As the term "summer withering" suggests, July's drama series are struggling overall in terms of ratings, but there are of course some shows that make you feel grateful to have come across them, and one of them is " We Still Don't Know the School Rules of That Planet, " starring Hayato Isomura . Like last year's much talked about "Unmet: The Diary of a Brain Surgeon," this school drama is produced by Kansai TV and airs on Fuji TV at 10pm on Mondays. Here, we would like to unravel the appeal of this series, known as "Bokuhoshi."
◇The gentle world depicted by Mika Omori. It has the feel of a "visual novel."
"Bokuhoshi" is a school drama about the protagonist, Kenji Shiratori (Isomura), who is timid and clumsy in everything because of his unique sensibilities. He is dispatched as a school lawyer to a private high school that is in the midst of becoming coeducational due to the declining birthrate, and desperately faces the youth of young people whose problems cannot be easily solved by laws or school rules.
The script is written by Mika Omori, who is known for her work on the 2015 Asadora drama "Asa ga Kita Tsuke." There is no original work, and the script is an original piece written by Omori.
The "end-of-life planning" comedy "I Want to Die Alone" (NHK), starring Ayase Haruka, which aired its final episode on August 2nd, was also a hot topic, and was written by Omori Mika. However, compared to "I Want to Die Alone," which was based on a manga and even had a dark sense of humor, the worldview of "BokuHoshi" is very gentle.
The heroine, high school teacher Koda Jyu, played by Mayu Hotta, teaches modern Japanese and is a great admirer of Miyazawa Kenji. Passages from Miyazawa Kenji's "Night on the Galactic Railroad" frequently appear in the dialogue between Jyu and the protagonist Kenji, and the drama itself has a somewhat novel-like quality, almost like a "visual novel." The same can be said for the theme song "Shura," written by Yorushika with the motif of Miyazawa Kenji's poetry collection "Spring and Ashura."
◇ Hayato Isomura constructs his role with surprising delicacy
Many viewers have experienced this strange "after-reading feeling," with comments posted on social media such as, "It's a drama I love, it makes me feel warm and gentle every time, like I've just finished reading a novel," "It's a drama that makes you feel really gentle. It makes you think about social issues, but it's a strange feeling like you're reading a novel," and "If this were a novel, I feel like it would rank highly in the Bookstore Awards."
Kenji, the protagonist at the center of "Bokuhoshi," loves stars, plants, and the richness of nature, and since childhood has had a unique sensitivity to the "colors" and "smells" of letters and sounds. His senses are different from those around him, and his laid-back personality means he can't adapt to group activities, and he has a history of skipping school... This is Isomura's first lead role in a commercial TV drama series, and he constructs the role with surprising sensitivity and ease.
The result is an abundance of "negative ions." I feel that the reason this drama warms the heart and makes us feel kind is largely due to Omori's writing skills, plus Isomura's "negative ion" acting. In a comment at the time of the announcement of his appearance, Hotta said of his impression of Isomura, "He has a stoic approach to acting, and watching him on TV I got the impression that he is someone who loves and is loved for acting," and that is a very apt description.
The protagonist Kenji, played by Isomura, who "loves acting and is loved by others," is sent to Hama Solaris High School, a private high school that has just merged the boys' school Hamaura Technical High School and the girls' school Hama Yuri Girls' Academy, and problems arise one after another on campus. As is typical of school dramas, the cast of students who get caught up in the problems or actively get involved is full of young actors who will lead the next generation. There is no doubt that their freshness and untouched innocence add to the drama's appeal. Also, alongside Isomura and Hotta, "another main cast member," Inagaki Goro, plays the school's chairman, Osaki Misao, and adds a nice spice to the role, but I would like to talk about that next time.
