Hero is a Japanese drama series that first aired on Fuji TV in from January to March 2001. Following a television special and a film adaptation, Fuji TV aired a second series called Hero 2 in 2014. Both series starred Takuya Kimura as a renegade public prosecutor in Tokyo.

The original 2001 series achieved unusually high ratings, with over 30% audience share per episode. In the special, 5 years has passed since the events of the TV series. Kuryu has been transferred from Ishigaki to Sapporo and finally ends up assigned to a small coastal village in rural Yamaguchi Prefecture. There, he inspires a new group of small town prosecutors and paralegals while investigating a murder possibly implicating a favorite local politician. The events of this special lead into the 2007 feature film.

Hero (2007 feature film)

Hero 2 (2014 TV series)

This series takes place 7 years after the events of the feature film. Kuryu returns to the same Tokyo office from the first series and feature film. Also reprising their roles will be Kadano Takuzo, Kohinata Fumio, Yashima Norito and Tanaka Yoji. Bokuzo Masana, who had a nonspeaking role as the security guard in the first series (and feature film), is promoted to a series regular. His character is now a paralegal. New cast members will be Sugimoto Tetta, Hamada Gaku, Matsushige Yutaka, and Yoshida Yo, as well as Kitagawa Keiko, who will be Kuryu's new assistant paralegal.

Katsumura Masanobu makes a cameo appearance in the first and tenth episode, while Otsuka Nene guest stars in the 4th episode. Kuryu's love interest from the first series and film, Amamiya (played by Matsu Takako), does not appear though she is mentioned a few times. When asked about Amamiya's whereabouts or his current relationship with her, Kuryu refuses to answer except to say "not everything works out"

Hero (2015 feature film)

Kuryu and the cast of characters from the second TV series appeared in a 2015 feature film (not to be confused with the 2015 Bollywood film of the same name), featuring the return of Amamiya.

It reached the third highest-grossing position in the 2015 Japanese box office.

Cast

Main cast (2001)

thumb|Takuya Kimura's costume in Hero

{| class="wikitable"

! Actor !! Role

|-

|Takuya Kimura || Kohei Kuryu (久利生 公平)

|-

|Takako Matsu || Maiko Amamiya (雨宮 舞子)

|-

|Hiroshi Abe || Mitsugu Shibayama (芝山 貢)

|-

|Nene Ōtsuka || Misuzu Nakamura (中村 美鈴)

|-

|Takuzō Kadono || Yutaka Ushimaru (牛丸 豊)

|-

|Masanobu Katsumura || Tatsuo Egami (江上 達夫)

|-

|Fumiyo Kohinata || Takayuki Suetsugu (末次 隆之)

|-

|Norito Yashima || Kenji Endo (遠藤 賢司)

|-

|Kiyoshi Kodama || Toshimitsu Nabeshima (鍋島 利光)

|}

Supporting cast (2001)

Naoko Iijima, Ryō (りょう), Yōji Tanaka

Main cast (2014)

{| class="wikitable"

! Actor !! Role

|-

|Takuya Kimura || Kohei Kuryu (久利生 公平)

|-

|Keiko Kitagawa || Chika Asagi (麻木 千佳)

|-

|Yutaka Matsushige || Kenzaburō Kawajiri (川尻 健三郎)

|-

|Tetta Sugimoto || Masashi Tamura (田村 雅史)

|-

|Norito Yashima || Kenji Endo (遠藤 賢司)

|-

|Gaku Hamada || Daisuke Uno (宇野 大介)

|-

|Fumiyo Kohinata || Takayuki Suetsugu (末次 隆之)

|-

|Yō Yoshida || Reiko Baba (馬場 礼子)

|-

|Bokuzō Masana || Shūji Ido (井戸 秀二)

|-

|Takuzō Kadono || Yutaka Ushimaru (牛丸 豊)

|}

Supporting cast (2014)

Yōji Tanaka, Naotarō Moriyama (ep.1), Shōsuke Tanihara (ep.2)

Production notes

  • The sound track and music scores for the series are available. The theme song, "Can You Keep a Secret?", is performed by the Japanese pop superstar Hikaru Utada.
  • Utada made her television acting debut in a guest appearance in episode 8 of the drama. She appeared as a waitress and was on screen for only 14 seconds, bringing the series its peak TV rating at 36.8%. When asked if she would like to take on bigger roles, Utada replied that this wasn't the path she would like to be in.

Ratings

In the tables below, <span style="color:blue">the blue numbers</span> represent the lowest ratings and <span style="color:red">the red numbers</span> represent the highest ratings.

HERO 1

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"

|-

!Episode #

!Original broadcast date

!Kanton region

|-

! 1

|January 8, 2001

|33.4%

|-

! 2

|January 15, 2001

|32.7%

|-

! 3

|January 22, 2001

|30.8%

|-

! 4

|January 29, 2001

|<span style=color:blue>30.7% </span>

|-

! 5

|February 5, 2001

|34.9%

|-

! 6

|February 12, 2001

|36.1%

|-

! 7

|February 19, 2001

|34.5%

|-

! 8

|February 26, 2001

|<span style=color:red>36.8% </span>

|-

! 9

|March 5, 2001

|34.4%

|-

! 10

|March 12, 2001

|35.1%

|-

! 11

|March 19, 2001

|<span style=color:red>36.8% </span>

|-

!colspan="2"| Average

|<span style=color:green> 34.3%</span>

|}

HERO 2

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"

|-

!Episode #

!Original broadcast date

!Kanton region

|-

! 1

|July 14, 2014

|<span style=color:red>26.5% </span>

|-

! 2

|July 21, 2014

|19.0%

|-

! 3

|July 28, 2014

|20.5%

|-

! 4

|August 4, 2014

|<span style=color:blue>18.7% </span>

|-

! 5

|August 11, 2014

|21.0%

|-

! 6

|August 18, 2014

|20.1%

|-

! 7

|August 25, 2014

|19.0%

|-

! 8

|September 1, 2014

|20.5%

|-

! 9

|September 8, 2014

|20.2%

|-

! 10

|September 15, 2014

|22.3%

|-

! 11

|September 22, 2014

|22.9%

|-

!colspan="2"| Average

|<span style=color:green> 21.3%</span>

|}

References

  • Hero at jdorama.com