Screening event of new NHK Taiga fantasy drama "Seirei no Moribito Kanashiki Hakkaigami"

The screening event of new NHK Taiga fantasy drama "Seirei no Moribito Kanashiki Hakkaigami" (Guardian of the Spirit The sad destroyer god) was held at NHK's HQ on 15 December which was attended by cast members Ayase Haruka, Maki Youko, Itagaki Mizuki, Suzuki Ryohei and Suzuki Rio. The second installment in the "Seirei no Moribito" series will begin its run from 21 January in the Saturdays 9pm timeslot. The final installment is scheduled to be shown in November 2017.

Ayase reprises her role as the female bodyguard Barusa in the new installment and commented that there are many cool action scenes for the viewers to look forward to. This drama also happened to be be one of the last works which the late Hira Mikijirou appeared in before he passed away in October this year. When asked to comment on her experience of working with Hira, Ayase commented that there was only one scene which she appeared together with him and they did not manage to chat a lot. However, Hira had a lot of screen presence and showed off his excellent acting so she was glad to have worked with him.

With regard to working with Suzuki Ryohei who is a new cast member in the series, Ayase who is his "senior" in terms of Taiga dramas (she was the lead for 2013's "Yae no Sakura" while he is due to appear in the 2018 Taiga "Segodon"), she said that she didn't have any special advice for him other than to enjoy the whole year's filming to the fullest. As for working with Suzuki Rio who played the child version of Ayase's character in "Yae no Sakura", Ayase said that although Rio is much younger than her, she didn't feel like there was an age gap between them when they were chatting during the filming breaks which made everyone laugh at the comment.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi