Research firm Oricon recently conducted a survey of 1,000 people, ranging from high school students to men and women in their forties. They were asked, "Who do you think is the strongest manga character ever?"

Not too surprisingly, the #1 choice was Son Goku from Dragonball. Second place went to the famous robotic cat Doraemon, chosen not for his physical strength, but for his huge assortment of tools and gadgets. Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star was ranked next, followed by Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece) and the android Arale Norimaki (Dr. Slump).

Super Delfin, a member of Osaka Pro Wrestling, is soon to be a father. His wife, talento Yoshie Hayasaka, is currently 5 months pregnant, with a due date in early December. The two have been married since December 2003.

Singer Chitose Hajime will make her voice acting debut in the extravagant Fuji TV anime special, "Miyori no Mori," which airs on August 25.

The work, based on a manga by Hideji Oda, was recently revealed to have a production cost of more than 200 million yen. It is being directed by Nizo Yamamoto, who has worked as art director on many well-known anime works, including "Princess Mononoke" and "Castle in the Sky." The voice cast includes Yu Aoi as the lead character, Miyori.

Hajime will provide the voice for the leader of the forest spirits that Miyori meets. The singer was selected for the part by Yamamoto, who was so impressed by her that he couldn't believe she had never done voice acting before.

Hajime is also singing the anime's theme song, which has the same title. It will be released as a single on August 22.

Daisuke Matsuda, one half of the comedy duo Tokyo Dynamite, announced that he got married on June 5. He and his wife have been dating for four years, and now she is expecting a child in December.

On Sunday, talento Yuka was presented with the 12th E-Line Beautiful Award. The prize, which is given to a female celebrity with a beautiful facial profile, is a PR campaign sponsored by the Japan Association of Adult Orthodontics.

While accepting the award, Yuka claimed that her secret for maintaining a healthy profile is chewing her food well.

Last month, it was announced that TV Asahi is producing a television drama remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece, "Ikiru." Now, the same network has revealed plans for another Kurosawa remake, this time based on his 1963 "High and Low" ("Tengoku to Jigoku"), which is both a thriller and a social commentary on the country's economic divide.

The setting has been changed from postwar Yokohama to modern Hokkaido, but the drama will retain the same characters and basic story as the original. Koichi Sato replaces Toshiro Mifune as the executive of a shoe manufacturing company, whose chauffeur's son gets kidnapped because the child was mistaken for his own son. Hiroshi Abe plays the chief detective on the case, and Kyoka Suzuki plays Sato's wife. At least one famous scene from the original film, in which the ransom is delivered on a bullet train, will be re-created for the drama.

Yasuo Tsuruhashi ("Ai no Rukeichi") is serving as both director and screenwriter. Filming began in Otaru, Hokkaido, on the 11th of this month, and is scheduled to finish in early July. TV Asahi will air the drama this fall.

Ryoko Hirosue will star in a TBS drama special titled "Long Wedding Road!" The family comedy focuses on a truck driver from Osaka (Hirosue) and a doctor from Tokyo (Masaru Nagai), who are both divorced. A fated encounter leads them to marriage, but it soon becomes a clash of values.

This is Hirosue's first true comedy role, as well as her first time playing a mother.

Yoko Akino, Kiyoshi Nishikawa, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, and Masaaki Sakai also appear in the drama. Broadcast is scheduled for July 30 at 9:00pm.

Teen actress Maki Horikita has been chosen to star in another television drama based on a popular manga. This fall, Fuji TV will broadcast a 2-hour adaptation of Shinji Inamitsu's "Deru Toko Demasho!," which is currently being serialized in Big Comic Spirits.

Horikita takes on the role of Shizuka Kamei, a high schooler who gets a part-time job as an assistant to the lawyer Hiromu Nonaka (Shosuke Tanihara). (Kamei, Nonaka, and other characters are named after well-known politicians.) The rest of the cast includes Eiko Koike, Yoichi Nukumizu, and Masaomi Kondo.