Yes, these are musings about a 6 year old asadora, I'm late to the party!
Feel free to skip.
Just wrapped up week 13 of the Mitsuki Takahata led "Toto Neechan", (Episodes #1-78), and in anticipation of what's to come in the second half of this fine asadora, I decided to share some thoughts and notes I began jotting down during my viewing that interested me, starting from week 2!
WEEK 2:
The Kohashis Starting a New Life Without Father
The role of Tsuneko passes torches to Mitsuki Takahata and immediately the drama gets better! She really has charisma! All three daughters are now played by older actresses and at first I thought the actress playing Yoshiko was Suzu Hirose and thought, WOW, Suzu is SO YOUNG but I realized they got another actress to play the mid-age Yoshiko. Wonder how long this young actress will be playing her.
With Yoshiko depressed in school because she has no Father and then the family contest with the three legged race, I was thinking OH NO THE FAMILY DRAMA CLICHES are HERE! At this point I thought, “I don’t know if I can watch an entire asadora of this.”
But THEN, I saw the PIGEON episode and EVERYTHING changed! In episode 12, the girls learn grilled pigeon meat is big business.
Not realizing the grilled meat is a special kind of farmed pigeon, they go off and try to catch those dirty urban pigeons to MUCH comedic entertainment!
Seems this drama could be entertaining as heck when it tried!
WEEK 3
Kimiko moves her family to Tokyo to stay with her dominating Mother.
I love the scenes with Tsuneko and the Grandma. It’s like Takiko has already figured out that Tsuneko is going to be great. I wish they showed more of this bonding.
I really loved the way this drama was shaping up!!
BTW, the Toto Neechan drama banner might be the most succinct summation of the character ever- Tsuneko’s running ALL THE TIME in this asadora!
WEEK 4
Moving In with the Moritas, Girls begin School
After fighting with her Mother again, Kimiko and the kids move in next door to the Moritas who run catering service, who lodge and employ them.
LOL Had no IDEA this was Rina Kawaei until I looked up the credits- that odd hair style makes her totally unrecognizable!
Introduction of Kentaro Sakaguchi’s "flower guy" Hoshino. Hope to see him as infrequently as possible, though his character seems affable enough.
Don't know the actress "Junko Abe" playing Aya. Super pretty!
Sakaguchi is back as the flower-obsessed guy. At least this character is pretty funny.
WEEK 5
Missing School Uniform, New Flower discovery
Mariko's school uniform is missing and Tomie's the one who took it. She tore the outfit and this leads to Tsuneko sneaking back to the Aoyagi home to use their sewing machine, resulting in her reconciliation with Granny. YAYYYYY!
PS: Gotta say, sometimes they shoot scenes that really capture the time period, like this one with Hoshino studying some fungus. Looks like a real 1930's picture!
No one knows how Kimiko found out and that rascally Kumai never got busted for his slip!
I felt so bad for Yoshiko when she gets turned away by Takiko, she loves her Grandma (and her snacks!) But now that Kimiko and Takiko are back on the outs, Kimiko doesn't want her Mom talking to her daughters.
Tsuneko finally finds out the reason for mom and grandma’s feud and a truce is made. 
Letters from Father get passed on to Kimiko and they joyfully read them. But all the time all I could think was, "What about Yoshiko? Isn't she still wandering out there lonely?"
WEEK 6
Kimiko VS Mother
A drunken Kumai blabs to Kimiko that Takiko is the one paying for the girls’ tuition, not him.
Kimiko angrily confronts Mom and asks her to leave them alone.
I felt like something bad was gonna happen and I wasn't wrong as the neglected child falls into the river. But luckily Big Sis arrives in time!
WEEK 7
Mother/Grandmother Reconciliation, New Teacher With Radical Lessons/Toothpaste
I thought it was a nice “period piece” touch showing Tsuneko brushing her teeth with tooth powder but it was to set up this arc’s story of Tsuneko trying to sell toothpaste.
Tsuneko and the gang making prototype Sensodyne.
Hairi Katagiri appears as a radical new teacher with female empowerment ideals that really make an impression on the girls. A great character, one of the best roles I've seen Hairi in!
BTW, I am more convinced than ever that they are pushing for Kentaro Sakaguchi to eventually become Tsuneko’s husband.
Lucky he’s a likeable character in this because the last thing I need is more mopey Sensei.
WEEK 8
Tsuneko Graduation/Start Trading Company
Tsuneko is set to graduate and it's time to say goodbye to old friends and start looking for a job!
Really interesting when Tsuneko begins learning about being a typist and learning about the Japanese type machine. This is the kind of enrichment I love from watching historical dramas.
Himena Negishi as Yoshiko: At this point (seven weeks), it occured to me that this might be the longest time we’ve spent with an actress playing a ‘younger” version of the adult role.
She is really, really great (I particularly LOVE the bonding between her and Grandma) and I’m beginning to worry about how hard the transition is going to be when they (inevitably) switch to Hana Sugisaki.
BTW, whenever they had scenes with Tsuneko and Aya Nakada, it always reminded me of the 70’s anime “Candy Candy” for some reason. Maybe seeing Aya in her flowery "European style" blouses with white lace collars just screamed “Shoujo Manga”…
I just noticed they have a instrumental flute version of Hanataba wo kimi ni. Reminds me of the various BGM versions of Dreams Come True’s “Love Love Love” in Aishiteiru To ittekure”.
Tsuneko begins at Birds Nest Trading.
Hey, there’s Erina Mano! Hey, she's bitchy!
This doesn't bode well for our heroine....
WEEK 9
Tsuneko learns the Ropes at Birds Nest Trading, gets Bullied
After a couple of really great arcs, we get this one which had me infuriated.
When Erina Mano’s character tells Tsuneko the reason she won’t give her work is because she’s slow has to be the dumbest thing ever.
In the first place, how will she learn if they wont give her work???
And in the second place, how the hell would they even KNOW Tsuneko was slow, anyway?
She never gave Tsuneko any work to do!!
It doesn't make sense, If they’re so busy, why malign Tsuneko learning? And then they harass her by knocking her paperwork on the ground. Like, WHAAA??? Aren't these adults? What would you gain by doing that? Just cliched bullying.
Aiya, speed this along, please.
And after that bullying, I get to watch Hoshino falling in love with Tsuneko.
OK this arc ended with Hana Sugisaki taking over the role of Yoshiko and as expected, it’s a rough transition!
Even Tsuneko and Mariko look arunned to see this new actress playing their sister,LOL
Saburo regularly gripes about asadoras segueing into WWII, normally I don't mind it but I have to admit when they began hinting at it in this week’s arc, my first thought was “OH NOOO we’re going into the war storyline, hope it doesn’t take over the drama!!!".
War, here we come....
WEEK 10
Still trying to accept Hana Sugisaki as Yoshiko, especially since her character personality is so different as well (rebellious against Tsuneko, etc) but I’m glad to see she is still the one going over to Takiko’s all the time.
WEEK 11
Tsuneko Fired, Tomie Marrying, Moritaya Closing
WOW, a LOT happened in this chapter.
Yeahhhh, A wild Mirai Shida appearance! Had no idea! And as a very cool character who saves Tsuneko from being harassed at a bar.
LOL as soon as Tsuneko said Tada was her most reliable friend,I wondered how long it would be Tada backstabbed her, turns out it was the very next scene, AHAHA!!
The end of an arc. Somehow very sad to see the Moritaya Kitchen cleared out!
Yay, Tsuneko gets hired at Kodo Publishing company!
WEEK 12
Kodo Publishing, The closing of Aoyagi Timber and departure of Takiko and Co.
Tsuneko starting in earnest at Kodo Publishing. VERY interesting watching her learn about the editing, design and such about publishing a magazine.
The closing of Aoyagi Timber and departure of Granny. The end of another big arc and very sad as the narrator informs us that it's the last time they ever see her.
And in the previews for next week, looks like the war is here at last…
WEEK 13
It’s War!
In a fast forward move, we are three years in the war (Thank you NHK for sparing me the details of which I’ve already seen thrice over in dramas) and part of the girls' duties is to go in search of food. LOL, the farm they go to looks like the one where Agri and family stayed ..looks like the exact same place. LOL.
BTW, just like Agri, there’s an elderly person strictly berating everyone about not taking the war seriously and it is revealed that their child got killed in combat...Do they have this character trope in all their war-based asadoras?
Nice to see the return of Shida Mirai if only for a short time…
…and just like that, it is announced over radio that at last that War is OVER!
Very thoughtful of NHK to encapsulate the war into one arc...Now we can get back to the story of Tsuneko again!
Get ready to dive into the second half of this intriguing drama!
