The 23rd episode of NHK's evening drama "Someday, in Zero Gravity Sky" (General TV, Monday to Thursday 10:45pm), starring actors Kiriyu Aso and Misato Morita, was broadcast on October 15th, and viewers were moved to tears by the "suicide note" part.
The drama features four girls from the astronomy club who, in high school, shared their dream of "going to space together." As they grow up and go their separate ways, they suddenly reunite with their forgotten dreams. "If we had a micro-satellite, maybe even we could aim for space today..." Encouraged by their "older selves," they begin their second youth...
Kiryu will play the main character, Mochizuki Asuka, while Morita will play Hibino Hikari, whom Asuka reunites with. Other cast members include Katayama Yuki as Mizuhara Shu, a friend of Asuka and Hikari's in the astronomy club, Ito Marika as Kiuchi Haruko, and Daiken Okudaira as Kanazawa Sui, a university student in a space engineering lab. The drama is narrated by Tasuku Emoto.
In episode 23, several days pass with Asuka and her team's satellite development halted. Meanwhile, Hikari's mother, Asako (Kawai Michiko), comes to visit Asuka and her family. Asako hands over a suicide note that Hikari (Juri Kosaka), a high school student, wrote when she was diagnosed with an illness and had to leave school. Asuka then opens the note with Shu and Haruko. It is a declaration of Hikari's determination to go into space, and is filled with her feelings for the three of them. After reading it, Asuka, Shu, and Haruko all have tears in their eyes, and Asuka can't help but blurt out, "I want to see Hikari."
Of the 15-minute episode, nearly 10 minutes was devoted to the "suicide note," which included flashbacks to her high school days. Comments on social media included, "Juri Kosaka and Misato Morita took turns reading the suicide note! I couldn't watch it without crying..." "I guess Morita ended up reading it halfway through... What a clever direction. I'm weak for that sort of thing..." "The voice changing from Uesaka as a high school student to Morita as an adult must mean that Hikari has always loved space and that she really, really loves everyone! The direction was amazing," "All the actors' acting was amazing... the direction..." "The voice reading the suicide note changing to that of an adult halfway through was so unfair - what are they going to do about it? And then Asuka's final words. My tear ducts just went ridiculous."
