Koinaka

Official Website
www.fujitv.co.jp/koinaka

Broadcast
From 9.00 p.m., Mondays, 20 July 2015

Station
Fuji TV

Story
In the not too distant future from now, a wedding ceremony is about to take place at a chapel. Serizawa Akari, the bride dressed in a white wedding dress, is anxious. The groom has not arrived yet. At that moment, Miura Aoi is making a mad dash for the chapel. Aoi Shota steps off the bullet train and into the station. He rushes to the chapel too. One of them is attending the wedding as the groom, the other as a representative of friends. This is the story leading up to one of the two Aois marrying Akari. It is 2015 in Tokyo. Aoi is working as an assistant at an architecture firm. It is an opening to his dream to be an architect. However, he gets caught up in work and loses sight of this dream. This maybe the reason why his company president, Niwa Mariko, points out that he is disappointing while his workplace colleagues Isohara Shinichi, Tominaga Mirei and the rest ridicule him too. Furthermore, his ex-girlfriend Saeki Ruiko dumped him for being good-for-nothing. Neither work nor romance go well for him. One day, when he comes back to the apartment where he lives with his younger sister, Nanami, his mobile phone rings. The call is from his friend from high school days, Kanazawa Kohei, who has got in touch with him about a class reunion which will be held in Tokyo. Kohei’s message causes Aoi to think of his high school years despite himself … and of Akari whom he has not met in seven years … In Toyama in 2008, childhood friends Aoi and Akari would freely come and go between each other’s house and spend every day together like it was the most natural thing to do.. Aoi was also on familiar terms with Akari’s father, Hirotoshi. They were mutually in love, but they could not honestly put it in words and carried on having a delicate relationship. Meanwhile, Shota transfers to the school from Tokyo. Because of that, the relationship between the two of them slowly changed. In the summer of their third year of high school, Aoi is eager to invite Akari for the fireworks festival and confess his feelings to her in the belief that he may get separated from her once they graduate. But Akari suddenly disappears during the fireworks display. Aoi is forced to bury his feelings for her deep within him. He is encouraged by their sudden reunion after seven years. However, there is another guy called Aoi standing next to her.

Characters
Fukushi Sota as Miura Aoi
A native of Toyama Prefecture. He is now an assistant at Niwa Mariko Architects, a small architecture firm in Tokyo. During high school days, he was the top swimmer of the swim team. But after that, he just became an adult and found employment. He once aspired to become an architect, but his dream has faded as he lets the days go by working as an assistant. He has the lowest position in the company and his primary responsibility is odd jobs. He has a sunny disposition and is loved by everyone. But he is passive and indecisive. He has his own inclinations, but he would read the situation and eventually end up putting the opinions of others first. This personality is the reason why he is not doing well in his love and professional life, but he does not realise that this is the reason. He is now over 180 m tall, but when he was a child, he was short, wore spectacles and was a crybaby who got bullied. His childhood friend, Serizawa Akari, would always save him from this, and before he realised it, he had fallen in love with her. When they were students, the two of them would spend every day together like it was the most natural thing to do. Akari would always support him when he was really hopeless. But on the night of the fireworks display in their third year of high school, this irreplaceable Akari suddenly vanished. At the end of summer, came the abrupt end of youth. Whenever summer comes, he would feel pained by the memories and attempts to forget her, but … …

Honda Tsubasa as Serizawa Akari
Miura Aoi’s childhood friend and first love. A native of Toyama Prefecture. She now works part-time in Tokyo as she studies to be a teacher through a university correspondence course. She is cheerful, positive, and hates dishonesty. A hardworking person who is dedicated to her dream and goals. She is strong-minded and cannot let people see her weakness. But she actually gets lonely. Because her mother died of illness when she was 2 years old, she was raised by her father who managed a shipbuilding yard. It was her childhood friend, Aoi, who saved her from the loneliness of losing her mother, and she soon started going to Aoi’s house frequently for dinner. Aoi’s family also treated her just like a real family. After they went on to high school, she suddenly started to be conscious of Aoi as a guy. Nevertheless, she could not possibly say that she liked him now. She hoped that they could continue to keep their relationship as it is. On the night of the fireworks display during the third year of high school, she made up her mind to tell Aoi about her feelings. However, unforeseen circumstances happened on that night and she had to leave Toyama … …

Nomura Shuhei as Aoi Shota
An outstanding houseman who works for Tohto Medical University Hospital and an elite whom the people around him have great expectations of. He is the other Aoi who has become Miura Aoi’s love rival. He learns that Aoi has come to Tokyo and suddenly calls on him. He gives people the impression of being cold at first glance, but he is actually a person with a kind heart. His father is a doctor and it was decided from the time he was born that he would be a doctor too in the future. During high school, he attended a Tokyo preparatory school, but hit a dead end and he transferred to a high school in Toyama. At the point that he thought there would be nothing worth living for, he was saved by Aoi. They became friends and he recovered emotionally during the happy times they shared. Before long, he became friendly with Serizawa Akari too, and slowly started to be attracted to her. However, he realised the feelings that Aoi has for Akari … …

Shinkawa Yua as Sawada Kazuha
A fellow houseman of Aoi Shota who works for Tohto Medical University Hospital. An intelligent and beautiful daughter of a rich family. She has faint feelings for Shota, but learns that he has a girlfriend and is unable to contain herself.

Taiga as Kanazawa Kohei
Miura Aoi’s friend since elementary school days. A native of Toyama Prefecture and the heir of a tofu shop which has been in the family for generations. He suddenly comes to Tokyo to live with Aoi, and calls to their ex-classmates with the intention of holding a class reunion. Although he is gifted at setting the mood with his naturally lively personality, he often goes around in circles on his own. He loves fun and interesting things, and has a great deal of curiosity. He ends up falling in love at first sight with Aoi’s younger sister, Nanami, who has transformed.

Ichikawa Yui as Saeki Ruiko
Miura Aoi’s ex-girlfriend. She is an outstanding sales person with a home builder and got acquainted with Aoi through work. She goes in and out of Niwa Mariko Architects even now. After dumping Aoi, she has no qualms about saying they are friends and treating him normally, but … …

Yoshida Yo as Niwa Mariko
The capable president of Niwa Mariko Architects, the architecture firm that Miura Aoi works for, and a top architect. She pushes Miura Aoi around with her tendency to do as she pleases. After graduating from university, she was a successful architect who handled large-scale construction at a big construction company. But she wanted to do architecture by engaging with individual clients, and she started Niwa Mariko Architects at the age of 35. She discovered something interesting in just one of the sketches that Aoi brought while job hunting. Noticing that he had conceptualised this house design with someone in mind, she decides that he has the makings of an architect and hires him. She wants to give Aoi a starting point as an architect and constantly speaks harshly to him. However, Aoi does not seem to get her message … …

Kobayashi Kaoru as Serizawa Hirotoshi
Serizawa Akari’s father and a native of Toyama Prefecture. He brought Akari up single-handedly. He had been managing a family shipyard business in Toyama. At the time Akari was born, he left child-raising entirely to his wife. However, when Akari was 2 years old, his wife died of illness. He tried very hard to raise Akari in his own way, but when he got busy with work, he could not take care of her. Akari soon made a lot of friends with her cheerful personality, and he felt relieved. Among her friends was Miura Aoi whom he was truly grateful to and treated like his own son. However, he did not realise that his daughter yearned for his love and felt lonely. When Akari was in the third year of high school, unforeseen circumstances occurred and he had to leave Toyama. He has not been back to Toyama since then. He eventually meets Aoi again in an unexpected place … …

Scriptwriter
Kuwamura Sayaka (Keibuho Sugiyama Kentaro, Shark Series)

Episodes
#1: The Summer You were Present
#2: The Distance that Cannot be Bridged
#3: Truth of the Seventh Year
#4: Betrayal
#5: The Last Fireworks
#6: Decisions
#7: Confession
#8: Marriage
#9: The Summer You Gave Me

Click here for photos from the press conference.

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• Koinaka CM

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