The Drama Version of "Hirayasumi" — The Aesthetics of Acting and Omission

At a book cafe I stopped by recently, I finally read the first volume of "Hirayasumi," which I had been curious about for a long time but hadn't gotten around to reading.

I thought, this is a great manga, and read it all the way to the latest volume.

I heard that it was made into a drama on NHK, and that it's also available for streaming.

Even though it's NHK.
I guess NHK dramas are being streamed these days, too.

Happily, it's a 15-minute, 20-episode series in the Yoru-Dora time slot.
It's easy to watch. My wife and I started watching it together.

So, this time, I'd like to share my thoughts on the drama version of "Hirayasumi."

First of all, as an overall assessment, my impression was that this drama respects the original work quite a bit, while successfully adapting it into a drama structure and incorporating

omissions
into it.

As expected of NHK. Very sincere.

What's worth noting first is the casting.
The exquisite combination of Amane Okayama and Nana Mori.

First, Amane Okayama.

I had the impression that he wasn't very dexterous.
People called his performance in "Warai no Kaibutsu" a passionate performance, but I couldn't really be impressed by it.

Basically, I believe that so-called "passionate performances" are the furthest thing from acting.

However, my impression changed with this work.

He successfully portrayed the character of Hiroto—who appears openly cheerful and carefree, yet holds darkness and some kind of hot core inside his heart—through "tonal differences" and awkward conversational timing.

By the way, don't mistake this, as people other than the director also do direction.

And then, Nana Mori.

This kind of role really suits her.
To put it in one word, a rustic role.
It's close to her role in "The Makanai," but the character design is more self-conscious and sloppier than that.

She must be good at physical expression.
I could only see her as Natsumi-chan.

However, there is a tendency in her acting to escape through facial expressions.
She could act a little more with her fingertips.
Especially since she is so good at using her body.

The heroine is Riho Yoshioka.

Rihopo. I love her. Rihopo~.

She doesn't need to become the character Yomogi.
But she must be serious, I suppose;
she was trying to be faithful to the original work.

No matter what costume she is put in,
no matter what kind of acting she is made to do,
Riho Yoshioka cannot escape the mask of Riho Yoshioka,
nor is there any need for her to escape it.

I wonder if the director was actually conscious of this aspect?

Besides, I don't think she is particularly good at physical expression,
especially in how she uses her throat.
Therefore, it is impossible to reproduce the Yomogi role,
which has such strong quirks, exactly as it is in the original.

What makes this work a good piece is,
I suspect, the sense of reality brought by the supporting cast.

Nazuna Mitsushima as Akari.

Honestly, I wasn't familiar with her.
She made her presence felt by making full use of the dialect,
as if to latch onto Nana Mori.

In the first place, the work 'Hirayasumi' is an
ensemble dramawhere everyone becomes the protagonist,
so this direction of presence is completely correct.

This is a success for the technical staff, especially the lighting team,
who designed the lighting without creating a major disparity
between her and Nana Mori.

Kaito Yoshimura as Hideki. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I think this role was quite difficult.
Because even in the original work, this character is depicted
only as a presence with strong gag elements,
and is the character with the thinnest sense of reality in the work.

First, I will declare the victory of the production team
for casting someone close to the appearance.

However, it is surprising that the actor himself
gave reality to a character with such a thin sense of reality.

That is not gag acting.

He moves his mouth in a detailed way,
doesn't he? He makes it look incredibly difficult to speak words.

Ah, I felt that this person must have thought about
'Hideki's past'.
I was moved that he expressed that with his mouth.

With just the action of 'mumbling,'
he expressed many things, such as the sadness of the gag and the kindness of his personality.

I thought this was physical expression, and this was visual expression.

Kie Negishi as the grandmother

Needless to say.
Having this person play a role like this
gives one the same sense of security as
having Kirin Kiki play an old woman.

I wrote about the actors for a change.
It's fun to watch a drama
from this perspective once in a while.

Costumes

Come to think of it, wasn'tNana Mori's costumein this work
amazing?
It had such a sense of reality that I wondered
if the original author designed it every time.

The costumes are changed in quite some detail, but
the fact that you don't feel any discomfort with the costumes
is an amazing thing.

Well, if it were a character in a suit or work clothes,
where the style is fixed,
it wouldn't be that much of a struggle.

But this time, it's a first-year student from the countryside attending an art university,
who gradually starts to make connections with people at school,
and whose character design slowly becomes brighter,
so I think it was difficult.

However, in contrast, Akari-chan's costumes
were too cute. Same for the hair and makeup.
Akari-chan was too cute.
But I also thought that to compete with Nana Mori's presence,
there was no choice but to do this much.

Main Topic

Now, this is the main topic.
(That was way too long of a run-up!!)

As I mentioned at the beginning, this work
is condensed into 20 episodes of 15 minutes each, so it uses omission.

That is the point wheretwo characters were deleted.

One is the romantic interest for Riho Yoshioka.
But they didn't depict that.
Riho Yoshioka is strictly
a person of interest who appears in the life at the one-story house.

An omission to depict Hirayasumi
strictly as a daily life drama at a one-story house. A big victory.

The second is Akari-chan's romantic interest.
They were omitted for the same reason.
They intentionally removed the existence of these characters
to keep the story centered on the one-story house.

If a clumsy screenwriter were to do this,
they would hint at their existence for just a moment
as a nod to fans of the original work.

The fact that they didn't do that is amazing.

I can't gauge whether it was the screenwriter or the producer,
but by
"completely deleting"them, the 20 episodes came together.
I think this omission is the fundamental factor that should be praised.

By the way, it's not just the omission,
but the skillful handling of the timelinewas also a point
where I felt a sense of aesthetics.

At the script stage, one could say that this work
was guaranteed success.

The problem precisely because of that is
the fact that a second series is expected.

Since two important characters were removed,
to do it, one would have to start by introducing those two.
But if you do that, the viewers who were satisfied
with this version of Hirayasumi will likely drift away.
Because it would become a romance drama, not a story about a one-story house.

It's difficult, isn't it?
I personally hope they leave it at this.

The end