The final episode of NHK's popular night drama "Hirayasumi" (General TV, Monday to Thursday 10:45pm), starring actor Okayama Amane and co-starring Mori Nana, will be broadcast on December 4th. The drama is a live-action adaptation of the manga of the same name by Shinzo Keigo, which has been serialized in Weekly Big Comic Spirits since 2021. "When I was approached about writing the drama script, I felt like I was in heaven," says screenwriter Yonaiyama Yoko, sharing her thoughts on the work.
The drama tells the story of 29-year-old part-time worker Hiroto Ikuta (Okayama) who inherits a single-story house from his neighbor Hanae Wada (Negishi Tokie) and begins living with his 18-year-old cousin Natsumi Kobayashi (Mori), who has moved to Tokyo from Yamagata. People with difficult life problems gather around them...
Yoneyama is active as a screenwriter and stage sign language interpreter, having worked on TV anime "Uma Musume Pretty Derby" and "Skip and Loafer," the animated film "Project Sekai: The Broken World and Miku Who Can't Sing," and the live-action film "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas."
"Hira Yasumi" is set in Asagaya, Tokyo. Yoneyama reveals that "Asagaya is the place I've lived in the longest in Tokyo."
"My apartment was small, damp, and poorly lit, and there was a time when I stave off hunger with just rice cooked with nametake mushrooms that I bought at a 100-yen shop."
After going through a period when he had time and ambition but no money, Yonaiyama discovered Hirayasumi in 2022.
"With each turn of the page, forgotten good memories from a time that I had considered difficult and painful suddenly came flooding back, and I would secretly weep deeply. How I took good care of my small rice cooker. How I tried to live comfortably by making good use of the 100-yen shop. How I was overjoyed when I found a 1,000-yen note in the house. I realized I was living a fun life, had a place to belong, and that's why I'm still alive. I've always loved 'Hira Yasumi,' which is full of affirmation of life."
There are only a few episodes left of the drama's broadcast. Yoneyama believes that "even after the final episode, the lives of Hiroto and his friends in the original work will continue."
"Hopefully, my ambition to continue with the drama will not fade, but I don't know what will happen (although it seems like it's a good idea to state your wishes clearly, according to my research). In the upcoming episodes, there will also be an important episode, "White Hydrangea," which was also requested by Shinzo-sensei. I hope you will watch it until the end as if you were taking a walk with me."
