is a Japanese manga series by

Fumi Saimon is a female Japanese manga artist and novelist. She is best known for the series '' Tokyo Love Story'', which was adapted as a live-action television series. She won the 1983 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga for '' P.S. Genki Desu, Shun ...

that was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the H ...

's ''

Big Comic Spirits is a weekly Japanese ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. The first issue was published on October 14, 1980. Food, sports, romance and business are recurring themes in the magazine, and the stories often question conventional va ...

''. It won the

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being given since ...

for general manga in 1992.

Cast

Hikari Ishida (born May 25, 1972) is a Japanese actress. She starred along with Megumi Odaka and Natsuki Ozawa in the TV-series ''Hana no Asuka-gumi!''. She also released several singles and six albums and she had one minor hit with the song "Emerald no Suna ...

as Narumi Sonoda * Michitaka Tsutsui as Tamotsu Kakei *

Takuya Kimura is a Japanese actor, singer, and radio personality. He is regarded as a Japanese icon after achieving success as an actor. He was also a popular member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. A 1996 television drama series, ''Long ...

as Osamu Toride *

Anju Suzuki , known professionally as , is a Japanese actress, television presenter, and singer (under the stage name Kakko). Career Suzuki was born in Minoh, Osaka and raised in Kobe, Hyogo. At age 17, she was spotted by a CBS records scout when she was c ...

as Seika Higashiyama * Hidetoshi Nishijima as Junichiro Matsuoka * Ayako Sugiyama as Kyoko Machida *

Yumi Morio , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese actress and singer employed by the talent management firm Stardust Promotion. Filmography Film *''Karaoke Terror'' (2002) *''Lost in Ramen'' (2018) TV dramas *'' Nerawareta Gakuen'' (1982) *'' ...

as Harumi Sonoda * Mariko Kaga as Mitsuko Kakei * Koichi Iwaki as Sosuke Akiba

Synopsis

A coming of age story that follows five young university students who form a circle of friends. Tamotsu and Osamu (Kimura) fall in love with Narumi, who prefers Tamotsu. In order not to hurt each other as friends, both young men try to avoid forming a relationship with Narumi, which inadvertently leads to tragedy among the friends. After the accidental death of Junichiro, the friends leave university for various reasons, leaving Narumi to continue and finish her studies. A few years later they all meet again and are surprised by the secrets that are revealed.

Live-action drama

Japanese TV drama

The series was adapted as a live-action

television drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

. It first aired in Japan from 11 October 1993 to 20 December 1993 on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

, and had an overall viewer rating of 31.9%, making it one of the most popular television dramas of the 1990s. It features music by S.E.N.S. and Fujii Fumiya (True Love), Touge Keiko (Hitosaji no Yuuki) and Fujii Fumiya (Just Like Wind). Kimura Takuya's acting received critical acclaim and his famous line, "Am I not good enough for you?" has become a famous saying amongst young people and the entertainment world. This drama paved the way to Kimura Takuya's stardom in "Long Vacation" (1996).

Taiwanese TV drama

In 2002, the manga was adapted into a

Taiwanese drama Taiwanese drama (, also known as T.W. drama) refer to dramatic programming of television programming extended stories usually dramatizing relationships through the general range of ten to forty one-hour episodes. They are produced in Taiwan and hav ...

titled ''Tomorrow'' () starring

Rainie Yang Rainie Yang Cheng Lin (; born 4 June 1984) is a Taiwanese singer, actress, and television host. Early life Yang was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, her father's ancestors were from Guangdong, China. She spoke Cantonese at home. By the time s ...

Shawn Yue Shawn Yue Man-lok (born 13 November 1981) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. A former model, he has starred in many films, such as '' Jiang Hu'', '' Infernal Affairs II'', the ''Love in the Buff'' film series, '' Mad World'' and '' The Brink'', and ...

Christine Fan Christine Fan (born March 18, 1976), better known by her stage name FanFan or her Chinese name Fan Wei-chi, is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, TV presenter, record producer, actress, author and philanthropist. She sings mostly in Mandarin, but ha ...

and

Eddie Peng Eddie Peng Yu-Yan (; born 24 March 1982) is a Taiwanese actor, singer and model. Personal life Peng was born in Penghu, Taiwan. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the age of thirteen. In 2000, he graduated from Sir Winston Church ...

. It was broadcast in Taiwan on China Television (CTV) (中視).

Taiwanese TV drama

In 2019, the manga was adapted into a

titled ''Brave to Love'' () starring

Kingone Wang Kingone Wang (; born 5 May 1980) is a Taiwanese actor, singer and host. He was part of the boy band Comic Boyz and winner of Taiwanese Golden Bell Awards for Best Supporting Actor. He is the alumni of both National Chiao Tung University and C ...

, Ting-hu Zhang,

Gingle Wang Gingle Wang (Chinese: 王淨; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Ông Chēng''; pinyin: Wáng Jìng; born 7 February 1998) is a Taiwanese actress and writer. Rapidly gaining reputation from her work across various films and television productions, she already e ...

, Edison Song, Sylvia Hsieh and Andy Wu. It will broadcast in Taiwan on Taiwan Television (TTV) (台視).

References

External links

SMAP WONDERLAND - White Paper
{{Shogakukan Manga Award - General 1992 manga 1993 comics endings 1993 Japanese television series debuts 1993 Japanese television series endings Fuji TV dramas Japanese television dramas based on manga Manga adapted into television series Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga