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| Inoue Mao |
Yes, in a move that everyone must surely have predicted, Inoue Mao is today’s Crush Of The Day. Whodathunkit? Ah well, predictable or not, my gushing over cutie Mao-chan cannot be contained and must be said!
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| Inoue Mao as Fukunaga Mio |
The first time I thought to myself, “Huh! Mao Inoue’s pretty cute!” was when she made her appearance on Himitsu No Arashi Chan’s VIP ROOM (See? That corner really was da bomb!) where she was on to talk story with the boys, reflect on her role with Matsujun in Hana Yori Dango, and promote her new movie “Tengoku de Kimi ni Aetara” with Nino.
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| Mao on Himitsu No Arashi-Chan's VIP ROOM |
This revelation about Mao Inoue’s cuteness was a surprise for me because up until that point, she really had had no special effect on me. Though I had friends who really, really loved her, she seemed like nothing more than a capable young actress. Of course, I knew that if I saw her in the right drama playing the right character, my opinion could change just like that, and that’s where FIRST KISS comes in!
I had just begun watching a couple of OK but rather mundane dramas, and while both of them weren’t bad, I began to lament the fact that it had been a WHILE since I’d been blown away watching the first episode of a new drama, and decided I was going to keep watching new dramas til I found one that really moved me.
Flipping through my binder of Dramas (conveniently burned onto DVD discs an filed away nicely), I came across FIRST KISS and, feeling a positive vibe from it, decided to give it a chance and check it out…. WHAT A JACKPOT THAT TURNED OUT TO BE!!
The story of Mio, a peppy young girl with a heart condition and Kano, her befuddled older brother who suddenly finds his rambunctious sister under his care as she returns home to Japan to spend the summer before going back to have a serious surgery, this bittersweet drama is just FILLED with awesome actors and every single one of them is ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC in his or her role.
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| Hideaki Ito and Inoue Mao: Siblings |
And as related in my earlier post, First Kiss TOTALLY sold me first from that very first episode. My heart was just completely stolen away Inoue Mao’s character Mio, and her sassiness and naughtiness just made me LOVE HER! She played Mio with SUCH girly ABANDON, like this was the role she was destined to play!
Besides her explosively genki demeanor, Mio’s attire is the icing on the cake: the most cute and feminine of outfits, and HECK, even her BRA STRAPS have hearts on them, and you KNOW that that’s a WINNER!
Its so funny how the perfect character can turn a casual knowledge of an actress into a full blown fan! To all those Hana Yori Dango fans out there, I could say “I Get It now!” but while she will be Makino Tsukushi to all of you, she will be eternally engrained in my heart as Fukunaga Mio!
