It has been revealed that actor Daiken Okudaira will be appearing in "Someday, in Zero Gravity in the Sky," which will begin airing on September 8th on NHK's "Yorudara" time slot (General TV, Monday to Thursday, 10:45 p.m.). He will play Kanazawa Sui, a university student who belongs to a space engineering research lab.
The drama is about a group of four girls from the astronomy club who, in high school, shared their dream of "going to space together." As they grow up and go their separate ways, they suddenly reunite with a dream they had forgotten. "If we had a micro-satellite, maybe even we could aim for space now..." Encouraged by their "old" selves, they are about to embark on a second youth...
Kiryu Aso will play the main character, Mochizuki Asuka, and Morita Nozomi will play Hibino Misato Morita, whom Asuka reunites with. Katayama Yuki will play Mizuhara Shu, a friend of Asuka and Hikari's in the astronomy club, and Ito Marika will play Kiuchi Haruko.
Kanazawa Sui, played by Okudaira, is a university student who works part-time at a family restaurant that Asuka and her friends often visit. At university, he is a member of a space engineering lab. His grades are outstanding, but he is not good at communicating with others. As a result, he has a hard time fitting in at the lab, but he doesn't particularly mind. In fact, he seems to think that interacting with people is a "waste of time."
Although Sui likes being alone, he is astonished by the recklessness of Asuka and the others who frequently come to his part-time job, as they are trying to launch an artificial satellite despite being amateurs, and he can't help but speak up...
"When I first received the script, I thought the characters and the atmosphere in this work were really great, and in particular the way the four women, Asuka, Hikari, Amane, and Haruko, work towards their goal of launching a satellite and taking pictures of the Earth is the epitome of youth, and I thought it was wonderful to see people running towards something no matter how old they are. As Kanazawa Sui, I wanted to be someone who could support the four of them while also continuing to run towards their own goals. I hope that everyone will enjoy watching this," he commented.
Producer Ayako Minamino revealed, "Writer Takeda (Yuki) said about Okudaira, 'He is a wonderful actor whose raw emotions overflow from his delicate facial expressions and speaking style, so I couldn't imagine anyone other than Okudaira playing the young man Kanazawa Sui, who quietly harbors a passion for space in his heart.' From the very beginning, when the character of Sui was created, the story was written with Okudaira in mind." She also called on viewers to look forward to the broadcast, saying, "This time, along with Asuka and the others' challenge into space, I hope you will look forward to seeing what dreams he will have and what he will strive for."
