It was announced today that Nishikido Ryo is going to be in a TBS drama starting in April ….. starring as himself! The drama is called “Papa wa Idol” or in English, “Papa is an Idol”. The drama is a “home comedy” and the story revolves around Ryo secretly marrying an older, single mom and he has to keep it a secret or he will be forced to retire from being an idol. Kanjani8 members will also be making appearances on the show as themselves too, though it is not mentioned wether they are a big part of the drama or not.

My Thoughts

Ryo has been one of my favorite Japanese actors ever since I watched “Last Friends” and “1 Liter of Tears” and that has just been made stronger since his other recent dramas, especially “Zenkai Girl” from this past summer. Though I might not like the story line sometimes, I think Ryo is almost always right on target with his character and I enjoy watching his acting.

For this drama though, I don’t know what to think. It honestly sounds like a fan fiction that someone would write about Ryo. When I first heard about this, I though it sounded like a story line made just for the fans and that it should have been released for fans, like 8Uppers, on a Kanjani8 DVD or album release or something along those lines. I am not sure how this storyline will translate to the general public, but since it is a comedy they might not take it seriously, which might or might not be a good thing. I just hope that Ryo’s acting reputation will not go down because of this.

One last thought is that this drama could be apart of Kanjani8’s 8 year anniversary special event line up, depending on how much the rest of the members appear in the drama. Kanjani8 fans have been craving a drama with all of Kanjani8 in it for a while, and this might be exactly that. Ryo could just be the main actor in it, making the actual story line, with Kanjani8 all being support as themselves as we get a glimpse of idol life. That is just my speculation of what it could be and I will be waiting, along with all my fellow Kanjani8 fans, to see how this drama turns out. Maybe a new Kanjani8 single will come out of this too? Who knows!

Source: http://dozchan.livejournal.com/523020.html