The Secret Life of Plants in “Prism”

 Satsuki Maejima (Hana Sugisaki) is a girl working part-time at a Garden Shop but what she really wants is to work as a voice actress.  As the garden job is just a stop-gap til she finally passes an audition, she has no real interest in the Garden Shop or even the Plants she is handling!

She does make wonderful little terrariums, however, which catches the eye of a customer who comes in frequently, though he never purchases any of them. She doesn’t know it, but this man Riku Morishita (Kisetsu Fujiwara) will become a big part of her life!

Satsuki is living in Tokyo with a roommate named Ayaka Nogi (Anna Ishii), another voice talent who also works at the garden shop with her. Ayaka has just passed an audition for an upcoming anime, and though she puts on a smile,it is hard for Satsuki not to feel jealous. “Why is it never me who is chosen?” she wonders.

As it happens, Ayaka has a voice job on a day she is supposed to do garden work, and asks Satsuki if she can substitute for her. 

She readily agrees, but her lack of knowledge causes a bit of a quandary when doing the weeding, as she pulls out not only the weeds, but the plants that were meant to stay!

The problem is explained to the garden designer, who happens to be Morishita, the same customer who would regularly look at her terrariums. He recognizes her from the shop, but berates her for working at a garden shop and not caring enough to even learn the kinds of plants she is dealing with. 

This humbles Satsuki, and though she is smarting from the assessment, she realizes she has been half-heartedly doing things ever since coming to Tokyo, and needs to make an effort to be more involved.

When Satsuki returns to the garden the next day, she pays mind to the flora peppering the garden and is mindful of learning as much as she can about them. Grateful for the lesson, she leaves Morishita a gift- one of her terrariums he’s been looking at.

The next day, Morishita thanks her for the gift and commends her at how well it is put together.

Satsuki admits she has no real knowledge of how the plants and moss would grow in real life, and only focused on building the terrariums so she could avoid customers (LOL), so Morishita invites her to come along hiking with him and see the moss growing in the wild.

Satsuki takes him up on his offer, and though it is a long trek up the mountains, it is an eye opening experience that awakens a passion in her to work hard at this. And as she gets close to Morishita, a romance between the two also blooms! 

But as the episode ends, we are introduced to Yuma Shiraishi (Mirai Moriyama) who will eventually be returning to Japan and into the lives of the new couple as they tackle a new garden project…

Wasn’t sure exactly what Prism was going to be about, but I’m always up for another Hana Sugisaki drama. Here she looks just like she did in Koi Desu: Yankee-kun to Hakujou Garu, and at first I had to remind myself that she wasn’t blind! LOL.

Anna Ishii stars as her roomate, and it’s a funny thing that I always thought the two looked really similar to each other, seeing them in this drama, they look like sisters!!

I was fairly charmed by this first episode, crossing fingers that it doesn’t degenerate into a generic romcom…

Dining With The (Edo) Chef in "Mi wo Tsukushi Ryouricho"

Haru Kuroki as Mio

For a guy whose favorite Japanese actress of all time is Keiko Kitagawa I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of her 2012 TV Asahi food-oriented drama “Mi wo Tsukushi Ryouricho” or its 2014 follow up either...

Perhaps it was that Japan television movies/specials don’t get as much attention with fansubs and communities than regular length dramas, but the show completely flew under my radar til NHK began airing a new 2017 version earlier this year!

 Starring Haru Kuroki in the Keiko Kitagawa role of Mio, the drama picks up where the last special left off, and though I was unaware that it was the third in the series when I began watching it, so many past events and people were alluded to in the course of the show that I knew it HAD to be a sequel of some kind! 

 Not that it was confusing or any problem to watch- the show was very keen on making a new viewer very comfortable and informed about what was going on and who everyone was, and I picked up on the storyline easily!

Mi wo Tsukushi Ryouricho tells the tale of a girl without any family who comes to Edo from Osaka and becomes a cook, and though very skilled, her unusual cuisine style (as well as ignorance of Edo ways and customs) makes her journey a slow and difficult one.

She is employed by the kindly Taneichi (Fumiyo Kohinata) at his restaurant where he once served Soba…but with a bad back he has given the cooking reins over to his young charge. Though she is flustering the regular patrons with her unfamiliar dishes and ingredients, Taneichi believes in Mio and always supports her decisions and food choices.

If only they would TASTE her food then they would realize how special her cooking is, but no one wants to give the odd girl and her equally odd specials a chance. It’s only through clever means that she is able to ‘trick” the townspeople into tasting her dishes, and naturally once they eat it, they are fans for life!

Each episode shows her creating a new kind of dish to try, and with the mysterious and gruff samurai Komatsubara (Mirai Moriyama) to critique and guide her, she slowly but surely is able to make a small foothold in the town.

Now, I don’t know how Keiko Kitagawa was in her movies, but I have to say that I REALLY love Haru Kuroki in the role of Mio. I liked her character from the SECOND I saw her, and her sweet and gentle demeanor really soothed my soul and made for a really laid-back and relaxing experience! Now that Tsubaki Bunguten is over, I need a thoughtful and calming drama to watch at the end of my day, and it looks like this is the one!

It’s been awhile since I watched either an NHK asadora OR an NHK Taiga Drama, and Mi wo Tsukushi Ryourichi reminds me so much of those shows. In fact, what it REALLY makes me feel like I’m watching are the old 1980’s “Abarenbo Shogun” series, and I really, really loved those...When they show Mio outside of the restaurant looking out into the village, it takes me right back to those days! Very nostalgic feel!

Also very cute is that after the show is over, they set aside the last few minutes to have a cooking lesson, teaching the viewers how to prepare the meal that was featured in the week’s episode! Such a sweet little show!

PS: I Suppose I should really try to find and watch the original Keiko Kitagawa movie specials, but somehow I think that Haru Kuroki will always be Mio for me from now on...

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com