On October 10, NHK announced that V6 member Okada Junichi will be starring in the new Taiga drama for 2014 titled "Gunshi Kanbei."

The script was originally written by Maekawa Yoichi, and the drama will depict the life of Kuroda Kanbei (other names: Kuroda Yoshitaka or Kuroda Josui). �Okada, who's starring in a Taiga drama for the first time, commented, "I love history so much I wanted to be the history teacher. Moreover, it will be about my favorite Warring States period, so I feel like trembling. This is such an honor."

Okada's role "Kuroda Kanbei" is a genius strategist under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Though he was given an important post by "three heros (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu)", he was also warned by them due to his ability as Hideyoshi described him as "the next ruler." Okada said, "I am excited that I will be able to spend time in this era for the whole year with the cast and the staff members. I would like to live through this Sengoku period as hard as I can."

He also commented about Kanbei, "I think he has many different faces. One is how he was described as 'the strongest No.2', and was even terrified of Hideyoshi. He is a quite interesting and�charming�person. I want to portray the role as a humane�military commander/strategist."

Filming will begin next August, and the drama will start airing on January 2014 until the following year.

Source & Image: Oricon via Yahoo! JAPAN