Mio Imada stars in the Asadora drama series "Anpan" (NHK General TV, Monday to Saturday, 8:00am and others), starring Sara Shida. Her character, Usako Ogawa, showed "remarkable growth" in the fifth week of the drama, which began on April 28th. In the 25th episode, which aired on May 2nd, Usako faced off against the heroine, Nobu Asada(Imada), in a direct naginata (long sword) battle, and won brilliantly. At that moment, Shida herself said, "I felt emotions I had never imagined." We asked her about some episodes from the filming.
Usako is Nobu's childhood friend. In her school days, she dreamed of finding a good partner and becoming a bride before graduating. However, when her parents tried to force her into an unwilling marriage, she ran away and enrolled in a women's normal school. She and Nobu became classmates again and shared a room in the dormitory, but at first she cried a lot due to the harsh life.
However, after meeting Yukiko Kuroi, a teacher at a women's normal school whose motto is "for the good of the country," Usako began to think, "I want to become as strong as Ms. Kuroi," and while Nobu frequently returned to her parents' home, she stayed in the dormitory and practiced naginata at school. Eventually, she improved to the point where she was able to defeat Nobu in a direct confrontation.
Shida revealed, "From the beginning, the producer told me to pay close attention to portraying Usako's growth through her naginata."
In episodes 24 and 25, it was revealed that ever since Usako said she wanted to become stronger, she had been working hard behind the scenes, and Shida herself has also practiced naginata many times.
Shida also said that the direct confrontation between Usako and Nobu was "filmed in an atmosphere that felt like a real, serious fight."
"I wanted to express the final punch line and how Usako has grown up, so I practiced that scene over and over. Imada-san, who played Nobu-chan, showed such a powerful performance from the first rehearsal that I felt I couldn't lose to her. I think I was able to improve in that sense just by keeping the relationship between Nobu-chan and Usako intact. I also remember how even after the scheduled rehearsal time had passed, Imada-san and I stayed behind to practice, asking, 'Can we do it a little longer?'"
Until then, "Usako, who was the weakest of all," would hide behind Nobu, but now she has grown to the point where she can stand shoulder to shoulder with the tomboyish and competitive "Hachikin Onobu." However, Shida says that winning the head-to-head match was a bit "bitter."
"As Usako, I was happy that we won, but when I saw Nobu-chan's expression at the moment we lost, I felt like I wanted to be happy but couldn't. That was an emotion I hadn't imagined. Although the form was set, I think it was an emotion that welled up inside me because we both fought seriously."
