The second episode of the TBS Sunday Theatre drama "The Royal Family" (Sundays at 9pm), starring Satoshi Tsumabuki, aired on October 19th. Masanobu Ando appeared as trainer Hironaka Hiroshi, drawing attention with comments such as "He's really good" and "It's refreshing that he's not playing a villain."
◇The following contains spoilers
The story is based on the novel of the same name by Kazuma Hayami. Eiji Kurisu (played by Tsumabuki) admired his father, who was a tax accountant, and tried to follow in his footsteps, but he experienced setbacks and lost hope. However, when he met horse owner Kozo Sanno (played by Koichi Sato), his life took a major turn...
Kozo is pressured by Yutaro (Kotaro Koizumi) to disband the horse racing division if he cannot win a race in the JRA this year, and he accepts. However, he faces opposition from trainer Tadokoro, and they part ways. Kurisu is forced to find a new trainer.
Hearing that there was an excellent trainer there, Kurisu visited Hironaka Stables. When he introduced himself to Hironaka and tried to say, "Mr. Hironaka...", Hironaka insisted, "Ah, please don't call me 'Mr.'. 'Hironaka' is fine." Hironaka smiled gently and said, "I was also looking for a good match," and it was later decided that he would take care of two horses, Royal Fight and Royal Izanya.
Hironaka completely reassessed the strengths and weaknesses of the two horses, coming up with a strategy to move Izanya, who had always raced on dirt, to a maiden race on turf, and Fight, who had always raced on turf, to dirt. Hironaka's prediction was spot on, and Izanya won the maiden race in a spectacular fashion.
As Ando has a history of playing difficult, dirty roles, comments on social media included, "Ando Masanobu is really good in this film. He's charming, but at heart he's passionate, which is great!", "The atmosphere that Ando Masanobu exudes is great," "He's always a good person but he never gets rewarded for it, so I was happy that (the role) won this time lol," "Ando Masanobu often plays dangerous characters, so I was worried there might be something behind it, but I was glad that he's a naturally nice person," and "It's very refreshing that he's not playing a villain."
