"Drama Week" summarizes the main drama news of the week. This week (April 4-10), the highlights included an incident at the press conference for the Fuji TV Getsuku drama "Saba-can, Uchuu e Iku" starring Takumi Kitamura , and the first serious acting role for freelance announcer Yumiko Udo. We will cover these in two parts.
On April 4th, "Daimaru Ai wa Sentaku Suru" (Daimaru Ai Makes a Choice), starring Kumamoto Pro-Wrestling of the comedy duo "Beni Shoga," premiered in TV Asahi's late-night drama slot "Dora Dora Daisakusen" (Saturdays at 12:30 AM). This marks Kumamoto's first drama appearance and first starring role. The drama is a love suspense story about Daimaru Ai (Kumamoto), a female detective who loves shojo manga and has a vivid imagination, who falls in love with handsome men with troubled pasts who are suspects in a case, and is forced to choose between "love or justice?". At the end of each episode, Kumamoto takes on the "ultimate choice between two options" with unscripted, improvised acting. There are four episodes in total.
On the 4th, Ai Mikami and Juri Kosaka attended a public viewing (Asadora) of the first week of the NHK morning drama series "Kaze,Kaoru" (NHK General, Monday-Saturday 8am, etc.) held at Nasunogahara Harmony Hall (Otawara City, Tochigi Prefecture). 779 people attended the event, and after a digest version of the first week's episodes was screened, a talk show was held. Mikami greeted the audience by saying, "There were a lot of scenes in Nasu in the first week, but we filmed them six months ago, and I've been thinking, 'I want to come back to Nasu as soon as possible.' I'm so happy to finally be back and to meet everyone." Uesaka said, "I'm so happy to be able to come to Rin's hometown as Naomi."
On the 4th, Kenichi Matsuyama appeared at the press conference held in Tokyo for the TBS drama series "Toki Sude ni Osushi!?" (Tuesdays at 10pm), starring Hiromi Nagasaku. When asked about playing a pastry chef in the Sunday drama "Reboot," which aired until March, and now playing a sushi academy instructor in this series, Matsuyama humorously replied, "I've been learning about sushi since last year, and last year I also got to make cakes (as part of my role). When I start to forget my lines, I think I'll retire and open a 'sushi cake shop' or something like that," which brought laughter from the audience.
On the 5th, Takumi Kitamura appeared with co-star Ryunosuke Kamiki at a press conference held in Tokyo for the Fuji TV Monday Getsuku drama "Saba-kan, Uchuu e Iku" (Mondays at 9pm), in which he stars and which starts on April 13th. Kitamura confessed his feelings towards Ryunosuke Kamiki from his childhood acting days, saying, "I've been acting since I was in the third grade of elementary school, and out of the hundreds of auditions I went to, there was Ryunosuke Kamiki... He's like a god to me." He continued, "I really admired him. He was someone who had already been recognized as an actor, beyond the realm of a child actor. I thought, 'Wow, he's amazing,' while I was failing auditions every day. I also thought that I hoped I could co-star with him someday, and that I had to work hard until then."
On the 5th, the 13th episode of the NHK Taiga drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" (NHK General, Sundays at 8pm, etc.), starring Taiga Nakano, aired, and a scene in which Kei, played by Riho Yoshioka, is called a "female fox" by Nene (Minami Hamabe) drew a reaction from viewers. It had just been announced that Yoshioka would be playing the "Don Kitsune" character for the first time in about four years in the new Nissin Foods "Donbei" TV commercial, "The Don Kitsune Returns." Comments on social media included: "She's definitely a female fox, a Don Kitsune," "Is her return as Don Kitsune timed to coincide with the female fox?", "What a coincidence to air a commercial at the same time as Don Kitsune's return. I can't believe NHK is airing a commercial," "Nene calls (Kei) a 'female fox,' she must have seen the Donbei commercial," and "This timing for her return to commercials is a bit too deliberate."
On the 7th, the first episode of "Toki Sude ni Osushi!?" aired, and freelance announcer Yumiko Udo, who took on her first serious acting role, attracted attention on social media. Udo played Izumi Isoda, Minato's (Hiromi Nagasaku) high school classmate and best friend. In the episode, Izumi calls Minato to a snack bar. Having had some alcohol, Izumi is in high spirits and suggests that they attend sushi academy together. When asked why, she says in a childlike voice the name of her favorite American Hollywood actor, "Timothée Chalamet," and then, with a girlish expression, adds, "Timothée, he likes sushi. He said so in an interview..." On social media, comments such as "Udo's acting was more natural than I expected," "I was surprised at how good she was," and "I want a friend like Udo" were posted.
