has worked on dramas such as "The Grand Family" (TBS), "Job Hunting Family - It'll Surely Work Out," "Adult High School," and "Sky Castle" (all on TV Asahi).
The cast also includes Anne Nakamura as the heroine, Sarasa Iketani, the only daughter of the Iketani Printing Factory; Ouji Suzuka as Tatsuki Tomono, one of the founding members of "NEOXIS"; Mayu Yokota as Eri, an employee of "NEOXIS" and Mitsumasa's secretary; Shingo Yanagisawa as Kinpei Iketani, the president of Iketani Printing Factory; Kayoko Kishimoto as Hideko Murota, the owner of Murota Meat Shop; Fumiyo Kohinata as Eiji Nomoto, Hideto's father who runs a dry cleaning business; and Masachika Ichimura as Yoshitaka Togo, the representative of Togo Fund.
In the first episode, Mitsumasa, the president of "NEOXIS," uses the success of his welfare network business, which he started under the philosophy of "FOR THE PEOPLE," as a springboard to own his own building in a prime location in Tokyo just seven years after starting his company. He has even gone so far as to acquire a bank.
Meanwhile, Mitsumasa, having strayed from his initial vision and increasingly driven by the ambition to reign supreme in the IT industry, begins to impose unreasonable demands on Tomono and the other founding members. In the midst of this, Mitsumasa, searching for a large plot of land, sets his sights on the dilapidated Akari Shopping Street in the downtown area. The shopping street's chairman, Eiji, and the other shopkeepers resist, but they are cornered by Mitsumasa's forceful negotiations and pressure, and eventually tragedy strikes Sarasa, the daughter of the shop's printing factory owner.
Mitsumasa faces public condemnation for this incident and becomes increasingly isolated. Then one day, Mitsumasa is pushed down the stairs by someone and falls to his death... or so it seems, but he somehow wakes up in a hospital. He finds himself in the year 2012, having been "reincarnated" as Eiji's son, Eito, who looks exactly like him and lives in the Akari shopping district...
