The 63rd 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 25th, and viewers responded to the scene where Takashi ( Motoki Nakazawa Takumi Kitamura), who was killed in the war.
In episode 63, Taka visits the vacant lot where he used to play with Nobu (Imada) and Chihiro as a child. Standing in front of the seesaw in the vacant lot, Taka recalls the words that Chihiro said when they last met at the inn in Kokura: "I want to ride the seesaw one more time. I want to see Nobu one more time."
As Nobu stands in the ruins of a burnt-out building after an air raid, Taka appears and the two meet for the first time in four years. Nobu confesses to Taka that she quit her job as a teacher, and cries, "I've done irreparable things to the children," and "Shall we live and put on a movie?" Taka says, "There is no life that deserves to die," and confesses that he doesn't know what to do either, and that all he can do from now on is to ask himself questions.
He then adds with emphasis, "There is no such thing as a just war. It's a lie. So many people, enemies, allies and comrades, died because of that false justice. Including Chihiro... The last words he said have always stuck in my ears: 'If only there were no this war, I would... want to live for the ones I love.'"
While Takashi said that justice can easily be overturned, he looked ahead and said, "But if there is such a thing as justice that cannot be overturned...justice that makes everyone happy. I want to find it. I feel that this is the only thing I can do for Chihiro. No matter how many years, no matter how many decades it takes, I want to make everyone happy. When I thought that...I felt a rise of hope in life."
At the end of the film, Takashi sits on a seesaw in a vacant lot, gazing at the other side where no one is sitting. When the voice of Chihiro as a child sings "Gikkon, battan, gikkon, battan" overlaps with that scene, Takashi looks lonely for a moment and looks up to the sky.
Comments on social media included, "The see-saw with one side open brought me to tears," "It was heartbreaking," "It's lonely without Chihiro beside me," "The scene where he rode the see-saw alone was heartbreaking...I guess we can't go back to those days when we were having fun without knowing anything...," "He's determined to live for Chihiro. The look on Takashi's face has changed," and "It was an important episode where Takashi's memories of Chihiro pushed him towards life."
