NTV Announces a Hotaru no Hikari Movie with Ayase Haruka and Fujiki Naohito

I can’t believe I’m actually excited about this, but for some reason I think it would be a fitting ending for the couple and might wash away some of the residual bitterness that Season 2 left in my mouth. NTV has announced that it’s about to commence filming on Hotaru no Hikari, the Movie.

After a brilliant drama adaptation of the manga same name, starring Ayase Haruka and Fujiki Naohito as Hotaru and Buchou, respectively, the drama waited three years before doing a Season 2 last Summer that almost completely turned me off the perfect OTP.

The first four episodes were great, and Mukai Osamu very nearly stole the show, but the remaining episodes completely butchered any character and relationship development and forced the couple to go in circles to generate plot.

Hopefully a two hour movie will perfectly bring this couple to a satisfying conclusion and finally allow me the closure with this story I need to feel content. The movie will be set 2 years after the end of Season 2, and Hotaru and Buchou will visit Rome because she knows it’s a place he’s always dreamed about going with the person he loves.

The movie commences filming next month and will be completely shot on location in Rome. o___O Location porn + Hotaru and Buchou? Alright, count me in! The movie is scheduled to be released in 2012. Ayase Haruka will need to get in as many projects before the end of 2012, as she has been tapped as the leading lady for NHK‘s 2013 Taiga Yae no Sakura.

It’s quite an honor to anchor a Taiga, especially as a woman and so young an age. Which also means she’s pretty much out of commission for all of 2013. For now, the thought of Hotaru and Buchou bumbling their way through Rome fills me with glee.

[Credit: Cinema Cafe]


Comments

NTV Announces a Hotaru no Hikari Movie with Ayase Haruka and Fujiki Naohito — 23 Comments

  1. Ohhhhhh I love hotaru no Hikari!!! Although like you, I were dissapointed by the turn it got, I can’t help but giggle about this news!
    I am soooo hoping also, for a proper kissing scene FINALLY!!

    Location porn + Hotaru and Buchou? Count me in too!

    So many thanks for the news….!!! Bu-chououououououououou

  2. I love the first season of Hotaru no Hikari. First time I encountered such a heroine and I was delightfully shocked, I love the cartoon opening sequence, I love how she dresses for work, I love that she is competent, I love that there is no bitchy third party, I love that Buchou is such an awesome guy. Wow there was so many things I love about this drama the story was so fresh for me.
    And then the second season happened and it was a merry go around of the same plot for the whole ran of the drama. It was frustrating and Hotaru’s office wardrobe was uninspired. I hated it but I went through the whole thing just because of my first season love. Please God let the movie be like the first season, awesome.

    • I never saw season 2 but I loved season 1! And I totally started dressing like Hotaru in the office because of it. Loved her style!

    • I totally agree with everything you just said. I LOVED season 1…but season 2? Ehhh…not so much. It just felt like the main OTP wasn’t the OTP as koala mentioned. I didn’t even get to finish it because of that. I managed to stick on for 7 episodes because of Fujiki Naohito.

      Buchou!!!

  3. Hopefully they will be able to recreate the magic of season 1, as I was so disappointed in season 2.

    If they can’t do this in a romantic city like Rome, then I despair for the writers and will feel sad at the waste of two great actors.

  4. I absolutely loved season 1 but could not get past episode 6 of season 2. Nevertheless excited for the movie. Crossing my fingers for a funny one!

  5. Buchouuuuuuu! Can’t wait for the movie to be premiered. I finished watching this dorama last week and this news really makes me happy. 😀

  6. Ahhh..i am so excited. i thought the ending was left at that. this definitely best news ever. i have been in love with Naohito Fujiki since Itoshi Kimie and Love Revolution. Have you watched these two drama Ms Ockoala? Apart from City Hall as Woah Korean drama, these two have been on my favourite Woah list (so far Japanese drama bagged the most of my Woah list..hehe). If u haven’t watch this, you must. Anyway, thanks for sharing the good news.

    p/s: if u like poem, itoshi kimie introduced me to a Japanese poet, Kenji Miyazawa. Until now his poem “Be not defeated by the rain” is my favourite until now. Itoshi Kimie is my “Love Story”..hehe

  7. I agree with everyone that I didn’t share the same love for Season 2 as I did for Season 1 of the show for pretty much the same reasons as Ockoala. But Hotaru + Buchou + one of my favorite cities in the world, you can definitely count me in =)

  8. i actually like season 2. i think buchou is all kinds of awesome in season 2. i’m delighted about the movie version, even though i was hoping for a season 3. anyway, buchou & ahomiya ftw!

  9. Yeey buchou is back :p. I love that man, and please let it be like the first season. But with a little more skinship now, cause you know they are married now!

  10. I have to agree with the common sentiment – I was crazy for S1, hence, I was excited for S2. But after a few episodes I grew quite disappointed. Actually I was immediately put off in the first episode to hear Hotaru didn’t contact Buchou for nearly the whole three years they were apart.. O_o WHA-? That would be a deal breaker for any sane person. I don’t care the reason. It seemed too cold – EVEN if they chalked it up to Hotaru’s one tracked focus on work and scatter-brain for everything else. But I tried to overcome that…. unfortunately by episode 5 I hit a wall I could not overcome (despite my mad love for Mukai Osamu) and gave it up. It’d be great if the movie can bring S1’s atmosphere and fun back 🙂

    • hotaru explained her reason for not calling buchou as thus: once she hears buchou’s voice, she feels an inexplicable urge to run to him immediately – even though they’re merely in separate rooms in the same house. unfortunately for the last three years, she was then in hong kong and he in tokyo, and she couldn’t just fly back on a whim. so she immersed herself in work.

      buchou understood and forgave her for it. season 2 focuses a lot on hotaru’s personal growth and buchou being there for her every step of the way. the contrast between seno and buchou couldn’t be greater, and i thought hotaru finally realising the difference between koi and ai is great. so i don’t think season 2 is as bad as people make it out to be.

  11. I watched season 1 twice, it was really adorable, though of course flawed, blabla XD I couldn’t finish season 2, it didn’t really stike a chord with me, although those two are beyond adorable ^^ I’ll definitely be watching the movie!

  12. Yay! I love HnH, especially season 1. I admit I haven’t finished season 2 yet, but that’s what u get when u watch a japanese drama live. The wait is so slow cos it’s just 1 episode a day. I plan to finish this, but yehey! I want some action at last. Buchou is so slow on the intimate side considering his age. 🙂

    Will they include my love osamu in the movie as well?

  13. wow 100% agree with you on this one ockoala~!!! I beyond adored Hotaru no Hikari Season 1… I was lucky that I watched it just before the 2nd season aired so there was almost no wait for me to continue their story. And then halfway thru Season 2, I was like “wait, what happened to the cute?!” as it had all but disappeared and the story had come to a dead stop. It was a wholly unsatisfactory ending to what could have been such awesomeness. I’m so glad to hear that there is going to be a movie of this to *hopefully* wrap it all up! Thanks for the news!

  14. Hey, thanks for introducing me to this show. Just finised S1 and love love love it! BUT where is the kissing between the OTP??? Not sure whether I wanna plough through S2 seeing you gals hated it so. Maybe just watch the last ep?

  15. HnH 2 recently got aired on cable channel Red, so i got to watch it entirely. I already heard about it not being as good as the first season, so i was bracing myself already. I agree, there were times that i got exasperated with Buchou and Amemiya, but something would always happen to get me back to their love’s side. They are both flawed characters. More than anything, Season 2 showed us that, just as Amemiya has a lot of flaws, Buchou is not as perfect as Season 1 made us believe. True, the fact that his wife divorced him and his admission that he hadn’t been a good husband gave us some clue, but all the things he did for Amemiya, being a strong, if not altogether agreeable, support to Amemiya and her newly rediscovered love life, sort of erased any imperfections we might have conceived about him. In Season 2, we saw, along with Buchou’s patience and understanding of Hotaru, his weak side, including his tendency to make big decisions on his own without consulting Hotaru first (his job stint in Taiwan), his petty (cute, but maybe too childish for a 40-year old!) sensitivity to his laundry, bossiness (though there are hilarious moments when Hotaru could get him to say “Hai!” like he was the subordinate), and the one that got me most exasperated, his hands-off-Hotaru policy. I can probably praise him for wanting to keep their relationship as innocent as possible until their marriage, but when he learned that there is already a threat, in the guise of a very charming Seno, that might steal Hotaru away, he should have kissed her right there and then.

    But having said all that, I still think that Amemiya can only choose Buchou over Seno. I agree with someone’s comment above that she finally learned the difference between love and crush. Plus, although i got all frustrated, i know both Buchou and Amemiya’s actions are only true to their characters. Can we really imagine them suddenly all lovey-dovey? Plus i got a lot of laughs here, more than in Season 1.

    Overall, i was surprised that i enjoyed season 2 more than the season 1. Probably because here, it is finally about Buchou and Amemiya as a couple. It is often times frustrating, but always, at the end of the day, we see both of them struggling to confirm their love for each other. Their actions may not often be a reliable gauge, especially Amemiya’s as she is so often more immersed in her work than in her relationship with Buchou, but at the end of each episode, we see both of them, especially her, actively voicing his feelings to the other. It was a different path to the usual attraction=love theme we see often. For Buchou and Amemiya’s relationship are more about commitment, in such a way that they may not always be showy, their hearts might even race for some other guy/girl, but at the end of the day, they both know that they are going to be sitting on the same porch, sharing stories and drinking beer together. Oh, and if Hotaru is wearing her cute undies then she may agree to sleep in Buchou’s room for the night. ;D

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