First Love: Hatsukoi (First Love 初恋) – Drama Review

First Love: Hatsukoi (First Love 初恋)

Main Cast & Synopsis

First Love: Hatsukoi starts in 1998 and sets place in Hokkaido, where Yae Noguchi and Harumichi Namiki fell in love in high school. Their love story spans through their time in college, where Yae pursues her education in Tokyo while Harumichi is training to become a fighter pilot in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Though there is distance between their relationship, their feelings are just as strong for each other as they giggle through their limited phone conversations. However, an accident causes the two young love birds to drift, and 20 years later, in 2018, Yae and Harumichi meet again.

Yae Noguchi is played by Hikari Mitsushima and Rikako Yagi (young Yae Noguchi). As a girl who receives gifts from all over the world from her traveling father, Yae soon dreams of becoming a flight stewardess. Before being able to pursue any of her dreams, Yae gets involved in an accident that changes her life that leads to love and marriage. Years later, Yae is now a divorcee with no significant other in her life, but she fills her happiness by spending time with her teenage son, Tsuzuru. Yae works as a taxi driver at Keisei Transportation. Although Yae’s eyes are full of loneliness, she works hard and smiles through life.

Harumichi Namiki is played by Takeru Satoh, whose known for his works in the Rurouni Kenshin movie series and the 2020 TBS romance series, An Incurable Case of Love. Meanwhile, Taisei Kido plays the young Harumichi Namiki, whose drive is through his love for the people around him. Wanting to be someone who would be able to protect his loved ones and impress the young Yae, Harumichi becomes a fighter pilot. Though has fulfilled his dream to be a fighter pilot and has a loving girlfriend, Tsunemi Arikawa, by his side, Harumichi journeys through life feeling like he’s missing something important in his life until he meets Yae Noguchi again.

Questions and Answers: Plot of First Love 初恋

heavy spoilers ahead

How does Yae Noguchi and Harumichi Namiki meet?

In episode one, Yae Noguchi is about to get reprimanded for her short school skirt when Harumichi Namiki zips in on a moped and takes the teacher’s attention away. While bringing up a stack of textbooks up the stairs, Harumichi helps Yae carry the textbooks into the classroom “under the orders of Obuchi sensei.” Yae says that Harumichi looks familiar, making Harumichi’s eyes light up until she asks if they met at Seicomart. With her answer, a disappointed Harumichi sets the textbooks down and leaves.

It was revealed in episode nine that Harumichi Namiki fell in love with Yae Noguchi at first sight while on the train. Seeing that Yae was falling asleep and would lose the page where she was reading, he slid his train ticket onto the book to use as a bookmark. Upon arrival at her stop, Yae wakes up and leaves, and a groggy Harumichi, who is now alert of Yae’s exit, follows in hopes of retrieving his ticket.

Why does Harumichi Namiki join the army?

In episode 5, while writing down their future career, Harumichi Namiki is lost. He asks his family for their thoughts on his greatest strengths to develop a career he can pursue. While out on a stroll with Yae, they see jet planes. Yae stares in awe, saying, “So cool.” Wanting to impress Yae, Harumichi joins the army as an aviation cadet after high school and eventually becomes a fighter pilot, joining the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). He later joined the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group and, due to an injury (hernia), retired from his career.

Why did Yae Noguchi and Harumichi Namiki break up? How did Yae Noguchi lose her memories?

In episode 3, Harumichi was visiting Yae in Tokyo during his holiday. While they are out on dinner, the two run into Yae’s university friends, Nanako and Machida. Already feeling out of place in the big city, Harumichi gets provoked by Machida, who tells him about Yae studying abroad. Upset, Harumichi punches Machida and storms off. Yae follows Harumichi with an argument in tow, and Harumichi leaves Yae alone. After walking around and cooling down, Harumichi turns around regretfully and tries to call Yae. He finds an injured Yae lying on the ground from an accident.

Waking up from her accident, Yae received a subarachnoid hemorrhage and didn’t recognize Harumichi. She is diagnosed with retrograde amnesia, where she loses her memories, forgetting about her memories right before high school and Harumichi. Yae’s mother requests for Harumichi to give Yae space and time. Thus Harumichi returns to focus on training and decides to write Yae letters instead. Unaware that Yae’s mother was hiding his letters, Harumichi shows up at Yae’s house two years later and receives his stack of unread letters and the news that Yae has moved on with Kosaka Yukihito, a doctor.

Why does Yae Noguchi marry Kosaka Yukihito? Why did they get divorced?

After returning to Hokkaido, Yae meets Kosaka Yukihito, her doctor. Throughout her recovery, she gets intrigued by Kosaka’s strange personality and eventually falls in love with him.

Kosaka comes from a wealthy family, and Yae’s mother-in-law looks down on Yae’s background and family. After baring the bullying from her mother-in-law and lack of love from her cheating husband, Yae’s last straw was the disrespect from her mother-in-law, belittling her social status and not inviting her mother to the family party. Yae divorces Kosaka and moves back in to live with her mother.

Who is Tsuzuru?

Tsuzuru is Yae’s son with Kosaka. He lives with his father, who has full custody of him and lacks a healthy family environment. He’s passionate about music and has a crush on a livestream dancer, Uta Komori. However, his father wants him to pursue a career in medicine.

Does Yae Noguchi find out the true identity of Harumichi Namiki?

After spending time with Harumichi, Yae unknowingly falls in love with the 2008 Harumichi again. Not wanting to hurt Yae, Harumichi denies her feelings, while Tsunemi decides to let Harumichi go. Moving on from his relationship with Tsunemi and his current job as a security guard at the Northern Lights Building, Harumichi allows Tsuzuru to take anything in his apartment that he likes. Tsuzuru grabs an old CD player and, while visiting his mother, takes it out to listen. Sitting down with Tsuzuru to listen to the CD, Utada Hikaru’s First Love came on. With tears in her eyes, Yae belatedly remembers Harumichi in episode eight.

Did Harumichi Namiki break up with Tsunemi Arikawa? Did Harumichi Namiki love Tsunemi Arikawa?

After holding onto Harumichi, who has reignited his feelings for Yae, Tsunemi decides to let go of Harumichi and cancels their marriage.

Harumichi met Tsunemi, his therapist, in 2010 after serving in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and was required to attend therapy sessions. The two decided to pursue their relationship after their sessions in 2011 and once held deep affection for each other.

Does Yae Noguchi and Harumichi Namiki end up together? Ending of First Love Hatsukoi.

Embarking on the trip of her life, Yae travels the world to fulfill her dreams and find Harumichi. Receiving a tip-off from Uta that Harumichi was last seen in Húsavík, Iceland, Yae sets off to Iceland, where Harumichi is now working. Confronting that she remembers him, the two kiss and decides to follow their dreams as young teenagers together. Harumichi is now a pilot, while Yae is a flight attendant.

Review: First Love 初恋

Now and forever you are still the one

★★★★☆ 4/5

First Love 初恋 is a drama written and directed by Yuri Kanchiku and inspired by Utada Hikaru’s songs, First Love and Hatsukoi (初恋). Both songs are well-known works of Utada Hikaru and draw out the melancholy and nostalgia of first love, which was captured through the storytelling in First Love 初恋.

The Good

First Love was pleasing to watch regarding cinematography, coloring, and soundtrack. In my opinion, and with my little background in film dynamics, especially exposure to Japanese film and drama world, First Love was one of the most visually pleasing Japanese dramas I have seen to date. While the past and present transitions could have been smoother for some parts, it was relatively captivating to see the smooth switches from 1998 to 2008. I like how the director juxtaposes the older and younger versions of the leads to their youth and current place in life. I also enjoyed the aerial shots of Hokkaido and Japan to the way that emotions were captured to highlight the scene’s mood. We see scenes of young Yae and Harumichi walking in the snow together that showcase pure first love, the loneliness in a big city despite being surrounded by your loved ones, and then breaking apart from the routine to find one’s happiness. If you view the gif located on the right of the older Yae and Harumichi, you see that Yae is walking on the side of the blue light, indicating the calm but lonely Yae, and the warm red/orange indicates the passion and warmth in Harumichi. At that moment, Yae isn’t entirely in the blue light anymore as she’s walking closely toward Harumichi.

In addition to the cinematography, the soundtrack added an extra touch to make the scenes stand out. Of course, apart from the original inspiration from Utada Hikaru’s First Love and Hatsukoi, her other original works were featured as well. Insert songs like Ben Howard’s Old Pine to The Radio Dept’s 1995 was a special surprise on top of the series’ own memorable soundtracks like Roundabout or Blue Hour by Taisei Iwasaki (find the full soundtrack to First Love: Hatsukoi on Spotify embed above).

Another positive point in my book is the story-building behind our female lead, Yae Noguchi. As we see her story unfold, it is easy for us to know why she made certain decisions to how events affected her. Yae lacked paternal love growing up and has always yearned for her father’s love. By receiving gifts from her father from all over the world, Yae comes to yearn to explore the world as her father did. Maybe in this way, she can stay connected to her father. This ignites her spark to become a flight attendant to see the world. Living with her mother, we don’t see much of Yae’s trauma in her family dynamics; however, it’s hinted when we see Yae wanting to be better than her step-sister and wanting a happy family full of warmth. We can conclude that this is why Yae stuck around her cheating husband and overbearing mother-in-law for so long. This is also why Yae doesn’t want to give up on her son, Tsuzuru, even though she struggled so hard to provide for the two of them. Yae did not want to abandon her son as her father did to her. Through the show, we see Yae give her son unconditional love and support. Meanwhile, she progresses on a journey to find herself again through love and unfulfilled dreams she had as a youth.

Our male lead, Harumichi Namiki, was written to support our female lead’s story, so his character was written more simply. Harumichi comes from a simple blue-collar family that is supportive, and although he doesn’t have the highest IQ, Harumichi has a great sense of responsibility and a big heart. With his simple mind and determination, Harumichi navigates his youth in a simple way after falling in love with Yae at first sight. He pursues her with all he has and does the same with his career. The best moment I can think of that grounded Harumichi’s character was his wedding speech to his sister. Feeling responsible for Yuu Namiki’s inability to speak due to a swimming accident, Harumichi voiced his desire to protect his loved ones.

I believe all encounters and partings may be guided by fate.
Every event we experience is an irreplaceable piece in our lives.
I may not be able to save the world, but I want to be a man who can at least always protect my loved ones and really be there.

Episode 5: Harumichi’s wedding speech

Thus, we understand why Harumichi joins the army to protect his loved ones, even though he also wants to impress Yae. We can understand why young Harumichi was so abashed when Yae said that having a time limit to talk on the phone was like Ultraman, a well-known Japanese superhero character. Later on, when Harumichi saves Yae from falling down the stairs, he is relieved because he can save her and redeem himself for not saving her from her previous accident. Harumichi, once again, has a sense of saving people through the show. He helps Uta Komori from getting kicked out of the building and assists Tsuzuru in pursuing Uta Komori. I think this is one of the reasons why he stuck around his girlfriend, Tsunemi Arikawa, for so many years.

The Bad

Ironically, although Yae and Harumichi’s love story was sweet, it was hard for me to grasp the intensity of it. The cliche element of memory loss and using a love-will-prevail method didn’t sit well with me rationally, especially when the period is over 10+ years. I appreciate the tone of the story and how it positioned itself. This drama could have been more lighthearted and had a youth focus that would be geared more toward younger audiences. However, the director and screenwriter shifted its focus on first love to expand between two generations, reigniting first love and other themes.

The second issue for me is the pacing of the show. Due to the number of episodes, I feel like certain elements – Tsuzuru and Uta’s love story – were drawn out while other parts of the story – like Harumiki’s past – could have been expanded. While I don’t need our male protagonist to be an angel, it was hard for me to grasp Harumichi and Tsunemi’s relationship. The two seem to be deeply in love at one point in their lives, and though I understand that sometimes in life, relationships lose their spark, based on Harumichi’s character, it was hard for me to see him fall out of love. So, what I can only do on my end is come up with the assumption that their relationship was developed out of emotional and physical support but not necessarily love. Maybe more on Harumichi’s end than Tsunemi, but allowing a relationship like that to continue for years needed more backstory for me to digest and enjoy it fully.

Themes

I enjoyed exploring the themes of first love, letting go, forgiveness, passion, fighting for what you want, not regretting your decisions, being happy, etc., in such a short drama. As I mentioned earlier, I like that Yae and Harumichi is not the only couple that explore the theme of first love, but Tsuzuru and Uta as well. It gives two similar but different views on first love. We also have Yae’s second “first love” with her ex-husband after her memory loss. Love in this drama was explored differently with each relationship. Still, all started in one similar fashion that Harumichi’s advice to Tsuzuru explained quite well, “To figure out if its fate, you just have to jump in.” Many people are afraid of love and rejection. In all cases of love shown in the drama, one person jumping in makes it possible for the relationship to bud. Yet, it takes a different kind of care to bloom. The drama shows that love doesn’t always go in the way that you expect, but that doesn’t make it not worthwhile.

The themes of letting go and forgiveness were briefly mentioned in the story and were ones where I wished had more screen time. Many of these characters had issues with this theme as it was brushed aside as a plot device. Yae had a hard time letting go/forgiving her father for abandoning them and not being his first choice. Tsunemi had difficulty letting go of a love that had turned stale, and Harumichi had trouble forgiving himself for Yae’s accident. However, instead of overcoming these issues, these characters packaged them up and moved on without truly freeing themselves from that pain.

My favorite theme of the show was each of these individuals’ passion. Whether it be love, dance, or their dreams, it was felt through each character. In addition, each character fought for their passion and dreams differently and at different stages of their lives. Yae could never actualize her dreams and decided to do them later in life. Harumichi still yearned to continue his dream. Uta passionately fought for hers to become real. On the other hand, Tsuzuru needed a lot of encouragement but was able to break free to pursue his passion for music.

Conclusion

I enjoyed other small things in this drama, such as the inclusion of sign language with Harumichi and his sister. The idea of a circle isn’t about constantly stuck in a cycle in the way that Yae is always driving through that roundabout in a job she isn’t happy with. But it can also mean that things come back in a full circle to find something beautiful, like replaying Utada Hikaru’s song and remembering Harumichi because of it.

This drama was one that I was not fully satisfied with after watching it – in terms of the love story – but the more I thought about the characters and the story that it was trying to tell, it lingered beautifully. I heard that this story moved many with tears, and although it didn’t happen to me, this was one of my favorite watches of 2022.

If you have watched First Love: Hatsukoi and would like to share your thoughts/opinions, do leave a comment! Or let me know if you enjoyed the article/drama through the widgets below! Thanks for stopping by!