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Ataru
Date: From 9.00 p.m., Sundays, 15 April 2012
Station: TBS


Synopsis:
Among the people with autism and intellectual disability are savants that exercise amazing talents in certain areas such as memory, music performance, painting, calculation that are beyond that of ordinary humans. Ataru (Nakai Masahiro) is an enigmatic man with the savant syndrome. While he is constantly many steps ahead of people, the problems he has with communicating results in difficulty understanding what he says. His behaviour is also incomprehensible and sometimes sets off panic. Ataru discovers, observes, discerns and infers minute evidence related to crimes which the police do not even notice, and randomly utters words connected to the criminals and causes of incidents that form the key to cracking difficult, unsolved cases. Former detective Ebina Maiko (Kuriyama Chiaki) is the one who assembles these pieces of the puzzle that Ataru presents to her, but because of her limited experience on the field she unravels them through the hints provided by her former superior at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Sawa Shunichi (Kitamura Kazuki).


Cast:

Nakai Masahiro as Ataru


Kuriyama Chiaki as Maiko Ebina


Kitamura Kazuki as Shunichi Sawa



Motokariya Yuika
Arakawa Yoshiyoshi
Matsui Naomi
Takaki Mio
Shimada Kyusaku
Tanaka Tetsushi
Kumakura Kazuo
Takami Ei
Utsui Ken


Website:
www.tbs.co.jp/ATARU

More cast members revealed for Nakai Masahiro’s upcoming drama “ATARU”



On March 26th, TBS announced more cast members for Nakai Masahiro’s upcoming drama, ‘ATARU’.

This mystery drama tells a story about Ataru (Nakai), a man with autism as well as savant syndrome, uses his extraordinary memory and deductive skills to solve various cases.

Among the newest additions is Kis-My-Ft2’s Tamamori Yuta, who will play Ebina Noboru, a medical student and the younger brother of Ebina Maiko (Kuriyama Chiaki). He’s the first to discover that Ataru is a savant, and takes part in analyzing and explaining the condition when symptoms occur.

As his first time co-starring with Nakai, Tamamori showed her nervousness saying, “I was nervous before entering the set, but I would like to take in as much as possible.” He also commented on his role as a medical student, “Since there are many difficult lines, I’ve been studying by reading books. I’m able to understand the words within the lines, and I feel it would be for my own sake, so it’s fun.”

It was also revealed that AKB48 Research Student Mitsumune Kaoru will make her drama debut as Ishikawa Yui. Ishikawa is a member of the Metropolitan Police Department’s mobile forensics unit, which carries out on-site inspections for Ataru’s cases. She has a harsh personality and is rough-spoken, but loves going on group dates.

Mitsumune commented, “My co-stars are all very kind and very funny! It’s my first time acting and I don’t have any confidence, but I hope to blend in with the atmosphere by using the things I’ve been taught, the things I learned by seeing, and practicing.”

Additionally, Rola will be making a guest appearance on the first episode of the drama as a grocery store employee. She expressed, “This is the first time I’ll be serious, so I think I’m really going to be nervous. Okay!”

In the drama, Rola had to challenge herself when it came to using a cash register. She shared, “I got used to it, I’m perfect now. But it made me think of how difficult it was. I learned a lot from it, and it made me want to study even more.”

“ATARU” will air on TBS every Sunday at 9:00 pm starting April 15th.

Drama Teaser




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_ez_ReOM4&feature=player_embedded

ATARU to release an official book, receives highest viewership ratings since first episode



It has been annouced that the TBS drama ATARU (Sundays, 9 p.m.) will be releasing an official book on 11th June. Contents of the book include photoshoots and interviews with the cast, staff, and reports on the making of the drama. The book comes in A4-size with 112 pages and a pinup.

Since hitting a low of 10.9% in its third episode, viewership ratings for ATARU have been steadily recovering over the past 3 episodes, with the latest episode (ep. 6) at 17.4%, the highest since its first episode rating of 19.9%.