With the onslaught of new dramas from favorite actresses like Ayase Haruka and Satomi Ishihara, and Riho Yoshioka, I’ve been enjoying a renaissance of J-drama love, but the drama that is FAR and AWAY my favorite HAS to be “Survival Wedding” and it’s all thanks to the absolutely precious performance by actress Haru!
She's been winning me over left and right with her turns in dramas like Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi, ON, and Okaasan, Musume Wo Yamete Ii Desuka? and with Survival Wedding, has undoubtedly become one of my new BIG fave actresses!
Survival Wedding tells the tale of tomboyish Sayaka who is forced to become a more stylish and outgoing personality a la "My Fair Lady" or "Pretty Woman" for her job, so we get to see Haru in the prettiest of clothes, much to my delight (and much to Sayaka's chagrin)!
I’d thought that Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi was the first drama I’d seen Haru in, but going over to Dramawiki, I was stunned to discover I’d seen her in many EARLER shows, albeit in a much smaller capacity! Digging them up I was thrilled to see the same Haru I know and love now playing daughters and schoolgirls! Screencapped for your enjoyment:
One of Haru’s earliest dramas was a role in the drama “Koizora” where a very garish and tuff Haru spent the drama harassing poor Elena Mizusawa! I noted that she already sported her trademark shag haircut!
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| Koizora (2008) |
I was surprised to see her with long hair in her next two appearances, first as a schoolgirl in “Othrus no Inu”…
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| Othrus No Inu (2009) |
And a bit part in Hiroshi Abe's Shinzanmono:
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| Shinzanmono (2010) |
Next were bit parts in Tobo Bengoshi with Satomi Ishihara in 2010…
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| Tobo Bengoshi (2009) |
…as well as a fun turn as Mariya Nishiuchi’s nemesis Reika in “Switch Girl”(she reminds me so much of Violet in “the Incredibles” in this role, LOL)…
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| Switch Girl! (2012) |
…I then saw her appearing as a cute (and scene stealing) blogger taking the stand in Legal High...
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| Legal High (2012) |
…before I FINALLY saw her for the "first time" in Sekai Ichi Muzukashi Koi! I remember already really liking her here, and that love would only grow with her subseqeunt dramas!
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| Sekai Ichi Muzukashi Koi (2016) |
I then saw her in the Movie Grasshopper,
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| Grasshopper 2015 |
...the crime drama ON, where I first began to really appreciate her as an serious actress…
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| ON (2016) |
and then the wonderfully crazy “Okaasan Musume Wo Yamete Ii Desuka where Haru plays the sweet daughter under the thumb of her smothering mother (Yuki Saito)…
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| Okaasan, Musume wo Yamete Ii Desuka (2017) |
We got to see her as an energetic, spazzy detective Tomo Yashiro with a nose for crimework in the mystery drama “Mikaiketsu No Onna”…
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| Mikaiketsu no Onna (2018) |
And now here we are in 2018 and Haru is starring in my current favorite drama on the air right now! Really, Haru is so great in her role that I can just sit back and enjoy the show on her sheer charisma, she is so endearing here, I'm JUST LOVING HER!
Oh, and one other great thing, you know how in these kind of dramas the heroine always has the sexy best friend (like Fumino Kimura had Nanao in Boku Unmei No Hito Desu and Satomi Ishihara had Tsubasa Honda in Jimi Ni Sugoi), Haru's Sayaka is paired up with the stunning Maryjun Takahashi (Last seen by me in The Sniffer) as best friend Takako Miura, and as these screencaps can attest, they are hilarious and FUN whenever they're together!
Can't wait to get back to this fun drama and MORE HARU!!!
We also check in on what’s happening with Kenji Kawada (Tetsuji Tamayama) and Toshi Arai (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), and get to see actress Mariya Nishiuchi in her SEXIEST role yet with hostess Sayaka!
And then there are the wonderful guest spots by surprise actresses who pop in for fun cameos, like Asami Mizukawa who appears as an uptight, rigid reporter who manages to lose her composure under Muranashi’s bawdy expletives….
Or still elegant Rie Miyazawa as a stuffy Executive of a huge business who becomes charmed by Muranashi’s wacky ways…
This time around, it seems the story is a bit more fantasy based than fact grounded, with writers continuing where the original Naked Director series ended so it’s anybody’s game just WHERE this series is going to end up! About halfway through and I’ve been enjoying the ride!
