Who has watched a Taiga in your lifetime? Any Taiga will do. My last one was 2010’s Ryomaden due to my Fukuyama Masaharu bias, but I mostly skip all the ones in in the last decade or so. This year’s Taiga is the female-centric Gou headlining Ueno Juri, so it sorta makes sense that next year’s Taiga swings the opposite direction and is completely male-centric. Not only that, it’s the most hot guys in a Taiga line up I’ve seen in probably ever.

Starring as the titular Taira no Kiyomori (a General in the 12th century Heian period who ended up founding the first samurai government of Japan) is Matsuyama Kenichi (who is having a great year, having just married Koyuki and with a baby due early 2012), with my wonderful Daito Shunsuke playing younger brother Taira no Iemori. Tamaki Hiroshi plays rival Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and super cutie Okada Masaki plays his youngest son Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Matsuda Shota of the cheekbones and the pout plays Emperor Goshirakawa, and last but not least, Fujiki Naohito is the famous poet Saigyo Hoshi. Whew, that is A LOT of attractive men who can act their pants off. We only need MatsuJun and Miura Haruma to complete the round up. This is one drama I am watching come January 1, 2012. Continue reading →