Yui Narumi is an actor who appears in the NHK morning drama " Anpan " (General Asadora , Monday to Saturday 8am and others), starring Mio Imada Along with the heroine Nobu (Imada), she plays Oda Kotoko, who joins the Kochi Shimpo newspaper as the first female reporter after the war. Before the project for this production was announced, Narumi wrote "I want to be someone like Anpanman" on her audition form without knowing anything about it. We spoke to her. (Part 1 of a two-part interview)
This is Narumi's second appearance in a Asadora, six years after "Natsuzora" in the first half of 2019. She auditioned for the heroine role in this production and made it to the finals. Although she was not selected as the heroine, now that she has landed the role of Kotoko, she looks back on the whole sequence of events and says, "It was a miraculous event."
The production of "Anpan" was announced in October 2023. Auditions for the heroine role had already begun, and Narumi, who had written "I want to be someone like Anpanman" in the free section of her audition sheet, said she received "the biggest shock" that day.
"I didn't know the details of the production, so I thought, 'This is the Asadora I'm about to audition for!' My manager contacted me right away and we talked about how 'this must be fate,' and from then on, I felt even more determined to make this connection, so I made it to the final round of auditions..."
First of all, why did I write, "I want to be a person like Anpanman"?
"I've always wanted to be someone who can share love and courage. My manager at the time and I were talking about what kind of person that would be, and maybe someone like Anpanman. I had a catchy phrase to express that, a theme for myself: I wanted to be someone like Anpanman, so I wrote about that feeling."
Looking back, we can trace the world of "Anpanman" back to childhood.
"My mother had bought us the video "Soreike! Anpanman: Tenohira wo Taiyo ni" ("Anpanman: Hands in the Sun") on VHS, and I watched it many times, so before I knew it, I was spending my time with Anpanman, and he was a very natural presence that was close to me. Of course, I didn't understand "unreversed justice" at the time, but I think the reason children are so fascinated with him is because they understand Yanase's themes, even if they can't put them into words. I'm surprised that it was such a deep theme, and the more I learn about it, the more I like Anpanman and the Yanases."
So what kind of work does the Asadora"Anpan" look like to Narumi?
"What is Yanase-san's 'unreversible justice'? That view of life is sprinkled throughout the film, I think. Of course, I think it's a film that gives courage, but as a viewer and fan, I think it's also a film that teaches us that life isn't all pretty, and that's exactly why it's so beautiful."
