PURE

What is "Pure" all about?:  25-year old Yuka Orihara (Emi Wakui) is a lovely and cheerful woman. We cannot really see any differences in her appearance, but she was born with a lower IQ than average. She grew up with lots of love of her parents, so she has become a good-natured girl. However, she cannot control her feelings very well, and her mother

(Jun Fubuki) always watches her with love and even her late father, who was also a painter, still influences her. Besides, she has a good friend; Ryo Kanzaki (Katsunori Takahashi). He is her cousin and like a brother to her. But Yuka's peaceful life suddenly changes when her work gets a prize at a competition to which Ryo has entered her work secretly. She is forced to come out of her small world to an unknown world. And she meets a man; Toru Sawatari (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a reporter for a photo-magazine. He used to be a journalist of a newspaper, but was demoted to an associate company a few years ago. But he is determined to return to the paper as he hates the power. Toru, who is very cool and has a past, starts having a business relationship with Yuka. He does not care about her retardation and treats her as an ordinary person. This comes from his indifference, but as Yuka believes he is a 'nice' person, he gets attracted to her purity...

Capitalizing on the 'people with handicaps' theme, FUJI aired a really good drama this Jan.-March season. Yuka (Wakui) is a mentally challenged artist who lives with her mother. She likes candy drops, she dreams about flying, and she likes the weather report too. She is very artistically gifted. Toru (Tsutsumi) is a photographer for MOVE Magazine, a type of weekly gossip mag. They meet when Yuka, wearing that patented yellow coat, falls down in the middle of the street, and Toru manages to save her from being runned over. Yuka soon takes a liking to Toru, much to his disinterest.  Her life soon changes when her cousin Ryo (Takahashi ) submits one of Yuka's works in a contest and she ends up winning first prize. Her mother is totally against Yuka being possibly ostracized in public due to her handicap and tells Yuka she shouldn't go to the awards ceremony. Yuka, being pure of heart says she wants to go and  accept her award. Toru, for some unknown reason wants to take pictures of Yuka and her work, and possibly find out a little more about what makes her tick. What are his reasons for doing so?

[Fuji Creative Synopsis]: 25-year old Yuka Orihara (Emi Wakui) is a lovely and cheerful woman. We cannot really see any differences in her appearance, but she was born with a lower IQ than average. She grew up with lots of love of her parents, so she has become a good-natured girl. However, she cannot control her feelings very well, and sometimes she does something too wild, which concerns people around her. While her intellectual ability is low, she has an amazing sense in arts. She has been drawing artistic paintings, and creating unique objects which reflect her pure heart. Her mother (Jun Fubuki) always watches her with love and even her late father, who was also a painter, still influences her. Besides, she has a good friend; Ryo Kanzaki (Katsunori Takahashi). He is her cousin and like a brother to her. But Yuka's peaceful life suddenly changes when her work gets a prize at a competition to which Ryo has entered her work secretly. She is forced to come out of her small world to an unknown world. And she meets a man; Toru Sawatari (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a reporter for a photo-magazine. He used to be a journalist of a newspaper, but was demoted to an associate company a few years ago. But he is determined to return to the paper as he hates the power. Toru, who is very cool and has a past, starts having a business relationship with Yuka. He does not care about her retardation and treats her as an ordinary person. This comes from his indifference, but as Yuka believes he is a 'nice' person, he gets attracted to her purity...