It was revealed on February 16th that voice actor Nakai Kazuya will be appearing in the NHK Taiga drama " UNBOUND (Berabou) " (General TV, Sunday 8pm and others), starring actor Ryusei Yokohama . This will be his first Taiga drama, and he will play Iwatoya Genpachi from the 7th episode "Opportunity Arrives: Flowers of the Hedge" which will be aired on the 16th. Nakai commented with delight, "I will be playing Iwatoya, one of the local branch wholesalers. I can't believe my first drama appearance is in a Taiga drama!"
Nakai said, "You never know what's going to happen in life. I'm nervous and a little scared, but this is a rare experience so I'll just go for it. There are people with all kinds of opinions and positions within the local book wholesaler. Some don't accept Tsutajyu's way of doing things, and some who acknowledge it but can't openly agree with it. I'm personally looking forward to seeing how Iwatoya will approach Tsutajyu, and what kind of appearances they will make in the future."
From the 7th episode, in addition to Nakai, Matsuda Yoji will appear as Murataya Jirobei, Tomokazu Seki as Okumuraya Genroku, and Takagi Wataru as Matsumuraya Yabei, as "jihon wholesalers alongside Tsuruya (Kazama Shunsuke) and Nishimuraya (Nishimura Masahiko)". It was also announced that Higo Katsuhiro will play Shigoroku, the tattoo artist who is commissioned by Tsutaju (Yokohama).
"UNBOUND (Berabou)" is the 64th taiga drama, depicting the life of Tsutaya Juzaburo(or "Tsutajyu" for short), who is said to have built the foundations of Japan's media industry and pop culture. The script was written by Yoshiko Morishita, known for "Drama 10 'Ooku'" which was broadcast on NHK two years ago and became a big hit.
