The Cuter Side of Fumi Nikaido in “Frankenstein No Koi”

Fumi Nikaido as Tsugumi

The last time I saw pretty actress Fumi Nikaido was when she was covered in blood and slicing and dicing in the ultra-violent over the top thriller “Why Don’t You Play In Hell” and at the time I though she was a Scream Queen in the making…little did I know she had it in her to play one of the most adorable characters i’d seen in recent months!!!

in "Why Don't You Play In Hell?"

Seriously. in her role as Tsugumi, the girl who discovers the titular Frankenstein monster, she was so cute and innocent, I was instantly reminded of Aoi Miyazaki’s turn as cutie-pie NANA in the movie of the same name!

Tsugumi is an entirely too-naive girl, and when we first meet her, she has been tricked into drinking by a bunch of jerk students. When she is too inebriated to fight back, they drag her to a van, and take her into the woods to assault her. 

But as they drive up the the mountains, they accidentally strike a huge figure in the road. Using this distraction, Tsugumi manages to escape out of the van, but just as the guys are about to catch up to her, the figure from the street comes back and lays out all of the punks.

As Tsugumi loses consciousness, she is vaguely aware of the figure carrying her out.

The next morning she awakes at a bus stop at the bottom of the hill where she meets her sister who has frantically been looking for her. She doesn’t remember much of what happened the night before, but before they can get anything more out of her, she excitedly finds at her feet a rare mushroom. A mushroom?

This intrigues Tsugumi because she is a science student who is obsessed with mushrooms of all kinds. She is even nicknamed “fungi-girl” by her sempai, Inaniwa (Yuya Yagira).

Showing it to her professor (Akira Emoto)who is unable to figure out what kind it is, she decides to make a trek back to the mountains and see if she can find the source of this unusual mushroom.

She goes bicycling back, where she sees a commotion at the foot of the hill. It seems the three guys who assaulted her are now in comas in the hospital and no one knows why.  She ignores the scene and goes into the forest. Upon getting there, she sees a great many flourishing mushrooms and is about to take a sample…when she is confronted by a shabbily dressed man who has emerged from behind a tree.

Telling her not to be frightened, the mysterious man (Ayano Go) tells her that he isn’t human, and she should forget she saw him. But the scientist in Tsugumi can’t leave it at that and becomes obsessed with finding out what this guy’s deal is. Why does he think he isn’t human?

In one of the cutest scenes ever, she keeps following him back to his hideout even though he tells her to leave, and every time he thinks he’s lost her, he hears her yelp as she slips and falls down! LOLOL!

 

She makes his way to his abode where she finds he’s been living alone for a quite some time (he claims 130 years but Tsugumi is skeptical). 

Wanting to know more about him, she invites him to accompany her back to the city, and persuades him to come to her place.

Once in town, it's the classic "Fish Out Of Water" as she introduces him to the wonders of the modern world. And wacky hijinx ensues as she tries (in vain) to keep her discovery a secret from her sister at home, and then later),when she brings his to the university), from her colleagues and professor! But happily, they all view this man more as a curiosity than a threat.

While the professor does tests on him to see what he’s about, Tsugumi works on getting the strange man a proper home and a proper job, she even gives him the most important thing he’s ever been given: A Name. And with that in his possession, the newly christened “Ken” looks forward to his new life among people. But will the monster within him keep him from truly becoming close with them?

A fairly basic drama with some uber-zany segments, but MAN Fumi Nikaido is KILLING IT in this show, she is so doggone ADORable, I just GOTTA see more!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com