Nagai Masaru Stars in "Kintarou 2" Starting January Next Year

Kintarou is coming back. It was announced on the 16th that actor Nagai Masaru (31) will be starring in the "Salaryman Kintarou 2" drama, which will start airing in January of next year on TV Asahi (Friday evening at 11:15).

Last years drama, broadcast in October and starring Nagai, had the highest first episode Friday night drama rating on the same channel in history at 13.8%. With an average viewership rating of 11.8% on all 10 episodes, it ranks in after the "Tokumei Kakarichou Tadano Hitoshi" series and "Jikou Keisatsu".

The drama based on the popular manga about the hot-blodded salaryman, drawn by Motomiya Hiroshi (62), starred Takahashi Katsunori (44) and was a 4 part series on TBS from '99 to '04. It was also Katsunori's most famous work. Nagai's 2nd time around is shaping up to be a fine sequel to that.

Nagai said "I'd like to go for a performance that will make this a work that will surpass the first one" with enthusiasm. Co-starring as the same club mama that supports Kintarou, Misuzu, will be Inoue Waka (28). Playing the president of Yamato Construction will be Utsui Ken (78).

The theme song will be "long time no see" by B'z. A song featured on their album "MAGIC" that goes on sale the 18th, it's a feel-good rock song. It looks as though the Kintarou enthusiasm will reach an unprecedented level.

Source: http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/091117 ... 015-n1.htm

I don't know about anyone else here, but I watched the first couple seasons of the original Salaryman Kintarou drama. I couldn't really take watching more than that. It was a really good drama, but it really didn't have enough to it to last 4 seasons. Maybe this reboot of it that began last year breathed some new and more interesting life into it, I'm not really sure. I may just check it out so I can see for myself.