The Legacy of "Mei-Chan No Shitsuji" Continues to Impress

 
Was looking up the cast for the NETFLIX drama “My Husband Won’t Fit” starring Aoi Nakamura and Natsumi Ishibashi as a couple who find they are not as compatible as they'd thought...

Didn't recognize either of them but I was surprised when, looking up Natsumi Ishibashi on dramawiki,  found she had her early start in MEI-CHAN NO SHITSUJI as one of those angry Arm Crossing  "Sol" Rank Girls!

(that's her on the far left.)

As you ALL know, I’m a firm believer that practically EVERY hard-hitter from the 10’s came from that show and it always seemed that whenever I started liking some new actress, I’d inevitably find out she came from Mei Chan No Shitsuji!

Besides the obvious Nana Eikura as the titular Mei-chan...

we also had actresses like Aya Oomasa

Shiori Kutsuna,

Aoi Nakabeppu

Mayuko Iwasa,

As well as others like Mitsuki Tanimura, Asami Usuda and others! So MANY of them went on to lucrative careers~ 

Looking over all the girls in the cast, however,  it occurred to me ONE actress I hadn’t hears much of: whatever happened to Riko Yoshida, the actress who played the little girl “Miriku Mamihara”? 

Didn’t instantly recall seeing the name in any dramas later. Did she ever make a career out of acting? Did she quit?

Clicking on her stats, I was to find that, yes, she HAD retired back in 2o16, but made a comeback a year later…under the NEW name of...Ai Yoshikawa!
WHAAT! Ai Yoshikawa? I KNOW that name!
You’re telling me this "Ai Yoshikawa" playing such characters as the sassy Mika Etou in Hajimete Koi o Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi:

And Ena Genda in a series of strange psychoses in the drama “In Hand”:

...and the stoic and serious nurse Yuika Sakai in “Koi wa Tsuzuku Dokomademo” was that SAME little kid?

Wowo, she grew up right under my nose! 

Whodathunk it? Seems surreal that THIS cute little student in Mei-Chan No Shitusji:

Is this SAME pretty thang in ViVi Magazine!

Only then did I fully realize that a good 11 years had quickly gone by since then and that the girls who played children are now becoming teen actresses in their own right!~

Boy, Mei Chan No Shitsuji...the drama that KEEPS ON GIVING!

Tokyo Tarareba Girls Are Back In Town

 Those Tokyo "What If?" Girls are back, and they're just as miserable as ever! As the special begins, we are shown the girls with their new, happy lives since the last series ended. BUT, as if they knew they were in a sequel, things start going wrong and each person realizes his or her life isn't what they WANT it to be. Cue Misery!

It's three years since the series ended and you would have thought these girls would have gotten their crap together by now. But they are still the "What If?" girls and are constantly wallowing in self-doubt and chiding themselves for not making better decisions....

Funny, it seems that the only people allowed to have had satisfactory lives are the secondary characters like Marui, Sameshima, Shibata, etc. This is one time when it is GOOD to be a background character!

But if you're one of the main characters, look out, there's tragedy ahead!

Another one of those specials that seemed very, very, very unnecessary!

Becoming Friends With Someone You Used to Hate, “Bokura Wa Kiseki Dekite Iru”

 Very thought provoking scene where Aikawa (Issei Takahashi) explains to Ikumi (Nana Eikura) about the kid he hated growing up and how much better life got once he made friends with him.

Journey To The Past in "Theseus No Fune"

Just started watching Theseus No Fune, the story of a man named Shin Tamura (Ryoma Takeuchi) who has lived his life as the child of a convicted murderer.

 Though his policeman father has always claimed innocence, the courts found him guilty of poisoning the juice of a family festival which killed numerous children, and his family has had to endure the wrath of the public his entire life.

When his wife Yuki (Juri Ueno) is dying after giving birth to a new son, she urges him to seek out his father and get to the truth of the matter, if not for him, then the future of their child. And so, with her last words in his ears, he makes his way back to the school ground where the horrible act took place.

 As he stands before it, a mysterious fog swirls around him, and when it clears, he finds that he has been transported...

 ... back to 1989! 

While  she was alive, Yuki kept a meticulous scrapbook about all the odd events leading up to his father’s accusation and arrest, and now, with the scrapbook in hand, Shin finds he has been given the chance to change the past and hopefully make a better future for his son!

While keeping tabs on his father and his doings, he naturally crosses paths with them, and before he knows it. has been taken in and cared for by the family that has no idea is his own, albeit some 20 years in the past!

Strangest of all is the strange relationship he develops with his Father. His father only sees him as a suspicious drifter and Shin is not too sure about how much he trusts his father either!

But as the crimes foretold by the scrapbook slowly unfold, the two will have to learn to trust each other if they hope to forestall upcoming events that will affect BOTH of their future selves….

Quite enjoying this show, but MAN is it similar to the Yuriko Yoshitaka drama Shiranakute ii Koto! They use the same plot device featuring a child who has grown up in the shadow of a convicted felon charged with indiscriminate murder by poisoning  the drinks of a family event, and now, as an adult, strives to use their abilities to seek out the truth of the past….
Makes me wonder if this kind of stuff happens a lot in Japan in real life for it to be in so many dramas as plot devices...
 Posted at zdoramaagain.blogspot.com