"Drama Week" summarizes the main drama news of the week. This week (May 30th to June 5th), the highlights included Yuumi Kawai taking on the lead role in the 2028 NHK Asadora drama "Hon no Mokichi," and the broadcast of "Season 2" of "Dai Nao Omori ~The Great Chase: Metropolitan Police Department SSBC Violent Crimes Unit, " starring Nao Omori, Masaki Aiba, and Nao Matsushita . This will be covered in two parts.
On June 2nd, it was revealed that Rino Katase and Issei Mamehara of "JO1" will co-star in the July drama series "Couple and 16-Year-Old ~The Mad Neighbor~" (TV Tokyo, Thursdays at 12:30am). Katase will play a 61-year-old woman who considers herself a 16-year-old beauty and falls in love at first sight with her married neighbor, played by Mamehara. Hiroshi Nomura (Mamehara), a kind-hearted, handsome office worker, and his bright and energetic wife, Sae Nomura, a former hostess, were living their newlywed life in a small apartment. However, Yoshiko Shiraishi (Katase), who moves into the apartment next door, falls in love with Hiroshi at first sight. Even though she knows he is married, Yoshiko attacks the Nomura couple with her seductive tactics, thinking, "If I love him, I'll just take him..." The drama will air every Thursday at 12:30am starting July 2nd.
On the 4th, it was announced that Takaya Kamikawa will star in one of the segments of the new "Tales of the Unusual'26 Summer Special" (Fuji TV), a popular anthology drama airing on June 27th at 9pm. This will be Kamikawa's first appearance in the series, and he will play a veteran detective who gets caught up in a strange case. Kamikawa will star in one of the four "strange" episodes, "Who is the Body...?" The story begins with Detective Takao Sakuraba (Kamikawa) visiting a house that is the scene of a crime. When Sakuraba steps inside to investigate, he finds the bodies of a man and a woman lying in the bedroom on the second floor. After leaving the bedroom, he realizes he has forgotten his gloves and returns to the bedroom, but the woman's body that should have been there is gone...
On the 4th, it was announced that Yuumi Kawai will star in the 2028 NHK Asadora drama series "Hon no Mokichi". The announcement was made at a press conference held at the NHK Broadcasting Center in Shibuya, Tokyo, to announce the production and the lead role. "Hon no Mokichi" is the 118th NHK morning drama series. It is based on the life of poet Mokichi Saito and his wife, Teruko, and tells the story of the "most estranged couple" in the history of Asadora . In the drama, the characters' names are Mori Teruko and Mori Mokichi. Kawai will play the main character, Teruko. Kawai previously played Ranko, the younger sister of the main character Nobu (played by Mio Mio Imada ), in the 2025 morning drama series " Anpan ". Regarding being cast as the heroine this time, she said, "When I received the offer, I was very nervous, but since the role was decided, I've been very excited."
At the press conference announcing the production and starring role of "Hon no Mokichi," it was also announced that Kankuro Kudo would be writing the script for a Asadora for the first time in 15 years, since "Amachan" in the first half of 2013. Regarding depicting Saito Mokichi and Teruko, the models for the drama, Kudo explained, "I read a lot of materials, and Teruko is the type of person who says everything she thinks out loud, while Mokichi doesn't talk much. And then he suddenly throws a tantrum. I thought it would be good to portray them as two people who are incompatible." Regarding the casting of the role of Mokichi, he said, "I thought it would be good to portray him as the complete opposite (of Teruko). So I'd like someone like that to play the role."
On the 4th, a press conference was held in Tokyo to announce the completion of WOWOW's "Continuous Drama W Consultant - The Man Who Writes About Death," with lead actors Kentaro Ito, Fumino Kimura , and GACKT in attendance. When the topic of the sea came up, GACKT began by saying, "I'm really afraid of the sea..." and continued, "I tried to overcome my fear of the sea, so when I was 26, I went on long-distance swims every day. I went on long-distance swims every day, and then I almost drowned. I drifted for seven hours. Since then, I've decided I shouldn't go near the sea." The drama is a dark suspense story based on the novel "Consultant" by Im Sung-soon. GACKT plays Akifumi Kurokawa, a mysterious man who drags Yo Izaki (Ito), an aspiring mystery novelist, down a path of evil.
On the 5th, it was revealed that "Season 2" of the police drama " The Great Chase: Metropolitan Police Department SSBC Violent Crimes Unit " (Wednesdays at 9 PM), which starred Nao Omori, Masaki Aiba, and Nao Matsushita and aired on TV Asahi in July last year, will be broadcast in the same time slot this July. The new season begins with Rintaro Nanami (Aiba), who has returned from studying in the United States, rejoining the "SSBC Kyokohan-gakari." He brings the cutting-edge digital investigative techniques he learned in the US back to the team, raising SSBC to an unprecedented level. The members, whose trust in each other has deepened, unite as one, powered up, and take on new difficult cases. The conflict and rivalry with the First Investigation Division are also said to be heating up even more.
