Production Credits On April 19, 2018, NHK announced Awaiting Kirin as its 59th taiga drama, starring Hiroki Hasegawa as Akechi Mitsuhide, a samurai and general during the Sengoku period, with Shunsaku Ikehata as writer.

[1] Historical researcher Tetsuo Owada, a professor emeritus at Shizuoka University who specializes in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, previously advised taiga dramas such as Hideyoshi (1996), Tenchijin (2009), and Gunshi Kanbei (2014).

[9] After Hasegawa, the rest of the main cast was announced on March 8, 2019, which included Mugi Kadowaki, Takashi Okamura, Sayuri Ishikawa, Masahiko Nishimura, Katsunori Takahashi, Erika Sawajiri, and Masahiro Motoki among others.

[9] The second cast announcement on June 17, 2019, included Fumino Kimura as Hiroko, as well as Kaho Minami, Takehiro Murata, Satoshi Tokushige, Kataoka Ainosuke VI, Rei Dan, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

[10] Ono previously had the main roles in Ashio Kara Kita Onna (2014) and Natsume Soseki no Tsuma (2016), two NHK drama series written by Shunsaku Ikehata.