It has been announced that actors Renbutsu Misako and Nagasaku Hiromi will appear in "Vanilla Everyday," which will be broadcast on NHK's "Yorudora" slot (General TV, Monday to Thursday, 10:45 a.m.) from January 2025. Based on a novel by Kato Tsubasa, the "sweets human drama" is set in a small Western-style pastry shop in Osaka, with Renbutsu playing the protagonist, pastry chef Shirai Aoi, and Nagasaku playing brazen and cheerful cooking researcher Sadotani Manami.
The story follows Shirai Aoi (Renbutsu), who trains as a pastry chef and opens her dream Western-style pastry shop in Osaka. However, business does not go well and the shop is closed. Then, eccentric cooking researcher Sadotani Manami (Nagasaku) appears and says she will open a "sweets class for just one person" in the kitchen of Shirai's closed shop. Shirai reluctantly cooperates. The students who come to the mysterious sweets class are all people with their own emotional pain. The story is about how the time spent making and enjoying sweets gently heals lonely hearts.
Renbutsu commented, "Making sweets together with people who are neither friends nor acquaintances. The strange, comfortable time that arises from this, which feels like therapy or even a sense of 'alone', gives you many precious sensations, as if gently opening a treasure chest hidden deep in your heart. In this modern age where we have to keep working hard whether we like it or not and it's hard to allow ourselves to stop, I hope that, even if just for a little while, we can become 'someone else' with the sweet scent of vanilla. I think every day that the power that can be gained from this is actually amazing. I hope to face this wholeheartedly together with Nagasaku."
Nagasaku said, "I hope this drama will be able to deliver moments like those in your everyday life when you naturally cry or laugh...when tears naturally well up or you suddenly burst out laughing, feeling a bit embarrassed but also feeling lighter in your heart. In my opening greeting I said something rude like, "I don't really like sweets..." but once filming began, the gentle aromas and beautiful sweets that came one after another started to melt not only my tongue but my whole being (laughs). I'm sure that all the hardened feelings of unease within you will begin to melt away. Please look forward to this luxurious time."
The drama is scheduled to air 32 episodes over eight weeks.
