HEART STATION

Innocent Love is a new dorama (Japanese Drama) that has an Utada Hikaru song (From her 2002 album, Distance) as the theme song. The name of the song is Eternally, but this time it’s remixed with new vocals and new instruments, making it Eternally -Drama Mix-. I love the song, both versions actually (Especially the new version). My first impression of the dorama though, wasn’t positive because of its title and the romantic song that was picked for its theme. I’m not a big fan of romance, but a review that I read encouraged me to give Innocent Love a shot, and even though there are many similarities between Innocent Love and Last Friends and it can take away from the show’s uniqueness and originality, it’s still fun to watch. The similarities are as follows:

• On both promotional banners, the characters are tied by a chain of clothing.
• Both opening sequences contain words beside each character that describes each one.
• Both have homosexual characters.
• Both have a sweet, gentle character that faces many problems but aren’t strong enough (Yet) to face their problems.

The story is quite romantic, but it has a bit of drama and I felt really bad for the main character (Akiyama Kanon) for many parts of the episode, which is good… It means that the actors are good enough to pass on their emotions to the audience. The main characters are:

• Akiyama Kanon: She’s a sweet girl, she’s suffered a lot with the death of her parents when she was very young (13 or 14). She seems to keep positivity, though, and is optimistic about stuff… She really brightens up the mood of the coffee shop she worked in before she was fired.
• Nagasaki Junya: He’s Kanon’s crush and his smile is always really big and bright. He seems to carry the same optimistic vibe as Kanon, only a lot more. He’s a pianist at the church he works at and it quite mysterious… He knows a hospitalized girl (Probably in a coma) and tries to cheer her up every Christmas.
• Sakurai Mizuki: She’s the jealous girl who like Junya, but is often having to compete for his love between the kids of the church he works at. Everyone loves him and she has a hard time getting some alone time with him. It seems like some rivalry will sprout between her and Kanon. She acts one way with Junya and another way when he’s not around.
• Akiyama Yoji: He’s Kanon’s brother and is in juvenile hall. He doesn’t seem to be guilty of his crime, and is paying for it unfairly because he never did anything. He and Kanon seem to be really united, even though sometimes he can really look intimidating. After she told him she has a crush on someone, he gets really angry and unleashes it on his cellmate.
• Narimiya Hiroki: He’s a friend of Junya’s, and just like everyone who’s a friend of Junya’s, he really likes him… But he likes him in another way from what we observe on the first episode. He’s the “Ruka” of Innocent Love (Ruka was the homosexual character in Last Friends).

At first, from the opening sequence, I didn’t get a view from what the drama would be about, it did seem awfully catholic though, with a church and a crucifix that Kanon was wearing, but it’s not as romantically religious as I though. The opening sequence truly was beautiful, only too beautiful, and it contributed to my image of an exaggeratedly romantic dorama. I was wrong!

[Spoilers] The episode already begins with a house catching on fire on Christmas Eve, 2001. Two kids come out of the house, one is 18 years old and the other 13/14. They are siblings, and the girl shouts out for her mother, trying to come back into the house, but the brother keeps her from going back inside. A fireman says the house will collapse and it does. The kids are now orphans and the bigger brother is charged for the murder of his parents. The kids are Kanon (The 13/14 year-old girl) and her brother, Yoji (The 18 year-old boy).

Now, Kanon has grown up (She’s 20/21 years old) and she is working at a coffee shop called Coffee Tea. She greets a customer after doing some cleaning and talking to her workmate, and after telling him her name and where she came from, he remembers the fire that went on and how she murdered her parents. The next day, he tells the lady in Coffee Tea (Her workmate) about the incident, and she goes to Kanon and fires her, with the excuse that her sister will be working here with her. Kanon continues to work, and overhears the conversation between her workmate and the man:

“He killed their parents, this girl’s brother. When I heard she is from Nagamori, I remember that incident. And then her name… You are better off not getting involved with her”

Kanon gets really sad, because she is always accused of parricide. She takes the bus to visit her brother at the local juvenile hall. She goes there to tell him she’s moving to the big city, but she didn’t, she discussed how she can take him from jail. Her brother, though, doesn’t seem very optimistic, so it’s unknown if he’s guilty or not, but either way, they’re really close.

The episode resumes with flashbacks of their teenage-hood with no parents and the things that Kanon goes through in the big city.

I recommend watching it if you’re curious because it’s a great dorama, and the first episode is filled with injustices that she goes through (Including getting fired from her other job [As a cleaning lady] because her workmate stole money and said it was kanon), and how she finds her crush. She is really hurt and scarred by her past, reflecting on her future and making her who she is… It’s a really sweet show, though. I’m not a fan of romance, but it has enough romance for it to be cute and sweet (Innocent, in this case), but not enough for it to be boring and sticky. I really recommend it!

Episode 1 (Torrent Download)

The opening sequence. Enjoy!