It was revealed on March 4th that actor Kanna Hashimoto will be starring in the TV Asahi drama series "Amakura Takao's Mystery Chart" (Tuesdays at 9pm) which will begin airing on TV Asahi from April 22nd. This will be Hashimoto's first time starring in a drama series on the same network. This will be her first production since the end of the NHK Asadora drama series "Omusubi" (currently airing), in which she plays the heroine role of a registered dietitian, and will be her first time taking on the role of a doctor.
The drama is based on the novel of the same name by popular author Mikito Chinen, known for works such as "Masked Ward," "Prayer Chart," and "Nursing Aide At Your Side." It is a medical mystery in which Takao Ameku (played by Hashimoto), a genius doctor with superhuman intelligence and memory, uses his medical knowledge and diagnostic skills to brilliantly solve mysterious cases and phenomena. The original novel series has sold over 3.6 million copies in total, and a TV anime adaptation has been broadcast on TOKYO MX, Yomiuri TV, and other networks since January this year.
It was also announced that Shohei Miura will play Takanashi Yu, an internal medicine doctor who is dispatched to the General Diagnostic Department, where Takao serves as the director. In contrast to Takao, who has autism spectrum disorder and is unable to fully read other people's feelings, Takanashi is skilled at reading other people's feelings and provides witty and heartfelt support to Takao.
Hashimoto and Miura have worked together since "Keishicho Ikimono-ka" (Fuji TV, 2017). They will play Takao, who can be called the "medical version of Sherlock Holmes," and Takanashi, who plays a Watson-like role, making for a great duo.
Hashimoto is full of enthusiasm, saying, "I've always loved the original novel, so I've been looking forward to it ever since I heard about the drama version! As a first step, I wanted to get closer to Takao-sensei in appearance, so I cut my hair short and added layers for the first time in a while."
"This is my first time playing the role of a genius doctor, and there's a lot of difficult medical terminology and long lines, so I'm a little scared (laughs)," she revealed, "The challenge I want to focus on when acting is...the lines! Just memorizing them will probably take the longest time of all my roles so far, and I'm even thinking about practicing my pronunciation from today. Right now, more than 90% of my thoughts are about my lines (laughs)."
Speaking of her partner Miura, she said, "The last time I worked with Shohei was on 'Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Living Things Division.' I was still in my teens and had almost no experience in dramas, but Shohei was very friendly and treated everyone with a bright attitude...! I'm happy to be working with Shohei again, who is still the same warm-hearted person today." She expressed her expectations, saying, "I'm looking forward to seeing the tempo and atmosphere of our interactions."
The script for this work was written by Hideya Hamada, who is known for his works such as "Ichikei no Karasu" (Fuji TV) and "Absolute Zero: Special Investigation of Unsolved Cases" (Fuji TV), which were also made into movies. The director is Hisashi Kimura, who has worked on many hits such as "99.9 - Criminal Lawyer -" (TBS) and "TRICK" (TV Asahi).
