Nagareboshi

Official Website
wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/nagareboshi

Broadcast
Mondays, 9.00 – 9.54 a.m. from 18 October 2010

Station
Fuji TV

Story
Okada Kengo, who works at Shin Enoshima Aquarium, is going to be married to his fiancee, Aizawa Minako, and is euphoric. At the same moment, Makihara Risa is also told by her boyfriend Fujishiro Makoto that he would like her to meet his parents and she smiles. Then, at that moment, Risa’s mobile phone rings. She keeps it a secret from Makoto. In truth, Risa works at an image club (the equivalent of a themed upscale fashion health parlour) and the phone call was to remind her to show up for work. The next morning, when Risa returns home after work, her older brother, Shuichi is in her apartment. Shuichi had foisted his debts on Risa and disappeared, but he says repayment is in sight. However, Risa does not believe this and presses him to show her the money. On the other hand, Shuichi tries to take her wallet. As they struggle with one another, her image club name cards fall out of the wallet and is seen by him. Rushing out of her apartment, Risa runs blindly and finds herself at Shin Enoshima Aquarium. Dropping into the aquarium, she comes upon the jellyfish exhibit, and is captivated by the way the jellyfish pulse and drift about. Before long, it is closing time. Kengo calls out to Risa. Meanwhile, Kengo’s younger sister, Maria, who belongs to the arts department at her high school, suddenly loses consciousness and collapses while chatting with her good friend, Yasuda Mizuki. When she wakes up at a hospital, Kamiya Ryo, the attending doctor, offers her a kind smile. Later, Kengo and their mother, Kazuko, are told by Kamiya that Maria has a life expectancy of about one year … …

Characters
Takenouchi Yutaka as Okada Kengo
An attendant who works at the Shin Enoshima Aquarium. Because he has liked fishes since his childhood, he found employment at a highly competitive aquarium after graduating from fisheries science at university. He is kindhearted but awkward, unable to get used to the ways of the world and flatter people. He is engaged to his university schoolmate, Aizawa Minako. But when the condition of his younger sister, Maria, deteriorates, he takes unexpected action. Meeting Makihara Risa as she is about to attempt suicide, he proposes a sham marriage. Beneath this, there seems to be something that he desires to protect even if he has to sacrifice his entire being.

Ueto Aya as Makihara Risa
She works at a image club. When she was a child, she was abandoned by her parents and lived with her older brother, Shuichi. Shuichi had been caring in the past but his character changed after he became mired in debt from gambling. She cannot quit the industry because she has become the joint guarantor for her brother’s debts. She seems lighthearted but despairs of life and has lost her will to live. Just when she thinks that no one will be saddened by her death, she encounters Okada Kengo and there is a big change in her destiny.

Matsuda Shota as Kamiya Ryo
A doctor with the Gastroenterological Surgery Department at Fujisawa University Hospital, a public hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture. Okada Maria’s attending physician. He is a genuine doctor who has a strong sense of justice as well as passion, and tries to be sincere with patients and their families. Although he is still half a doctor, he is eager to learn and has pride in his work. He knows about the sham marriage between Okada Kengo and Makihara Risa, and struggles with his morals and desire to help Maria.

Kitano Kii as Okada Maria
A third year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Yuigahama High School who belongs to the arts department. Okada Kengo’s beloved younger sister. She is cheerful and spirited but has a serious illness. She has a crush on her attending physician, Kamiya Ryo, and also hits it off with Sawamura Ryota, who is warded at the same hospital. She becomes friends with Makihara Risa, not knowing that Risa is her brother’s partner in the sham marriage.

Inagaki Goro as Makihara Shuichi
Makihara Risa’s older brother. Brother and sister used to get along well. He burdened himself with many things because he was too nice. When their parents abandoned him and Risa, all Shuichi thought of was to give his younger sister happiness. He supported her even though he did bad things and did his best to raise her in a life of poverty. However, he strayed from the right path ever since he became addicted to gambling. He is debt-ridden and makes Risa shoulder his debts.

Itaya Yuka as Aizawa Minako
Okada Kengo’s fiancee. She and Kengo met when they were in university. They were reacquainted after entering the work force and started dating. They are engaged to be married but her relationship with Kengo falls apart as Maria’s illness worsens.

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