Screening event of new NHK morning drama "Hanbun, Aoi"

The screening event of new NHK morning drama "Hanbun, Aoi" was held at the TV station's HQ in Tokyo on 9 March which was attended by the scriptwriter Kitagawa Eriko and cast members Nagano Mei, Matsuyuki Yasuko, Takito Kenichi and child actor Yazaki Yusa. The drama begins its run from 2 April in the Mondays to Saturdays 8pm timeslot. Nagano plays the heroine Suzume while Takito and Matsuyuki play her parents. Yazaki plays the childhood version of Suzume at 9 years old. The heroine Nireno Suzume (Nagano Mei) lost hearing in her left ear due an illness she had when she was a child and the drama describes her turbulent life and the process of building an electrical appliances manufacturing company over half a century from 1971 to the present era which will be set in Gifu, her birthplace, and Tokyo.

After watching the first week's episodes during the screening, Nagano expressed faith that the story will get even more entertaining as it progresses. In the drama, the heroine's pet phrase is "fugyogyo" which is a created word by Kitagawa to mean "I fumbled or messed up" in the Gifu dialect. Nagano commented that she hoped that this phrase would become popular like other key phrases in previous morning dramas like "jejeje" in "Ama-chan" especially since this phrase is a key factor in conveying the appeal of the drama.

Although Nagano appears at the beginning of the first episode, she will be in the form of a foetus shown in CG style. Suzume's childhood story will be featured until the end of the second week so Nagano will only make her first official appearance by the third week. Nagano revealed that she was surprised how similar she and Yazaki were because she came to know that the latter did the same things, ran and laughed like her on the set. As for appearing as a foetus for the first time, Nagano said that it was an interesting experience to use her voice for a baby but she was unsure what to do when the director told her to speak like a baby but a baby actually doesn't speak. As such, it took a long time before she could complete the narration recording.

Sources: Oricon 1 / Oricon 2 / Nikkansports