The 122nd episode of the NHK Asadora drama "Anpan " (General TV, Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM and others), starring Mio Imada , was broadcast on September 16th, with Irei Katakana appearing as Mano Goro.
Mano Goro is a famous director who directs the musical "Kaiketsu Anpanman." Irei himself is also known for playing the former Satsuma businessman Takafuji Masashi in the Asadora"Ranman" (first half of 2023) two years ago. Takafuji falls in love at first sight with the heroine Sueko (played by Hamabe Minami) and becomes the love rival of the protagonist Mantaro (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki). He was nicknamed "Yaba Fuji" (Crazy Fuji) for his abusive personality.
In episode 122, Takuya (Motoki Omori) proposes that the musical "Anpanman" be produced. However, Takashi (Kitamura) is too busy to attend the meeting, and instead he talks about his feelings for Anpanman. Takashi then begins writing the script despite his busy schedule.
One day, Nobu and Taka receive a call from Ranko (Yuumi Kawai). They rush to Yagi's (Satoshi Tsumabuki) company, where they find someone waiting for them...
In the same episode, when Takuya introduced Mano Goro, he joked, "Yes, nice to meet you. I'm still waiting to hear what you're doing." It was also revealed that Mano Goro is a famous director, even known by Nobu's mother, Hatako (played by Noriko Eguchi).
When Irei appeared on social media, comments such as "Yabafuji, welcome back," "Irei Kanata-san has appeared!", "Mano Goro, oh my, it's that person," "Sueko, I'll take a second look at Yabafuji-san lol," and "Yabafuji lol" showed his continued popularity. Comments such as "Mano Goro-sensei has a name like Kida Taro-sensei," "Mano Goro cracks jokes...," "I wonder if Mano Goro-san will sing," "Who is Mano Goro...?", "Who is the model for him?" and "I wonder if Mano Goro-san is Kinotor-san" were also posted one after another.
