The drama which is based on Kitagawa Eriko's original script, features the heroine Nireno Suzume (Nagano) who lost hearing in her left ear due an illness she had when she was a child and describes her turbulent life and the process of building an electrical appliances manufacturing company over half a century from 1971 to the present era which will be set in Gifu, her birthplace, and Tokyo.
Sato will be playing Suzume's childhood friend Hagio Ritsu who was born on the same day as her. Although Suzume is an idealistic person with daring ideas, Ritsu is serious, emphasizes on logic and has difficulty socialising with others. Although the two of them are like soulmates to each other, they get married to other people and only get back together after a long time when they become partners to work on developing electrical fans.
Sato commented that as this is the first time he is acting in a morning drama, he is concerned about the long filming period but he will try his best to support Nagano who will have the heaviest burden among all of them. As for the relationship between Ritsu and Suzume, he described it as rather ambiguous so it's quite difficult for him to portray the fine distance between them because there is more to love between the two of them. However, he thinks that the biggest challenge is their 11-year age difference because the story's setting is that Ritsu and Suzume were supposed to be born on the same day and the story begins from senior high school all the way to their 40s so he's concerned about whether they will look like the same age as the story progresses. Actually, Nagano and Sato had worked together before in the 2012 movie "Rurouni Kenshin" but she was only a primary school student at that time. Even so, Sato remembered her for being very charimastic and pretty and that she hasn't changed much since then.
In addition, Matsuyuki Yasuko will be playing Haru who is Suzume's mother and Takito Kenichi will be playing Utaro who is Suzume's father. Fubuki will be playing Suzume's grandmother Yasuko and taking on the role of the narrator while Nakamura will be playing Suzume's grandmother Senkichi. On the other hand, Ritsu's mother Wako will be played by Harada while Ritsu's father Yoichi will be played by Tanihara. Yo will be playing the doctor Okada Kimika who delivered Suzume and Ritsu at Okada Hospital.
Other co-stars who were not at the press conference included Suzume's classmates played by Yamoto Yuma who acts as Saionji Ryunosuke and Nao who acts as Kidahara Nao. Kamimura Kaisei will be playing Suzume's younger brother.
Sources: Oricon 1 / Nikkansports / Oricon 2 / Eiga.com
Sounds like a good role for Sato, also never expected he'd be in an asadora, so I'm looking forward to this. Didn't realise too that Nagano had been in Rurouni Kenshin. Also, what's with all these large age gaps between the asadora leads? Tamaki and Haru were also about 11 years apart for Asa ga Kita, but at least their roles reflected that age difference. Nagano is only 17, ffs, but Sato is almost 30.
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