Friday, February 03, 2017

Chiba Yuudai to star in new TBS Spring 2017 drama "Final Fantasy XIV Hikari no Otousan"

Chiba Yuudai will be starring in the new TBS Spring 2017 drama "Final Fantasy XIV Hikari no Otousan" (Hikari's Father) which will begin its run from 18 April in the Tuesdays 1.28am timeslot. MBS will show this two days earlier at 12.50am on Sundays. This is the first drama based on the popular game "Final Fantasy" series and features the true story of how a father and his son grow closer thanks to this game. Oosugi Ren will be playing Hakutaro, the father of the lead character Akio played by Chiba.

The original material of this drama comes from a blog titled "Gekikakusatsu SS Nikki" by a person named Mighty which describes how his father who is more than 60 years old, suddenly becomes interested in playing Final Fantasy XIV. In order to get closer to his father and repair their rocky relationship, Mighty hides his identity to get closer to his father in the online gaming world where they go through adventures and try to understand each other as fellow gamers.

The production staff revealed that Chiba was chosen for the lead role because he could pull off the look of an ordinary young man who plays games rather than the typical otaku image. On the other hand, Chiba himself doesn't play games too often but he can identify with the drama's theme of gradually being unable to hold a conversation with his father after growing up to become an adult. He revealed that it was only fairly recently that he had a drink with his father one-to-one which the latter was very happy about according to Chiba's mother. As such, he hopes that this story will allow viewers to relook at their own situations at home. As for working with Oosugi for the first time, Chiba commented that Oosugi is such a nice person and he had a lot of fun chatting with him about music and magic tricks during their filming breaks. In order to look convincing as a gamer, Chiba also tried playing the game himself but could only manage 2 to 3 hours in total.

Sources: Sanspo / Sponichi / Oricon / Eiga.com

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