Ryu Saito

Ryu Saito entered the entertainment world by winning the Grand Prix of the 34th Junon Super Boy Contest in 2021, and his television debut followed in 2023. That year he made his first drama appearance in Brother Trap, a nine episode series broadcast on TBS in the Dramastream slot from January 25 to March 22, 2023. The story, adapted from the manga by Hinata Kyo, follows a university student named Tachibana Akari who falls for Naruse Izumi, only to learn that he is the younger brother of her high school ex boyfriend. Saito played Kota in a supporting role, in a cast led by Kumada Rinka, Yamanaka Jyutaro and Shiono Akihisa. In the same year he also appeared as Tanaka Kazuya in an episode of the drama Cinderellas of Midsummer.

His public breakthrough came in 2024, when he joined the cast of Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger on TV Asahi as Akuse Jo, who becomes the hero Bun Black. The series ran for 48 Sunday morning episodes from March 3, 2024, to February 9, 2025. Saito starred alongside Iuchi Haruhi as Hando Taiya, Hayama Yuki, Suzuki Miu, Soma Satoru and Miyazawa Yu. His character is a young police officer with a burning sense of justice who patrols the town by bicycle and is loved by the people who live there. At first he is an ordinary person caught up in the schemes of the antagonists, but after learning about the existence of the Boonboomger team he becomes its liaison officer, and later a full member once his sense of justice is recognised.

In the same spring he also appeared as Sunaga Nobu in Oi Handsome, Season 2, a family drama broadcast on Fuji TV and Tokai TV from April 6 to May 25, 2024. The eight episodes follow the lovable Ito family, where the father, Ito Gentaro, offers advice that strikes a chord with his three adult daughters while their mother ignores it. His work in the Boonboomger franchise continued across films and specials, which let him keep the character alive well beyond the weekly series. In 2025 he took part in the Fuji TV drama Tokyo Water Police, which aired from October 7 to December 16, 2025, as Endo Yasutaka, in a story about a new police division formed to tackle crimes on the waterways of the capital.

His first leading role is Shiono Shu in Duty First, Kiss Later, known in Japan as Kiss wa Sosa no Ato de, a boys love comedy adapted from the web manga by Suu. The ten half hour episodes started on ABC in the Kansai region on July 26, 2026, in the late night Sunday slot at ten past midnight, with catch up streaming offered on TVer and ABEMA. Shiono is a 28 year old elite junior officer with a sharp tongue who keeps clashing with Takoi Heisuke, the kind detective played by Shu Watanabe, and he lives next door to him in the police dormitory. Their rivalry turns into something else when Takoi goes to a marriage meeting. Saito said before the broadcast that he would play the part with the feeling of saying that Takoi was his and that he would not give him to anyone. After filming he described the shoot as the best summer and said the work meant a great deal to him as his first lead.

One comparison links his two best known roles. Akuse Jo and Shiono Shu are both young police officers, but they sit at opposite ends of the same uniform. Jo is earnest, public facing and trusted by the neighbourhood, while Shiono is ambitious, quick with a remark and driven by private feelings that he has trouble expressing. Playing them within two years shows a young actor using the same profession to explore very different temperaments.