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| Higa Manami and Mitsushima Shinnosuke in Renai Jidai |
Renai Jidai tells the tale of a young divorced couple who, to their dismay, find that since they were so intergrated into each others’ lives when married, they can’t help but keep seeing each other on a day-to-day basis. The solution they come up with is that each person needs to marry someone new so that their old lifestyle pattern will be severed and their subsequent paths won’t cross as much anymore.
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| Mitsushima Shinnosuke as Riichiro |
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| Higa Manami as Haru |
Only problem is that you can tell right off the bat that these two are really meant for each other- despite the two constantly nagging at each other, the guy Riichiro (Mitsushima Shinnosuke), and the girl Haru (Higa Manami) are the only ones who really understand each other, and when it gets right down to it, the real reason they fight so much is because they are so comfortable with each other.
However, both participants are bull-headed about any kind of reconciliation, and when confronted about their feelings, lash out and protest even louder. And so it is that ignoring the fact that their best choice is to try again and make the relationship work, they find themselves instead in the act of finding potential marriage candidates for each other.
Not that there’s any shortage of people in their lives to pool from- both Haru and Riichiro are surrounded by equally crazy and/or interesting characters as well!
There’s Nagatomi Shohei (Fuchikama Yasushi), a man who fell in love with Haru back when he was an attendant to their wedding years ago, and now, with the two separated, is giving his best shot to woo her…
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| Fuchikawa Yasushi as Nagatomi |
There’s Kitajima Ryuichi (Sato Ryuta), a shy, geeky and awkward man who’s been taking swimming lessons from Haru and has definite feelings towards her (and doesn’t it seem Sato has been playing these secondary characters a lot lately?) though she isn’t aware of his interest at all…
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| Sato Ryuta as Kitajima |
Shizuka (Matsukawa Akari) is Haru’s cute little sister who has to sit in the sidelines and watch her sister thrashing about with her relationships . She is often the one who points out Haru’s mistakes, but then Haru gets irritated with her and threatens to send her back to the dorms, LOL…
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| Above and below: Matsukawa Akari as little sister Shizuka |
And then we’ve got the deliciously ditsy and curvy bombshell Kasumi, an old classmate of Haru’s . As Haru gets reacquainted with her, we find that, like Haru, she has been married and gotten divorced, and even has a little girl! She hints that she's looking for a guy, so you KNOW this bubbly gal is sure to become a candidate for Riichiro!
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| Satsukawa Aimi(!) as Kasumi |
Unbelievably, Kasumi is played by none other than the awesome Aimi Satsukawa, I can not BELIEVE this energetic, outgoing girl is the same girl who played shy and mousey Kiyomi back in Funuke Domo!!!
Aw, this is such a fun, zany drama so far! The two lead actors are really likeable despite their seemingly caustic dispositions (their arguments are freaking hilarious- fun, sharp and witty, two old pros who have no problem slinging the dirt on each other) and it’s whenever these two are fighting that the show is at its best!! Can't wait to see more!
