Season
overview:
In July 2012 Takahashi Rumiko Gekijo began airing episodes on NHK-BS Premium. Each episode have three separate stories in each for a total of six short stories adaptations. The two episodes have the characters and narratives interwoven within them, so the stories are all connected.
Episode 1: 赤い花束
Akai hanataba (Red Bouquet)
Mr. Yoshimoto dies at an office party with a face drawn around his stomach and a necktie on his head. As his spirit visits his funeral, he realizes as he listens in on conversations just how poor a father and husband he was. Soon he realizes that his wife may have fallen in love with a handsome co-worker, due to his lack of attention when he was still alive. Then, a neighbor hears fighting from the apartment next door and begins to suspect a young widow might be abusing her mother-in-law who lives with her. As Natsuko begins to investigate she discovers that hidden in the pottery are shards of bone suggesting that there may have been more to Mrs. Tonegawa's husbands death than meets the eye. Finally, the Fuwa family sets off on a road trip when Hazuki starts to notice her father is behaving oddly. Little by little she suspects her father is planning to kill himself and murder the family. Fearful of confronting him she decides she must protect the family as her father's behavior becomes more and more suspect.
Episode Staff:
Director: Hajime Suenaga (末永創)
Script: Kunihiko Okamoto (岡本國彥)
Originally Aired:
July 8, 2012
10:00 pm - 11:00 pm on NHK-BS Premium
Episode 2: 運命の鳥
Unmei no tori (Birds of Fate)
A man sees phantasmic birds over the heads of anyone who is about to befall some sort of tragedy, unfortunately his mild nature prevents him from using his powers to help others. Then, a put-upon salaryman has to welcome his boss's dog and mistress into his home if he hopes to get a promotion at work. Finally, when Mr. Domoto is laid off of his prestigious job as a salaryman, his wife falls ill and asks him to fill in for her at the convience store. There, his rough personality doesn't mesh well with his co-workers, but he learns from a hard-working foreigner named Achara to persevere.
Episode Staff:
Director: Fumitaka Kojima (小島史敬)
Script: Kunihiko Okamoto (岡本國彥)
Originally Aired:
July 15, 2012
10:00 pm - 11:00 pm on NHK-BS Premium
Season
overview:
Rumiko Takahashi Anthology (高橋留美子短編集) was announced as a radio program as part of NHK Radio 1's "New Sunday Masterpiece" (新日曜名作座) series. All roles on the series are played by two actors Toshiyuki Nishida (西田敏行) and Keiko Takeshita (竹下景子). An interview with both actors was published in Big Comic Original 2009 Vol. 14. Each radio drama airs on NHK Radio 1 from 10:15 pm - 10:45pm.
Episode 1: 日帰りの夢
Higaeri no yume (One Day Dream)
A salaryman named Shinonome prepares for his junior high school reunion, dreaming of the girl he once had a crush on. He is saddened to find that time has not been kind to Saeko Shima, his dreamgirl, and she has gained quite a bit of weight. Soon he learns that he has mistaken the chunky divorcee for his long lost friend, and is pleased to find that Saeko is still as beautiful as he remembers. As the story progresses the salaryman learns to live for the here and now, and allow his memories of the past to fade and accept life for what it has become.
Episode 2: 君がいるだけで
Kimi ga iru dake de (Kimi ga iru dake de)
Mr. Domoto is a proud and stern businessman whose eye is always on the bottom line. He seems tailor made for life in the high stakes corporate world. Then, one day, his company goes out of business and he finds himself back home and out of a job. His wife has kept herself busy working at a small restaurant, but she has recently fallen ill and has been unable to go to work. With nothing else to do, Mr. Domoto decides to fill in for his ailing wife at the restaurant.
Meanwhile at work, the employees seem to be up in arms about the the newest employee, a young exchange student from Thailand named Achara. Achara's Japanese seems limited to "I don't understand Japanese." Not long afterwards Mr. Domoto arrives and it becomes clear that his hard-nosed boardroom demeanor is not going to work well at the small shop. Between Achara's lack of Japanese and Mr. Domoto's cold personality the store manager has his hands full keeping his customers business. The store manager ultimately puts Mr. Domoto in a giant rabbit suit in an attempt to make him seem less intimidating, but even that fails when he winds up attacking a punk who insulted Achara for being foreign.
Mr. Domoto is overhears the store manager's frustrations with him one day, and walks off feeling very hurt. Achara finds him and comforts him as he breaks into tears as he realizes how poorly suited he is for his new job. He realizes how much Achara has inspired him to keep trying. After all she has come all the way to Japan, and her Japanese has improved by leaps and bounds since he met her. Mr. Domoto returns to the store and apologizes to the manager. He has finally swallowed his pride.
Some months later Mr. Domoto finds a new job in another office and his wife returns to work. He still frequents the shop to see Achara, who inspired him so much when he was at his lowest point.
Episode 3: Ｐの悲劇
P no higeki (The Tragedy of P)
The Tragedy of P takes place in the Heisei Aparment Building. The tenents association led by Mrs. Kakei has recently been cracking down on people violating the rule that states "pets are strictly prohibited". In fact, Mrs Kakei has just caused an elderly woman who refused to get rid of her dog to be evicted. Mrs. Haga on the other hand, is a very kind woman who lives above Mrs. Kakei.
One day, Mr. Haga brings home Pitto, a Humbolt Penguin. Mr. Sunstar, one of Mr. Haga's American clients, needed someone to watch Pitto for a week until he came back to Japan. Mr. Haga decided to score some points with Mr. Sunstar and accepted. Kota, the Haga's son quickly disobeys his mother, and tells everyone in his class that they have a new pet penguin. Mrs. Haga becomes very upset and worries that Mrs. Kakei will try to have them evicted if she were to find out.
Mrs. Kakei becomes suspicious when she begins to here noises in the middle of the night, and when her son, Hiroshi, begins to spend a lot of time visiting the Hagas. As other tenants are caught with pets and forced to move out of the building, Mrs. Haga begins to get very nervous. Mr. Sunstar has delayed picking up Pitto for a little while longer and Mrs. Kakei is becoming more and more suspicious. Mrs. Haga begins to wonder why Mrs. Kakei has such a grudge against animals and how she can be so unfeeling to those tenants with pets. After asking Hiroshi Kakei, she discovers that Mrs. Hakei had been unable to keep a pet dog recently because their apartment wasn't large enough. The fact of the matter was, Mrs. Hakei hated to see animals kept in such small apartments unable to run and be free.
Episode 4: Ｌサイズの幸福
L saizu no shiawase (Extra-Large Size Happiness)
Hanako and Ryuiichi recently decided to purchase a new house. The house is quite nice, and the price is very good, so Ryuiichi's mother has decided to loan them the money in order to pay for it, and then move in with them. Hanako and Ryuiichi are quite thankful that they'll soon be moving into a large home and out of their crowded apartment. All goes well until Ryuiichi's mother arrives with a large headed gremlin in tow.
Unfortunately for Hanako, she's the only one who can see it. The gremlin pesters and harrasses Hanako, but it seems that whenever Hanako tries to do something back it looks like she's yelling at her mother-in-law. Ryuiichi's mother begins to reconsider loaning them the money, which would prevent them from getting the new house.
After many outbursts and fits, Hanako draws a picture of the gremlin to show her husband. Ryuiichi remembers seeing a similar drawing when he was a child, and states that what she is seeing is a special kind of creature that brings happiness to whomever lives in a house with it. Eventually the gremlin causes car-accidents and many other problems to prevent the family from moving to the new house. Luckily for them, the gremlin had been trying to warn them that the reason the house was so inexpensive was that it's located in an area prone to mudslides.
Episode 5: 茶の間のラブソング
Cha no ma no rabusongu (Living Room Love Song)
While waiting for her husband to return from work so they can celebrate their anniversary a middle-aged woman passes away from eating a durian fruit with alcohol. At the funeral Mr. Tadakoro thinks about how he had begun to take his wife for granted recently, and now that she is gone, he begins to realize how much he loved her. Even though he loves her, he is surprised that he has not cried at her death.
Ten months go by, and Mr. Tadakoro seems to be slowly recovering from his wife's death. He has begun to take a special notice of Hitomi Momoi, a young girl working in his office. One night after returning home from work he is surprised to find the television on. Mr. Tadakoro is even more shocked to see the ghost of his wife sitting in his living room. His wife pesters him and proves to be even more trouble when he realizes he is the only one that can see her. Eventually he begins to see more and more of young Ms. Momoi as she comes by to cook for him. He finds that he has developed a crush on her, made none the easier by the ghost of his wife who has started spreading rumors about Momoi and his "relationship".
Mr. Tadakoro tries everything to get rid of the pestering spirit of his dead wife, but she refuses to leave. One night while he is lying awake sick in bed and thinking of Momoi he sees her standing outside in the rain. He heads out to comfort her and then sees her boyfriend. He watches as they reconcile and leave together, and Mr. Tadakoro returns home dejectedly. The ghost feels sorry for her husband and tells him to look in a drawer in the living room and then vanishes for a final time. In the drawer he finds a letter his wife had written him on their anniversary and he is finally able to cry over his lost spouse.
Episode Staff:
Director: ---
Script: ---
Originally Aired:
August 16, 2009
10:15 pm - 10:45 pm on NHK Radio 1
Episode 6: 鉢の中
Hachi no naka (Hidden in the Pottery)
After attending the funeral of her neighbor, Mrs. Tonegawa, the young woman begins to hear odd things about Mrs. Tonegawa's daughter-in-law. She hears that the daughter-in-law (Young Mrs. Tonegawa) was very cruel to the recently diseased Mrs. Tonegawa. That she refused to cook for her, after Young Mrs. Tonegawa's husband died in a car accident that injured her mother-in-law, Young Mrs. Tonegawa refused to care for her and hired a private nurse.
After the funeral, Young Mrs. Tonegawa asks the young woman to care for her plants while she's away. The young woman is somewhat apprehensive, but agrees to help while Young Mrs. Tonegawa is away. While caring for the plants, one of them happens to fall and break it's pot. Picking up the pieces the young woman notices that there is a triangular white object in the pot, which she immediately recognizes as a bone. She also hears an odd story from one of her neighbors about Old Mrs. Tonegawa apologizing and crying while Young Mrs. Tonegawa dragged her back into the apartment.
Could Young Mrs. Tonegawa have killed someone? Are these really pieces of someone's bones in the plant pots? The young woman begins to worry, and decides to confront Young Mrs. Tonegawa about the bone she has found... which doesn't seem to please Young Mrs. Tonegawa.
Episode Staff:
Director: ---
Script: ---
Originally Aired:
August 23, 2009
10:15 pm - 10:45 pm on NHK Radio 1
Episode 7: 専務の犬
Senmu no inu (The Executive's Dog)
One day Kogure's boss comes by with his dog, Gorgeous. He needs the junior man to watch his dog for a few days. Almost immediately Kogure's stress begins to build when he finds that one of his children have drawn eyebrows on Gorgeous the Dog to make him look like his boss. Kogure worries about his job so much that he begins to develop a bald spot.
As if this was not stressful enough, the boss's mistress pays a visit to see Gorgeous but winds up moving in with Kogure and his family. Soon her large four poster bed is crowding their tiny living room, and as they eat breakfast she lays around in her lingerie and has her female friends over to visit. Ultimately the boss's wife comes calling and Kogure takes the fall by claiming the boss's mistress as his own. All in a days work for a stressed out salaryman like Kogure.
Episode Staff:
Director: ---
Script: ---
Originally Aired:
August 30, 2009
10:15 pm - 10:45 pm on NHK Radio 1
Episode 8: 赤い花束
Akai hanataba (Red Bouquet)
Mr. Yoshimoto dies at an office party with a face drawn around his stomach and a necktie on his head. As his spirit visits his funeral, he realizes as he listens in on conversations just how poor a father and husband he was. Soon he realizes that his wife may have fallen in love with a handsome co-worker, due to his lack of attention when he was still alive.
Episode Staff:
Director: ---
Script: ---
Originally Aired:
September 6, 2009
10:15 pm - 10:45 pm on NHK Radio 1
