Umi no Hajimari~ Where the Sea Begins~

 Watched the first episode of the melancholy drama “ Umi no Hajimari” a drama that, while having some elements I dislike, has the potential of becoming a BIG favorite of mine this season!

Umi no Hajimari  tells the tale of a young woman named Mizuki Nagumo (Kotone Furukawa) raising a daughter Umi (Rana Izutani) on her own in a small isolated village. 

In the meantime, there is a young man living in Tokyo named Natsu Tsukioka (Ren Meguro) working  in a fast paced business company. He is engaged to the succesful Yayoi Momose (Kasumi Arimura) and they have happy plans for their future together.

However, a phone call changes everything for all involved. Natsu gets a call informing him of Mizuki's passing and we learn that he is Mizuki’s former boyfriend from years back.

While at the service for Mizuki, Natsu sees the little Umi for the first time, and through relatives, is stunned to find out that this little girl may be his daughter!

His Daughter?! How can this be? And as he looks curiously over Umi, Natsu's mind goes back to the past....

6 years ago, he had met Mizuki and they began a relationship with each other. The two had a carefree romance and loved each other very much, but a shadow came over them when Mizuki became pregnant... and informed Natsu she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.

Through tears Natsu wanted to talk about it, but Mizuki was steadfast and pressured him to sign off on the operation. Mysteriously, after going to the clinic to get the procedure done, she promptly cut Natsu out of her life, telling him, "I found someone I love more than you!" and severed contact with him.

That was seemingly that, and he had never heard from her since. Now Natsu finds that Mizuki did NOT terminate the pregnancy and in fact raised their child all on her own! And with her now gone, Umi has no one to look after her. Mizuki’s family and friends think coldly of Natsu, having seen Mizuki struggle alone to raise her child and treating him like an abandoner.

They truthfully do not believe he has the strength or conviction take in Umi and adopt her as his own, and indeed, he is immediately conflicted at this sudden life-changing news and how it might affect his future....

Going back home, he has the world on his shoulders, and can't even bring himself to explain the problems to Yayoi (who is nonetheless supportive).

Umi, however, has plans of her own, always expecting that Natsu would someday come for her, and when she shows up unexpectedly at his doorstep, asking "So...when do you become my Daddy?", he must finally confront the important choices he must make.

A real sombre drama, at least so far, and I’m not sure if I can sit through an entire show of people fighting, nagging, berating and condemning each other, (family melodramas, OI!),  but the child actress playing the daughter is so sweet and believable as the innocent Umi that you really CARE about her and just HAVE to find out what will happens!

As some of you might remember, I absolutely adored the 2004 Tsuyoshi Kusanagi drama "Boku to Kanojo to Kanojo no Ikiru Michi", about a man forced to take care of his little daughter after his wife disappeared, and I can feel the same kind of vibes in this drama. Very optimistic about seeing what's to come!
Kasumi Arimura is an odd choice for the sure-to-be-set-upon fiancee. The way these dramas usually go, her role would be simply as an obstacle to overtake/win over, a role more befitting a newbie actress, though I admit I have no real idea where the story is going, and this could be a huge, powerful part for Kasumi. But I guess we’ll see.

Like I said, Umi no Hajimari has so far really struck me with its potential for greatness, so I'll be diligently watching this one!

Kasumi Arimura Gets Promoted To Crush Deluxe in "Conte Ga Hajimaru"

Kasumi Arimura ready to steal my heart again

After completely stealing my heart away in “Neechan No Koibito”, pretty actress Kasumi Arimura wastes no time letting me recover, giving me a neat one-two punch with her latest adorable role in the new drama “Conte Ga Hajimaru”! Wowowowow

When we first tune in on Rihoko Nakahama (Arimura), she is a young woman who has quit her demanding day job and has been eking out a life as a waitress in a humble family restaurant.
At this point in her life she feels lost and aimless after leaving her last employer, and has been living a mundane existence.  The only happiness she has in life, it turns out, is watching a comedy act named Macbeth online.

When questioned by her sister Tsumugi (Kotone Furukawa) about her obsession with them, she admits that the guys aren’t particularly attractive to her, nor are they particularly that funny. But there is something about them that Rihoko cannot explain which makes them a special and precious part of her day.

She was first introduced to the boys one evening when she had just recently begun her waitressing job at the restaurant. Surprised by their loud and jocular demeanor, the depressed girl suddenly finds her day brightened just by witnessing their fun interaction with each other, their playful banter and obvious camaraderie.

It might have ended there, but Rihoko was to soon find her path crossing with the three young comedians over and over. Walking home from work on a rainy day, she would see them rehearsing their skits in the park.

Once at the market, she saw one of the boys shopping and then, following him home, was to realize the group lived in the apartment right across from hers! 

Not only that, they even lived on the same floor as her, and she was to even find that by leaning over she could see them acting out their scenarios, they were so close!

Who were these guys? Rihoko just had to know! So going onto her laptop and searching through all the comedy act websites she could find, she went through each and every one!
Finally, after days and nights of searching, she came upon a small company and finally found out their name: MACBETH! The solving of the mystery brings her to tears though she cannot quite explain why. But from there, she becomes obsessed with them, watching their skits whenever she can!

With the boys in her life as a source of positivity to draw from, Rihoko finds her days brightened ever so slightly. Even her boss Mitsuyo (Rio Asumi) and co-worker Rinna (Reia Yonekura) notice how chipper she has become, and it's all because of these boys that she doesn't even know outside of the restaurant!

Finally comes the day when Rihoko is going to see Macbeth performing onstage in person for the very first time! Though she has seen them practicing and has seen them on video, this will be the first time she is watching them in person officially, and dresses in her very best for the occasion, scampering as quickly as her legs can take her to the event!

She is on pins and needles waiting for the lights to come on, and once the show starts, Rihoko is thrilled to find it is just and magical and wonderful as she’d expected!

Unable to stop her enthusiastic applause as the boys take their bows, she is then STUNNED when Macbeth announce that after their last performance some two months to come, they will be DISBANDING!

Well, this is simply horrible news, and Rihoko leaves the venue with an air of sadness about her. It’s then that she hears a voice calling out to her, and she is shocked to find It’s lead writer of Macbeth Haruto (Masaki Suda) and he’s there to thank her for attending. She is a bit surprised he knows her name, til he explains that they see her nametag at work all the time and in fact, they have always kept an eye on her!

She asks the burning question at last: “Why is Macbeth going to break up at the end of next month?” and it’s here that Haruto explains  that he, along with fellow members Shunta (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Junpei (Taiga Nakano) started the group 10 years ago when they were still in school and, after  praise from a respected teacher, decide to make a go at it.

But despite their best efforts, they never seem to get ahead, and against pressure from their families to get “real” jobs, promise that if they have not succeeded as comedians in 10 years time, they will call it quits.

As the 10 years are about to expire at last, they make one last bid at an audition and agree that if they are rejected, they will make good on their pact to dissolve the act.

Well, they do indeed fail the audition, and that, in a nutshell is why they are calling it quits.

Haruto then tells Rihoko that they’ve actually met before! Rihoko has no memory of ever meeting with any of them, til Haruto tells her it was at a park where she was very, very drunk. 
This is Rihoko at the tail end of her soul-crushing office job, where she is at the end of her rope. She will soon quit and end up waitressing, but at this moment, is drowning her woes  in a haze of alcohol!

Haruto offers her a bottle of water to help her sober up, but she only drunkenly lectures him about the demands her life has given her. He is curtly excused by Rihoko and he cautiously leaves her, and the only thing left of her the next morning is the bottle of water which has mysteriously turned onto Melon soda!

Who WAS that mystery girl? Haruto doesn't know and doesn't expect to ever see her again. He has just about put the strange drunk girl out of his mind until one night he and the boys drop in at the family restaurant and he sees her again! After dropping some hints, he realizes that the girl doesn’t remember him at all! Of course, she would soon warm up to them and become their favorite waitress just as they would become her favorite customers!

And that pretty much is all there is to tell! Hearing the entire tale of Macbeth, Rihoko declares that she will definitely be there for their final performance and until then, will do her best to be their number one fan, and she gushes with such sincerity that even Haruto is touched.

MAN, Kasumi Arimura is REALLY pulling out the STOPS here- she is So doggone CUTE in this drama that she is killing me in every scene! Additionally, she is in the CUTEST of outfits, not only in her girly dresses and such, but even in her waitress uniform she looks so adorably fetching!
And her acting- I’m beginning to think no one can convey warmth and happiness like Kasumi can! She is so convincing in her role that you just want to take her up and hug her to bits!
In the story, the boys in Macbeth become a talisman of sorts that brings happiness to  Rihoko’s bleak  life, and her expressions tell it all- Look at Kasumi’s expression here in the scene where she and the group meet for the first time. You can clearly see how unhappy she is, how she is just going through routine with life.

Now flash forward to a few months later where they have become her regular customers. you can practically feel the warmth radiating from her expression!

Looking over my list of All-time Favorite actresses, I am kind of surprised that Kasumi isn’t represented there in some degree, since I’ve liked a lot of her dramas before.
but BOY,with Neechan no Koibito and now Conte Ga Hajimaru, she will certainly be making her mark soon!!!

PS: I’ve  been referring to Taiga Nakano, the actor who plays Junpei of Macbeth here, as “Motorcycle Chef” due to his role in Kono Koi Atatamemasuka as Asaba’s best friend and Kiki’s partner:

 But clicking on his name while reading up on Conte ga Hajimaru, I was stunned to see “Ano ko no Yume wo Mitan Desu” listed in his credits. I didn’t remember him in it at all. 

Then it hit me WAIT, was Taiga that dorky spazz with the glasses???

Looking it up, I was astounded! You mean to tell me that the guy playing Junpei of Macbeth in Conte Ga Hajimaru (being served by a very cute Kasumi)...

is that same nerdy that guy that was getting beaten up by Maika Yamamoto (which I hilariously detailed here) in Ano ko no Yume wo Mitan Desu? WOW, he seems so different in other roles! 

PPS: Speaking of Asaba, Tomoya Nakamura also appears in Conte Ga Hajimaru, as Macbeth’s MANAGER! Guess these fellows all work on the same dramas!

Anyway, can't wait to see more of this drama!!!!

posted by Zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspt.com