Official Website
www.fujitv.co.jp/osozakino_himawari
Broadcast
Tuesdays, 9.00 – 9.54 p.m. from 23 October 2012
Station
Fuji TV
Story
28-year-old Kodaira Jotaro is a temporary worker, but is suddenly laid off when he is close to being hired as a full-fledged employee. This is the catalyst for his girlfriend wanting to breakup with him. If Jotaro returns to his family whom he has grown apart from, his reliable younger brother Keitaro is firmly rooted. Home is not a place where he can be himself. Just as Jotaro is ready to despair, he happens to comes across the recruitment page of the Kochi Shimanto ‘Area Revitalisation Cooperation Volunteers’ through an internet search. Feeling that he has to go to a place where he will be able accept himself, Jotaro decides to live in Shimanto City which he is a complete stranger to, and applies. Around the same time, Nikaido Kahori, now a houseman at a university hospital after graduating from a famous private Tokyo medical college, is offered a transfer to the municipal hospital in her hometown of Shimanto City. A shocked Kahori, who had dreamt of working at a research institute in America, finds this hard to accept but cannot refuse. Several days later, Jotaro and Kahori arrive at Shimanto City’s train station at the same time. Jotaro, who had also seen Kahori on the plane, believes that they are “fellow friends” and calls out to her. However, he is ignored. Jotaro is welcome by Fujii Junichi, a native of Shimanto City and the leader of the ‘Area Revitalisation Cooperation Volunteers’ while Kahori is received by her elder sister, Sayori, back in the hometown she had no intention of returning to. Through Junichi’s introduction, Jotaro is acquainted with Kusaka Tetsuya, the head of the municipal office’s regional economic development project division, and hooked up with a job to support the area’s elderly. He accepts. Kusaka also arranges his living quarters, and Jotaro meets real estate agent Imai Haruna there. The next day, Jotaro takes the elderly to the municipal hospital. One of the women suddenly gets sick. The nurse Morishita Ayaka appears from an examination room and summons a doctor right away. The person who gets there is Kahori. Recognising each other, Jotaro and Kahori … …
Characters
Ikuta Toma as Kodaira Jotaro
A temporary staff at Shimanto City’s municipal office. A native of Ibaraki Prefecture. He is indecisive and has no dreams for the future. He led a comfortable student life at a private Tokyo university. After graduation, he was not able to get employed as a full-time employee and became a temporary worker. Because many of his friends are also temporary worker, he does not feel conscious about it. He is appreciated for his serious work attitude and has been offered a full-time position. But in a complete reversal, suddenly has his contract terminated. That results in him being dumped by his girlfriend of seven years. He cannot find another job and he will not belong if he returns to his family home. On the verge of 30 and feeling anxious about his future, he happens to find a recruitment announcement for Shimanto City’s ‘Area Revitalisation Cooperation Volunteers’ on the internet and applies. He is a complete stranger to the city, but he arrives at this beautiful land rich in nature. As a temporary staff at the municipal office, he supports the elderly in the area. He starts working fancying himself an odd job person but right after he takes the position, he realises the severe reality.
Maki Yoko as Nikaido Kahori
A doctor at Shimanto Chuo Municipal Hospital. A native of Shimanto City. After graduating from a famous private Tokyo medical university, she did research in cancer immunology at a university hospital’s lab. This has been her dream since high school days. But one day, she is sent to Shimanto City to be a clinician at the municipal hospital on the order of her supervising doctor. This means that she is being cut off from a career as a researcher. However, she obeys the professor and disappointedly goes back to her hometown. She does not think she belongs in this hometown which is the principal cause of her shattered dream. She gets acquainted with Kodaira Jotaro who has come to Shimanto City at the same time. His carefree abandon and lack of a plan hits a raw nerve, but his amiability and tolerance are what she does not have and makes her feel something.
Kiritani Kenta as Fujii Junichi
The son and heir of the local hardware store owner, who also volunteers as the leader of Shimanto City’s ‘Area Revitalisation Cooperation Volunteers’. A native of Shimanto City. After he graduated from high school, he had to suppress his longing for Tokyo and talk himself into helping the family business for the sake of the area and his family. He has never left Shikoku other than for school trips and decides that the next time he does so is for his honeymoon. He is active in activities to turnaround and revitalise the area, and on the other hand struggles as the leader of the ‘Area Revitalisation Cooperation Volunteers’ to support the elderly. That is how he and Kodaira Jotaro get to know each other and become close. He passionately loves the countryside, but is easily hurt.
Kashii Yu as Morishita Ayaka
A nurse who works at Shimanto Chuo Municipal Hospital, the hospital that Nikaido Kahori has been sent to. A native of Kochi City. Because she is an outstanding nurse, she is vital to the hospital which has a shortage of doctors. Kahori, who has come from a research background, is helpless in a clinical setting and Ayaka would unthinkingly instruct her with a forceful tone. Although she is gentle with her patients, a pall seems cast over her. She actually lives burdened by sorrow from a past incident. She hides the fact that she and Matsumoto Hiroki are living together and does not talk about her private life. Kodaira Jotaro sees her beauty and falls in love at first sight with her.
Emoto Tasuku as Matsumoto Hiroki
Nikaido Kahori’s boyfriend from high school days. A native of Shimanto City. He had been the softball team’s ace and when he was the captain during his third year in high school, they progressed all the way to the final match in the Koshien’s prefectural league. This remarkable accomplishment got the area abuzz with excitement and to this day ‘Pitcher No. 4 Matsumoto Hiroki’ is still talked about like a legend. However, that was his peak. then graduation came. The relationship between him and Kahori naturally came to an end. He also failed to get into college, and completely lost his motivation. He has been working as a physiotherapist’s assistant at Shimanto Chuo Municipal Hospital’s rehabilitation centre for two years now, but has not obtained physiotherapist qualifications and lives aimlessly.
Kimura Fumino as Imai Haruna
A real estate agent who is in charge of the house that Kodaira Jotaro lives in. A native of Shimanto City. After graduating from a junior college in Kochi City, she has been helping her father, an influential municipal city council member, who runs a real estate business. She appears to be comfortable living with her wealthy parents, but she has her own plans for her life and even has a secret that she cannot tell her parents. She for some reason has a good impression of Kodaira Jotaro since their first meeting when he came from Tokyo. She comes on strong to Jotaro at every opportunity, but beneath this persistence is some emotional conflict … …
Kuninaka Ryoko as Shimada Sayori
Nikaido Kahori’s older sister and a part-time housewife. A native of Shimanto City. After graduating from high school, she found work at the local supermarket. Following her marriage she became a full-time housewife. She lives near the family home with her husband, an employee at the local bank, and their two daughters, and her life looks like the picture of happiness. She recently started working at the supermarket after child-raising is done. She had been the local idol during her high school days, but now she is not even needed by her husband and she struggles with that. Furthermore, she has felt inferior to Kahori since the past and grows more insecure with her return. She and Fujii Junichi were classmates in their high school days.
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