14-sai no Haha

14-sai no Haha: Aisuru tame ni Umaretekita (14才の母 ～愛するために生まれてきた～, lit. "14-year-old Mother: Born for Love's Sake") is a Japanese television drama broadcast on NTV. It was aired from October 11, 2006 until December 20 of the same year.

Plot

Miki Ichinose is a 14-year-old schoolgirl who is very outgoing and cheerful. She lives with her parents and younger brother. She is in a romantic relationship with Satoshi Kirino who is 15-years-old. They keep their relationship a secret from their parents because Miki is young and Satoshi is expected to excel in school and get into a university so he can take over the family business by his overbearing mother. One night, after a date, they sneak into a treehouse and consummate their relationship. Soon after, Miki suspects that she is pregnant and steals a pregnancy test, which her mother later finds. She is taken to a doctor who confirms her pregnancy. Initially upset, Miki's parents promise they will support her. Miki tells Satoshi of the pregnancy and he takes the news well. However, his mother is furious when she learns of it and forbids the two from seeing each other. She even offers money for an abortion, which the Ichinose family refuses.

To make matters worse, the Kirino family business begins to go bankrupt, which forces Satoshi and his mother to leave and go into hiding to avoid the press. Miki has to temporarily drop out of school because of her pregnancy and that the teachers believe it will be a bad influence to the other students. A reporter who has been tracking the Kirino family since they went into hiding and suspects that Satoshi is the father of Miki's child, begins to track her. Miki wonders if keeping the baby is the right choice for her due to all the changes that are affecting the lives of her family, friends, and her boyfriend's. Satoshi's mother becomes depressed and attempts suicide to end her misery in debt and humiliation, but he gets her help just in time. Miki's mother visits with them and asks Satoshi to see Miki and the baby one day.

At seven months into the pregnancy, Miki begins to go into premature labor and the reporter, who has been following her, calls for an ambulance. Miki gives birth to a baby girl, whom she names Sora, via caesarean section. Being premature, Sora is placed in the NICU for underdeveloped lungs. Satoshi comes to the hospital and tells Miki that he wants to help raise the baby with her and is taken to see their daughter for the first time. Miki and Satoshi then tell their parents that they hope to get married when they turn 18. Although Miki's parents accept this, Satoshi's mother relents but says she will not visit with the baby.

The drama ends with Miki and her family bringing Sora, now healthy and full-term, home and posing for a family picture. Satoshi begins working to help provide for the baby and his mother begins a new business that seems to help bring her out of her depression. Miki begins her new life as a teenage mother.

Cast

Major characters

• Mirai Shida as Miki Ichinose (一ノ瀬未希, Ichinose Miki)
• Misako Tanaka as Kanako Ichinose (一ノ瀬加奈子, Ichinose Kanako)
• Katsuhisa Namase as Tadahiko Ichinose (一ノ瀬忠彦, Ichinose Tadahiko)
• Kazuki Koshimizu as Kenta Ichinose (一ノ瀬健太, Ichinose Kenta)
• Sora Ichinose (一ノ瀬そら, Ichinose Sora)
• Sayaka Yamaguchi as Kyoko Endo (遠藤香子, Endō Kyōko)
• Junichi Koumoto as Makoto Mitsui (三井マコト, Mitsui Makoto)
• Sayaka Kaneko as Hinako Mitsui (三井ひな子, Mitsui Hinako)
• Haruma Miura as Satoshi Kirino (桐野智志, Kirino Satoshi)
• Shigeru Muroi as Shizuka Kirino (桐野静香, Kirino Shizuka)
• Mitsuki Tanimura as Mayu Yanagisawa (柳沢真由那, Yanagisawa Mayu)
• Kie Kitano as Megumi Kubota (久保田恵, Kubota Megumi)
• Rina Koike as Sayaka Nagasaki (長崎さやか, Nagasaki Sayaka)
• Yumiko Ideguchi as Yoshiko Okumura (奥村美子, Okumura Yoshiko)
• Kiyo Hasegawa as Mitsue Inohara (猪原光江Inohara Mitsue)
• Itsumi Osawa as Rika Matsumoto (松本リカ, Matsumoto Rika)
• Ken Kaito as Koyo Yamazaki (山崎光陽, Yamazaki Kōyō)
• Shunya Isaka as Kazuaki Haraguchi (原口和明, Haraguchi Kazuaki)
• Atsuko Takahata as Haruko Matoba (的場春子, Matoba Haruko)
• Akira Onodera as Eiza Nakatani (中谷栄三, Nakatani Eiza)
• Kazuki Kitamura as Taku Hatano (波多野卓, Hatano Taku)

Minor characters

• Naho Toda (ep 8)
• Takashi Sorimachi as Tarō Tsuchida (土田太郎, Tsuchida Tarō) (ep 10–11)

Production

Upon preparing for this role, actress Mirai Shida asked her real-life mother for advice. She wanted to know if there were changes (in walking, appetite, etc.) during pregnancy. Her mother replied, "Except for the belly becoming bigger, nothing else changes." This did not prepare Shida in any way, as stated by herself.

Originally, there were only 10 episodes. Due to the success this drama achieved, an extra episode was made.

Music

Theme song:

• "Shirushi" by Mr. Children

Soundtrack:

• "14 Sai no Haha" O.S.T – TVSANTORA

Episodes

The average rating for this drama was the highest rating this slot (Wednesday at 10:00 PM) achieved on NTV since 2000. This record was broken by the television series Kaseifu no Mita, which garnered an average rating of 25.2%.^[2]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• ReviewAsia – 14 Sai no Haha Reviews