Filming began late last month for an upcoming Fuji TV drama series titled "Atakake no Hitobito" ("The Ataka Family"), based on a serialized novel by Nobuko Yoshiya in 1951. It was previously turned into a film in 1952.

The story's setting has been changed to the late 1980s. Kumiko Endo stars as Kuniko, the daughter of an attendant to a hotel magnate. She is forced to marry the hotel's mentally challenged heir Soichi (Shige Uchida), whose pure heart gradually attracts her. However, his sister-in-law (Akane Oda) has discovered that her husband (Takashika Kobayashi) is cheating on her, leading her to also develop a liking for Soichi.

The series will show on weekdays at 1:30pm. It premieres on January 7.

Idol Shoko Nakagawa will launch her first national tour on May 5, her 23rd birthday. She will open the tour at the new JCB Hall (which opens in March), then will travel to Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Sendai.

Nakagawa held her first concert on October 20 at the C.C. Lemon Hall. The 2,000 tickets sold out in just 25 seconds, and fans across the country have been asking for more performances.

27-year-old Nobuyuki Hayakawa, better known as Nobu of comedy duo Chidori, is engaged. His fiancee is an Osaka resident working for a clothing company. The two attended the same high school and reportedly began dating when they were first-year students. They exchanged engagement gifts last month and have scheduled their marriage registration and wedding for March.

On December 19, Gackt will release an album titled "0079-0088." It will contain eight tracks, all of which are related to "Mobile Suit Gundam."

Gackt is known as a huge Gundam fan, having memorized much of the dialogue and being able to imitate the main characters' voices. He also provided a total of five theme songs for the three "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" movies in 2005 and 2006.

In addition to those five songs, Gackt's album includes three covers of Gundam tunes: "Suna no Juujika," "Ai Senshi," and "Meguriai." This will be the first time he has released a cover song.

Gackt plans to perform his version of "Ai Senshi" for the first time on next week's broadcast of "Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ."

Fuji TV has announced a new drama series titled "Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi," starring Hiroshi Tamaki and Haruka Ayase.

The bizarre comedy is based on a novel of the same name by Manabu Makime, which was nominated for a Naoki Prize this past summer. Tamaki plays a good-for-nothing teacher who gets assigned to a girls' high school in Nara. He becomes a "deer man," working to prevent the downfall of Japan under the orders of the deer of Nara Park.

Ayase plays his partner, a teacher in the social studies department that is a "history otaku." In the original story, her character was a man, married with children.

Fuji TV will begin filming in mid-December. The show will air on Thursdays at 10:00pm, starting in January.

Dai Watanabe, the son of actor Ken Watanabe, has landed his second starring movie role, portraying a college baseball player in Seijiro Koyama's "Saigo no Soukeisen." His first lead role was this past July in "Kenkei Kyoko Satsujin Han Kikoku No Senjo," directed by Takeshi Miyasaka.

Set in 1943, "Saigo no Soukeisen" focuses on the baseball teams of rival universities Waseda and Keio before the teams' members were sent off to the war front. The title refers to the students' final match against each other. This same subject was the basis of the 1979 film "Eireitachi no Ouenka: Saigo no Soukeisen" (also known as "The Last Game") by the late director Kihachi Okamoto.

Watanabe plays a member of the Waseda team. Also appearing are Kana Harada, Tasuku Emoto, and Tasuku's father Akira Emoto. Akira is playing the part of legendary manager Suishu Tobita, generally recognized as one of the most influential figures in Japanese baseball history.

Filming began on October 29 in the Nagano Prefecture. The movie is scheduled for a summer 2008 release, with Cinequanon handling distribution.