Hirosue Ryoko wraps up filming for her drama 'Starman'

Actress Hirosue Ryoko and her co-stars recently wrapped up the filming for their current Fuji TV summer drama 'Starman ~ Kono Hoshi no Koi' the other day.

'Starman' is the first drama in 17 years that finally features Hirosue in a starring role again. They have been filming for three months straight since April and the actress was overwhelmed by her emotions when they finished shooting their very last scene. She humbly thanked the whole team for allowing her to spend this summer in such a wonderful way.

The last scene they had to film took place at campsite and will appear in the drama's 7th episode. The filming took place at a campsite for auto-camping in Kanagawa and featured many of the main cast, including the "Starman" played by Fukushi Sota, the grandmother played by Yoshiyuki Kazuko, and the three child actors.

Fukushi gave Hirosue a bouquet as soon as the director gave the signal for the wrap. Moreover they surprised her with a birthday cake, since her birthday is coming up on July 18th. The three child actors also personally made a bag for her and put one present in each. Hirosue couldn't stop expressing her gratitude and reportedly kept saying "Thank you!" multiple times.

'Starman ~ Kono Hoshi no Koi' premiered on the 9th and will air its 2nd episode this week.

Source: Oricon

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Horikita Maki to become a female pilot cadet for Fuji TV's new drama

It was announced that actress Horikita Maki will star in a new Fuji TV drama titled 'Miss Pilot' (tentative) this fall.

Unlike other dramas that revolve around planes with a female protagonist, Horikita won't be playing a cabin attendant but a young aspiring female pilot named Tezuka Haru. Haru has been desperately hunting for a job for a while now, but nothing seems to come about. Without thinking about the consequences, she takes and barely passes the necessary exam to enter the world of aviation.

From then on, she begins to walk the path towards becoming a female pilot. Of course she struggles a lot, especially since the training is more severe than she expected before taking the exam. She bonds with her fellow cadets, has to deal with some very strict teachers, and meets various people while going through the pilot training.

The whole filming of the drama is being done with the full cooperation of All Nippon Airways (ANA), which means plenty of opportunities to film in locations where cameras usually are not allowed. All the outfits and uniforms seen in the drama will also be the real ones as used by the ANA staff and their pilot cadets. It's the producer's goal to make Horikita's character of a female pilot look and feel as realistic as possible.

'Miss Pilot' is scheduled to air every Tuesday at 9:00 pm starting in October.

Source : Mantan-Web

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Kimura Takuya & Shibasaki Kou to co-star in new TBS drama this fall

It was announced that SMAP's Kimura Takuya and actress Shibasaki Kou are going to work together again in a new TBS fall drama titled 'Ando Roid ~A.I. knows LOVE?~'. The last time they co-starred in a drama was in 'GOOD LUCK!!' 10 years ago.

The concept of the drama is a love story that crosses through time and space thanks to a "time cable" that connects the present age with the future 100 years from now. It offers a lot of mystery and suspense, and incorporates sci-fi and action elements. Anno Hideaki and his protégé Tsurumaki Kazuya from the famed anime series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' are reportedly the ones who fleshed out this unique concept for TBS. The script is handled by no other than Nishiogi Yumie, the mastermind behind 'SPEC' and 'Keizoku'.

Kimura is going to play a double-role in this drama, an ingenious physicist named 'Matsushima Reiji' and a mysterious android that came from the future. Shibasaki plays Reiji's fiancee 'Ando Asahi'.

Reiji finds out that someone is trying to kill him and his fiancée because of theory he recently constructed. However, he isn't able to avoid his death and loses his life in a mysterious explosion on a plane one day in 2013. His fiancée Asahi is still alive and grieving over his sudden death, but she doesn't know that he was murdered and that the killer is still out there and preparing to kill her next. All of a sudden an android appears from out of her desk's drawer and materializes to look exactly as her fiancé Reiji. Apparently he was sent from the future to protect her from the killer.

'Ando Roid ~A.I. knows LOVE?~' is scheduled to replace the network's current hit drama 'Hanzawa Naoki' on Sundays at 9:00 pm, starting in October.

Source : Mantan-Web

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Sakai Masato & Kanno Miho register their marriage on 2 April

Sakai Masato and Kanno Miho registered their marriage on 2 April, according to their joint statement released on 3 April. The couple had met on the set of the movie "Ooku ~ Eien" and got married after a three-month dating period. The statement was written personally by Sakai and signed off by the both of them. As for why they chose to get married on 2 April, it was an auspicious day on the calendar so they went to the ward office to submit the marriage application on that day. Plans for the wedding are not confirmed yet and they are still living apart for now since they are looking for a new place. Kanno is not pregnant and will continue working after marriage.

Souce : doramaworld

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First Dragon Ball Z movie in 17 years makes $7.1M in opening weekend

It has been a number of years since Goku and his Dragon Ball friends appeared on the big screen in Japan, and now that they’re back, fans of the hugely popular anime and manga series have been flocking to the movie theaters. Dragon Ball Z: Kami to Kami (“Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods”) made its debut last weekend on March 30th, playing at 312 theaters across Japan, and becoming the country’s first film to be shown in digital IMAX.

As the first DBZ movie in 17 years, its existence was first revealed last summer, and since then fans have been eagerly waiting for its release. Over the film’s opening two days, it drew in 561,098 viewers in Japan, racking up a huge 683,925,000 yen (approx. $7.1 million) in box office sales. This is several times more than the opening weekend sales of the last two One Piece movie releases, another massively popular anime and manga series. Toei, the production company behind the DBZ movies, says that it predicts Battle of Gods to go on to make roughly 3 billion yen ($31.2 million) at the box office.


Buzz on the internet reveals that DBZ fans are for the most part pleased, however some have mentioned that this entry in the long-running series is heavy on the comedy aspects and rather light on the super-power battles that the anime is often known for. One aspect that has been almost universally praised is just how gorgeous the colors and artwork look, no doubt thanks to the improvements in animation technology over the 17-year hiatus

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