Members of idol group AKB48 are going to star in a short television miniseries titled “Sakura Kara no Tegami ~AKB48 Sorezore no Sotsugyou Monogatari~.” The show will consist of 17 episodes aired on 9 consecutive nights, from February 26 to March 6.
AKB48 will be playing themselves as 3rd-year high school students getting ready to graduate. One day, their homeroom teacher, played by Takaya Kamikawa (45), suddenly announces that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and only has three months left to live. As the students each begin reflecting on how to change their own lives, they come to understand the significance of “graduation.”
Each of the episodes will be its own story, building up to the climactic final episode. The main cast will consist of Yuko Oshima, Atsuko Maeda, and the rest of the “media senbatsu” team (decided at last year’s senbatsu), while the “under girls” and other AKB48 members will also appear as supporting cast. It is reported that all of the AKB48 members will make an appearance.
The drama’s main theme song will be “Sakura no Ki ni Narou,” whichb AKB48 will release as their next single on February 16.
The first episode will be 30 minutes long, and the last episode will be 60 minutes long, but the 15 episodes in between will each be 10 minutes long. In total, the drama has a running time of 4 hours. According to Mantan Web, the broadcast schedule will be:
- Episode 1 – February 26, 11:55pm
- Episode 2-4 – February 27, 11:55pm
- Episode 5-7 – February 28, 11:58pm
- Episode 8-10 – March 1, 11:58pm
- Episode 11-13 – March 2, 11:58pm
- Episode 14 – March 3, 12:38am
- Episode 15 – March 4, 1:28am
- Episode 16 – March 5, 12:50am
- Episode 17 – March 6, 10:30pm
Source – Tokyograph