Timeslipping with Shihori Kanjiya in "Repeat"

Shihori Kanjiya and Hongo Kanata in REPEAT

Ayumi Shinozaki (Shihori Kanjiya) lives a quiet life as a librarian, where she dutifully waits for her boyfriend Kazuki (Satoshi Matsuda) to return home from a months long trip. 

She is a shy and reserved person, and it was only through her love of books that she even had the courage to talk to and eventually date him, and is excited at the prospect of becoming his wife.

One night home from work, Ayumi receives a strange phone call, telling her that there will be an earthquake in Tokyo in a few hours. She doesn’t know who the caller is, and decides that it must be a prank of some kind.

But that evening, she is shocked when there is indeed an earthquake in Tokyo, at the exact time the caller predicted. She then gets a call from the mystery man who tells her that he told her his predication so she’d believe him when he said he could time jump from the future to the past via an experience he calls REPEAT. If she’s interested, she is told to meet up at a certain restaurant  in a few days where all the other recipients (who, like Ayumi, seem to have been chosen at random) where she will learn more.

Meanwhile, a moody man named Keisuke Mori (Kanata Hongo) is having an equally undesirable life. He works as a waiter at a Hostess bar and returns home to a deluded and sadistic girlfriend (gleefully played by Haruka Shimazaki). When the tremors hit, he asks no one in particular, “Hey…did you feel that? Was that an earthquake?” Clearly HE’s gotten the call, too.

The day of the meetup happens and Ayumi and Keisuke are the last of the guests to arrive. They don’t get off on the right foot, with Keisuke bumping into Ayumi and grumbling that she’s in the way. 

They make their way to the table, where they see six other guests of all different walks of life waiting...

There is Tendo (Gori), a Cafe Owner.

There is Takahashi, a truckdriver, and Yokozawa, a Housewife (Satomi Tezuka).

There is elegant Omori (Yumi Adachi), a Food Chemist. 

There is Gohara, a businessman.

 There is Tsuboi, a Prep Student. 

And finally, there is the mystery phone predicter himself, Kazama (Seiji Rokkaku), who makes his grand entrance once everyone is seated!

Kazama explains to the eight guests that his “Repeat” system is not so much Time Traveling  back and forth, but the ability to jump your MIND back into your past self. Thus you can’t bring along anything with you. Furthermore, it is a set time frame of 10 months you can go back! Some complain that that isn’t enough time to do anything worthwhile, but Kazama points out the benefits.

He says he will give them one more proof of his abilities: one more earthquake prediction, due to hit in 7 days. If they are convinced and ultimately decide they want to timeslip back, he will call with the details.

On the way out, Ayumi admits that she doesn’t have any need to time jump back to her past, as she is completely satisfied with her life, and most likely won’t return. But when her boyfriend arrives home from his trip. she changes her mind. She’d thought he was going to propose to her on  his return…instead he’s come to dump her!

He says that he feels the “timing just wasn’t ever right” for them, and confesses that he’d even planned on proposing to her some time ago…but she didn’t show up and after that things went south. Ayumi remembers that day. She’d had to deal with a bratty child who caused her to drop her phone in the water and then hurt himself running away. Oh, if only she could go back and change that…

That night, the earthquake hits as predicated, and Ayumi makes the decision to join the others and make the jump to the past. But will changing things that already happened make things better? Can she mold events to give herself a perfect life? Or is one’s life planned out fo them and will fate step in to keep what has already transpired as fact...and what PRICE will they ultimately PAY for this gift? Only by jumping will she learn!

Aw man, I really, really love Kanjiya Shihori, and it’s great to see her headlining a show again (well, with a ensemble cast, but still…). Her drama “Kimi Hannin Janai yo ne?” is still one of my all-time favorite dramas and REPEAT looks like yet another awesome show!

Also bonus points for Tezuka Satomi, whom I has a severe crush on once upon a time (back when she was playing the frustrated mother of twins in the NHK Asadora “Futarikko”) and always love seeing, and former child-actress Yumi Adachi, who seems to be getting prettier and prettier as time goes on!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Hajimemashite Aishitemasu

Machiko Ono plays Mina Umeda, a woman who has devoted her life to becoming an established pianist under the judgmental thumb of her celebrated pianist father. She’s even told her husband she doesn’t want children so she can concentrate on her goals. But after years of trying, Mina is still struggling to get recognition for her skills and at 35 years old is realizing she has traded her focus on piano for things like family and kids.

She’s blessed with a very supportive and optimistic real-estate agent named Shinji (Eguchi Yosuke) who praises her no matter what her choices, believing in her piano skills while at the same time secretly hoping to one day have children with Mina.

 One day while Mina is listlessly playing her piano (after a typically horrible piano lesson with a bratty student), she hears rustling in the yard. There have been reports of someone (or some THING) going through the residents’ refuse, so she checks on the garden warily. 

What she sees, to her surprise, is a dirty and frightened little boy who looks like he has not slept or eaten in days. Sensing his hunger, she runs to the house and feeds him a doughnut before calling the authorities to take care of him.

Upon hearing the news, Shinji rushes to the hospital where he and Mina are met by a Child Welfare Agent named Machi Domoto (sternly played by Kimiko Yo) who tells them that she’s been investigating this child since she heard rumors of abuse by his mother. His mother has since fleed and the boy has been surviving somehow alone. As the mother used fake names when renting the place, they have no idea what her name is or what the boy’s name is, and tell the couple that the boy will probably end up with a generic name given by the government.

 Domoto assures the coiple that she will take over the matter of the boy, but fate steps in that evening when the little boy shows up AGAIN in their back yard. It seems he ran away from the orphanage and made his way to the only place he seems to want to be: at the Umeda’s home.

  Approaching the boy, they see he has wet himself and watching Mina bustle about cleaning him up, Shinji feels in his heart how wonderful a mother she would be. They once again call Domoto and she assured them once again that she will take care of things.

 

Shinji has clearly been touched by the boy’s predicament, and his unspoken wishes for a child come to the forefront of his thoughts. And the next day, when Shinji's sister Haruyo (Maki Sakai) and brother (Hayami Mokomichi) visit, Haruyo accidentally lets it slip to Mina that Shinji’s even entertained ideas of adopting the boy. This is heavy news for Mina, and they finally have an open discussion about things.

Shinii says that it can’t be a coincidence that this boy showed up at their house TWICE. Maybe something is telling them that adopting the boy is the thing to do. But Mina is aghast at the idea of the responsibility of taking care of a child, and no matter what Shinji says, she is adamant that they mustn’t do it. But when fate steps in and for the THIRD time the little boy shows up outside the Umeda’s home, even she cannot help feeling there must be a reason.

* * * * * *

Someone on d-addicts called Hajimemashite Aishitemasu a “Generic Tearjerker” and having watched the first episode I can’t argue that it isn’t, but nonetheless there is something about this drama that really moves me. I love Machiko Ono and it’s been awhile since I saw Yosuke Eguchi playing one of those sweet, ever-positive and ever-smiling characters like he used to back in the day, and the music, MAN, when the music starts up, the waterworks really open up here!!! I’m really looking forward to watching the rest of this show!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com