The first episode of the drama series "Taigan no Kaji ~Kore ga Watashi no Ikiru Michi~" (TBS, Tuesdays at 10pm), starring actress Mikako Tabe, aired on April 1st. The series Taigan no Kaji ~Kore ga, Watashi no Ikiru Michi~(Tabe) and "working mom" Nagano Reiko (Noriko Eguchi), and has drawn comments on social media such as "It's so relatable it makes me cry" and "I can really sympathise."
◇The following contains spoilers
The show is based on the novel "Taigan no Kaji" (Kodansha Bunko) by Akeno Kayoko. It depicts the "endless work" of housework through the protagonist's interactions with "people on the other side of the river" who have different positions and ways of thinking. This will be Tabe's second time starring in the same time slot, five years after "My Housekeeper Nagisa-san" (2020).
The first episode depicts the lifestyles of Shiho, who lives with her husband Torao (Wataru Ichinose), who works late every day as the manager of an izakaya restaurant, and their daughter Ichigo (Hana Nagai), and Reiko, who is overwhelmed by the struggle to balance her work and housework.
Shiho felt that she couldn't do two things at once and chose to be a full-time housewife, but she sometimes feels lonely spending her days only with Ichigo. She realizes that a full-time housewife's day is spent talking to herself, and wishes that "my kids are cute, but I want to talk to an adult!" When Shiho goes to the park with Ichigo, she is confused and asks, "Only 15 minutes have passed! Isn't time and space distorted?" She feels exhausted and thinks, "I chose to be a full-time housewife. This is the path I chose for myself. So why has it become so...?"
Meanwhile, Reiko's husband (Kenshiro Kawanishi) works late into the night, so she is almost single-handedly raising her child. She often finds herself urging her child to hurry up in the mornings, or getting so caught up in tasks that she ends up yelling at her child.
When she received a call from the daycare center during work saying that her child had a fever, she apologized and left work early. Reiko was troubled, saying, "I won't give up on work or housework. This is the path I chose for myself. But why is it so difficult?"
Comments on social media included, "I was on the verge of crying within the first five minutes. I can relate to Taba's desire to talk to adults and her daily routine of talking to herself a lot," "It was really good. Everyone is working hard. It made me think I should praise myself every day," "It resonated with me so much that I burst into tears within the first ten minutes," "Only 15 minutes have passed in the sandbox at the park?! I can understand the distortion of time and space lol," "It was so real it felt like it wasn't a drama," and "It felt like a working mom is being pushed to her limits and it brought me to tears."
