NHK’s Kaze, Kaoru Is Losing Viewers—Was the Dual-Protagonist Approach a Mistake?

Struggling in the Ratings

The NHK morning drama series “Kaze, Kaoru (The Wind, Fragrant)” starring Ai Mikami (25) and Juri Uesaka (21) as dual heroines has been struggling. The series entered a new chapter with its 16th week, titled “When a New Wind Blows,” which began airing on July 13. The question now is whether this development can become the catalyst needed to revive its declining ratings.

Set during the Meiji era, the drama follows “Rin,” played by Mikami, and “Naomi,” played by Uesaka—two women who become Japan’s first trained nurses (professionally educated nurses). The story depicts their growth as they face patients and doctors, eventually becoming a strongest partner duo.

While the dual-heroine format attracted attention, “Kaze, Kaoru” stumbled in the ratings from the very beginning. There are thought to be two main reasons for this.

The first is the two characters meet far too late.

“After losing her father to cholera, Rin marries a man 18 years older than her in order to support her family and gives birth to a daughter, Tamaki. However, she struggles in her marriage and eventually leaves home for Tokyo after a fire becomes the turning point.

Meanwhile, Naomi, an orphan, works at a match factory but is falsely accused of wrongdoing and fired. Later, using her English skills, she enters Rokumeikan and becomes a maid, only to be deceived by a con artist.

These episodes clearly serve as background that will become meaningful later in the story. However, taking two full weeks before the two heroines finally meet is simply too long. Another reason for the decline may be that popular morning-drama elements that fans look forward to—such as marriage and childbirth scenes—were rushed through,” said a producer at a production company.

Let us compare it with the popular NHK morning drama “Tiger with Wings (Tora ni Tsubasa),” which aired in 2024.

“Tiger with Wings” depicted Torako (played by Sairi Ito), the first Japanese woman to become a lawyer and judge. Despite facing various struggles, she passed the entrance exam for the women’s law department of Meiritsu University in the second week. Her encounters with women who shared her goal of becoming lawyers became a major driving force that moved the story forward.

By contrast, in “Kaze, Kaoru,” the heroine does not enter the attached nursing training school at Umeoka Girls’ School until the fifth week. It is understandable why some viewers have criticized the timing as too late.

And there is one more issue that may explain the low ratings: the lack of a convincing buddy dynamic.

Highly Acclaimed “A Vote for the Galaxy”

In Episode 75, which aired on July 10, Naomi tells Rin:

“Quit being a nurse.”

However, the job she manages to find is as a dormitory supervisor at a girls’ school in Niigata. Commuting there from Tokyo would be impossible, and she would not be able to take her daughter, Tamaki (Ema), with her.

Naomi makes a positive suggestion to the discouraged Rin, but Rin refuses to listen. When Naomi presses her, saying that remarriage is the only option left, Rin pushes back:

“I don’t want to entrust Tamaki’s life and my own life to someone else.”

The two women then finally let their emotions spill out, confronting each other and expressing everything they have been holding inside.

I doubt I was the only one who felt something was off about this scene.

“Until now, there had not been a scene where the two of them clashed so intensely with their emotions. It felt undeniably abrupt. I also felt uncomfortable with the drastic development in which Naomi declares, ‘I will become the real family of this household’ and ‘I will become Tamaki-chan’s second mother.’ The reason is that, despite this being such a major decision, the underlying ‘buddy dynamic’ between them had been far too weakly established up to this point. Isn’t that precisely the source of the sense of discomfort people are feeling toward this series?”
—(Drama production company director)

With “A Vote in the Galaxy (Fuji TV), Moonlit Journey: The Answer Lies Within the Masterpieces” (Nippon TV), and “Error” (TV Asahi), there have been several female buddy dramas among the shows that began airing in the April season this spring. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a trend.

“Among them, I went back and rewatched ‘A Vote in the Galaxy,’ which has received particularly high praise. In the first episode, Mari (Hana Kuroki), who is disowned by her father—the ruling party secretary-general—and loses her job as a secretary, wanders aimlessly in despair. A memento of her late mother leads her to a fateful encounter with Akari (Kayo Noro), the owner of a small snack bar.

Many viewers were moved to tears by Kuroki’s breathtaking performance as she opened up about her loneliness. ‘A buddy story is a story about two lonely people meeting each other.’ Producer Ayumi Sano of this series has openly stated this belief without hesitation, and her vision has hit the mark perfectly.”
—(The aforementioned producer)

With the start of a new chapter, the two female leads have once again been separated. What kind of drama awaits the two of them from here?

While fans are hoping for a secret strategy that will bring about a V-shaped recovery in ratings, the fact that many are saying it may already be too late remains a concern.