Shomonai Bokura no Renairon

 

OK, also caught the sweet drama “Shomonai Bokura no Renairon”, following the story of an Art Designer named Takuro Tsutsumi (Hidekasu Mashima) who, at middle age, is beginning to feel past his prime, with signs of younger folks beginning to take over his jobs.

In the midst of this semi-mid-life crisis of sorts, he suddenly gets a friend request from an old friend of his whom he once had a band with…as well as an unrequited love with.  

Her name is Anna, and, though nervous about the prospect of reconnecting after all these when he gets there,Takuro is stunned to see a girl whom looks like the perfect memory of Anna as she looked all those years ago! But when she introduces herself, she is revealed to be Kurumi (Seina Nakata), Anna’s 17 year old daughter!

This spritely girl wants to know all about him, his memories and feelings about her Mother. Takuro remarks how much she resembles her Mother, and, looking around, wonders when he can meet her. It’s here that he finds out that his past love has passed away a month before, a devastating fact he knew nothing about.

 

That evening he informs the others in the band about their keyboardist's passing and laments about the almost-love he once had with Anna, and of how he never got to see her again.

 

Meanwhile Kurumi has been dealing with her Mother’s passing in her own way by going through her treasured keepsakes, and over and over again, Takuro and the band they had keeps coming back into the picture.More and more she realizes how important this guy was to her Mom. 

 

Finding an old cassette of Takuro and her Mom playing music, she excitedly brings the tape over to Tsutsumi, and listening to the tape together, He finds the music takes him back to those good old days with Anna and the band, how happy they were and with so much to look forward to. 

  

After reminiscing a bit, Takuro asks Kurumi why she decided to meet up with him in the first place, to which she says, “I wanted to meet the Man that my Mom liked.”. 

And with that, she takes her leave, but little do the two know how much they will figure in each other’s lives from this point on!  

For one reason and another, Kurumi keeps finding ways to be involved with Takuro and his own meandering life.  And as the show goes on, we see how their presence affects the other, with Kurumi dealing with her schoolwork and future choices, as well as Takuro in the crossroads of his mid-life dealing with a job he is becoming unsuited for and an aging father! In times like these the other is there for them ... 

(with Syoya Mikata) 

 

A very captivating show with Hidakasu Mashima doing his best mopey uncle and support roles from other actors such as Akako Yada as his childhood friend /maybe love interest Eri Morita: 

Tetta Sugimoto as Takuro's Boss...

Satomi Tezuka as Kurumi’s Grandmother…  

...and then there’s Seina Nakata as the uber genki and spazzy Kurumi Tanimura! WOWW I’d already fell in love with her shenanigans in her episode of the excellent 2021 drama “Hatsu Joji Made Ato 1 Jikan” as the naughty little sister who tries to steal her big sister’s boyfriend:

If you saw that episode, you'd know how cute and rascally she was...Happily, she gives off the SAME energy here!  So CUTE!

Reminds me of Mitsuki Takahata in her early Kahoko days! 

This promises to be one fine little drama!  

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com 

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