It was revealed on June 11th that a sequel to the TBS Sunday Theatre drama "VIVANT" (Sundays at 9pm), starring Masato Sakai, which aired in July 2023, will be broadcast in the same time slot in 2026 (date to be determined). The 2023 broadcast sparked a "battle of speculation" on social media and created a lot of excitement, but we look back on the material that was "unresolved" until the end.
In the final scene of the last episode, Nozaki (Abe Hiroshi), a public security officer, appears behind Nogi (Hiroshi Abe) as he walks through the crowd, grinning meaningfully. Furthermore, in the scene where Nozaki congratulates Jamin (Nandin Erdene Hongorzul) on his release from the hospital, Jamin only bows slightly, and Nozaki gives a wry smile and says, "Not yet?"
Jameen is said to have the ability to "intuitively see through people's good and evil", and he never grew fond of Nozaki until the end. The Public Security Police, "the enemy of the tent", have also been interpreted as "evil" to Jameen, but is it possible that they have another face than the Public Security Police?
Also in the final episode, Beki (Yakusho Koji) appears before Uehara (Hashizume Isao), his former superior and deputy chief cabinet secretary, to get revenge on Uehara, who had called off the rescue of his family. Beki tries to exact revenge on Uehara, but is shot by Nogi and falls to the ground.
When Nokoru (Kazunari Ninomiya) said, "I would like to have the grave prepared at Barca," Nogi replied, "The Emperor has no parent but to support all who are virtuous," and added, "I will offer flowers at a later date."
With Nogi's shooting skills, it should have been easy to miss the vital points. Since the body has not been found, it is quite possible that he is still alive.
In addition, Marubishi Shoji's Managing Director Nagano Toshihiko (Fumiyo Kohinata) never reappeared at the end of the story. There was much talk about Nagano being the mastermind behind the plot and the journalist who saved Nogi, but was he really just having an affair with the genius hacker Ota (Iinuma Ai)?
As for the separate group, the drama's original product "Seppaku Manju" (buns) is a set of eight buns with the "Seppaku" branding around one tent mark, which sparked speculation that there may be two more members of the separate group besides Nogi, Kurosu (played by Tori Matsuzaka), and the four who were shot by Nogi. If so, who are the remaining two?
Furthermore, who exactly was "Drum"? Is Kaoru (Fumi Nikaido) just "the one Nogi loves"? Many other mysteries remain.
The sequel will continue the story immediately after the last scene of the previous film, and there will be no changes to the setting of the main character, Yusuke Nogi, played by Sakai. The rest of the cast will be announced in the future. Filming will take place mainly in "ultra-pro-Japanese countries," so we can look forward to not only the clarification of unresolved plot threads, but also a new story for Nogi.
