Light hearted drama about a legally blind girl named Yukiko Akaza (Hana Sugisaki) who suffers from amblyopia. While not completely blind, she can see lights, colors and shapes if they are big and she holds them up to her eyes. For walking she uses a long white cane to get around.
Despite her impairment, Yukiko lives her life as best possible with her big sister Izumi (Nao) and Father (Goro “Mr. Kaori Okui” Kishitani). By following the same patterns each day and remembering where things are, Yukiko can do most things by herself, going shopping and walking to school.
Though she DOES have to lean in pretty close to SEE anything!!!
One day going to school, she is stopped when she comes across a few thugs who are casually sitting across the braille path she needs to take. She tries to politely asks them to let her get past, but they ignore her. When she tries to move by with her cane, the main punk, a yankee named Morio Kurokawa (Yosuke Sugino) grabs it, causing Yukiko to panic and reflexively kick out.
Her frantic move meets its mark and she accidentally kicks the young man in groin, immediately taking him out of action!
When Morio’s friends (Junki Tozuka and Natsuki Hori) try to scare her by telling her what a tuff guy Morio is, she misunderstands when they say he has a scar on his face, thinking she injured him.
Leaning in and taking his head in her hands, she tries to look closer to see the damage. It’s all a misunderstanding, and he brushes her off, but by that time the germ of interest has already sparked in this young man towards this odd girl!
You could say he was smitten right off the bat!
Upon arriving at school (a visually impaired center), she meets her best friend Sora (Momoko Tanabe) and tells her of her strange experience with the would-be thugs that morning. Sora’s heard of Morio and tell sher she’d better be careful! But soon school turns to lighter things and she forgets all about it…
But the very next day when Yukiko is heading towards school, she is abruptly met up with the same guy from the day before! Only this time, he wants to formally introduce himself, apologize for his behavior and, thanks to her besting him in battle, consider her his “Aneki”!!!
Kurokawa proudly tells her how he looked up the things she’s been doing. He now knows she needed the braille path to get to places and also that she needs the cane he tried to take away to guide her.
Well, Yukiko is impressed that this guy went so far as to understand her situation, but at being called “Aneki” she draws the line! He understands, but there’s nothing to stop him from waiting for her every day if only to say good morning and see her off!
At the cafe where the boys hang out, owner Akane (First Summer Uika) figures it out, exclaiming, “Are you in LOVE?” to which a sheepish Morio can only smile…though this is bad news for assistant Hachiko (Meru Nukumi) who secretly has a crush on him herself…
Eventually Morio works up the courage to confess his love to Yukiko, who thinks it must be some kind of joke! Double whammy, he writes it in such small print so there's no way she can even read it, LOL
But in time she sees the good side of this guy, even fate puts him into situations where he is seen in a bad light. As those around her like friends and family only see him as a street punk, they are on guard and try to talk her out of seeing this guy.…But together they talk things through....
Well, with such a stellar cast I already knew I was gonna dig this one, and so far it’s been really good, if, at times, mostly predictable… but Hana Sugisaki really sells the role and I’m behind her 100% to see where she gets to!
PS: In the role of Yukiko’s pretty best friend Sora, I initially thought it might actress Maika Yamamoto, imagine my surprise when I saw that it was Momoko Tanabe, last seen as the devious Jun Ichinose in the Keiko Kitagawa drama “Rikokatsu”! If you recall, at the time I remarked that she was a pretty gal under those military fatigues, and it looks like she’s finally allowed to shine! (If I have one problem it’s that, though her character is supposed to be visually impaired like Yukiko, she doesn’t act it… I mean, look at these clips… does she look impaired, LOL?)
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
