NHK Serial TV Novel "Scarlet"

A Sunday drama from the network that created buzz with “Yell for Love” and “Ossan’s Love” A gentle, medicine-like story that wraps around the hearts of exhausted modern people 40 years old, a shut-in for 12 years A woman who had given up on life is about to step back into the “outside world” Tamura Uzume, 40 years old. She was once a child actress who dreamed of becoming a performer who could make people smile. But at 28, after one certain incident, she quit acting and withdrew into her room at her parents’ home. Twelve years have passed since then. Having neither married nor worked, Uzume spends her days in self-indulgence, until her mother, Sakiko, can no longer stand to watch and finally calls a “handyman service” to have her daughter’s room cleaned up. The person who arrives is Koorogi, the representative of the handyman service “Kyu-chan.” Noticing from a photograph in the room that Uzume had once acted as a child performer, Koorogi scouts her, asking if she would like to work as a substitute staff member. “Maybe you’ve been given a chance to start over in life. I want to tell you that the time of despair has ended, and the time of hope has come.” And so, Uzume is half-forced into society by Koorogi. Through a variety of jobs, such as pretending to be a lover’s affair partner and apologizing to his wife, or impersonating the “secret child” of a famous female author in order to meet the man she once loved, she begins to interact with other people. Though bewildered at first, as she comes into contact with the lives of her clients, Uzume herself also begins to confront the life that had stopped moving, as well as the wounds of her past. And the people she meets through Uzume, too, come face to face with the emotional scars and worries they had been carrying, and slowly begin to move forward. Uzume, who had stopped living for 12 years, starts walking again. Her name comes from the myth of Amano-Iwato, where the goddess Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto lured Amaterasu-Omikami, who had hidden herself inside a rock, back out into the world through dance. Delicate, yet fundamentally powerful. At times comical and somewhat clumsy, Uzume opens the doors to people’s hearts—. “Life can be restarted at any age.” A human drama of recovery and hope that gently stays close to the hearts of weary modern people and tenderly gives a push to those who have been hurt. Please look forward to this warm, gentle story that softly supports the backs of those who have been hurt.

I created this piece with the desire to value the honest feelings you have on a dazzling morning, when you are half asleep and both the world and your emotions feel hazy. Without making a precise plan for the movement or doing any preliminary sketches, I listened to music and drew the animation and collages, choosing colors based on the impressions and rhythms of the sound.