In the 18th episode (aired April 22nd) of the NHK Asadora drama series "Kaze,Kaoru " (NHK General, Monday-Saturday, 8:00 AM, etc.), Ai Mikami and Juri Kosaka , what scene captivated viewers the most? We examined the minute-by-minute changes in "attention level" (according to REVISIO, Kanto region, preliminary figures), which indicates the percentage of viewers glued to the screen, and found that the peak was 69.5% at 8:12 AM.
" Kaze,Kaoru" is based on the story of two trained nurses, Chika Ozeki and Masa Suzuki, who graduated from the same nursing school. The drama depicts how these two women struggle with how to interact with patients and doctors, clash with each other, grow as individuals, and eventually become the "ultimate buddy duo." Mikami plays Rin Ichinose, and Uesaka plays Naomi Oya.
◇ Rin, who is troubled, consults Shimaken.
In episode 18, Rin (Mikami), troubled by an offer from Trained Nurse, coincidentally meets Shimaken (Sano Masaya) and asks for his advice. Shimaken shares his own past experiences and questions Rin about her true feelings. Meanwhile, Naomi witnesses another side of Kohinata (Fujiwara Kisetsu) and confronts him. When Rin returns home, having sorted out her feelings a little, a major incident has occurred.
The "attention level," which indicates the percentage of viewers watching the show intently, showed a graph with a large peak, almost identical to the 17th episode the previous day. However, unlike the 17th episode, the peak value fell slightly short of 70%.
◇Kohinata is a con artist! When confronted, he turns the tables on them.
The peak of viewership for the 18th episode, at 8:12 AM (69.5%), was the scene where Naomi confronts Kohinata, but is met with counterarguments, making her realize her own foolishness.
Naomi witnesses Kohinata talking intimately with an unfamiliar woman, their arms linked. Naomi asks Kohinata, "Are you off today?" and they move to another location to talk. At around 8:08 AM, the viewership rating is 64.9%. Then, at 8:09 AM and 8:10 AM, when Kohinata's unexpected "true identity" is revealed, viewership ratings don't rise as expected, but instead drop to around 61-62%.
Kohinata is actually a con artist. He sees through Naomi's lies and brazenly says, "I can tell. I'm a con artist, so I can spot bad lies." Naomi is furious when Kohinata reveals that he used her to get into the Rokumeikan, but Kohinata replies, "If you call the police, I'll tell them about you too. I'm used to it, so I don't mind. Nobody's bothered by their parents dying when they were kids."
Naomi was furious, shouting, "Because of scum like you, orphaned kids get stones thrown at them! They get looked down on!" Hearing this, Kohinata asked, "Naomi, you don't have parents either?" and then praised her, "And you became a maid at the Rokumeikan... You did well."
The viewership finally started to rise slightly around 8:11 AM, reaching 66.0%. This was around the time Kohinata revealed his real name was "Kanta" and asked Naomi what her real name was. Naomi, abandoned in front of the church, doesn't know her real name or what her parents look like. Kanta leaves, saying, "Now that we've managed to sneak into the Rokumeikan, next time go and catch some young man from a noble family."
◇The peak is the scene where Naomi realizes her own foolishness.
The peak viewership, around 8:12 AM (69.5%), began here. Left alone, Naomi cried out "Hah, hah" and shed tears, sometimes tilting her head in confusion. She had been overjoyed at the prospect of marrying a Navy lieutenant, but in reality, she had only been manipulated by a con artist. She thought she had worked hard to live her life, but she had been easily deceived, and she must have felt pathetic. Also, she probably wondered how what she had done—lying to sneak into the Rokumeikan—was any different from what the con artist Kanta (Kohinata) had done. She let out a big sigh, took off the hair ornament Kohinata had bought her, and broke it in half. She must have been unable to forgive herself for her own foolishness. There were no lines. The scene, which lasted about 40 seconds and relied solely on Naomi's changing facial expressions, showed that viewers were intently watching, as evidenced by the ratings.
At 8:13 AM, the viewership rating drops slightly, but remains relatively high at 68.6%. Naomi heads to the Rokumeikan and confesses to Sutematsu (Mikako Tabe) that she lied about not being the daughter of a samurai. Sutematsu, who had more or less known this, replies, "That's nothing new," but Naomi says, "Even so, if I didn't confess myself, I would be no different to a con artist," and pleads, "Please let me quit."
When Sutematsu asks "Why?", Naomi's tearful words reveal what she realized through her conversation with Kohinata. "No matter how much I dress up and pretend to be someone else, I've painfully realized that I can never become someone else."
This scene marks a major turning point for Naomi in the story. The peak of the episode was when viewers were captivated by Naomi's gradual but certain transformation.
The data used is REVISIO's proprietary "Attention Level" index (Kanto region, preliminary figures), which surveys program and commercial viewing habits in 2,000 households in the Kanto region and 600 households in the Kansai region. A dedicated device equipped with a human recognition sensor constantly measures whether people are looking at the television screen, and calculates the percentage of people in front of the television who were paying close attention to the program. (Text by Hiroki Sasamoto/MANTAN)
