Completing My Keiko Checklist with “Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu”"

 

 I was thinking about ranking my Keiko Kitagawa dramas and making a top 10 when I realized there was one early 2008 drama “Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu” that I had still not seen!!

Clicking the link, I saw why I had initially passed on it- it was a “high-school students drama” kind of show and I usually avoided those. But for the sake of completion I knew I had to see it, and luckily was able to grab it with hardsubs on it!

Starring Oda Yuji as a rebellious Teacher, it was soon apparent how old this drama was when I saw the students: Yuriko Yoshitaka, Masaki Okada, Kie Kitano, Yusuke Yamamoto, Mitsuki Tanimura and Gaku Hamada, all SO YOUNG!

It still didn’t hit me how long ago this drama aired, however, til I saw the kid who was playing the leader of the school bullies…a young Tomoya Nakamura!!! Man, I had no idea he was even ACTING at this time!

Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu tells the story of an avante-garde teacher named Sakurai who comes to a high-score obsessed school to help the kids with what they really need schooling on: their own lives and personal problems. 

Sound cliched? Yep!! MAN, this drama reminded me so much of Hammer Session- Not only did all the promos feature the same “class on a beach” motif, they even got Fumiyo Kohinata to be the principal in both! Keiko Kitagawa stars as his Teacher Assistant, but more like a reactive character than a real character, if you know what I mean. Like, she’s only there to react to the things Sakurai does more than play a real role in the show.

Like I mentioned before, I'm not much into the troubled school kids genre, but it's been fun watching all of these now totally established grown-up stars making their first steps into  J-Dramadom! Besides the aforementioned actors and actresses are  also early drama roles for Aya Oomasa, Shiori Kutsuna and AKB48’s Atsuko Maeda as well as Michiko Kichise as one of the Principal’s arm-crossing cohorts…

PS: Oh my GOSH, It’s been SO LONG since I saw “adorable” Keiko in action! 

Saburo had said that until he saw Rikokatsu, he’d NEVER seen her smiling in anything, and that got me thinking about how Keiko had slowly gravitated towards the more “stern’ and ‘cold” kind of characters. But early on in her career, all of her roles were of the sweet, cheerful and bubble-gummy kind, JUST like this one! Look how freaking ADORBS she is here!!!!

 Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu is sandwiched right between two of my favorite Keiko dramas, Mop Girl and Buzzer Beat, and seeing "classic" Keiko reminded me once again of the initial spark that had me SO infatuated with her…and which has continued for over a decade and is still going strong!

PS:Full disclosure, I have not seen the NHK Taiga Drama "Segodon" but as Keiko is only one of hundreds of actors in it, I don't really count this one as a "Keiko" drama anyway. Not like she's the star of the show or anything...

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!