The first episode of the drama series "If She Calls It Love" starring actor Kuriyama Chiaki (Yomiuri TV/Nippon TV, Thursdays 11:59pm) aired on April 3rd. The main character, Ima (Kuriyama), is not cheating or having an affair, but is instead living a sincere, consensual relationship with multiple lovers. On social media, the show drew comments such as "It's a pretty deep form of love" and "It's an amazing world."
◇The following contains spoilers
The drama is based on the novel of the same name by Ikki Kei. Ima, a single mother with a high school daughter, falls in love again. The other person is Hisame (played by Ito Kentaro), a graduate student majoring in biology. Ima already has two lovers. "Because we are lovers," "because we are mother and daughter," "because we are a wife," "because we are a mother"... This is a story that shakes up such rigid notions of "normalcy."
Hisame is interested in Ima, who comes to the cafe where he works part-time at the same time every week. When he is about to take a step forward in his relationship with her, Ima tells him, "There's something I want to talk to you about before that."
When Hisame visits Ima's house, he finds Ao (Kento Senga) and Itaru (Tomomi Maruyama) who are friendly with Ima. The fact that "they are both lovers" is revealed to the bewildered Hisame.
"What do you mean, you two are lovers?" asked Hisame, confused. Ima replied, "You see, I like Hisame. But I like Itaru and Ao just as much. So instead of forcing myself to narrow it down to one, I want to date everyone I like. That is, as long as they're good."
When Hisame said, "It's very interesting from a biological perspective. I think that's one possible style of love," Ima gave a charming smile and said, "Thank you so much. I'm glad I fell in love with you, Hisame!"
On social media, comments such as, "It's such a mysterious world!", "It's quite... a very intense drama", "A very deep form of love. How is it going to develop from here on out?! The first episode ended in a flash", "As an introduction to the first episode, it gets 100 points, no, 120 points! It was interesting!", "I started watching expecting it to be a sordid drama, but it was interesting", "I was on the edge of my seat from the beginning, and while I was confused by the form of love portrayed, I was drawn in right away. I can't wait to see how things will unfold from the next episode onwards!" were posted and garnered attention.
