Promotional poster
Actress is a 2023 Japanese mystery television series adapted from a novel of the same title by Tetsuya Honda. It is the sequel to Borderless and again features seven members of the Sakamichi Series girl groups (Nogizaka46, Sakurazaka46, and Hinatazaka46) playing the main characters.
Taking place after the epilogue of the previous series, Nao Mori (Hikaru Morita) has become a private detective; Kiri Katayama (Kyoko Saito) is still advancing as a theater producer; and Kotone Nakajima (Yui Kobayashi) has become a mother and lives with her husband, their baby daughter, and her younger sister Kanon Ichihara (Seira Hayakawa), who is recuperating from an accident.
New characters include Tomomi Tagawa (Rei Ozono), Nao's partner at the detective agency, as well as Kotone's friend; Miki Amano (Runa Hayashi), a member of Kiri's troupe; and Kanna Mase (Riria Ito), the titular popular actress.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Kidnapping: Kiri finds the Twitter account of Kanna Mase's stalker and manages to track down his home, where he panics and locks her up for a few days. She's treated relatively well and learns a lot about Kanna's past during her confinement from her kidnapper, and he's not the murderer and is also taking care of his ill mother, so she decides not to report him to the police after she's freed.
- Alter-Ego Acting: Kanna Mase is the "ideal actress" persona created by sisters Kazumi and Rie Kato, to fulfill their shared dream of leaving their hometown for the entertainment world. Kazumi became the physical form of Kanna Mase, while Rie became her manager and maintains her online presence. Their relationship became strained after Kazumi (as Kanna) agreed to take credit for Kiri's novel, as Rie believes that "Kanna Mase" wouldn't do such a thing.
- Broken Pedestal: Kiri's actresses used to admire Kanna Mase until she got them fired from a production for no good reason, three months before the main story.
- Central Theme: Every family has its issues, but in the end everyone in it has to be able to rely on each other.
- Continuity Nod: Escape Beyond is the same novel which first draft Kiri allowed Nao to read when they were in high school in Borderless.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kanna Mase's producer Konosu bribed two members of Kiri's troupe to steal Kiri's money and put her in debt, so that she'd be forced to join his agency to earn money to pay it back. He then persuaded Kiri into handing over her novel manuscript, which he then published as Kanna's work.
- Covers Always Lie: The series poster depicts all seven Sakamichi members equally to keep the fans happy, but Kanon and Miki appear significantly less in the story than the others, while Kanna mostly appears in flashbacks.
- Demoted to Extra: Unlike in the previous series, Kanon doesn't appear much in this series and mostly babysits Kotone's daughter when she's away solving mysteries.
- Dresses the Same: Three months before the story's main events, Kanna made the director of the drama she starred in fire Kiri's troupe as extras, simply because Kiri wore the same red color to the shooting.
- Girly Bruiser: Nao might be small, but she's still a former police detective and can subdue men larger than her.
- Intrepid Reporter: The tabloid reporter Inuma figures out that Kiri Katayama is the real writer of Escape Beyond and threatens to publish an article implicating her in Kanna Mase's murder. After the real culprit was found and Konosu fired, it's implied that she leaked the information she possesses, once again reigniting the public's interest in the novel.
- Jack the Ripoff: The story opens with a series of cat killings, killed in the same manner as in the popular webnovel and television drama Escape Beyond, written by and starring Kanna Mase. The culprit is her Otaku fan and former classmate who intended to help create buzz for her drama. He didn't kill Kanna and only mutilated cat corpses instead of slaughtering live ones. Subverted in the end, as it's revealed that Kanna's death was a crime of passion not inspired by the novel's plot in any way.
- Parents as People: Kiri's parents disowned her as they disapproved of her theater career. Kotone has a discussion on parenting with her father, and also criticizes Kiri's mother for what she did. In the end, Kiri reunites with her mother, who has come to accept her life choice thanks to Kotone's urging.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The first episode ends with Kanna being murdered in a manner similar to the case in her novel, Escape Beyond.
- Poor Communication Kills: Kanna Mase, real name Kazumi Kato, was stressed out by the pressures of showbiz and treated her older sister and manager Rie poorly because of it. This, in addition to the stress of her own tumor diagnosis and the following hysterectomy, made Rie wrongly accuse Kazumi of sleeping with Rie's boyfriend, Oki, when Kazumi told her that she's pregnant, and she killed Kazumi in a fit of rage. She laments when she's apprehended that it wouldn't have come to that had they properly communicated their concerns as sisters.
- The Prima Donna: Rising talent Kanna Mase is a haughty young woman and had extras in her drama fired just because their manager wore the same colored clothes with her.
- Private Detective: Nao quit the police force to take care of her ill mother, and now works for the same detective agency as Tomomi, who was introduced to her by Kotone.
- Punny Name: Mari Mizuta hates her name, since in Japanese order it's a homophone for "water puddle" (mizu tamari), so she goes by Miki Amano.
- Stalker with a Crush: Kanna Mase's stalker has actually been in love with her (as Kazumi Kato) since they went to the same school. His feelings don't change even though she doesn't remember him at all, and he's heartbroken upon learning that she's been murdered.
- Stealing the Credit: Escape Beyond was actually written by Kiri Katayama back in high school, but her agency credited it to their more famous talent (who wasn't even an author), Kanna Mase, despite Kiri's protests. When Kanna is murdered in a way similar to the novel, naturally Kiri becomes a suspect.
- The Stinger: Several episodes feature a flashback scene of a younger Kanna (i.e., Kazumi Kato) talking with someone on a countryside field. She's talking to her sister and future manager, Rie, as they decide to move to Tokyo together to bring "Kanna Mase" into reality.
- Undying Loyalty: Oki loves Rie unconditionally and plans to marry her before she's put in prison so that he can visit her as a family member.
- Woman Scorned: Their relationship had been uneasy for some time, and finally Rie snapped and stabbed her sister Kazumi to death after she incorrectly assumed that Kazumi was pregnant because she slept with Rie's boyfriend.
