The 54th episode of the NHK Asadora drama "Anpan " starring Mio Imada (General TV, Monday to Saturday at 8:00 am and others) was broadcast on June 12th. The 15-minute long scene in which Takashi ( Takumi Kitamura) and Chihiro (Motoki Nakazawa) meet again for the first time in three years and open up to each other was a hot topic among viewers.
In episode 54, it is the summer two years after Takashi joined the army. Chihiro meets Takashi for the first time in a long time and finds out that she has become a naval officer. Takashi is shocked, so Chihiro explains that she has volunteered to become a naval reserve cadet. Her mission is to board a destroyer and drop depth charges on enemy submarines. Takashi explodes with anger, saying, "What you wanted to listen for so keenly is not the sound of the enemy's propellers!" and "To me, you are the only younger brother in the world!"
Chihiro reveals that she will be boarding a destroyer from Sasebo in five days and heading south, saying, "There's no turning back now." Chihiro gives Takashi an old notebook of her late father, Kiyoshi (Yutaka Takenouchi), that she found in a drawer in Hiroshi's (Kazunari Ninomiya) desk, as a talisman, and shows him a tattered photo of Kiyoshi, saying, "I'll have this."
Takashi suggested to Chihiro, "Why don't we do something stupid for the last time?" Chihiro laughed sadly and reminisced about her childhood, saying, "I want to ride the seesaw one more time." Then, she confessed her hidden feelings for Nobu (Imada), saying, "If I can return alive, I won't hold back from anyone anymore. This time I'll catch Nobu-san." "If there was no war, I would rather live for the people I love than die for the country I love!"
Takashi hugged Chihiro and said, "Chihiro, come back alive. Make sure you come back alive! If you come back alive, this time, live your life." He continued, "May you have good luck in battle! I'm praying for you," to which Chihiro replied, "Thank you! Lieutenant Chihiro Yanai, let's go!" and the two saluted.
On social media, people were saying things like, "A spectacular 15 minutes," "I cried all morning," "A truly divine episode," "It was an incredible episode... I saw something incredible...," "It was a powerful clash of souls depicted with only Takashi and Chihiro in the same room," and "The farewell salute was so heartbreaking."
