Been spending my days watching the absolutely hilarious MOTEKI, starring Moriyama Mirei (he of Sekai No Chuushin Ai wo Sakebu and Kiken Na Aneki fame) and have been going slightly insane from the constant barrage of pretty girls in this! I’m not kidding, from the first episode when they sprung sexy-as-hell Nonami Maho on me, it’s been a constant whirlwind of babe-ness, and the real highlight of the series for me just has to be when they introduced beautiful vixen Komiyama Natsuki, played by an actress that I hadn’t heard of before, the beautiful Matsumoto Rio!
After watching her awesome 2- parter episode, I just HAD to find out more about this girl, and went online to see if by chance she’d starred in anything else. I figured she was a new, up-and-coming actress and might have two or three other dramas listed, if I was lucky…
Boy, was I wrong!
This was no newbie idol-turned-actor wannabe- this gal had some serious CREDITS to her! And far from just starting out, she’d been appearing regularly in dramas since 1995, which was just about when I started watching Japanese dramas!
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| Proposal Daisakusen |
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| Galcir |
Her massive list of credits included appearances in a bunch of shows that I’d recently seen, like GALCIR, Proposal Daisakusen and Gokusen to older shows like REMOTE and Stand Up, but I was in for a BIGGER surprise when I saw listed on her credits:
“Seiga No Koushin”
Seiga No Koushin?! MAGI DE?!
Seiga No Koushin, the melancholy drama starring Ishida Issei as a mentally handicapped Boy who goes to live at a factory with a group of other kids under abusive and violent conditions was an early favorite drama of mine (and frequently reduced me to tears!). But who in the world would Rio Matsumoto have played? She must have still been a KID, since this drama was like 13 years ago! The dramawiki site listed her character as "Rin"...but I couldn't recall just who that was!
Then it hit me- Oh My Gosh, I’ll bet she was Ando Masanobu’s cute little sister!
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| Matsumoto as Rin |
Now, for those of you who haven’t seen Seiga No Koushin, I’m here to tell you that the character of Takahara Rin was like the most SWEETEST and ADORABLE thing, like, ever! As one of six handicapped children (including Issei, Ando, Hinagata Akiko and Kokubun Taichi) she was EASILY my favorite character in the show, soooo innocent and pure, and the way she was always in the back or foreground of each scene gathering shiny objects and clutching her plastic jewelry like they were real, she just melted your heart!
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| as Rin in Seiga No Koushin |
I have to say that this revelation that Rio Matsumoto was the actress that played Rin just BLEW ME AWAY!! Who would have ever thought that that sweet little thing would turn into such a luscious, gorgeous creature! DAMN!!!
There are a bunch of dramas featuring Rio (and say, when did she change her name to “Rio”? Back in the Seiga No Koushin days, she was simply known as “Megumi”) that I acquired awhile ago, shows like Hitonatsu No Papa E, Taiyo No Kisetsu and even Psychometre Eiji (!), and I REALLY have to make some time to check these out so I can get better “Acquainted” with my newly re-discovered interest in Rio!
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| A Last Temptation that I surely would have failed |
PS: Thanks to Hamanosilence for the awesome suggestion to check this show out!
PPS: Man, just realized Nonami Maho was the sister in Masahiro Matsuoka's 1998 drama LOVE AND PEACE! Damn, they jus' bustin' out all the cuties from yesteryear on me!!!
