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| Yuika Motokariya in Boku No Aruku Michi |
I have to start off this post by saying that the fact of the matter is, the first two times I saw actress Motokariya Yuika, I didn’t think too much about her. In fact, in the first drama I saw her in (Uchino Masaki’s GONZO detective series) she played this law enforcement agent whose self-deprecation when she lets a woman under her care get killed was driving me up the wall! Though I ended up really liking Gonzo, I can’t say that there was any huge shift in my opinion of her in that one, sorry.
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| With Uchino Masaki in Gonzo |
The next thing I saw Motokariya in was the Kitagawa Keiko movie special DEAR FRIENDS, which I’ve gushed about in an earlier post. Though I really loved this movie and all the actors in it, I don’t think I made the connection that this great actress was the same girl from GONZO. All I knew was that they’d got the perfect, mousey girl to play the quiet, mousey character of Maki. At the time, she struck me as another actress in the mold of OTOMEN lead KAHO, whom, though I thought was quite cute in 4 Shimai Tantei Dan, really worked that “plain-jane” type of look.
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| With Kitagawa Keiko in Dear Friends |
So anyway, a few months later and I’m watching the very, very good Kusanagi Tsuyoshi drama BOKU NO ARUKU MICHI, the story of an autistic man named Teruaki as he works towards becoming independent, and though lead actress KARINA was looking fine as ever, I found myself strangely gravitating more towards Teru’s sister Rina, whom besides being one of the more sympathetic members of the family, was cute as heck to boot!
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| As Rina in Boku No Aruku Michi |
Everyone in Teru’s family had issues to deal with. His mother is worried that she is overprotecting her son, and as she is having health problems, wonders who will take care of his when she is gone. His older brother Hide grew up being bullied and teased for having an autistic sibling and has grown up stern and strict to Teru, and has a wife who is afraid they’ll have to take care of Teru when his mother passes, as well as a son who is ashamed to have an autistic uncle.
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| Boku No Aruku Michi |
Rina is caught in the middle- she’s grown up neglected by her mother since she’s devoted all her time to taking care of Teru, and even as she’s about to graduate, she still feels like no one cares about what she does. Additionally, knowing of her Sister in law’s apprehension to taking care of Teru, she’s nervous that SHE’LL be the one who gets “stuck” with him, and these problems are slowly wearing down on her.
The scenes with Rina as she tries to deal with her problems, first by talking to her family, then though an earnest talk with Teru’s counselor and finally a real heart-to-heart conversation with her mother, you really feel for this girl!
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| with Kusanagi Tsuyoshi in Boku No Aruku Michi |
And you know what another awesome thing about her character- no matter what problems have beset her because of Teru, she’s always constantly loved him, cheering him on and supporting him in his decisions. By the end of the drama, I was in love with this girl, and HAD to know who she was!
Since she reminded me a bit of Shimabukuro Hiroko from SPEED, I had this vague idea that she might be a pop singer or something, perhaps a side gig from some undetermined j-pop band…I had to know, so onto dramawiki I went!
Logging on, my mind was filled with what to expect. Was this girl doing anything new? Was she successful? Did she only make this one Tsuyoshi Kusunagi drama and then fade out? HAHAHAHA, silly me! You can imagine the look on my face and found out that she was the same girl in both Dear Friends AND Gonzo! Ya coulda knocked me over with a feather!!! Not to knock her looks or anything, but why was she SO DAMN cute in 2006? AHAHAHAHAHA!
I’m in the middle of acquiring the 2010 drama Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge which she appeared in for a few episodes, and this time I will be watching her with the full knowledge of who she is…hope she wows me once again! Oh, and I’ll be looking forward to HIMITSU, where Yuika is reunited with her former BOKU NO ARUKU MICHI castmate Sasaki Kuranosuke!
