Mio Imada plays the main character Wakamatsu Nobu in the NHK Asadora drama "Anpan " (General TV, Monday to Saturday 8:00 a.m. and others). She talked about her separation from her husband Jiro ( Ayumu Nakajima), her reunion with Takashi (Takumi Kitamura), the war scene that surprised her and made her think "I was surprised they depicted it to that extent," and what to look forward to in the future.
◇The reason why Nobu married Jiro
"Anpan" is based on the married couple Takashi Yanase(1919-2013) and Noriyuki Yanase (1918-1993). It is a "story of love and courage" that will make you feel the joy of living, depicting how the two met, overcame all sorts of rough seas, and arrived at "Anpanman", the embodiment of "unreversible justice."
Nobu, played by Imada, graduated from a women's normal school and became an elementary school teacher. Later, through her father Yutaro (Ryo Kase), she arranged a meeting with Jiro and married him. After the war, she lost Jiro to illness, but she was fascinated by the shorthand that Jiro used and studied it passionately. This led to an invitation to work at the Kochi Shimpo newspaper, where she passed the exam and became a newspaper reporter.
Imada reflected on the reason why Nobu married Jiro as follows:
"The timing of Jiro's proposal was when Nobu was troubled by being called a paragon of patriotism. While she believed in her own idea of justice, Go (Kanata Hosoda) passed away and she also had a conflict with Ranko (Yuumi Kawai)... In reality, she had always wondered, 'Is this the right path I'm on?' But she couldn't even confide her worries to her family and kept it all to herself. It was at that time that she met Jiro, who accepted all of her weaknesses and embraced her with kindness and warmth. I think that's why Nobu wanted to entrust her life to this person."
Although there were few scenes with Jiro, he revealed, "Thanks in part to Nakajima-san who acted, all of the scenes were very memorable."
"In the scene where Nobu develops the photos that Jiro had taken, I remembered all the love that Jiro had given me up until now. That love made me happy and sad, and it was an unforgettable scene. The message that Jiro left for Nobu, "See with your own eyes, stand on your own two feet, and run as hard as you can, at a speed that will not let despair catch up with you," are words that I will carry in my heart and want to cherish forever. I felt that those words reminded me of the Nobu of the person that always loved to run, and always charged straight ahead."
◇Looking back on the reunion scene with Taka
In the 13th week, Nobu reunites with Taka for the first time in four years. Regarding Nobu's feelings at this time, she says, "Jiro passed away, and I hurt my beloved children. It was a time when I was at rock bottom."
"Nobu has a strong sense of responsibility, and she wonders whether it's ok for her to be alive like this. Until then, she'd been saved by Jiro, but that was gone too. At such a time, she reunites with Taku, and while up until that point, Nobu had often been the one to cheer him up, in this scene it was the other way around, Taku pulling her up from rock bottom. Taku's words at that time have stayed with me ever since, and it was the moment Nobu was truly saved."
He further recalls, "In this scene, Kitamura said, 'I want to play Takami, who has a somewhat philosophical attitude, because I had a lot of different experiences on the battlefield.'"
"The battlefield scenes take place in a different location, far away from Kochi where Nobu lives, so I made a point of not reading the script myself, but Kitamura-san and the other cast members actually went without meals during filming. When I saw the broadcast, I thought, 'They're portraying it to this extent,' and it's so brutal I can't put it into words. But it's an important part of portraying Yanase-san's life, and I felt that the entire ' Anpan' team was prepared to seriously face up to the idea of war. I hope that this work will provide more opportunities, even if only a little, to think about war again."
◇What can we look forward to in the future?
Even though she has lost hope in life, Nobu has started to move forward again. Imada says, "I really have worried and cried along with Nobu... I feel like I am living together with Nobu to the point where I can no longer tell whether I am a character or myself."
When asked what to look forward to in the future, he said, "Since Nobu joined the Kochi Shimpo in the 14th week, there have been many bright scenes, and we are also looking forward to meeting people who will change Nobu's destiny."
"Both Nobu and Takashi have overcome the war, and I hope you will support them as they struggle to find the answer to the question, 'What is justice that cannot be reversed?' Also, how will the relationship between Nobu and Takashi develop? I'm sure there are many who are looking at Takashi's indecisiveness and thinking, 'Oh come on, Takashi!' (laughs), but please look forward to future developments!"
