Official Website
www.tv-asahi.co.jp/hajimemashite
Broadcast
From 9.00 p.m., Thursdays, 14 July 2016
Station
TV Asahi
Story
Umeda Mina is a pianist whose father is a famous conductor. She runs piano classes at home. One day, a new student comes with his mother. But Mina can tell by observing the child’s look that he does not like music. She tells the mother, “He won’t progress even if you force him,” and simply ends the lesson without particular effort to attract the child’s interest. The disappointed mother hurls sharp parting remarks at Mina, “I came because I heard you are the daughter of a famous conductor!” and angrily takes her child home. Mina does not counter her but just bows her head and sees them off. Then she rushes into the toilet and vents her pent-up frustration at the toilet bowl. No one knows that this is her routine. That night, Shinji, Mina’s husband of 10 years, comes home and tells her about the rumour of a suspicious living thing that appears frequently and rummages through the rubbish bins in the neighbourhood. No one knows if it is a pervert or a dangerous animal. But more importantly, Mina is anxious about an upcoming international competition. She has dreamt of winning the competition since she was in her teens. However, she has faced 49 consecutive losses so far and at the age of 35, this performance at the competition, which has an age limit, will be her last. While Mina is practicing the piano with this mind, the living thing that her husband had described enters their garden. She timidly checks its identity, never expecting that it is a filthy young boy. They do not know anything about the identity of this expressionless boy who does not say a word. But only find out that he is hungry because he greedily devours the donut that Mina offers. It turns out that the boy has been abused by his parent(s). Because the parent(s) have not been identified in more than a month, the boy will enter an orphanage. Several days later, this boy appears in the Umedas’ garden again for some reason. He still does not talk and they do not even know his name, but Shinji feels that it is fate that the boy came to their house twice and he secretly starts to look up on special child adoption … …
Characters
Ono Machiko as Umeda Mina
A pianist whose father is a world-famous conductor. She married Umeda Shinji when she was 25. She decided that she will not have children until she is recognised as a professional pianist and scrapes by with piano lessons for children at home while she sets her sights on winning the international competition. She has continued this challenge since her teens. Now at the age of 35, she has a record of 49 consecutive losses. Her dream has not come true, she has also not given birth to a child and struggles to smile in front of people. But even this smile does not get across to children and she cannot deny that she is hopeless. She shouts at the toilet bowl at home every day to vent her pent-up frustration.
Eguchi Yosuke as Umeda Shinji
Umeda Mina’s husband. He works for a real estate management company nearby. He is unusually good-natured and is constantly losing out, but he has no intention of changing his personality. Because he has a tendency to believe that there is meaning in every encounter and event, he loves superstitious things like the time and car number plates. His father has passed away and his elderly mother is in a facility. He has a younger sister and brother who always bring trouble, but he does not think it is a big problem. He loves Mina and her piano wholeheartedly and is not afraid to express his love even now that they have been married for 10 years. But he actually has a family secret that he cannot even disclose to her.
Little boy
A child who has been abandoned by his parents. He appears in from of Umeda Mina and Shinji all of a sudden. Because he has built an emotional wall and does not talk at all, his name is not known. He only responds to Mina’s piano.
Hayami Mokomichi as Umeda Takumi
Umeda Shinji’s younger brother. He is mild-mannered and the type that appeals to maternal instinct. An absolutely hopeless fellow who has no regular job and constantly gets into trouble over female relationships, but he is impossible to hate. He thinks that marriage and the institution of family have no meaning and has chosen to remain single.
Yo Kimiko as Domoto Machi
A veteran staff of a children’s counselling centre who possesses child welfare qualifications. She is an important person who will hand down the verdict whether the Umedas can adopt the boy. She has an ominous air where one knows what she is thinking and where her heart is. But there is a purpose behind everything she says and does.
Fuji Tatsuya as Oikawa Masayoshi
Umeda Mina’s father. A world-famous conductor. His love for music is out of line. He neglects his family and lacks social skills. He keeps an unexpected distance from his daughter and does not even remember Shinji’s name. To a young Mina, music was the only thing that could bring her and her father together. This curse torments her even now.
Scriptwriter
Yukawa Kazuhiko (Marumaru Tsuma, Kaseifu no Mita)
Click here for photos from the press conference.
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Tagged: Eguchi Yosuke, Hajimemashite Ai Shitemasu, Ono Machiko
