Aiba Hiroki

Aiba was a former member of the disbanded three-men streetdancing group called BRIGHTS. The other two members included Atsushi Koga and TAKUYA, who would also happened to later play Akutagawa Jirou in Tenimyu with Aiba. The group had to break up because Aiba had to join AVEX (the agency he's currently with) after he won in the JUNON BOY contest. There were originally 4 people in the group, but one dropped out, so that left Aiba, TAKUYA, and Atsushi, in BRIGHTS.

Aiba was a former member of the disbanded three-men streetdancing group called BRIGHTS. The other two members included Atsushi Koga and TAKUYA, who would also happened to later play Akutagawa Jirou in Tenimyu with Aiba. The group had to break up because Aiba had to join AVEX (the agency he's currently with) after he won in the JUNON BOY contest. There were originally 4 people in the group, but one dropped out, so that left Aiba, TAKUYA, and Atsushi, in BRIGHTS.

At that time, Aiba was still an amateur at dancing and he's stated in past blog entries that he owes a lot to TAKUYA, who was already an experienced dancer by then, for teaching him various things. BRIGHTS performed in Yoyogi Park (代々木公園) from August 2003 to April 2004. In 2005, Aiba won the role of Shusuke Fuji, the prodigy of Seigaku Middle School's tennis club, the The Prince of Tennis musicals, Tenimyu. From 2005 to 2006, he became the third actor to play Fuji as a member of the second generation Seigaku cast. He made his debut as Fuji on January 8th, 2005 in the Side Yamabuki performance in Osaka. That same year, his role as Fuji was carried into the live adaptation film of the manga. On March 29th, 2006, in the Dream Live 3rd live concert, Aiba did not graduate alongside with the rest of his fellow second generation Seigaku castmates; instead, he decided to continue performing in the musicals and acted as a guide for the new third generation Seigaku cast members from 2006 to 2007.

After Absolute King Rikkaidai feat. Rokkaku ~ Second Service, Aiba graduated along with the majority third Seigaku cast. He has been the longest serving actor to play Fuji. Since his graduation, the role of Fuji is currently being played by Yuuta Furukawa. On the Tenimyu website, it has been announced that both the fourth and fifth Seigaku casts will take turns performing the next two musicals; Aiba will make a brief return to reprise his role as Fuji with the fifth Seigaku cast in the Imperial Presence Hyotei Gakuen musical.

After that show, Hashimoto Taito will carry on as the fifth cast's Fuji. Aiba released a Best Actor's album in 2006, for his role in the musicals as Fuji, called The Prince of Tennis Musicals Best Actor's Series 003 - Hiroki Aiba as Shusuke Fuji. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL..