Utahime: summary in caps eps 9-11
I am done with Utahime.
And it's definitely on the list of my all-time faves, even if I did end up bawling.
They get startled out of their bliss of kissing and holding etc by being called to eat. Awww.
So awkward :)
Seriously, they are so adorable!
Suzu flashbacks.
I feel bad for Miwako here.
James, the super-shipper, finds out about Suzu and Taro's progress. Hee.
Miwako tells Taro he owes her to face her. Also, if I am not mistaken, she offers to spend the night with him because maybe her skin will bring his memory back. All I can say is that if my long-lost husband looked like Nagase, I'd offer such a ploy myself.
I mean, look at him!
Suzu's older sis's daughter is adorable:
Taro clearly loves kids. Normally I am all for it, but since I finished the drama...noooooooooooooooooo!
Such dorks!
Happy happy dorks...
He comes to meet Miwako because he does owe her that:
They get kinda drunk:
Meanwhile Suzu asks the doctor about risk that Taro would forget them if his memory returns:
Taro takes Miwako to her hotel room but he won't stay the night. Awwww. Taro=awesome.
I like Oyabun, here giving some useful advice to Croissant to quit the life of crime as he is very unsuited for it.
Dorkiness!
I approve of staring:
Miwako sees them happy:
I loved that scene:
She is writing a love letter to Taro:
Cute flashback!
This is here for prettiness' sake:
Miwako decides to leave for good. But Suzu overhears her and Oyabun discussing that she has Taro's daughter, Sakura. But Miwako is 'I will raise her alone, as I have always done.' I love the fact that Miwako never mentions Sakura to Taro. She wants him to come to her from love, not obligation.
Poor Suzu, it's next morning but she is still in shock...
Miwako tells Croissant to leave the OTP alone. She is some woman!
Patented Taro-at-Suzu stare:
Taro gets a letter of thanks from former singing gangster who is now on straight and narrow.
Merry is preggers, eee and Suzu is happy for her!
God, they are so adorable!
He was totally going to tell her ILY or similar but Croissant interfered.
Suzu tells Croissant she hates the mob, go away!
Taro takes the depressed Croissant drinking and we find out Croissant's whole family got killed at Hiroshima and since then he decided only the strongest survive etc and that is why he joined the mob.
He is totally trying to puzzle out how to gather his courage and approach Suzu:
But Suzu, still reeling from her discovery, sort of bolts:
LOL. Awwww.
Poor Croissant did quit the mob:
James is all 'go propose to her, dork' So Taro who is totally nervous decides to write script of his proposal. AWWWW!
And Suzu decides to let go of her guilt over keeping Taro. Awwww...
That was LOLtastic:
Diligently writing his proposal:
So cute! Enjoy, it's the last time Suzu and Taro are adorable together...
He is all 'can't write here, will go to place where I'll propose'
Merry, who thinks she's been abandoned by her bf, tries to kill herself and in talking her out of it, he falls down the cliff...
Just as, symbolically, a plate breaks in Suzu's hands...
Suzu (and the others) search for him all night:
And she finds him:
He finally opens his eyes...
And asks them, as if they were total strangers, where he is. And then his memories come back (war ones I assume) and he starts screaming...
And then he collapses unconscious and they take him home...
And Suzu takes care of him.
She keeps talking to him, hoping he will remember her when he wakes up:
She gets Croissant to get him to the theater to show him a show...
And she is told Miwako is here (they called her):
And Miwako comes in:
And he opens his eyes:
And slowly holds her hand back. Yeah, he remembers...
And then they talk all day (I bet that is where he finds out about Sakura his daughter. Because she wasn't born when he left). You know, I am very impressed. Yuu and Taro are two such different men, mannerisms, everything...
It turns out Merry's bf didn't ditch her, he went to get permission to get married:
My heart breaks for Suzu.
Amd for Taro:
Miwako thanks them for taking good care of Yuu and says he doesn't remember his life here and will thank them and leave.
Yu, putting on his clothes, about to leave for good:
This scene broke my heart so much. I was gulping and then flat-out sobbing. Suzu bidding him farewell, not letting him know they loved each other, barely holding it together. And we find out in the next scene that he does remember everything, remembers her and loves her, so it must be killing him just as badly, but he can't let it show (it makes sense and is the kindest thing, so she could move on, but oh boy...that scene was brutal to watch).
Seriously, we are not supposed to know yet he remembers, but just look at his eyes. You can so tell he loves her like mad.
Seriously, just look at the way he stares:
And he tells James the truth. He remembers both his pre-war and war past (as Yuu) and his decade of living in the village. And he also learned about the existence of his child from Miwako during their talk (because the kid wasn't even born when he left) and he can't abandon the child, love or not love. You know, part of the reason I adore Taro is because he is that kind of man, but the mean part of me was all 'dammit, do visitation. She got along fine for 10 years. You are allowed to have happiness for yourself and not just live for your child.'
Manly crying always gets me...
He gives James his hat and leaves...
Ohhh, poor Suzu!
He bids farewell to the cinema and the family who sheltered him:
Villagers come to see him off, even if he doesn't remember them (they think):
Will he ever be happy in Tokyo? I don't think so. I don't think he could have been happy in the village, either, maybe not even if he didn't know about his child because he is back to his war-traumatized intellectual self...awww, who knows.
This scene sort of killed me. Especially since we get the voiceover of Taro's proposal script (that James found and showed Suzu's family) over it.
And she screams 'Taro!'
I was crying SO HARD. Especially with the proposal voiceover. OMG.
Thank you for killing me drama, thank you.
Especially with the voiceover and the remembering...
My poor heart.
Any more cheerfulness and I'll start eating glass...
And Taro and Suzu's story ends...
Aaaaand. We are back to the present.
Sabako is still alive, heh.
And Akira, Taro's dorky grankid straightened up as a result of finding all of the above out (OMG, Taro did name his grandson Akira like he wanted to name his child with Suzu and Suzu named her granddaughter Ruriko, like the name he wanted to give a girl he'd have with Suzu OMG).
He went from this:
To this:
Mmmmm. *ogles present-day Nagase*
He finds a cool curry shop but he is late to a meeting:
And as he waits, he bumps into a girl:
Yup, it's Aibu Saki and Nagase Tomoya as Akira and Ruriko, Taro and Suzu's respective grandchildren. Or, as I prefer to think of them, their present-day reincarnations that can now be happy without all the tragic issues.
In bumping into her, he dislodges her pearl necklace, the one Taro gave to Suzu:
And helps her pick it up:
And it turns out she is the one he was supposed to meet, as he forgot his grandfather's treasured watch in her father's house:
Girlcrush!!!!
And as they are about to walk off their separate ways, he asks her if it's OK to buy her dinner as a thank you. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
And she says yes, and says it's good because it was her birthday and she was all alone. So he asks her what she is in the mood for, and she says curry...
And off they go, and I would like to think of it as Taro's comment that if you keep loving someone you will end up with them, even if you have to reincarnate, coming true.
ETA: If the rumors about Aibu Saki and Nagase dating are true, I suppose I should be less impressed with their on-screen chemistry. It's probably a bit easier to create if you are playing tonsil hockey between takes :P
ETA: And if the other rumors about her previously dating Yamapi are also true, I must commend her not just on her taste in guys but clearly mightly invisibility and invinsibility powers as she is still alive and not torn by rabid fangirls :D