The first “morning drama! Nemoto Nonji, scriptwriter of “Masanao Fudosan” and “Hakozume,” talks about his “Theory of Morning Drama.

I was thrilled to think that perhaps you knew about the morning drama.”

It was announced on August 9 that Kanna Hashimoto has been chosen as the heroine of “Omusubi”, the 111th NHK’s serial TV novel (commonly known as “Asadora”) for the second half of the ’24 fiscal year. The script is written by Nonji Nemoto, whose works include “Masanao Fudosan” (NHK Sogo), “Asagao: Medical Examiner” series (Fuji TV), “Hakozume” (NTV), and “Fruits Delivery Service” (TV Tokyo).

The moment I heard this announcement, I thought, “I knew it! I thought, “I knew it! This is because when we interviewed Mr. Nemoto for FRIDAY Digital (published on June 19), we asked him why he had not yet written a morning drama, to which he replied, “I’m not ready yet, career-wise.

He said, “I guess I’m not quite there yet in terms of my career. ……. But I just want to be prepared to do my best if I am called upon.”

Less than two months later, the announcement was made, and the production manager was Takashi Usagawa, who was also the producer of “Masanao Fudosan. I knew it!”

We immediately interviewed Mr. Nonji Nemoto again. He talked a lot about his “connection” with morning dramas.

Last time, the interview took place during the broadcast of “Rationally Impossible: Detective Ryoko Kamizuru’s Clarification” (Fuji Television), and when you asked me for an interview, I was a bit nervous that you might know about morning dramas. We asked him some questions about morning dramas (laughs).

Mr. Nemoto first became aware of morning dramas when he was a primary school student in the first half of the 1979 season of “Ma-sis-chan” (Ma-chan). He says he was in elementary school when he first became aware of morning dramas, watching his parents watch them as a substitute for a clock.

I guess I watched morning dramas during summer vacation because that’s when I went to school and couldn’t usually watch them. I wanted to be a manga artist since I was in elementary school, and the subject was Machiko Hasegawa and her sister, so my parents told me, ‘This is the same person from Sazae-san,’ and that was my original morning drama experience.

Of course, I also watched “Oshin,” but it was not until I started writing drama scripts that I began to watch morning dramas with a proper awareness. It was after “Gegege no Nyobo” (Gegege no Nyobo, the first season of 2010).

Translation of “Revenge”…

However, this is not Nemoto’s first participation in a morning drama.

In fact, I was involved in “Teppan” (the second half of the 2010 season) as a script collaborator,” he said.

Mr. Nemoto joined the project when the drama had reached the 12-week mark and was in the final stages of development. In fact, the toughest period for a morning drama is the 12-week period, which is the equivalent of one season of a regular drama series, and is also known as “the devil’s 12-week period.

I was invited to be the main writer for a BK morning drama, which is the same as “Teppan,” as a kind of revenge.

When I am invited now, I stay in the same hotel as I did then. The meeting room is also the same, so I feel a sense of fate that I am back.

There is a reason why Nemoto calls it “revenge.

It was very hard work,” he says. At that time, we were still drawing 6 x 15 minutes = 90-minute dramas a week for 26 weeks. I watched it while making the box and thought, ‘That’s tough,’ so I knew enough to know how hard it was, and I also wondered how I would do it if I had to write it myself, and I had always said I wanted to do a morning drama someday.

I have always been indebted to TV, so I want to write about TV dramas as much as possible, and I have always said that I hope to do morning dramas and historical dramas before I die, because they are the highest of all TV dramas. （Koichi Hamaya (of “Fruit Delivery Service” and other works), with whom I have worked for a long time, laughed when I told him I wanted to write a morning drama. He is going to congratulate me next time, and I am very grateful.

My origins are in late-night dramas on TV TOKYO and other networks, so the producers I have worked with at TV TOKYO have been very pleased with my work, and I am very happy to be able to write a drama now in a royal slot. I am very happy to be able to write for the high street now.

The offer came in the fall of last year. The deciding factors were the favorable reception of “Masanao Fudosan” and the fact that “Hakozume” was highly praised for its balance of comedy and humanity.

I got a call out of the blue asking me if I was interested in doing a morning drama, and when I checked my schedule, it was a bit of a difficult time for me, so I thought, “What should I do? I said, “I’ll do it! The production manager was P. Usagawa, who had worked on “Honest Fudosan,” but at that point we had not decided on the subject matter or the heroine, and I was surprised at how much we had to start from scratch.

The story takes place in the Heisei era, and the main character is a gal… “People keep saying ‘the lost 30 years,’ but I thought, ‘That’s not true.

The result is “Omusubi,” a story about a “gal from the Heisei era,” Yoneda Yui, who becomes a “nutritionist” and grows up while solving problems faced by people today.

I tried to read books that could be used as a story, looking for great people or women who had achieved something,” said Yoneda. “But there was a botanist in ‘Ranman,’ and then ‘Boogie Woogie,’ which was modeled on Shizuko Kasagi, so it was a period piece, followed by a real person. So I thought it would be better to do a modern drama.

I said that if we were going to do a modern drama, we wanted a girl who was familiar to people everywhere, not at all great, and who cried and laughed, and in thinking about the time period, I said, “Heisei is good.

So I thought, ‘If it’s the Heisei era, why not a gal? also depicts the Heisei period, but with a strong heroine, and “Omusubi” will probably be an unusual drama with a gal as the heroine, which has never happened in any morning drama before.

Wouldn’t it be easier to calculate the involvement of middle-aged and older generations in a Showa-era work that depicts war and such?

Yes, that’s true. But the Heisei era is interesting because it is close to the Showa era but still has a nostalgic feel to it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of things were born, so why call it “lost”? I think it’s just a matter of time before we lose it.

I thought that young people, especially those who lived in the Heisei Era (the Heisei Era), and especially those who are now in their 30s, might be thinking, “Why should we, the people who lived in the Heisei Era, be told that our era is lost?

As for the theme, as I mentioned in a previous interview, I myself am the son of a third-generation yakitori chef and have been helping out at the restaurant since I was a child, and I also have a cooking license (laughs). So I decided that if I were going to write a drama, I would choose food as the theme.

But there have been many morning dramas about food. So, I decided that it would be difficult to write about a chef, so I did some research and decided that I would be able to work with food and people if I were a nutritionist. The decision came relatively quickly.

An original, contemporary series about “Heisei gal” without any real-life models may seem like an extremely difficult project to get off the ground. ……

I think that’s where Mr. Usagawa, the production supervisor, did his best. Besides myself and Mr. Usagawa, there are many other morning drama legends like Mr. Sai Manabe, who worked on “Imo Tako Nankin” and “Manpuku”.

So I am making a story with the advice of the staff.

Also, once the actors are chosen, I always try to make the story as interesting as possible, so I created an image of the heroine that would be just right for Ms. Hashimoto to portray.

Of course, it will be a human story, but first of all, I will try my best to make her laugh.

How to create a script unique to “Morning Drama

Is there a big difference between making an hour or 30-minute drama every week and making five 15-minute dramas a week?

Yes, there is a big difference. The volume of work is also different, but the rhythm is totally different from other serial dramas.

When I write a script, I write it on A4 word paper, and I can only write 8 to 9 pages for a 15-minute episode, which is roughly equivalent to 2 pages per spread.

It’s different from short comedy, but rhythmically it’s similar to that. It’s surprisingly difficult to make a story that is interesting in 15 minutes, but also compelling in all 75 minutes.

What are you preparing for in the writing process?

I bought all the DVDs of “Gochisous-san” (the second half of the fiscal year 2001) and watched all the episodes, and I borrowed the script from NHK. Although the time period is completely different, it is the same BK work and the closest in its depiction of food, so I am learning a lot from it, including the rhythm of the story.

In many morning dramas, the main character overcomes difficulties such as war or the Great Kanto Earthquake, but in the Heisei era, disaster is inevitable.

That’s right,” he said. The Heisei Era is also a history of disasters, so we cannot avoid that part of the story, and we cover it carefully.

Since we are depicting the Heisei era, there are a number of epochal events, so we are discussing how to depict them.

About Kanna Hashimoto

The heroine is a “gal” who was “born on the day the Heisei era began,” but since the story spans a long time from the Heisei era to Reiwa’s current 30s, there will probably be a lot of serious reality depicted. This, on the other hand, is a point where the actor Kanna Hashimoto’s strengths will be put to good use.

Ms. Nemoto had this message for fans of morning dramas.

The heroine of this drama has a very difficult role, including the emotional ups and downs of growing up in the ups and downs of the time period from the Heisei era to Reiwa. But when I met Ms. Hashimoto at the “Omusubi” production announcement press conference, I thought she was extremely charming, friendly, and easygoing, and I felt I could rely on her.

Of course, I was surprised at his guts to answer so many questions fluently even though the script was not even ready yet, even though he had been briefed by the production manager. After that, I left the room, but there were usually no more questions (laughs).

I am thrilled to think that I will be able to work with that reliable Mr. Hashimoto on a morning drama from now on. I will do my best with sincerity and sincerity so that as many people as possible can enjoy the drama, while at the same time preserving the traditions of the past morning dramas and adding originality as an original work.