<figure id="attachment_274419" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-274419" style="width: 1178px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1f543e1c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/11/fbab3802578207d29aee86088c8c3c0d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-274419" class="wp-caption-text">Actress Nao in her first starring role in a prime-time drama &#8220;First Penguin! Actress Nao plays the lead role in her first golden role in</figcaption></figure>
 Currently airing Wednesday drama &#8220;First Penguin! (NTV). (NTV). In the drama, actress Nao&#8217;s passionate performance as the gutsy, strong, and cool protagonist Waka (Nodoka) has been attracting a lot of attention.
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 The drama is a success story based on a true story in which a single mother, Waka Iwasaki, played by Nao, ventures into the fishing industry, a world she has no connection to, meets Hiroshi Kataoka (Shinichi Tsutsumi), the president of a fishing fleet, Sanshi Fune Danmaru, breaks old norms and customs, and revives a dying beach.
 Some viewers may have wondered why Nao, who has often played the role of a person who goes with the flow and lives a leisurely life, was playing the role of Waka. Nao, however, shakes off such concerns in the last scene of the first episode.
 Waka came up with the idea of a &#8220;fish box&#8221; where fishermen could sell fish directly to consumers, obtained permission from the city hall, prefectural government, and the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Agency, and pushed forward with the practical application of the idea. Who the hell are you to cry to me to do something about it? You&#8217;re not even a son of a bitch.
 You&#8217;re not even a son of a bitch. You&#8217;re just a piece of shit, a piece of shit! He then said to the snooty head of the fishing cooperative (Tomio Umezawa), who looked down on him, &#8220;You&#8217;re the one who&#8217;s crazy, you son of a bitch! If things continue as they are, you&#8217;ll end up as the incompetent union head who ruined this beach for sure. You can&#8217;t do that kind of calculation, you&#8217;re really an octopus! He was furious and cut off his head. The netizens were inundated with praise for his two-minute &#8220;out-of-control&#8221; performance.
 This drama is the first starring role in a GP series for Nao, who is said to be a talented young actor. When she received the offer, she said
 When she received the offer, she commented, &#8220;The main character Waka&#8217;s toughness like a hero who never gives up on anything is exactly what I wanted to be someday.
 I would love to play Waka,&#8221; he commented. I would love to play the role of Waka.&#8221; He also commented on his collaboration with Yoshiko Morishita, a hit maker who has written screenplays for &#8220;JIN&#8221; (TBS), the morning drama &#8220;Gochisousama,&#8221; the historical drama &#8220;Onnajoshu Naotora&#8221; (both on NHK), and &#8220;Yoshiko Morishita: The Mother and Her Daughter Blues&#8221; (TBS).
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 I hope we can challenge ourselves to create a new chemical reaction.
 I hope we can take on a new challenge that will bring about a new chemical reaction,&#8221; he said, adding that his hopes are high.
 However, Waka&#8217;s appearance reveals the true face of Nao, an actress who &#8220;never gives up on anything.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=' What is the "driving force" that drives Nao to become an actress?'></div>
Nao lost her father when she was seven months old and grew up watching her mother work hard. She was scouted in her hometown of Fukuoka when she was in high school and worked as a model and TV reporter to help earn money for her family. Eventually, a workshop awakened her to the charms of acting, and she auditioned for the morning drama &#8220;Asadora.
 She left her mark by making it to the final round of auditions for &#8220;Mare&#8221; and then &#8220;Warotenka&#8221; (both on NHK). However, after graduating from high school, she worked as a contracted employee and also experienced work as a manager. She has been agonizing over whether she will continue to be on the support side instead of the acting side,&#8221; said a reporter from a sports newspaper.
 She reached a turning point when she was 20 years old. She persuaded her mother to let her move to Tokyo, where she entered the Actors&#8217; School of the scriptwriter Shinji Nojima, and was chosen as a special student who was exempted from tuition fees.
 She then became a star and was selected as a finalist in the audition for the first half of the 2006 morning drama series, &#8220;Half Blue,&#8221; in which she played the heroine. In the audition for the first half of 2006, she missed the final selection for the role of the heroine, but won the role of the heroine&#8217;s best friend and seized a great opportunity as an actress.
 In 2007, Nao played a supporting role in a number of films and TV dramas and became known as a young actress. She won the Za Television Drama Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Supporting Role in the hit film &#8220;It&#8217;s Your Turn&#8221; (Nippon TV), in which she played a stalker-like character.
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 She also played the leading role in a movie for the first time in &#8220;Haruka no Toki&#8221; (Haruka&#8217;s Pottery). This year, she played the role of Komako, a geisha who falls in love with Shimamura (Issei Takahashi), a writer, in &#8220;Snow Country&#8221; (NHK BS Premium), a dramatization of Kawabata Yasunari&#8217;s masterpiece, and also played the role of Fred (Shunma), a young black man who runs away to escape false charges in Jean-Paul Sartre&#8217;s popular stage play &#8220;Kyoshiki Hooker&#8221;. In Jean-Paul Sartre&#8217;s much-talked-about stage play, &#8220;Kyoshiki Hooker,&#8221; she breaks new ground as Lizzie, a prostitute who shelters Fred (Shunsuke Kazama), a young black man on the run from a false accusation.
 Nao has chosen &#8220;First Penguin&#8221; as her first starring role in a GP film. is her first starring role in the GP belt.
 In &#8220;First Penguin!&#8221;, Nao&#8217;s performance of emotions, especially anger, is the focus of attention, but that is not the only thing that attracts viewers to her. The &#8220;melancholy eyes&#8221; of Waka, played by Nao, is the hidden flavor of this drama.
 If Nao had not played the role of Waka, this drama might have ended up as a mere false and painful success story. However, Nao&#8217;s performance gives reality and depth to the existence of Waka, a woman who has been fighting on the edge, not knowing whether she will succeed or not,&#8221; said a director of a production company.
 Her lonely eyes, which contain a hint of melancholy, are used to their fullest. There is one work in which she makes full use of this weapon. That is &#8220;First Penguin! and &#8220;My Broken Mariko,&#8221; which was released at the same time as &#8220;First Penguin!
 The film is based on the manga of the same title by manga artist Waka Hirako. In order to save the soul of Mariko Ikagawa (Nao), who took her own life, her best friend Shinoto Moyo (Mei Nagano), who works for a black company, goes on a journey to steal the remains of Mariko&#8217;s poisoned parents.
 Nao, who read the original story of this film and was intensely moved by it, said
 Nao was so moved by the original that she decided, &#8220;If I&#8217;m going to make a movie, I have to convey the same passion and feelings as the original.
 She was so determined that she devoted herself to the role of the character.
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 Mariko, clutching a cutter, mutters, &#8220;There is never a day when I don&#8217;t have something to do. She is also told by Shino, &#8220;You must have a broken sense of humor. The sadness and danger that Mariko shows when she replies, &#8220;I&#8217;m broken,&#8221; as if the light behind her eyes is going out after enduring unreasonableness, is exactly the kind of Mariko that only Nao could play. Nao says that when she saw this film in the screening room, she sobbed with a crumpled face. I can even sense her obsession with acting,&#8221; said a director of a production company.
 The second half of &#8220;First Penguin! has entered the second half of the season. What kind of mark will Nao leave behind in her first starring role in a GP series? Expectations are only growing for the final episode.

 He is involved in program production in a wide range of genres, including variety, news, and sports programs. He has also planned and published many books on female TV announcers, idols, and the TV industry. While working on documentary programs, he became interested in history and recently published "Ieyasu was dead in Sekigahara" (Takeshobo Shinsho). She is also publishing the e-book series "Ibun Chakurezuregusa.

 Ukon Shima (Broadcaster, Video Producer)

 Ippei Hara

 Actress Nao plays the leading role for the first time in the current drama series "First Penguin! is her first starring role in a prime-time drama series. What is it about Nao that keeps her in the hearts of viewers?

Nao&#8217;s &#8220;melancholy eyes&#8221; in &#8220;First Penguin! The true identity of the &#8220;eyes with melancholy&#8221; that Nao charms in &#8220;First Penguin!

Nao’s “melancholy eyes” in “First Penguin! The true identity of the “eyes with melancholy” that Nao charms in “First Penguin!

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