Sakurako Konishi

Sakurako Konishi made her acting debut in 2017 and became known to wider audiences in 2020 through two films released within three weeks of each other. After a period of auditions, she met the director Masaoki Hirota, who cast her as the heroine of Fancy, her first commercial film, in the role of Tsukiyo no Hoshi, a name that translates as the star of a moonlit night. In the same period she was chosen from about 3,000 candidates to play Monica in First Love, directed by Miike Takashi, and she took part in the Cannes International Film Festival while still working independently. Her other films from 2019 and 2020 included Mio on the Shore, The Samejima Incident, in which she played Nakase Fumi, and Sasaki in My Maimai, in which the character name is Ichinose.

Television came quickly. In 2020 she appeared in the live action Eizouken series and its film version as Dotonburi Toru, as Okada in On Nights When I Want to End It All, as Hiyama Aino in Furo Girl, and in the drama Cat as Kaneko Mineko, in a leading part shown in November and December. In 2021 she played Ito Yuna in The Romance Manga Artist, which ran from April to June, then Hirasawa Momoko in Love Phantom, a series that ran from May to July, Imachi Jun in Keihan Ensen Monogatari, and Atago Risa in the two connected Ukiwa series. On the big screen she played Saeki Misuzu in Between Us and Oshima Hisako in Colorless.

The next year brought several leads. She played Komiya Keiko in Short Program and Takahashi Koume in Kanban Neko, while supporting roles included Taniguchi Yuka in Animals and Itahashi Tomomi in The Revenge Widow. In 2023 she played Komukai Haru in the film Spring in Between, Omori Ringo in Sweet Moratorium, Katsuragi Nanami in Burn the House Down, and Towa in the film Bokura no Sennen to Kimi ga Shinu made no 30 nichi Kan. She also joined the cast of the BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita specials as Tendo Nanami.

In 2024 she appeared in the film In Your Own Words, known in Japan as Arikitarina Kotoba Janakute, as Suzuki Rie and made a guest appearance as Naruse Wakaba in Season 24 of Kasouken no Onna. The year 2025 brought many projects. She continued as Tendo Nanami in I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama Season 2, which streamed on Telasa from June 13 to July 25. She played the lead Izawa Yuka in Kaze no Fukushima and supporting roles as Oshima Naomi in Beyond Hell, Higuchi Madoka in Forbidden to Love, and Yokokawa Moe in Diary of a Surgical Resident: Madoka. In the film The Girl at the End of the Line she played Meiko.

Her 2026 work includes Komatsubara Otoha in Saretagawa no Fukushu, a role in the film 2126, Looking for the Sea’s Star, and the lead role of Inuzuka Miwa in How Do We Relationship?, a girls love series broadcast on MBS from September 10. Miwa is a shy woman living in a small town who has long dreamed of finding love, particularly with another woman, and who begins a pragmatic relationship with her outgoing classmate Saeko, played by Riho Sayashi. Konishi said that falling in love is made of beautiful feelings and also includes untidiness and foolishness.

One observation runs through the later part of her career. In 2025 she appeared as Tendo Nanami in a boys love drama, a supporting character, and in 2026 she stepped forward as the lead of a girls love drama. Both series deal with same sex romance, but her position within them is reversed: first an outside figure in someone else’s love story, then one half of the central pair. The shift shows a clear progression from supporting parts in ensembles to carrying a series.