Call Centre no Koibito « Jdrama Weblog

Call Centre no Koibito

26Jun09

Call Centre Koibito

Official Website
http://callcenter.asahi.co.jp/

Broadcast
Fridays, 9.00 – 9.54 p.m. from 3 July 2009

Station
TV Asahi

Story
Tokura Wataru is a salaryman working on the Planning and Development Division’s mail-order programme. However, in a strange turn of events, he is suddenly assigned to be the chief of a local customer call centre unit handling complaints when he gets in the bad graces of Nankyoku Aisu, the “charismatic and formidable shopping navigator”. Each person in the unit is an unconventional character such as Aoyama Kyoko, a contract employee though she has the nickname “Queen of customer complaints”, and the charismatic emcee of the television shopping world. Feeling that there is something wrong with the approach of the call centre which disregards the company manuals, Tokura pores over the manuals thoroughly and tries to think of ideas for improvement in his bid to be reinstated at the head office. Problems erupt from Wataru’s first day and he finds himself facing various customer complaints …

Characters
Koizumi Kotaro as Tokura Wataru
A young company employee working in the Planning and Development Division at the head office who is assigned to the call centre. He had been contented with his modest life, but is transferred to a local call centre when he gets in the bad graces of Nankyoku Aisu. Wataru is bewildered by the overly individualistic personalities of everyone at the call centre and struggles to go back to the head office but …

Mimura as Aoyama Kyoko
A contract employee who works as a customer service representative at the call centre. She is called the “Queen of customer complaints” and handles customer phone complaints with consummate skill but has eccentricities and a past that is shrouded in mystery. Her trademark is a water bottle slung over her shoulder.

Matsushige Yutaka as Sakamaki Kenichi
The head of the call centre. A divorcee. At a glance, he seems tough-looking but does work on the principle of “conceding anything to avoid trouble”. He used to work at the head office but was for reason assigned to the call centre eight years ago.

Yasuda Ken as Uno Tsutomu
A customer service representative and an expert in deliveries and mechanisms. He is attracted to Tokyo and jealous of Wataru.

Wakabayashi Go as Kawabe Yujiro
A former detective who is now a customer service representative at the call centre. Because he is an expert at counselling, it seems like he is conducting a consultation even though it is a complaint. He has many female fans because of his sweet words.

Natori Yuko as Nankyoku Aisu
The charismatic emcee of the television shopping world. Like her name, she continuously sells products with sales talk that resembles machine-gun fire. There are occasions when each member of the call centre is beset with complaints as a result of her hard sell tactics. She even wields immense influence within the company.

Pictures from the press conference: http://mainichi.jp/enta/geinou/graph/200906/24_2/