Official Website
www.tbs.co.jp/kazokugari
Broadcast
Fridays, 10.00 – 10.54 p.m. from 4 July 2014
Station
TBS
Story
Child psychologist Hizaki Yuko works at a children’s care centre. She worries about a girl called Reiko who has been abused by her drunken father, Komada Koichi. The thought that it will be too late if something happens to a child anguishes her, but her seriousness in her work is considered annoying by the people around her. When Yuko comes back home, she gets exhausted from her father, Seitaro, who suffers Alzheimer’s and the complaints of her mother, Tamiko, who is tired of taking care of her husband. Yuko has no place to relax. High school teacher Sudo Shunsuke teaches art everyday without any purpose. He is being pressed by his girlfriend Kiyooka Miho to get married, but he feels a strong resistance to setting up a family. He wants to at least complete his own piece of work when he can find the time, and gain worldwide recognition. It had been his dream to live as an artist, but he is aware that he lacks the talent. One day, a double suicide occurs at the apartment of the Asos who live next door to Shunsuke. The youth brutally murdered his grandfather and parents, left a suicide note and then killed himself too. It is a murder in a locked room and because of the handwritten suicide note the son left behind, the precinct police conclude that it was a murder-suicide. However, detective Mamihara Koki of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division has misgivings about the investigation outcome. His detective instincts tell him that a child would not kill his parents in this way and someone had hunted the family. He sets out to investigate on his own. When asked about his familiarity with the Asos, Shunsuke tells Mamihara that the youth cut classes, acted violently at home and had received an axe for chopping wood through the courier service … … Is this truly a family suicide? Why did such an incident happen? Then a series of murders occur. As Yuko, Shunsuke and Mamihara confront their own family issues, the three of them get embroiled in these cases, for better or worse.
Characters
Matsuyuki Yasuko as Hizaki Yuko
A child psychologist at Tokyo Children’s Care Centre. She strongly feels that it will be too late if something happens to a child and dedicates herself to her work like a person possessed. But her seriousness in her work is considered annoying by the people around her. She lives with her father Seitaro who has Alzheimer’s and her mother Tamiko who is tired of looking after him. She and Mamihara Koki get drawn to each other through the double suicide.
Ito Atsushi as Sudo Shunsuke
An art teacher at Kiriake High School. He dreamt of living as an artist, but realised he did not have the talent and became a teacher. Even when he is told by his girlfriend and fellow teacher Kiyooka Miho that she is pregnant, he does not feel like having a family and hopes she will abort the baby. He is accused of rape by a female student whose name he does not even know.
Endo Kenichi as Mamihara Koki
A detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s First Investigative Division. Rank: Assistant Inspector. An ace detective who has a preference for investigating on his own. He lost his son Isao in an accident in the past. That led to the hospitalisation of his wife Sawako for mental disorder and estrangement with his daughter Mayumi who left home. He deeply loves Fuyushima Ayame, whom he met as a victim of domestic violence, and her son Kenji, and helps them in any way that he can, but also agonises over his relationship with his family.
Kitayama Hiromitsu as Suzuki Keitoku
Sudo Shunsuke’s former student. Although there was once a time when he turned to delinquency, he has now mended his ways and does electrical work at his family’s electrical business. However, he is always asked to do plumbing for some reason. He had a shotgun wedding and is a father of a baby, but does not know if the child is really his and agonises over whether to do a DNA test.
Hiraoka Yuta as Suimura Eisaku
A detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s First Investigative Division and subordinate of Mamihara Koki. It was the influence of his father who was a detective, that made him choose the same path. He is a little naive but has a strong sense of justice and seriousness. He admires Mamihara.
Mizuno Miki as Fuyushima Ayame
She suffered the abuse of her former gangster husband Yui Yoshihiro who is now serving time in prison and struggled to raise their son Kenji. She loves Mamihara Koki.
Yamaguchi Sayaka as Kiyooka Miho
A Japanese language teacher at Kiriake High School. Sudo Shunsuke’s girlfriend. She has a strong desire to marry and presses marriage by claiming she is with child.
Asada Miyoko as Hizaki Tamiko
Hizaki Yuko’s mother. She was once a good wife and mother, but due to the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband Seitaro, she is weary caring for him and has given herself up to despair. She abandons household chores and is addicted to pachinko.
Click here for link to photos from the press conference.
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