It was announced on November 21st that comedian Bakarhythm will be writing the script for the NHK Asadora drama "Mawaru Swan," which will air in the first half of 2027. At a press conference held at the NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya, Tokyo on the same day, Bakarhythm spoke about his feelings upon receiving the offer and his enthusiasm for writing the script.
The 116th serial TV drama, "Meguru Swan," is set in modern-day Nagano Prefecture. It is a human comedy that follows the protagonist, who aspires to become a detective and becomes a police officer, assigned to the "Public Safety Division." While living an ordinary everyday life, he finds his way to "protect an everyday life where nothing happens."Misato Morita stars in the lead role.
Bakarhythm, who is writing for the NHK drama for the first time, explained why he chose this subject, saying, "The story is set in a police station, but it's not the Criminal Investigation Division, which is often the subject of dramas, but rather the Public Safety Division. From what I've heard, it has hardly ever been the subject of a drama before. It's the only department in the police station that prevents crimes before they happen, so it's rare for incidents that are the subject of a drama to occur. Or rather, the success of not having incidents occur is that they don't happen, so it's rare for a drama to be made about it. I found that very appealing."
He said he received the offer before last summer, and recalled, "I had to write a lot of stories over a long period of time, and since I usually appear on variety shows, I felt like it would be a bit difficult to fit into my schedule."
However, he said, "Opportunities like this don't come around often, and I thought it was interesting that an offer came to me, and that a comedian was writing the script for a Asadora," and explained why he decided to write the script, saying, "I thought it would be a good opportunity, so I'd like to give it a try."
After receiving the offer, Bakarhythm submitted many settings for the drama. He explained, "There were dozens of different settings, including some that were a bit fantasy. But it didn't feel right to make it last for six months. If it was 10 episodes, I could have used outlandish ideas or done fantasy settings, but six months was my first experience. After all sorts of things happened, I finally decided to depict everyday life."
He said he plans to start writing in the new year, and added, "One thing I have to be careful about is strictly adhering to deadlines. As an actor, I've been in trouble in the past when scripts were late, and in those situations, the scriptwriters tend to get a lot of badmouthing. I've seen it with my own eyes, so if people say things like that to me, I want to make sure I meet the deadline." He drew laughter from the audience.
Production manager Kuwano Tomohiro explained the reason for casting him, saying, "When I decided to produce the series, the first thing that came to mind was that it would be great to create a drama that would make people laugh and feel cheerful every morning, and naturally Bakarhythm came to mind. Looking at Bakarhythm's style, in his past works he tends to focus on science fiction elements like time leaps and aliens, but he also depicts everyday life in an interesting way, and I thought that the direction we are aiming for would be a perfect match for the format of a Asadora, so I made him an offer."
