Pan-Asian heartthrob Takuya Kimura starts his annual trendy drama gig Monday in the new series "Pride" (Fuji TV, 9 p.m.). Kimura plays the same kind of brooding romantic in all of his drama series, so the only point of interest is which occupation he's been given (last year it was an airline pilot).
Haru (Kimura) is the captain/forward of a company-affiliated semi-pro hockey team. In the first episode, Haru and his team, which includes the gentle, serious goalkeeper, Hotta (Kenji Sakaguchi), and the playboy/rich kid Ikegami (kabuki star Ichikawa Somegoro), are celebrating their victory at a company party when a trio of beautiful young female employees arrive. Haru and Ikegami make a wager, and Haru then attempts to catch the eye of Aki (Yuko Takeuchi), who works for the accounting department.
Several seasons ago, Kimura played a concert pianist, and now it's his SMAP sempai Masahiro Nakai's turn. However, Waga, the pianist that Nakai plays in "Suna no Utsuwa (Vessel of Sand)" (TBS, Jan. 18, 9 p.m.), is not the usual trendy drama hunk. In the original novel by Seicho Matsumoto, the pianist hero spends his childhood as a beggar because his father suffers from Hansen's disease. In the chaos of World War II he is able to take on a new identity, but his past always haunts him.