The first episode of the TV Asahi drama "Reborn ~The Last Hero~" (Tuesdays at 9 PM), starring actor Issei Takahashi, aired on April 14th and became a hot topic when the name of the popular idol group "AKB48" appeared in the show.
The drama tells the story of a man who is reborn as someone else and given a second chance at life. Mitsumasa Neo, president of the IT company "NEOXIS," was supposed to have died after being pushed off a cliff, but he time-slips 14 years into the past, to 2012, and is reborn as Hideto Nomoto, the heir to a dry cleaning shop in a run-down shopping district. Hideto (with Mitsumasa's mind) searches for the person who killed him while standing up to the upper class from the perspective of an ordinary person. Takahashi plays both Mitsumasa and Hideto in the drama.
The first episode depicted Mitsumasa's rise to become an IT mogul, and featured real-life news about the Tokyo Olympics, the COVID-19 pandemic, and even former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
After time-traveling to 2012, the name AKB48 also appears. AKB48's "Manatsu no Sounds good!" plays in the city, and Kosei shows confusion, while confirming that he has traveled back in time to 2012, when AKB48 was at its peak.
On social media, comments included: "2012 was AKB's heyday lol", "I know that 2012 was AKB's heyday lol", "You remembered that 2012 was AKB's heyday well lol, were you a fan?", "This president must be an otaku", and "You didn't need to say 'AKB's heyday' lol".
