PRIDE

[Excerpt from Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn, December 2003]: SMAP's Kimura, the drama king, looks likely to get the best winter quarter ratings with another romantic comedy. This time he will be paired with Yuko Takeuchi in Pride starting Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. on the Fuji network. Haru (Kimura) and his high school pal (Kenji Sakaguchi) are members of the Blue Scorpions hockey team. Quite the ladies' man, Haru does not want to get seriously involved with any woman during his playing career. But then, of course, he is going to meet Aki (Takeuchi), who is patiently waiting for her boyfriend, who has gone off to New York for two years.

[Excerpt from Japan Times, January 2004]: Pan-Asian heartthrob Takuya Kimura starts his annual trendy drama gig Monday in the new series "Pride" (Fuji TV, 9 p.m.). Kimura plays the same kind of brooding romantic in all of his drama series, so the only point of interest is which occupation he's been given (last year it was an airline pilot).

Haru (Kimura) is the captain/forward of a company-affiliated semi-pro hockey team. In the first episode, Haru and his team, which includes the gentle, serious goalkeeper, Hotta (Kenji Sakaguchi), and the playboy/rich kid Ikegami (kabuki star Ichikawa Somegoro), are celebrating their victory at a company party when a trio of beautiful young female employees arrive. Haru and Ikegami make a wager, and Haru then attempts to catch the eye of Aki (Yuko Takeuchi), who works for the accounting department.

[Excerpt from Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn, January 22, 2004]: With Pride (Mondays at 9 p.m. on the Fuji network), Takuya Kimura has done it again. This time around he's Haru, an ice hockey star, and he sent the ratings puck zipping skyward in week one with the assistance of a sharply honed Shinji Nojima script. It's an entertaining romance with some serious undertones and lots of ice hockey action. Haru (spelled Halu on his uniform to provide a more exotic touch) idolizes his first coach, Anzai, played by Saburo Tokito, who, like Yukari, is also killed off in the very first episode. But he hovers over the story and Haru's life as he tries to cope with the new irritating coach played by Koichi Sato. One of the things Anzai has instilled in him is that he can't fall in love. Romance has to be a game during his serious playing career. He has no trouble following those rules until he meets Aki. It starts out as a game as his friends pick up her friends and he observes that she may be one of those rare, old-type Japanese girls who is not so quickly picked up or toyed with. This makes the game more enticing because that is the kind of woman he really wants.
When Haru finds she is waiting for a long-gone boyfriend to return, he suggests they should just hang out together until then. Since neither wants to get serious, it will be safe for both of them. She sees through this line but agrees. This one will keep viewers coming back game after game. Four goals!

Starring: Kimura Takuya, Sakaguchi Kenji, Takeuchi Yuko and more.
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NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: January 12, 2004 through March 2004.
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