Sera Myu Sightings Late March 2010 - Part 1

We're a little behind on our posts - so this week will be mostly Sera Myu and PGSM will carry on until next week. Thank you Moonies! As of this writing we have 505 surveys for Phase 4! Only 195 to go till we hit our goal of 700! Today's actor updates are all dealing with doramas and DVDs!


Yuu Shirota’s New Samurai Drama to Get Boxset Release!

Yuu Shirota (Tuxedo Kamen from 2003-2004) keeps popping up in lots of different places! Last fall, he played Tsuyoshi Nakamura in the Japanese dorama Samurai High School. Tsuyoshi befriends the main character named Kotaro Mochizuki, who is a very special person. He experiences flashbacks of his past life as a samurai, and even awakens his ancestors within him to save the day. The show’s premise seems a little silly but it was a lot more popular than you’d expect, and it ran for 9 episodes on NTV! The show is set to get a DVD Boxset release on March 26th. It will be packed with extras including cast interviews, event footage, making ofs, and special stickers. Last fall on his blog, Yuu said that this was the first time he had ever played a good-for-nothing student, and said that this is the funniest dorama he has ever been in! He also wanted to assure his fans that his character's pants were not rolled up because they were too tall for him, that it was just the way his character was supposed to dress.

Fumina Hara in Drama Special!

Fuji TV aired a 4-night special drama event in the beginning of March, and Fumina Hara (Sailor Moon from 1998-1999) was featured in the very last episode. Sotsu Uta was a slice-of-life/coming of age dorama featuring four women's stories of graduation, that are based on popular graduation songs in Japan. Her episode aired on March 4th, and was titled Sotsugyou Shashin and was based on the song by Yumi Matsutoya. J-pop Queen Ayumi Hamasaki sang a version of this song on her A Ballads album, and fans can hear a version of it here. The story was about a radio personality named Hitomi Tachibana (played by Masami Nagasawa) who moved back to her hometown after working in the brutal Tokyo working world for a long time. She makes a brand new start in her old hometown with the help and support of a classmate from high school days. Fumina played Manami Kiguchi in the episode, and appeared for only a few moments. She played another employee at the same office as Hitomi, who was "sleeping her way to the top".

Fumina also appeared on NHK's office sketch comedy series Salaryman Neo last year. That show is also on its way to DVD on April 10th.

Reiko Kataoka Comes a Long Way From Being an Ensemble Member

Reiko Kataoka is probably one of those Sera Myu stars who is barely remembered. She only appeared in one musical - Gaiden Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen as an ensemble member. She has since gone on to appear in many doramas and films, and one of those doramas is Gaiji Keisatsu. This show is about a special police unit that deals with threats like international terrorism and espionage. She played the leading role of Sargent Ayane Igarashi, a gutsy Sargent who is ruthless and given many tough assignments. She tires of her job and wants to retire. The show was just released on DVD on February 23rd. It's surprising how far some actors from Sera Myu have come, even if they were only featured in a very minor role in the musicals!