On September 4, at a program lineup briefing, TBS was asked about reports of a film adaptation of the Sunday Drama series “VIVANT,” starring Masato Sakai, and commented, “We can’t go into detail about the production process of individual programs.” At the same time, the network revealed that broadcasts on September 20 and 27 will be suspended due to coverage of the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, with the show resuming as normal from October 4. Reactions on 5ch were divided — some posts jokingly riffed on the show’s famous line, others sorted out the Season 2 plot summary or shared where to catch up via streaming, while still others questioned the realism of the staging and how the production budget was being spent.
Fri, Sep 4, 4:58 PM
On September 4, TBS held a briefing on its October 2026 program lineup changes. During the event, there was a moment touching on a possible film adaptation of the TBS Sunday Drama series “VIVANT” (airing Sundays at 9:00 PM), starring actor Masato Sakai.
When a reporter asked about reports of a “VIVANT” film adaptation during the Q&A, Daisuke Kishida said, “We can’t go into detail about the production process of individual programs, so we hope you’ll keep enjoying the drama.” It was also revealed that, due to broadcast coverage of the “Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya,” the show will be off the air for two installments on September 20 and 27, with normal broadcasts resuming from October 4.
That scene where the Thai police open fire on him — bullet holes evenly spread all over his body, cracked me up. Normally you'd aim for a vital spot, right? The viewers are dumb too, so the quality's low.
13AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:39
Re: #4 Yeah, it is kind of contrived, but then again Shinjo isn't even dead to begin with.
61AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:32
Re: #4 Not a single headshot in the whole scene, huh.
5AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:34
So basically… they're saving the ending for the movie?
6AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:35
I want to check out VIVANT but where's it streaming? Is it on Amazon Prime?
12AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:38
Re: #6 Season 1 is on Amazon Prime.
33AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:47
Re: #6 U-NEXT.
7AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:35
So the Asian Games is apparently a bigger ratings draw than VIVANT, worth pausing the show two weeks in a row for?
8AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:35
Honestly I can't really follow the story.
15AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:40
Re: #8 It's actually super easy to follow — Season 2 is just about rescuing the captured Bekuhan (special-ops) agents who got caught. It's stupidly simple.
26AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:45
Re: #15 I mean, middle-aged One Piece otaku are raving about it, so…
14AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:39
The reason the drama feels cheap from relying so much on AI (a CG-recreated character) is probably because the budget got spent on the movie instead.
18AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:41
Re: #14 Apparently the drama itself isn't short on budget either.
22AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:43
Re: #14 Not sure exactly why, but they've been doing tons of overseas location shoots, so the budget's probably reasonably high. The problem is none of that spending translates into it actually being interesting.
24AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:44
Fine, make the movie if you want, but wrap up the TV story properly first. If they build to a big climax and then go 'the rest is in theaters,' I'm gonna be pissed.
25AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:44
I thought it was mod(126,000,000 yen, π), but it turned out to just be a plain multiplication.
27AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:45
I don't really get the story anymore, but I'm only watching to see how exhausted Masato Sakai looks lol
28AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:45
Well, they've gotta claw back the losses from that bloated production budget somehow.
29AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:45
It's nothing but betrayals and deception so I never really got attached to any of the characters, and with the AI character and Sakai machine-gunning out dialogue so fast, a two-week break and I'll forget everything. Even when Season 2 started I was like 'wait, huh? what was going on again?' totally lost, and I'm only just now starting to piece it back together.
35AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:49
Re: #29 No… there's no betrayal or deception in Season 2? They just went to Thailand and back to rescue the Bekuhan agents. Even Nozaki blew his own cover as an undercover agent almost instantly.
31AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:46
They should just rerun it from episode 1 late at night ☺
32AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:47
Re: #18 Such a waste of money. They didn't need that whole 'AI Hayato' set.
37AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:53
So, are the four abducted Bekuhan agents still alive?
42AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:57
Re: #37 Everybody's alive in this show. The only confirmed death is Sakota.
50AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:12
Someone on the live-thread board was saying 'there's absolutely no way there's a movie, director Fukuzawa is committed to TV,' and yet…
54AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:17
Re: #50 He's already left the production.
55AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:17
They're padding things out because there are so few episodes — they call it two cours, but it's really only a cour and a half.
59AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:24
Re: #55 Old dramas used to run about 10-13 episodes per cour, but these days it's more like 7-9 per cour.
63AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:45
Re: #61 In that scene, they were ordered to aim only for the arms and legs so as not to kill him and avoid an international incident. But one guy hit him near the heart, and that ends up being the fatal wound in the story. They even threw in a clunky line from the Thai police like 'Who was it?! Who's the one who actually hit him!' It was probably Nogi who did it — to fake the death, of course.
67AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:59
Re: #63 'Arms and legs,' sure, but get shot in the thigh and you can die.
74AnonymousSep 4, 2026 19:06
> The first question is whether the Bekuhan agents get safely rescued. Sorry, but I don't care about any of the background Bekuhan extras besides Tori Matsuzaka — they can just wrap that up quickly, I don't mind.
81AnonymousSep 4, 2026 19:20
Re: #74 Yeah, viewers have zero attachment to those four.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
“VIVANT” is the TBS Sunday Drama that became a hit with its Season 1 in 2023, known for its large budget tied to overseas location shoots. What TBS actually addressed this time wasn’t whether a movie adaptation would happen, but stuck to the boilerplate line that “we can’t discuss production details” — it did not officially confirm a film, something easy to misread from the headline alone. The September 20 and 27 breaks are also unrelated to the quality of the new season, simply a scheduling matter tied to broadcast coverage of the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. On the thread, opinions split between those who found Season 2’s plot “easy to follow” and those who found it “hard to keep up with,” alongside debate over how realistic the gunfight scene was and how the production budget — including the overseas shoots — was being spent. The movie speculation itself has so far been driven by media reports, with no official announcement yet from TBS.
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