Seasons Database > Summer 2004 >

sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu

Network: TBS
Air time: Friday 10:00-10:54 PM
Number of episodes: 11
Genre(s): love, human drama
Official Home Page: http://www.tbs.co.jp/sekai-ai/
Opening/Ending themes: Shibasaki Kou - katachi aru mono
Click here to buy this series on DVD!

Cast and characters:

Yamada Takayuki <<Matsumoto Sakutarou	Ayase Haruka <<Hirose Aki	Ogata Naoto <<Matsumoto Sakutarou	Sakurai Sachiko <<Kobayashi Aki	Tanaka Koutarou <<Ooki Ryuunosuke	Emoto Tasuku <<Nakagawa Akiyoshi	Matsushita Yuki <<Yatabe Toshimi	Takahashi Katsumi <<Matsumoto Junichirou
Nakadai Tatsuya <<Matsumoto Kentarou

An Unforgettable Lost Love...

This was a popular novel and movie before it became a drama. You're going to have to forgive me this time, because I am writing this having never read the novel or seen the movie. I'm sorry that I can't make any interesting comparisons or tell you what they changed and what is the same. I am going to judge the drama on its own.

Matsumoto Sakutarou is an unmarried middle-aged man who has some type of job at a hospital (don't worry, it's not another hospital drama). It seems that he might have some health problems as he collapses at the beginning of the first episode. He's never been able to fall in love since high school, because he can never forget the girl he loved. Now, he lives only to keep her memory alive and he carries a vial of her ashes in his pocket wherever he goes.

The drama keeps flashing between the present, and back to the 80's when Sakutarou (Yamada) is in high school and falling in love with Hirose Aki. Their romance begins when their class is attending a funeral for a teacher and Aki is giving a speech in the rain. Saku uses his umbrella to cover Aki as she is giving her speech.

She begins to like him a lot after that. Saku begins listening to her favorite radio program, and even writes in a letter which is actually a story based on Aki, except that he adds in the detail that she has leukemia. He wins a Walkman cassette player for his letter, but Aki becomes furious with him for basing the letter on her, and especially adding in the part about the disease. For her birthday, Saku records an apology to her and gives it to her with the Walkman. She forgives him, and they begin exchanging an audio diary every day from that day on. The narration from the middle-aged version of Saku pops in and tells us that it was her last birthday.

All this time, Aki's father is opposed to her having a boyfriend because she is a senior in high school and needs to be preparing for her exams. She is also helping to organize the school's production of Romeo and Juliet, but they haven't yet decided who will play Romeo and Juliet.

The country setting is made to look very pleasant and tranquil, as in most dramas that take place in the countryside. Name always hangs out with his classmates Ryuunosuke and Akiyoshi at a small stand that sells takoyaki. And they drink coke out of those cool bottles that they used to use in the 80's. Ryuunosuke looks older than Saku and has a punk appearance with his slick hair. He's always offering love advice to Saku because he seems older than him (though he actually isn't). Akiyoshi is a kind of pathetic guy who lives in a temple. He wants to find a girl and marry her right away before his father forces him to become a Buddhist monk. In the first episode, he likes Aki too, but he gives up when he realizes that she likes Saku.

Saku's grandfather runs a small photo shop in town, and he is always begging Saku to come over and spend time with him. In the second episode, he tells the story of a girl he loved during the war before he married Saku's grandmother. He gets Saku to help him steal some of her ashes from her grave, so that when he dies they can be mixed together with his own so that they may be together in the afterlife.

The events of the story are given a lot of weight by the fact that we know Aki is going to die. The title means "Shout Love at the Center of the World". It's a very passionate drama about love that never dies, even decades after one of the two has passed away. It may not sound so interesting from the description above, but somehow the way it is presented is very good. There was a lot of commercial hype surrounding this title before it starting airing, and it lives up to the hype in my opinion.

I should probably see the movie too, but the drama on its own is quite good so far.

Sample Clip

Real Media - 1 minute 13 seconds

Sample Clip Translation

Saku: Aki said that it was her best birthday yet. It was the first time I'd been told something like that. And this became Aki's final birthday. July 2nd, 1987... But will I continue living like this? I knew that it was best to forget...