Last Friends

Last-Friends-banner

Last friends is a spring drama currently being aired in Japan. It airs on Fuji TV every Thursdays at 10 pm (Japanese time), and is currently on the 5th episode. The main cast members are (I'm using the last name, first name format):

• Nagasawa Masami as Aida Michiru (Yoshida Rei in Proposal Daisakusen)
• Ueno Juri as Kishimoto Ruka (Noda Megumi in Nodame Cantabile)
• Eita as Mizushima Takeru (Mine Ryuutaro in Nodame Cantabile)
• Mizukawa Asami as Takigawa Eri (Miki Kiyora in Nodame Cantabile)
• Nishikido Ryo as Oikawa Sousuke (Member of J.E. groups: NewS & Kanjani 8)

The opening song of the drama is "Prisoner of Love" by Utada Hikaru. The lyrics is very suggestive and taking a good look at it would be a very good idea. Lyrics in Kanji, Romaji and English here. :)

Synopsis of the drama here. Official site here. You can watch it here. (Though I'd suggest downloading it here as a better option. Kioku ones are the English subbed ones.) :)

About the promotional banner and the opening scene:

As you can see, these are the five main characters  from the show, and they are linked to each other by red strings. It is believed that there exists people destined for each other and they are often believed to be "linked" by the red string of fate. More than that belief, the strings symbolize how each one is connected to one another and what kind of relationship they actually have in the drama, and this can be seen in how the strings are wrapped around the wrists of each person (and body for Michiru's case).

Many more symbolisms can be pointed out from this banner alone such as the way they are lying down, and why Takeru is the only one with his eyes open. As the drama progresses, more and more of these symbolisms come to light as we get a deeper understanding of the story and the people in it.

It can also be noted that this pattern is entirely different from the one being shown in the opening scene of the actual drama. Their positions, the way strings are wrapped around them, and even their clothes differ by just a slight amount.  These, too, hold deeper meanings, to be unraveled within the show.

Similar to the drama's banner, the opening scene holds many clues about the drama. Some notable ones are: 

• Why everyone is walking in the beginning, while only Sousuke stands still.
• The key English words: Love, Liberation, Agony, Solitude and Contradiction.
• Why everyone walks towards the viewer in the end, while Sousuke walks the opposite direction.
• How each member interacts with one another in the short snippets shown.
• Why everyone seems to be wearing pure white, while Sousuke has a black neck tie. (But if you would look closely, Takeru's actually wearing a black belt.)
• The key symbolisms present throughout the show: cups/mugs, keys and mirrors.
  

Michiru, a hairstylist who was brought up in a broken family, and only has a no-good mother left with her, decides to live with her boyfriend, Sousuke, who works for the government in the child welfare division, only to find out that she'll be a victim of DV (or domestic violence).

Ruka is a potentially great motocross racer and long-time friend of Michiru, who, upon seeing her after four years, begins to relive feelings from the past and uses these to protect her from the abusive Sousuke.

Takeru, a friend and eventually house-mate of Eri, is a hair and make-up stylist by day and bartender at night. because of his gentleness and sensitivity--generally feminine traits--many mistake him for a gay person--a false assumption many people around him have.

Eri is a very cheerful flight attendant who, though extremely friendly and affable, experiences extreme loneliness within herself. She lives with Ruka in what they call, a share house.

Sousuke... I have yet to know him. Basically, he works for the government, inspecting houses everyday to see if there is any form of child abuse present. But, as stated in Michiru's info, he tends to become very possessive and often commits DV.

My take on each character:

MICHIRU
She is a person who has never felt love in her life. Her mother is a drunkard and doesn't care a bit about her daughter unless she (Michiru) gives her money; her father left them way back to escape from debt, and was also quite abusive; and her workplace, though she loves being a hairstylist, the fact that she's bullied there takes a toll on her. When Sousuke starts badly abusing her and setting up irrational prohibitions (such as getting home at a set time and not allowing her to cut men's hair), she tries her best to endure everything for his sake.

Even when she decides to stop living with him, she's still subtly bound by Sousuke's strings. In episode five, she said to Takeru, "I want to stop liking Sousuke, but in the end, I can't do so." I think this is because she believes that she is the only person who can truly change Sousuke. They both possess a similar past, and because of that, she believes she can understand Sousuke's loneliness better than anyone else. She understands his anger. She understands why he is hurting her and why he is being strict on her. She sees this as love--the love that she thought she never had in her entire life; something that was right in front of her all this time, but never noticed. That's why no matter how many times she's been abused by Sousuke, even nearly raped by him, she still chose to be with his side because she knows how lonely Sousuke will get if she left him; the same loneliness she is feeling because of the traumatic past she has had.

But because her eyes only saw sousuke, the lonely person who is similar to her, she neglected to look around her and realize that there are actually a lot of people caring for her. She never saw the real reason of Ruka's earnest attempt of protecting her from the same past she's endured, and instead saw the ruka who was always happy with her family, which she truly envied. Ruka, for her, is someone who has always been there, always been supportive of her and nothing more. Since it has always been that way since high school, she never thought of it as anything more than friendship. She only barely saw the earnest attempt of Eri, Ogurin and especially Takeru, to ease her loneliness by always understanding her and putting her needs ahead of their own.

She is ultimately lonely and this can be seen in what she says. When she got to know Takeru, the first thing she asked him was if he had a nice family. "If a person can make such a good coffee and tea, then he must have come from a good family." When they were in Ruka's house, she truly felt happy and ended up telling Ruka that she has such a nice family. Since she's been neglected as a child, she looks for someone who can be devoted to her and her alone. Among the five... six of them, only Sousuke truly satisfies that. Ruka also satisfies that, but Michiru thinks that she's not that special to ruka because Ruka has her hands full with other things such as motocross.

But aside from that, she just wants to be loved truly by someone. And for her, the only way to achieve this is to have a family of her own. Though she never expressed it bluntly, whenever she sees a good person, she thinks of a happy family, and with this, I assume that she has been longing for a family of her own--which is happy and good. She understands that this is also what Sousuke probably needs in order for him to stop being violent, and so she insists being with him no matter what the odds are.

In her weak facade, you will see a person who earnestly tries to love someone. Unfortunately she's been loving, not the wrong person, but someone who cannot reciprocate her love well enough for others, who truly care for her, to be at ease. Add to that the fact that Ruka has been there with her all this time, through thick and thin, and yet she is oblivious of how Ruka truly feels towards her. She can be brutally selfish at times. What's worse is that she, herself, doesn't notice her own selfishness and the fact that this is hurting other people.

She can be likened to an innocent child looking for a favorable attention from someone she thinks cares about her.

to be continued later...