Seino Nana to play Kuroyanagi Tetsuko in new TV Asahi afternoon drama "Totto-chan!"

Seino Nana will be taking on the leading role in upcoming TV Asahi afternoon drama "Totto-chan!" which will begin its run from October in the weekdays 12.30pm timeslot. She will be playing the role of Kuroyanagi Tetsuko from the time she was 15 years old.

This will be the afternoon timeslot's second offering that will be written by Oishi Shizuka and includes portions from the book "Madogiwa no Totto-chan" written by Kuroyanagi herself. Matsushita Nao will playing her mother Chou while her father Moritsuna will be played by Yamamoto Koji. Co-stars also include Takada Junji who plays Chou's uncle Inoue Hiroshi, Yagi Akiko who plays Chou's aunt and Hiroshi's wife, Sato B-saku who plays Chou's father and Komura Hiro who plays Chou's mother. Ozawa Yukiyoshi plays Shiina-san who is a cafe owner and rents an apartment to Chou and Moritsuna when they first got married while Takaoka Saki plays Ito Hanako whose husband was the first international architect in Japan and lives as a painter now. Takenaka Naoto plays Kobayashi Sousaku who was the principal of Tomoe Gakuen and had a great influence on Kuroyanagi's life. Ouki Kaname and Kurosaka Mami will also be part of the cast. Shirota Yu will be playing international pianist Yusuke Carl Kellner who had a romantic relationship with Kuroyanagi.

The story begins 4 years before Kuroyanagi was born in 1933 when Chou and Moritsuna meet for the first time and how they go through the tough days during the war and after it as a star is born into their family. Chou aspired to be an opera singer and was attending music school when she met the talented violinist Moritsuna. The childhood version of Kuroyanagi will be played by child actor Toyoshima Hana,

Seino appeared in Kuroyanagi's image and paid a visit to the latter while she was doing the recording of her daily variety programme "Tetsuko no Heya". Kuroyanagi praised Seino for being a spitting image of her while wearing Kuroyanagi's clothes and the mushroom-style wig. Kuroyanagi commented that there are many incidents which happened before her birth that will be featured in the drama so she feels that it will be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for her when she watches this drama. As such, she is eager for the drama to start and even lent her clothes to the drama's production team. In addition, Kuroyanagi commented that her life had not been entirely smooth-sailing due to various sad happenings but she was lucky to have her mother who respected her freedom and gave her the space to grow and do the things she wanted even though she felt that she probably was a difficult child. She hopes that the positive vibes from her story will cheer on everyone who is watching the drama.

Seino commented that she was nervous about having to play Kuroyanagi but hopes to be able to show the tomboyish, cute, frank and elegant sides of the latter through her acting. She also revealed that it was such a coincidence that she could fit into Kuroyanagi's clothes and shoes worn during her 20s so it sort of felt fated that she was to take on this role.

Filming of this drama is already in progress.

Sources: Sanspo / Oricon 1 / Oricon 2