The 22nd episode of the NHK Taiga drama "BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" (NHK General, Sundays at 8pm, etc.), starring actor Taiga Nakano, aired on June 7th. In that episode, there was a scene in which Hanbei (Yuki Kura) collapses in front of Kanbei Kuroda (Masaki Suda), but when the preview for the next episode was released after the main story and the subtitle was revealed, viewers screamed things like, "Nooooooo next week!!!"
◇The following contains spoilers.
"BROTHERS IN ARMS （Toyotomi Brothers!）" is the 65th Taiga drama. With Toyotomi Hidenaga (Koichiro) as the protagonist, it depicts the miraculous feat of unifying Japan together with his older brother Hideyoshi (Tokichiro) through their strong bond, a success story of dreams and hopes.
The next episode, episode 23, will be subtitled "Farewell, Hanbei" and will air on June 14th.
Araki Murashige (played by Tortoise Matsu) has staged a rebellion. Kanbei (played by Yuki Kura), acting on his own initiative, goes to persuade Murashige but ends up being captured.
Amidst rumors that Kanbei has betrayed them, Nobunaga (Shun Oguri) orders that Kanbei's child, who is being looked after by Nene (Minami Hamabe) in Nagahama, be disposed of. Hanbei (Masaki Suda) proposes a plan to save the young life to the hesitant Hideyoshi (Sosuke Ikematsu) and Koichiro (Nakano). However, Hanbei, who has been entrusted with the task and is heading to Nagahama, has other intentions... and the story unfolds from there.
On social media, there's already a pessimistic mood with comments like, "The preview for next week! The preview for next week!", "Oh no, Hanbei...", "Is this finally goodbye to Takenaka Hanbei...", and "Next week is going to be tough." Other comments include, "The preview for next week is a spoiler from the title, it's so sad," and "Next week's title is 'Farewell Hanbei,' so it's too easy to tell what's going to happen, and it's just too painful. I really love Takenaka Hanbei, played by Masaki Suda..."
