The members of Kanjani8 have acted in individual dramas, but now the entire group will star together in the upcoming Nihon Television special drama, “Ikiteru Dake de Nankurunai sa“!

Member Murakami Shingo will play the lead part, and he’ll be joined by actress Tanaka Rena as his wife. The “life story” is based on Tamamoto Eisaku’s novel of the same name, and revolves around the main character as he struggles to fight through his multiple incurable diseases.

Nishikido Ryo, who starred in the 2009 special drama “Niini no Koto Wasurenaide“, commented, “It’s been a long time since we’ve co-starred together, and the standard Japanese was difficult.” Murakami also had a few grievances about the dialect used in the drama, which posed an interesting challenge to the members of Kanjani8. “It’s the first time that the seven of us have had to perform using standard Japanese together, so it felt more strange than it did fresh. When I was talking to Maruyama (Ryuhei), I ad-libed and my Kansai dialect came out,” he commented.

Each of the members then gave viewers a message, asking them to look forward to Kanjani8’s drama together. “I hope you can feel the deepness of our bonds to each other, and how close we are (by watching this),” said member Shibutani Subaru. Maruyama smiled as he commented, “Since we’re all the same age in (this drama), I hope it gives off a warm feeling.”

The special drama airs on August 20th as part of NTV’s 24-hour charity programming.

source: tokyohive