The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Drama

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Nami uraraka ni, Meoto biyori
2) Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
3) Taigan no kaji

Voters Ranking Top 5

1) Nami uraraka ni, Meoto biyori

2) Damemane

3) Musashino Rondo

4) Caster

5) Parallel Fuufu

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Nami uraraka ni, Meoto biyori
2) Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
3) Anata wo ubatta sono hi kara

4) Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

5) Taigan no kaji

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Taigan no kaji

Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi

3) Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

4) Angel Flight

Nami uraraka ni, Meoto biyori

Source: The Television

The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Leading Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi

2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami

3) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Inoo Kei - Parallel Fuufu
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami
3) Masakado Yoshinori - Musashino Rondo
4) Mamiya Shotaro - Ignite
5) Abe Hiroshi - Caster

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami
3) Abe Hiroshi - Caster
4) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

5) Uchino Seiyo - PJ ~ Koukuu kyuunandan ~

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami

3) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

4) Uchino Seiyo - PJ ~ Koukuu kyuunandan ~

5) Abe Hiroshi - Caster

Source: The Television

The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Supporting Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori

2) Dean Fujioka - Taigan no kaji

3) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori
2) Yamada Ryosuke - Damemane
3) Miyama Ryoki - Ignite
4) Michieda Shunsuke - Caster
5) Sano Masaya - Dr. Ashura

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori
2) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate
3) Takahashi Mitsuomi - Otto yo, shindekurenai ka
4) Mochizuki Ayumu - Koi wa yami
Shiono Akihisa - Mamono

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Dean Fujioka - Taigan no kaji
2) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori

3) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

4) Ichinose Wataru - Taigan no kaji

Takahashi Mitsuomi - Otto yo, shindekurenai ka

Source: The Television

The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Theme Song

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

2) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

3) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)
2) Destiny - Ae! group (Musashino Rondo)
3) Hana no you ni - Ryosuke Yamada (Damemane! - Dame na tarento, manejimento shimasu -)
4) encore - Hey! Say! JUMP (Parallel Fuufu Shinda boku to tsuma no shinjitsu)
5) Damashiai - tuki (Caster)

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

2) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

3) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)
4) Maria - Abe Mao (Dear My Baby ~ Watashi ga anata wo shihai suru made ~)
5) mimosa - Hamasaki Ayumi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

2) BEAT - WurtS (Koi wa yami)

mimosa - Hamasaki Ayumi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

5) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)

Source: The Television

Quick Review #135: Caster - Spring 2025

Title: Caster / キャスター　　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 2 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who don't mind watching a messed up story promising too much but delivering too little

* Potential spoilers ahead!

Liked:

- While I do not have very nice words for most of this drama, some cast members did try their best to deliver their best despite the limitations they faced especially Otoo Takuma and Tsukishiro Kanato. 

- The production team's courage to pick up and cover some controversial real-life examples in the earlier episodes.

Disliked: 

- The biggest problem was with the story. As I wrote before, the fact that this drama had as many as 6 scriptwriters, the illogical settings and developments were the root cause that resulted in the story losing focus and going in various directions but lost its way at the end. Not only were the loose ends not tied up properly, the ending and so-called truth/revelations were just so slipshod that I wondered why I wasted three months on this. It felt like the production team couldn't wait to wrap up this whole thing even though the big topic in the end could have been dealt with in a deeper and more thoughtful manner. And to think that the ending hinted at the possibility of a sequel! I'm sorry but I don't think I can watch anything more from this series.

I really should have given up much earlier like what I did with "Get Ready!" which had a similar problem. 

And TBS does need to be more careful about using keywords like unconventional, break out of the norm or shocking in its promotional slogans. The sense of disappointment gets bigger when the actual product turns out to be much less than promised.

- To be honest, some may argue that the inability by many viewers to enjoy the drama arose from Nagano Mei's two-timing scandal which was exposed soon after the first OA. To be fair to her, the fundamental cause of this drama's failure was still the poorly-structured story. However, the fact that her character Sakikubo Hana was two-faced and had double standards when it came to dealing with issues dear to her or detached from her situation made her lines and behaviour in the story very difficult to resonate with. Her scandal only served to amplify how hollow her words and actions came across because they were like boomerangs that went straight back to her as thinly-veiled criticism towards her real-life actions (whether intended or not). As such, to see a heroine go on and on as if she is some righteous person on a crusade to take down the lead character - that just came across as nonsense and downright hypocritical.

- Although Kim Mu-jun's significance in this story wasn't big to begin with and I am not a fan of him, I felt that how he was effectively erased from the drama without a trace after the scandal broke was distasteful to say the least. 

- I watched this for the sake of Abe Hiroshi but sad to say, this really wasn't one of his best performances to date. My biggest grouse was, Shindo came across more as an investigative journalist rather than a newscaster and he simply didn't behave like a newscaster especially when it came to his posture and way of speaking on air. I get that he was supposed to be unconventional but the basics of being the lead caster weren't even there. Compared to his co-caster played by Tsukishiro who looked extremely convincing, the contrast was even harder to ignore.

Too detached from reality? - The conflicting settings and unrealistic things in TBS Spring 2025 drama "Caster"

While "Caster" has been getting the wrong kind of attention of late due to Nagano Mei's ongoing controversy about an alleged affair with Tanaka Kei, another part of the drama is also being scrutinized for its apparent gaps between reality and fiction. This article from Pinzuba highlights the key discrepancies that are being talked about among viewers and industry insiders especially with regard to the character and newsroom settings.

To begin with, let's find out more about the key positions in a TV news reporting programme's production team:

• Producer (プロデューサー): Person-in-charge of the entire programme. Manages various aspects such as planning, production and budget control.
• Assistant Producer (アシスタントプロデューサー): Assists the producer in areas including drafting proposals, schedule and budget management
• Overall Director (総合演出): Decides on the direction of the programme, issues instructions to directors and monitors the programme on-site
• Director (ディレクター): Executes the plans from the overall director as well as gives instructions and manages the situation on-site.
• Assistant Director (アシスタントディレクター): Follows the instructions of the director and provides support on-site.

• Desk (デスク): The boss of the reporters who checks the articles and direction of the news reporting, decides on the composition of news topics for the day and time allocated to each story
• On-site Reporter (リポーター・取材記者): Reporting news on site
• Editing Reporter (編集記者): Compiles the information obtained on-site and creates articles to be read during the programme
• Cameraman (カメラマン): The person-in-charge of filming footage at news reporting venues
• Editors (編集者): Edits the information and filmed footage to produce news videos
• Editor-in-chief (編集長): The boss of the editors who considers the quality and direction of the video content along with the viewers' needs and preferences and decides on the content mix

• Caster / Announcer (キャスター・アナウンサー) : The person who reads the news in the programme
• Commentator / Panelists (解説委員): Subject matter experts or panelists to explain the background and meaning behind news topics

• Technical staff (技術スタッフ): Includes those working in broadcast technology, sound, artistic direction and technical support

Note that there may be slight differences in the terms used for the positions and/or segregation and overlap of duties between positions depending on various TV stations but the above more or less covers the key staff members for such news programmes.

If we are to look at the cast lineup in "Caster", the corresponding positions are as such:

Main Caster: Shindo Souichi (Abe Hiroshi)

Sub Caster: Koike Nami (Tsukishiro Kanato)

News Reporting Department Head: Kaiba Kouji (Okabe Takashi)

Producer: Yamai Kazuyuki (Otoo Takuma)

Overall Director: Sakikubo Hana (Nagano Mei)

Editor-in-chief: Ichinose Sakiko (Miyazawa Ema)

Director: Kajihara Koudai (Tamaoki Reo)

Assistant Director: Motohashi Yuusuke (Michieda Shunsuke) / Choi Jae-seong (Kim Mu-jun)

Editor: Ono Junya (Kimura Tatsunari)

Reporter (Society News): Ando Erika (Kikuchi Akiko)

The role and age of the overall director

First of all, one of the most commonly-heard "complaints" was the choice of Nagano to play the role of the overall director and what that position actually involves. This important role is often said to be the second-highest-in-command after the producer and has to manage the entire production personally in the studio while the producer actually spends more time away from the recording/broadcast of the programme doing high-level planning behind-the-scenes.

 

While the age of Nagano's character was not specified, it is estimated that she should be in her mid/late 20s to early 30s. Considering the fact that she was said to have worked in the variety department for a while and even got the Chairman's Award before, her age should be somewhere in her late 20s at the very least. In addition, the drama did have some scenes where Michieda's character Motohashi referred to her as his senior. This could be in reference to the fact that her position is higher than his or that she is older than him since the time setting of the story is that he is just into his second year of employment with JBN (his estimated age should be somewhere around 25).

Given her age setting, industry insiders pointed out that it was near impossible for someone to be given such an important position especially for a news programme. It would have been more appropriate for her to be a director instead. Moreover, based on what has been shown in the drama, this overall director had hardly done any "directing" within the studio and was often seen outside the studio such as going along with Shindo to film his interviews or get involved in the news reporting process. These are things which the overall director does not do in real life.

The unclear job scope and overlapping responsibilities

There are also seemingly unnatural points about the job scopes of other characters. 

For example, the editor-in-chief played by Miyazawa Ema should be busy enough dealing with news stories and making decisions on what to include for the day's broadcast. However, she had been depicted multiple times to be wearing an intercom headset and giving instructions to the staff during the broadcast which is what an editor-in-chief does not do. It also appears as if the story treats the role of the editor-in-chief to be equivalent or similar to that of the desk because she did refer to herself as the desk but the official cast chart shows her job title as editor-in-chief.

Likewise, Otoo Takuma's producer character should have been focusing on the management of resources and budgets instead of getting involved heavily in what goes on during the broadcast. As such, his actual job scope in the drama seems to deviate from reality too.

The unnatural / nonsensical news reporting process

In real life, there will be reporters in charge of designated areas/topics in the TV station's news reporting department. They are the ones who actually go out to report on news and pass the footage and information to the editors who create videos and other content used for the broadcast.

However, "Caster" hardly features any reporters doing this. In fact, the assistant director Motohashi and the overall director Sakikubo go outside the TV station to do the reporting while there is a noticeable absence of a reporter on site each time. Having an AD to confront a interviewee with proof of wrongdoing as featured in Ep 3 was also something that could never happen in reality. Moreover, a key component of the reporter's work i.e. negotiations with the production team on how much of the content is shown during the broadcast is sorely absent from the drama.

Spoiling the exclusive scoop

In Ep 3, when Motohashi exposed the professor's wrongdoing, he had done so in the presence of representatives from other media outlets even though this was an exclusive scoop he secured due to the evidence given to him by his friend. The thing is, nobody in the news reporting circle would spoil their own exclusive scoop like this because your rivals would just take the same information and report it. As such, the usual practice is to secure confirmation from the target in private without letting your competitors know. 

Employment matters are not decided on the fly

In Ep 5, the director Kajihara was suspended from work and told that his contract expiring at the end of the month would not be renewed due to an issue which cropped up for a report he was doing. The head of the news reporting department Kaiba said that since Kajihara's contract happened to be near the expiry date, the TV station would use this as the perfect excuse to give the latter his marching orders. However, this is not what happens in reality because there will be at least a two to three-month notice period when it comes to contract renewals especially if you factor in handover procedures. In addition, Kajihara is the chief director so for an important position like this, it is impossible to treat his contract in such a manner.

Trivalising the impact of a senior employee's brush with the law

In one episode, the director of JBN's societal news department was arrested for a criminal offense. However, JBN continued to operate as per normal as if nothing had happened. For a scandal like this involving a senior employee and in a position that deals with law enforcement authorities and the government bodies, the TV station couldn't have gotten away with just a simple apology on air. In extreme cases, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications can even issue a broadcast suspension as punishment because this is considered a significant breach of trust as a TV broadcaster. 

While it is obvious that the drama prioritises entertainment over reality and tries really hard to portray Shindo as a super news caster who seems to do no wrong (until the rest of the characters do seem quite silly at times), these gaps with reality, conflicting settings and unrealistic developments make it more difficult for viewers to immerse themselves fully into the story. Although there were clear attempts at using real-life incidents as the base of these news stories featured in the drama (perhaps to boost the reality factor and gain more eyeballs by tapping on these big cases), it was also evident that the drama could not delve too deeply into these because of the potential negative impact on the actual persons and entities involved. In the end, this became a vicious cycle where the story ends up in the middle of nowhere.

Based on the episodes I've watched so far, I must say that the points raised in the article are indeed valid to a large extent. Personally, I wouldn't say that I have enjoyed all episodes of this drama to date because the quality seems to fluctuate a fair bit and the gap with reality does bug me to a large extent. And at this stage, most of the episodes can be considered to be fillers until the main plot/background story surfaces in the second half of the season so it's probably no wonder that the quality of the story seems to be a bit lacking at the moment. Coupled with the distraction from Nagano's scandal - somehow when she tries to be self-righteous and criticises Abe's character, it just comes across as uncomfortable to watch and less impactful as it should have been. This inevitably causes the impact of the drama and the message it is trying to convey to be weakened too. While I'm hopeful of better developments to come, I think it will take a major improvement in the second half of the drama to make up for the underwhelming first half in more ways than one.

The more the merrier vs. too many cooks spoiling the broth? - Looking into the trend of multiple scriptwriters in TBS' Sundays 9pm dramas

Is it a case of the more the merrier or will too many cooks spoil the broth? 

This article from Real Sound raises the above question by looking at the dramas from TBS' Sundays 9pm timeslot which has consistently done better than its competition in terms of ratings and critical reviews despite the languishing real-time ratings in recent years amid the rise of alternative viewing channels such as TVer and a wider variety of content vying for eyeballs such as those from Netflix.

While Japanese dramas traditionally tend to be written by a single scriptwriter, there is an increasing number of dramas featuring a main writer with assistants or multiple scriptwriters to share the workload or producing a collective script in the Hollywood style of "writers' room" where the team can range from as many as 10 to 20 writers. Recent examples in Japan which adopted the Hollywood style include NHK 2024 drama "3000-man" and Amazon Prime Video 2023 drama "Angel Flight".

Given that the Sundays 9pm timeslot is TBS' crown jewel in its drama programming, it is no wonder that a lot of time and resources are put into the offerings. However, the TV station's attempts to experiment with various genres and writing styles may not always turn out to deliver desired results. For example, while "VIVANT" in 2023 may have been a hit in terms of scale, the star-studded line-up and unexpected storyline which was kept a secret until the first OA, the response to last season's "Mikami-sensei" was somewhat divided especially over the long, complicated and philosophical lines in the script which required a fair bit of brain power to process.

The article highlights this season's "Caster" as being one of the unusual examples in this timeslot for having as many as 6 scriptwriters compared to the usual 1 to 4 writers in most dramas these days. Considering that a Sundays 9pm timeslot drama these days tends to last for 10 episodes, this actually means that each scriptwriter will probably get to work on slightly less than 1.5 episode (if divided equally). However, it is not known if they will actually co-write for each episode or divide individual episodes among themselves. 

One thing to note though, the last time a Sundays 9pm timeslot drama had 6 writers was in 2023's "Get Ready!" which was criticized for the lack of consistency in its story caused by fluctuating tones, writing style and story tempo back then. While it may be good to bounce off ideas from one another with a team of writers, it can also be risky if the team fails to agree on a single approach or chooses the wrong one when faced with varying viewpoints and options or worse still, come up with a script that has developments which do not agree with one another.

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After reading this article, I wanted to investigate whether the number of scriptwriters do have a part to play in a drama's success/failure and if there are indeed trends pointing to a shift from single scriptwriters towards the multiple-writers system. As such, I obtained data for the TBS Sundays 9pm timeslot based on their offerings for the past decade and also tried to compare between figures from the pre- and post-COVID eras.

No. of dramas between Winter 2015 and Autumn 2019 = 20 (Pre-COVID)

No. of dramas between Winter 2020 and Winter 2025 = 19 (Post-COVID)

*Note that the Spring 2020 drama "Hanzawa Naoki 2020" was postponed to Summer 2020 due to the lockdown caused by the COVID pandemic. 

*I did not include "Caster" in the sample for the Post-COVID group since it is still running.

*Ratings information are based on the Kanto region thus may not reflect the true popularity and extent of viewership on both domestic and international streaming platforms.

Key observations over the past decade

• The number of dramas which were real-life adaptations from novels and manga were about the same for pre-COVID (10 out of 20) and post-COVID (9 out of 19). 
• Why I chose to make a distinction between the originals and adaptations in my analysis is that scriptwriters working on the latter need to fit their work within the parameters of the source material thus would have lesser creative freedom to do their thing. On the other hand, those doing originals have to bear the risk of their own ideas going either way - could be a success or flop.
• One other thing to note is the difference between 原作 (original work) and 原案 (original draft). In the former, the scriptwriter has an original novel/manga etc. to adapt into a drama's script but in the latter, a draft with the broad outline of the characters and story setting is written by someone else other than the scriptwriter. As such, 原案 works are somewhat in the middle of the spectrum with adaptations and original creations at both ends and can be likened to be a "template" for scriptwriters to work with. In the pre-COVID days, there were no 原案 dramas but after the pandemic, there were at least 2 in this timeslot. This might be something to look out for in future - the concept of "DCU" was from overseas producers while "Gekokujou Kyuuji" was based on a non-fiction book about a true story. 

• The number of Sundays 9pm dramas written by single scriptwriters was the same for both periods i.e. 11 out of 20 for pre-COVID and 11 out of 19 for post-COVID.
• While some may say that there seems to be more dramas with multiple scriptwriters these days, the truth is that at least for this particular timeslot, it still seems to be fairly distributed between single and multiple scriptwriter systems for now.

• However, the average number of scriptwriters for each Sundays 9pm drama has indeed increased. From an average of 1.65 writers per drama in the pre-COVID days, it does seem like there is a shift towards the multiple writers format with an average of 2.47 per drama in the post-COVID era.
• It can also be observed that in terms of the number of writers per drama, the norm before COVID was anything from 2 to 4 but 4 seems to be the ideal number as seen in the post-COVID era with some going up to as many as 6 for a 10-episode drama series. This should explain why the average jumped so much in the past 5 years.

• The length of a drama in this timeslot seems to be headed towards the sweet spot of 10 episodes per season post-COVID as compared to a variety of numbers in the pre-COVID era (ranging from 7 to 12). The average number of episodes per drama was 9.85 before 2000 but after that, the average inched up to 10.42.
• As compared to the past when there was more or less standardization in terms of start and end dates for the seasonal dramas, there is a lot more variation these days with some having start dates before the beginning of the first month in the season and some not starting until the competition is already done with 2 or 3 episodes.
• Despite so, to have the same number of episodes each season at 10 per drama since Spring 2022 (except for "Atomu no ko" which had only 9 episodes) seems to suggest the trend going forward that this is the preferred number of episodes for dramas in this timeslot.

• In terms of performance based on average ratings, while the number of dramas which got an average above 10% was about the same at 15 titles for each period, the average rating was actually higher post-COVID at 13.39% compared to 12.81% pre-COVID. 
• It is important to note that the post-COVID era included the monster hit "Hanzawa Naoki" which had a high average of 24.7% that was easily double of most offerings so this brought the average up significantly. In addition, the average ratings between 2020 and 2022 (the height of the pandemic where more people stayed home) were higher as compared to when restrictions were relaxed and people could head out more than before.

• However, if you delve deeper in the 10%-and-above "hits" for both eras, only 6 out of 15 were written by single scriptwriters in the pre-COVID era while as many as 9 out of 15 were from solo scriptwriters in the post-COVID era.
• What this probably suggests is that putting an entire drama in the hands of one scriptwriter can turn out to be a huge gamble thus resulting in the subsequent shift towards multiple scriptwriters as a form of risk mitigation by the TV station. 
• On the other hand, since dramas by multiple scriptwriters tend to be those who are relatively unknown or fresh to this industry, it also helps in giving them experience without the burden of shouldering a drama's fate single-handedly.
• In most scenarios, the staff credits list do not actually make a distinction in terms of hierarchy in the scriptwriting team. It is only when there is a main writer that the others are named as assistants e.g. "Mikami-sensei". As such, it looks from the outside that the members in such teams are on equal footing (more or less).
• The higher success rate in the post-COVID era also needs to be considered along with the pandemic's situation between 2020 and 2022 when more people stayed home to watch TV. As such, out of the 9 hits in this period, 7 of them were from these years while there was only 1 in 2023 and 1 in 2025. 
• The 3 dramas which got above 10% in 2024 were all written by teams of 4 scriptwriters while the only solo work "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" in the same year had a single-digit average rating.
• Interestingly, while the 6 hits in the pre-COVID era were all from different solo writers, Kuroiwa Tsutomu accounted for as many as 4 out of the 9 hits in the post-COVID era i.e. "Kiken na Venus", "TOKYO MER", "My Family" and "Last Man Zenmou no sousakan". Of these, only "Kiken na Venus" was an adaptation from a novel so the others were all original scripts. 
• On the other hand, the only other scriptwriter who had more than 1 hit in the past decade was Morishita Yoshiko but her two works were from different eras i.e. 2015's "Tennou no ryouriban" in the pre-COVID era and 2021's "Tengoku to Jigoku" from the post-COVID days. Perhaps this phenomenon seems to reflect a tendency to go back to tried-and-tested names when engaging solo writers because of the stakes involved for a golden timeslot like this?

On a personal note, I do pay attention to the scriptwriter other than the cast lineup and genre when deciding what to watch. While I do have some favourites, it is not always a given that I will like everything from them. Likewise, I don't really shun works by people I am not aware of or familiar with since the cast and genre tend to play a more significant part in influencing my decision. Of course, there are some who I know I probably wouldn't like because of their style of writing or past bad experience and would approach such works with a bit more caution and apprehension. 

One other thing which I do not really like is the idea of putting big names together to work on the same story especially if their styles are totally different and very hard to integrate with each other. One recent example I can think of is Netflix's "Rikon shiyouyo" - my conclusion is that the styles of Kudo Kankuro and Ooishi Shizuka just do not match and their individual strengths do not get amplified by putting them together.

Just based on the findings above, I think what's clear is that the more established names in the industry are likely to be the ones who get sole responsibility and power to write their scripts on their own especially for a primetime slot like TBS' Sundays 9pm. On the other hand, the willingness to shift towards having multiple writers can be good for the industry as a whole to introduce fresh and varied perspectives but it does come with a risk of the story being messed up. How to strike a balance between the need for consistently high quality throughout the entire drama and risk & resource management within the confines of the harsher operating environment is going to be an important issue to consider. Otherwise, it will be even hard to get access to good scriptwriters and nurture new ones when they get wooed with more resources from companies with deeper pockets and enjoy more creative liberty beyond what's allowed on traditional TV. In the end, viewers like us would probably not get to enjoy good productions if the scriptwriter i.e. one of the three key pillars in drama production is not there to shore up the story even with the best cast and staff lineup.

Bunshun's latest scoop on the alleged extramarital affair of Tanaka Kei & Nagano Mei + her rumoured relationship with "Caster" co-star Kim Mu-jun

This big Bunshun bombshell of today actually started making its rounds online since last night.

Usually, when a celebrity's name becomes a trending word on social media like X, it can only mean one of these things:

• Something good has happened or the person's work attracts positive responses
• The person is involved in some negative news. 

As such, when I happened to see Nagano Mei's name trending on X last night, I somehow had the hunch that it should be the second scenario. The reason being, yesterday was not the day when "Caster" was shown on TV and I didn't recall her having any recent movie releases.

As it turned out, the reason why her name was trending was because of the following post which Bunshun posted on their account last night which said that they were going to release a scoop at 12 noon today (JST) about an affair between a "very popular heroine" who is appearing in an ongoing drama and a "big name actor":

As of today at 4.30pm JST, there are as many as 31 million views of this post, 1,100 comments and 5,300 reposts which shows how much attention this piece of news has attracted.

I was truly surprised to see Nagano being named as the heroine in question but what was more unexpected was that the guy said to be having an affair with her is Tanaka Kei. No offence to him and his fans but honestly, I don't really see him as a big name actor...as yet. And I remember them acting together as father and daughter before and Tanaka is a good 15 years older than Nagano. Much as they may be on good terms, it was a bit difficult to imagine them being linked in this manner especially since Tanaka has been married for so long and has 2 kids. As such, I was quite skeptical about them being named by netizens as the people involved in this scandal and didn't want to post about it until the news was revealed by Bunshun today.

What's interesting to note is that, while Nagano's name became a trending keyword last night, Tanaka didn't. It may be due to the fact that he isn't a stranger to controversy so people might not have been so shocked to see his name linked to such a scandal. As seen from some of the comments, many were saying that it was a matter of time for him to do something like this, not whether he would be capable of doing it. Most recently, his big party for more than 10 people held in 2021 during the COVID pandemic at that time when close contact and big events like these were discouraged to stop the infection from spreading attracted lots of criticism. Tanaka himself came down with COVID as well which meant that he had to take time off work and risked spreading the virus further through the people who were with him at that time. On the other hand, Nagano's image was comparatively much cleaner so I guess the shock from seeing her name being implicated in this kind of negative news was greater.

The best is yet to come.

If you thought that the affair is already raising eyebrows, imagine the double whammy of being told that Nagano may be two-timing Tanaka with another actor. This part was not mentioned in Bunshun's post last night so it was something totally unexpected. What's more, the actor concerned is Kim Mu-jun who is currently working together with Nagano in "Caster".

Now, I don't know which is worse - the alleged affair or the two-timing?

Since Bunshun's article is behind a paywall, the key points about the story are collected based on various sources such as other media outlets which reproduced parts of the story and netizens who shared screenshots of the article. If you are interested, you can sign up for Bunshun's subscription to gain access.

The Alleged Affair & The Unexpected Catch

- Nagano and Tanaka met after working together in the 2021 movie "Soshite, baton wa watasareta". According to an "associate", their relationship began last Sep after they reunited at a meal gathering in July for the first time in a long while. Back when they were filming the movie in 2020, there was nothing unusual observed in their interactions.

- Due to this scandal, the fact that they both announced having tested positive for COVID in July 2021 within a span of 3 days from each other became talked about again and fueled much speculation on the state of their relationship from back then.

- Bunshun reportedly received a tip-off last autumn about Nagano and Tanaka and subsequently caught them going to a theme park together in Dec 2024 and him picking her up from the TV station on 7 Apr 2025 after she knocked off and them going off to spend the evening together.

- While Bunshun's target was initially Nagano and Tanaka, they unexpectedly found that Kim Mu-jun who is Nagano's co-star in "Caster" also went on a date with her on 15 April and spent the night at her place. Up until Kim left her house on 18 April to return to South Korea, he was found to have been staying there on consecutive nights. The explanation given by both sides was that they were never alone together and that Nagano's mum was there as well.

- Later in the same evening, Nagano went to meet Tanaka at 7pm for a 3-hour meal at a high-class izakaya before going to a bar in Roppongi. They returned to Nagano's apartment around 3am.

- Around 3am on 19 April 2025, Tanaka was caught in a drunken state at the entrance of Nagano's apartment block with her by his side. He reportedly spent the night at her place and left around 11am the following day. In response to this, Nagano claimed that her mother was also in the apartment so they were not alone there.

- When Tanaka was interviewed in person by Bunshun as he left Nagano's apartment, he denied that he was romantically involved with Nagano but acknowledged for his behaviour that caused this misunderstanding. His somewhat conflicting answers also gave much room for imagination on the nature of their relationship which seemed to be too close for comfort in the case of a married man 

(Just my personal opinion here: It may have been best for him to shut up and not make the situation worse with his choice of words and way of answering the reporter.)

• Tanaka insisted that he and Nagano are just very good friends.
• He apologised for causing inconvenience and trouble to her simply because of her helping him when he was drunk.
• When asked if he and Nagano are in a romantic relationship, Tanaka said that "they can't have such a relationship. However, there were times when he did think that he would enter into a relationship with her if it was possible in reality". In his exact words: 男女の関係にはなれないです。なれない、なれないです。なりたいのにって言われたら、そりゃなれるもんならなりたいと思う時もありますけど
• When asked if he and Nagano were together during Halloween, he admitted that they did meet but there were other friends around. As the reporter probed further if the meeting was at Nagano's house, Tanaka did not give a clear answer.
• When asked if their relationship had ended, Tanaka replied that it was difficult to say. However, when the reporter mentioned very specifically that the two of them had decided to put some distance between them since April this year as first initiated by Nagano, Tanaka was very flustered and kept asking the reporter how they came to know about this matter.
• The problem was, Tanaka was caught spending the night at Nagano's apartment as recent as 19 April. As such, it was clear that his answer above was contradictory. 
• While Tanaka apologised for causing inconvenience to Nagano by spending the night at her place in a drunken state, he denied initially that he had a spare key to her apartment but he inadvertently admitted that he had "returned the key to her a long time ago". This suggested that he indeed was in possession of the spare key to Nagano's place, albeit probably not now anymore.
• Tanaka admitted that his wife did not know about him spending the night at Nagano's place and acknowledged that it was inappropriate for him to do so and let a junior take care of him when he was drunk.

- With regard to the Halloween party in question and to substantiate their claims in the report, Bunshun included the following photos taken in Oct 2024.

- In response to the news, Tanaka's agency released a statement that Tanaka denied having an affair and the agency believes him and will not conduct any investigation or is worried about this situation since they know that he has a habit of drinking with work colleagues. Although they do acknowledge that he can't hold his liquor well and yet still likes to drink and had gotten into some embarrassing situations in the past because of his drunken state, he had never been involved in a romantic scandal like this and is working hard in his acting career. However, the issue this time stems from a misunderstanding due to his actions which could be misinterpreted and viewed negatively. They admitted that he was at fault as well and had firmly requested Tanaka to be more mindful of his actions.

- Tanaka also issued another written explanation to Bunshun to clarify his stance after the in-person interview done when he left Nagano's place. He revealed that his friends had reminded him before that it was problematic for him to meet Nagano so often. That was when he first realised that this could be an issue for both of them even though they really enjoyed each other's company. He said that if he remembered correctly, what he meant by "it had ended" when he talked to the reporter was that he decided to stop meeting her so frequently. As he was still hungover at the time of the interview, he said that this was why his words did not convey accurately what he meant.

As for the part about having her house's spare key, Tanaka clarified that she did give him the carpark key to her apartment block so as to make it convenient for her friends to park there when they came over. However, he had already returned that to her long ago.

- As for Nagano's agency, they released a statement to deny that she was romantically involved with Tanaka and they just have a close relationship as senior-junior who meet up for meals and drinks. Nagano also has the habit of inviting her friends of both genders to her house for gatherings so this was not something restricted to Tanaka or Kim. However, what happened did create a misunderstanding so they have issued a firm warning for Nagano to be more mindful of her behaviour and apologised to all work parties and sponsors for causing worry and inconvenience to them.

With regard to her relationship with Kim, the agency also denied that they are dating and just colleagues.

- Meanwhile, Kim's agency also denied that he and Nagano are an item.

- Perhaps the immediate concern is how sponsors and work associates such as TV stations would see this scandal. Based on the estimation of Nagano currently holding 11 CM deals, the potential financial damage including loss of the deal and compensation could go up to JPY 700m. Sponsors can also choose to cancel CM deals or hold off the broadcast of CMs for the time being until the scandal dies down. Then it will be the TV stations which have to decide what to do next depending on the sponsors' preferences.

- According to Bengoshi.com News, the spouse i.e. Sakura in this case has the right to launch a civil suit against Nagano if it is proven later that the affair is indeed true. The market rate for damages to be paid to the spouse depends on whether the marriage ended up in divorce or not. If the couple divorces, the range will be from JPY 1.5 million to JPY 2.5 million. Otherwise, it will be up to JPY 1.5m. However, damages may not be awarded if it is proven that the other party did not know about the existing marriage.

Given that his marital status is widely known, there is no way Nagano can claim ignorance of this fact especially since they had worked together before. Then again, even for celebrities, the market rate for damages would not surge to hundreds of millions though. 

- The curse of Prada strikes again? Coincidentally or not, Nagano was named last Sep as a brand ambassador for Prada which has seen a string of its ambassadors end up in trouble over various reasons. The most recent example would be Kim Soo-hyun who is currently in the midst of his dating controversy with the late Kim Sae-ron since the time she was still a teenager and had his endorsement deal cancelled in just three months.

Just my personal view here:

I think the phrase "too close for comfort" probably sums up the root cause of this scandal best. Men and women can be good friends but there is a certain boundary to observe especially when one or both parties are attached. Letting a married man stay overnight at your place and him not letting his wife know where he was when he failed to return home - no matter how you look at it, it's hard not to let your imagination run wild. 

Given the nature of their occupations, being mindful of how they are perceived is even more important.

Holding hands - I don't know how you can justify that.

There have been countless examples of how young promising actresses go down the path of doom because of their involvement with a married colleague, whether it was true or not. In Japan, the scales are tipped even more unfairly against women because the guy always gets out unscathed after a while but the girl gets banished to the depths of hell. Even though both may be at fault. While there may have been some women who do get out of these scandals, that's the minority.

I find it a bit hard to understand and see why this kind of thing keeps happening over and over again despite the painful examples seen so far.

My biggest wish now is that "Caster" will not be affected because of what happened. I'm sure more people will be tuning in from now on but most likely, it's out of curiousity to see how Nagano and Kim interact on screen after the scandal. That's a shame though because the drama potentially can do well on its own merit.

I'm also curious, how would Oguri Shun react to this since he is the CEO of Tanaka's agency?

Preview of "Caster" - Spring 2025

Title: Caster / キャスター

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 13 April 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 9pm

Broadcast by: TBS

Theme Song: "Damashiai" by tuki.

Cast: Abe Hiroshi, Nagano Mei, Michieda Shunsuke, Tsukishiro Kanato, Kimura Tatsunari, Kim Mu-jun, Sasaki Maika,  Hikorohii, Horikoshi Reika, Baba Ritsuki, Kitaoji Kinya, Tanida Ayumi, Uchimura Haruka, Kato Haruhiko, Kaji Masaki, Tamaoki Reo, Kikuchi Akiko, Miyazawa Ema, Okabe Takashi, Otoo Takuma & Takahashi Hideki

Highlights from TBS DRAMA COLLECTION 2025 Spring

The TBS DRAMA COLLECTION 2025 Spring event was held on 29 March 2025 which was streamed online and featured key cast members from the three upcoming dramas starting in April 2025.

Team "Taigan no kaji" (Colour theme: Pink & White) - Tabe Mikako, Eguchi Noriko, Dean Fujioka & Ichinose Wataru

Team "Ignite" (Colour Theme: Red) - Mamiya Shotaro, Nakamura Tooru, Kamishiraishi Moka & Miyama Ryoki

Team "Caster" (Colour Theme: Black) - Abe Hiroshi, Nagano Mei, Michieda Shunsuke & Okabe Takashi

There was a Q & A session where the cast members were asked 2 questions and if all 12 of their answers matched, they would get a luxurious fruit gift set sent to their filming studios. Here are the answers to the questions asked.

On the first day of filming, do you:

A - approach others proactively to talk?

B - wait for others to come and talk to you?

A- Eguchi Noriko, Ichinose Wataru, Abe Hiroshi, Michieda Shunsuke, Nagano Mei, Mamiya Shotaro, Kamishiraishi Moka, Nakamura Tooru and Miyama Ryoki (The "IGNITE" team chose the same answer)

B - Tabe Mikako, Dean Fujioka and Okabe Takashi 

What type of clothes will you wear to the filming location?

A - Comfort is the most important so anything which you can easily change out of

B - Being fashionable is the most important so you will put in effort to choose something nice and presentable

A - Eguchi Noriko, Ichinose Wataru, Dean Fujioka, Tabe Mikako, Okabe Takashi, Abe Hiroshi, Nagano Mei, Michieda Shunsuke, Kamishiraishi Moka, Mamiya Shotaro and Miyama Ryoki (The "Taigan no Kaji" team chose the same answer)

B - Nakamura Tooru (Actually, Michieda chose B at first because he saw the options wrongly so he changed his answer to A in the end. As for Nakamura, he said that since he drives to the filming location on his own most of the time, he makes sure that he isn't dressed too shabbily in case he needs to go shopping for things and people see him but doesn't go to the extent of being fashionable.)

Unfortunately, they did not manage to give the same answers until the end.

Towards the end of the event, when Ichinose was asked to perform a leg split in response to a question about their routines on the filming set, he accidentally tore his pants. He then had to leave the stage for a short while and came back with a black shirt covering his pants as he made his exit when the event wrapped up.