Topcaster

[Excerpt from Televiews, April 27, 2006 - Wm. Penn, Daily Yomiuri]: Yuki Amami turned to TV after a successful career and years of hard training with the Takarazuka Revue Company. That experience and discipline have allowed her to develop into one of the most capable actors on the small screen.

She says her hobby is watching television news programs. So perhaps it is only natural she is giving a strong performance in the new Fuji TV drama Topcaster (Mondays, 9 p.m.).

She plays Haruka Tsubaki, a top newscaster who for some mysterious reason was banished from the news desk at the mythical CNB network several years ago. Now she has been brought back by news director Shibata (Kiyoshi Kodama) to anchor a revitalized news program. Kodama and Amami lend some gravity to what is otherwise your usual "behind-the-scenes-in-the-broadcasting-studio" drama. The major difference here is that Tsubaki, a cool, tough, hard-hitting newshound, has selected Asuka (Akiko Yada), the "weather girl," to be her new assistant.

She chooses her because she looks like a cool but rather blank slate, someone she can train in the business. She will have her work cut out for her. Asuka admits she doesn't know what ASEAN means and can't remember the name of the U.S. president: "It's Clin...Bu...Bulinton!" Well, whatever.

The dialogue is noisy, quick-paced and none too deep, but as this quarter goes, it is one of the better bets. One star for Amami, who is a top star. The rest of newsroom staff at Topcaster are the usual stereotypes--several capable guys content to be mediocre and a programming director who wants to call the show News De Gogo. Typically, he is having an affair with a roving reporter. Only, in this new age of reality dramas, we have to listen to him complain about his hemorrhoids too.

Starring: Amami Yuki, Yada Akiko, Kodama Kiyoshi
THEME SONG:
NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: April through June 2006
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