Today, it was announced that popular child actress Ashida Mana would make another appearance in NHK's taiga drama 'Gou ~Himetachi no Sengoku~'.

Ashida first appeared in the beginning of the drama to portray the early years of 'Cha-cha', now played by Miyazawa Rie. For�her re-appearance she was cast as the character 'Sen'. Since Sen is the daughter of Gou (Ueno Juri) and Tokugawa Hidetada (Mukai Osamu), she marries Toyotomi Hideyori (Takeda Katsuto) at the very young age of seven. Consequently, Ashida will wear a traditional wedding kimono for the very first time.

The young actress just turned seven last month, so she was able to empathize with her character's feelings. She commented, "Sen-hime is still so young, but she's already getting married and leaving her mother and father. I think that's amazing. I would probably feel lonely." Thinking about her ideal wedding, she added, "I want to wear both, a [Western] dress and a white kimono."

Another interesting thing to note is that Sen is essentially the Cha-cha's�daughter-in-law, making her re-appearance slightly confusing not just for the viewers, but for Ashida as well. "It's a strange feeling," confessed Ashida. "I was surprised and happy that I would be able to play two different roles in one story. It was a lot of fun."

Gou's producer explained that�after Ashida's�accurate portrayal of Cha-cha, they were eager to have her play another child character. The decision to cast her as 'Sen' was made soon after they finished filming the first episode. �The positive viewer feedback about Ashida's acting proved that the producer's instincts were right.

Sen makes her first appearance in episode 37, scheduled to air on September 25th.

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Source + Images: Oricon