#yae noguchi

[pinkhairedlily]

i think i need five business days to absorb first love hatsukoi. jam-packed with very attractive cinematography and color grading, heavy symbolism, key plot devices, and nonlinear timeline, it makes this normally cliched plot a must watch. 💙

not really recommended for white noise or skimming. the masterpiece is in the details. every object, every line, every place — they all come full circle. the gravity of their impact will get lost once you take off your attention.

okay, now off to find theories on the abundant use of blues and how they are instrumental to the plot. 😊

#first love hatsukoi #first love: hatsukoi #first love #yae noguchi #harumichi namiki #yae x namiki #jdrama #jdrama recs #pinkhairedlily watch

[alexandrarosa]

First love

First of all I don’t remember the last time I’ve loved something this much. I think it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said it was the best thing I’ve ever watched.

I absolutely loved the characters and their development. I loved how the plot was shown in nonlinear time – thanks to which we could really see the whole story from different perspectives.

I loved the ending and even though it was such a happy one, it kind of wrecked me. And I absolutely have to post my whole analysis of the show because ‘First Love’ is the only thing I’ve been able to think about for the past three days.

(spoiler alert!)

Yae Noguchi

The first character we meet seems like the nicest person in the world. Of course we don’t know her tragic backstory then but we can feel there is some mysterious lingering in her preception of the world around her. She’s a single mother, she works hard day and night. We slowly get to know everything about her life and honestly it’s all so sad. I mean her relationship with Harumichi is lovely. I adore how she sees him as the wild one compared to her. She has her dreams and she’s so invested in all the things she does. She’s courageous – she’s the one who confesses her feelings first (and my beloved dumbass Harumichi doesn’t even get it). She is ready to work hard to get what she wants. She got into university and I think she was really happy there. Of course then the worst happens. And I feel like that accident was the beginning of the most miserable period of her life. She’s always been ambitious, she had plans. And all of the sudden she’s reduced to being a stay-at-home mother and a housewife. Her husband, who seemed like a good guy, turns to be, well, an asshole. His mother treats her horribly. They have no respect for her. She’s kind of treated like housekeeper more than a part of the family. So she struggles, but becames herself again – and takes the control back. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, she has to work night and day. But she’s ready to do it. And she loves her son unconditionally, she’s ready to give him everything he needs. And when he needs to have better care – she’s ready to give him up even though it kills her. She gets back on her feet, she moves away from her mother.

I absolutely love Yae. I love how determined she is, I adore that she really tries, even though she has no hope for herself. And I love that she’s ready to do everything she feels she should.

Yae’s dreams

Something that makes me really sad is that she has to wait for so long to actually make her dreams come true. She has always known what she wanted to do in life, but couldn’t accomplish it for twenty years. She feels like a person with no past cannot have a future. And that’s how she sees herself –she lost so many precious things – not only love and memories, but also (or maybe mainly) the abilities to do what she wants. She didn’t graduate. She was a housewife so she had no experience in any kind of work. Yae from before the accident had the whole world standing open before herself. Yae after the accident has limited choices and no hope for a change.

But it’s so sad that she’s losing it all and her mother does nothing. She’s grieving after a perfect daughter she’s lost like she’s the actual victim. Yae’s mother let her own grief and pain hurt her daughter. She was blaming Harumichi for the accident, because he wasn’t able to protect her. And because of that she punished them both. She made Harumichi believe for so many years that he’s the responsible one. She forced him to dissapear from Yae’s life, she would let her know about him. She preferred the surgeon guy because he had more money. She’s hoping she made the right choice - but honestly she didn’t. She shouldn’t have been making the choices at all. They were not hers to made.

What makes me so angry is that Yae never got back to the university. I wonder why her mother never encouraged her. I’m angry that she had to through all that pain just because her mother decided what’s best for her.

But nothing makes me happier than those small parallels. Teenage Yae greeting imaginary passengers on their flight to Reykiavik and adult Yae being a flight attendant in Iceland. Teenage Harumichi saying that he’s going to be a pilot with a beautiful flight attendant as a wife and they ending up flying together at the end. Their dreams really did come true at the end.

Harumichi Namiki

The literal love of my life. I mean this is the guy who becomes your fictional crush and makes every guy in reality look sad. He’s the epiphany of taking control ovet your own life. And an exellent example of ‘you can’t change him but he will change for you if he cares’ and honestly, damn. Their origin story, their meet cute, whatever you want to call it – my dude was swept off his feet. He saw a girl reading a book and he decided to change his entire life for her. It was, as he stated, laughably easy. He went from a textbook badboy to learning nonstop for several weeks because of the chance he saw on the horizon. He would do absolutely everything for her. He became a pilot for her. His whole life was dedicated to her. She was the energy that fueled his life.

And then she got ripped away from his life completly abruptly. And then at the slightest chance of finding her again – he regained all hope.

I love how he always states that he believes in fate but at the same time he knows that he can’t just sit and wait for the good fings to happen. He uses any chance life throws at him. And everything he could control – he did.

Harumichi’s character development

What’s interesting about Harumichi is a long way he came during his life. From a badboy to a wild student to the military cadet and pilot to the security guard. I love how visible it is that his main reason of being is protecting others. From protecting his sister to protecting Yae and his country. But what’s also worth mentioning is his belief in love – or actually – the way he loves. We see him as a teenager, eager to give love, full of energy. Then, as an adult, we see him with Tsunemi – he’s more conscious, more careful. Less involved. I thought it’s just something that comes with age. But then he finds Yae again and all his energy and involvement come back. I feel like for those twenty years he was passive about his life and work and love. I’m sure he cared for Tsunemi but she couldn’t wake that flame inside of him. And then he became active again because he regained the hope for reuniting with Yae again. And I’m not even sure if it had a romantic purpose at the beginning. I don’t think he wanted to break up with Tsunemi just because he saw Yae. But then it turned out that he didn’t have a choice – Tsunemi wasn’t the one. Maybe in a world without Yae she would do, but not in this reality. That’s why I don’t think that Harumichi broke up with her to be with Yae. I think he thought he had to because he couldn’t love her as he should have.

Their love

I love how Yae’s and Harumichi’s relationship is actually so calm and peaceful. They don’t argue. They don’t have that will-they-won’t-they dynamic. They just love each other and it’s completly pure. I also love the scene after the end credits when they are shown together while walking. Notice how Harumichi constantly grabs her hand, touches her, kisses her. Like he’s afraid that if he doesn’t hold her she’ll disappear. And she’s so happy that he’s back in her life. That there is somebody that really actually loves her. Geeez, I’m so happy that they found each other.

The role of fate and the role of timing

Fate is a tricky thing – some people sit and wait for the good things to happen. But it seems like the characters from the ‘First Love’ know it doesn’t work that way. Yes, you can call it fate that Harumichi saw Yae on the train and then again in the exam room. But everything he did later came from him. He took care of everything that was in his control. And when there was nothing more to do, he had to let fate work again – and it did. They went to the same high school. Fate worked again twenty years later sending them both to Sapporo and making them, in a way, cross their paths. And yet again Harumichi didn’t wait for fate to reunite them. He was listening to the taxi announcements for hours for god’s sake! Life (or fate – whatever you want to call it) gave him the chance to rescue her this time and he did, hurting himself in the process.

The fate did it again with Uta finding Harumichi in Iceland, but Yae actively chose to find him. She made her own choice not waiting for a coincidence.

What’s also worth mentioning is that Harumichi actively played the role of ‘fate’ for Tsuzuru and Uta – he made it possible for them to meet.

The worst part of all that is timing. And we know that timing is a bitch.

So many important things happend in the wrong moment. Harumichi coming to Yae only to find out that she’s pregnant. Yae falling in love with him again when he was engaged. Her confessing her feelings after he decided to take a break and go away. Yae regaining her memories only after Harumichi left. Her deciding to take back control of her life and dreams and pandemic streaking.

But at the same time so many good things happened because of the bad timing – for example Harumichi’s leaving let Tsuzuru find the CD player that gave Yae her memories back. If he had never decided to leave she might have not get them back.

For such a long time I was trying to understand why he didn’t want to be with her when she confessed her feelings. But I think I get it now. He would have to live knowing she doesn’t remember a big part of their shared history. And I think it could be heart shattering. He had to actively choose to leave her again despite their shared love for each other because it would be more painful for him to be with her even though it’s the thing he wanted his whole adult life.

And then she regains her memories. And she comes after him. And my little heart is so happy and sad at the same time when I think of all the things they had to live through to find each other again. But at the same time all that happend – good or bad – made it possible.

The normal life shown in the series

I think it’s something worth mentioning. Every person in the show has their own normal life. And I think it’s so important that the role of the characters isn’t reduced to the love story only. We see them working, eating, partying, cooking, studying, even commuting to work. It seems so natural but at the same time I feel like the western fil/show makers sometimes forget that the normal life is also worth exploring and showing. Characters crying and then going to work in the morning like nothing happened. Cooking for loved ones. Sitting with a giant plushie (another reason for my love for that dude). The mention of living in the pandemic! Seeing it from perspective actually made me cry because I got reminded of that period that I actually struggled with. And so did Yae. It’s so precious to me to see characters being normal people.

The music

I feel like the song ‘First Love’ will always make me cry from now on. It always played in such moments in the show that it now gives me the lingering feeling of sadness and happiness at the same time anytime I hear it. And for that I am eternally grateful.

All in all, loved the show. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. If it was a book I would literally sleep with it underneath my pillow (like Alexander the Great with his copy of Illiad). I can’t believe I accidentally discovered such a treasure. If you didn’t watch it yet I cannot recomment it enough. If you did – you know what I mean.

#first love hatsukoi #first love netflix #first love: hatsukoi #first love #first love Netflix Japan #first love japan #First Love 初恋 #初恋 #hikaru utada #utada hikaru #hatsukoi #yae noguchi #Noguchi Yae #harumichi #Harumichi namiki #namiki Harumichi #takeru satoh #satoh takeru #tsuzuru #uta #hikari mitsushima #mitusushima hikari #love #romance #jdrama #japanese drama #drama #Japan #hokkaidō #sapporo

[justanother-story]

First love has my whole heart oh my god the full circles 🥲🥲🥲

ROMANCE IS JUST NOT WHAT IT IS ANYMORE.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN HARUMICHI STUDIED TO MAKE SURE HE GETS INTO THE SCHOOL TO SEE THIS ONE GIRL THAT HE SAW IN THE SCHOOL TRAIN? 😭😭😭 AND IT TAKES BACK TO THE PRESENT TO YAE STUDYING HARD TO GET TO THE SAME LEVEL OF HARUMICHI 😭😭😭😭

#first love #yae noguchi #harumichi namiki

[shesprinklesstardust]

This is my treasure. The story of my first love. That day, you gave me a reason to live and taught me the path I needed to follow. My dream is to make you happy.

-Harumichi Namiki, First Love (2022)

#yae noguchi #first love #netflix #harumichi namiki

[janeamidala]

just found out that "First Love Hatsukoi" has only 1 fic on AO3!!

Like.... hello.... I need all the AU's and post-canons.

Where are you?

#first love hatsukoi #first love: hatsukoi #jdrama #netflix #japanese drama #ao3 #fanfiction #fandom problems #fandom life #listen I need them like breathing #not getting over it #anytime soon #just please #someone write something #Harumichi Namiki #Yae Noguchi #Yae Noguchi/Harumichi Namiki

[xiaofengs]

First Love 初恋  Episode 2 - Your Voice - tastes like cigarettes - call it ‘flavor’

#first love: hatsukoi #first love 初恋 #first love hatsukoi #jdrama #taisei kido #rikako yagi #namiki harumichi #noguchi yae #netflix #i had to gif my fave scene!!! #first love playing in the background during their first kiss #so beautiful #m:gifs

[jasonbehrs]

being very very normal about the fact that yae’s name is spelled 也英 and the 2nd character means english while harumichi’s name is spelled 晴道 and the whole name means ‘clear road’ WE UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE, RIGHT FOLKS??

#first love hatsukoi #jdramas #noguchi yae #namiki harumichi #jaso* #gonna spell it out in the tags just in case #yae was good at english which is considered a global language and her heart's desire was to see more of the world #harumichi displayed love by running after the things he cared about - physically and emotionally - regardless of obstacle in his path #NOTHING ABOUT THIS SHOW WAS BY ACCIDENT

[alexiethymia]

these proustian moments

fandom: 初恋 | First Love Hatsukoi (TV 2022)

pairing: noguchi yae/namiki harumichi

summary: the smell of lilac flowers. stargazing with the constellations on your face. your arms tight around me. the taste of a cigarette-flavored kiss. and a sad song I almost forgot.

all the ways in which I remember you

"Once in a while when I wake up, I find myself crying. The dream I must have had I can never recall, but the sensation that I’ve lost something lingers for a long time after I wake up"

-your name

v. smell

Yae has always loved purple lilacs.

She knows this. But as with most things in her life, she can’t, for the life of her, remember why.

She searches her memories – what’s left of it anyway – but can’t seem to ever find them there. Sensei had always gifted her red roses, from Tsuzuru, pink carnations. On a whim, she searches their meaning – first emotions of love, hatsukoi – and can’t understand the overwhelming ache she feels in her chest.

In those early days, she might have thought it was because of Sensei, but that life is a distant memory to her now. It doesn’t hurt her, can’t even compare to the sob she feels rising up her throat at the first scent of that beautiful bouquet.

why

It’s so painful but like a fool she takes a deep whiff anyway, breathing it all in, hoping that it cleanses her lungs. She can’t help it, she likes what she likes (even when it caused her pain – father, sensei, and…)

She knows that she’ll find purple lilacs in the blank spaces of the jigsaw puzzle that is her life – if only she was brave enough or fool enough to take the plunge.

She doesn’t jump (at least not yet) but at the edge she smells a whiff of…tomatoes? And pasta? Napolitan.

It goes perfectly with shrimps so she adds plenty.

Delicious, if she can say so herself. Or maybe, she thinks as she gazes at the man in front of her and smiles. Meals are always better when you’re not alone.

vi. sight

Yae has always loved stars.

She remembers countless night skies, of stargazing, of pretending that the city lights were stars on the ground when the sky was too polluted to see clearly, that it shouldn’t matter anyway, those nights she can no longer remember.

(and yet)

It was a comfort to gaze at those solitary lights in the sky, to know that even something so lonely could still shine so beautifully bright. Here on this grassy knoll she could look into the past, even if it was not her own. Somewhere up there, noguchi yae was tetherless, floating aimlessly out in space.

She wakes with a dream half-remembered. That is usual for her. What isn’t usual is that on this certain day, at this certain time, she wakes to constellations inside an old laundromat. How strange.

Eventually the constellations take shape in the form of a man. Oh, it must have been his beauty marks which put her in the mind of stars. And yet, she must still be groggy from her nap for the next thought to take hold – how beautiful.

He was crying, a solitary tear marking a shooting star’s path down his face. She did not know why and for what, and yet she still wanted to grieve with him. She remembers when she first beheld Tsuzuru, glancing at his grown-up self walking in front of her. She remembers joy. And side-by-side, the feeling of loss. Perhaps like her, he was grieving for lost wishes.

He was Tsuzuru’s friend, kind Namiki-san who fixed her washing machine and probably saved her life in the process. Nothing more and nothing less.

and yet

Like Mars, she finds herself drawing nearer, ever closer and closer.

To her surprise, he draws closer too.

But no matter how near Mars comes to Earth, they will never touch.

Just like stars.

‘What about binary stars?’

She reads the text and thinks carefully before answering.

‘They’re bound to and gravitationally orbit around each other.

But they’ll never touch.’

She focuses on those three dots with laser-marked intensity. But he doesn’t reply.

This is enough.

Somehow, it’s less lonely with him next to her on this grassy knoll. Even if she has to fix her gaze firmly skyward just so she doesn’t make a mistake.

“You know…” And first mistake made, she looks directly at him.

“About what you were saying earlier about binary stars, I read something called a contact binary. They’re binary stars who are so close together that they touch. They’re supposed to be really rare. Either they end up merging to become one or exploding into a supernova.”

She laughs to avoid crying, and tries to ignore the minute point where their fingers touch. Two stars at first contact.  “Since when did you become such an astronomy expert?”

He smirks and it lifts his beauty mark slightly. Yae trembles, wanting so badly to touch it. “Since thirty minutes ago when you invited me to visit Mars.”

She wants so badly. To touch each mark, to trace, to complete an entire orbit around his face and find all of the hidden corners and to feel his cheeks when he smiles.

She wouldn’t mind bursting into a supernova as recompense.

She must have had nights like this, of someone’s warmth beside her and looking at a sky too small to contain everything. Of getting lost in city lights but a presence there to tether her regardless. Deeper and deeper the black hole in her heart sucks everything in.

As the night ends or the dawn begins, the feeling grows. She can’t explain it, this restlessness, this foreboding feeling tipping her over the edge, that something will go wrong.

And as usual for her, Yae runs.

But she can’t escape.

This should have been enough.

They were never supposed to touch.

No, she wasn’t meant to have been in his orbit in the first place.

Because he already has a fixed star, and Noguchi Yae is, once again, cut adrift and left tetherless.

She shouldn’t have wished for more.

iii. touch

Yae has always loved the cold. 

She was as any true-born Hokkaido girl as can be.

Which is why she should have been able to shake off this chill freezing her bones, locking them in that she can hardly move.

What was wrong with her?

She should have wanted to see him. Just to see him.

(She doesn’t want to see him.)

She wants–

His arms tight around her, so intertwined that she no longer knows where she ends and where he begins, his fingers threading through her hair and cradling her face, looking at her as if she was life itself. She can’t place where his hands are at any given moment because they are restless on her, aflutter and anxious to touch every part of her he can reach. Safe, safe, safe.

She had never been held like this before. Sensei had always held her precisely as if he was handling one of his instruments. Eventually his arms had felt like cages.

The closest she can compare it to is Mama’s hugs or Tsuzuru’s when he was still just a child. Rather, it must have been her who held Tsuzuru so tightly like this. A family member’s all encompassing love. 

But none with such desperation, as if he’d lose her if he let her go, as if he wished with all his heart that they could just merge to become one star just so no one had to leave ever again.

again?

Oh how shameful. It only took this warmth for the ice to melt and drip from her eyes onto his face. And now that she’s started, she can no longer stop. At this rate, would her heart eventually thaw too?

Later, she has the chance to meet his family. They’re lovely people but she wonders who his sister sees when she looks at her.

As if a forgotten reflex she shapes family with her hands. She stares at them as they stare at her, wondering how she could have known to do that.

She has no memory.

For whose sake did she learn this for?

She locks eyes with Namiki-san, hands trembling.

Still a little while later, when she is gone and has no way of knowing and Harumichi has finished explaining himself, Yu shouts at her beloved brother the only way she knows how, with as much movement as she can muster to give shape to her utter incredulousness at her brother’s stupidity. She doesn’t hold back with Airu asleep.

‘I know already. You don’t have to call me an idiot because I know I am one,’ he signs with an exasperated huff. Yu wants to say more but hesitates when she sees how his hand clenches and unclenches unconsciously, as if clutching at something unseen.

Yu knows all about phantom pain. Sure, it’s not as if she actually lost her ears, but sometimes she catches herself wondering if it would have been less painful had she been deaf from the beginning. Did it hurt more when you never had it? Or was it more painful to have lost it after having it?

Her brother is weighed down by guilt undeserved, for those he thinks he couldn’t save, her and Yae.

She likes Tsunemi. She thinks she’ll be good for her brother, that eventually she can banish those shadows. Yu doesn’t want to see those haunted eyes anymore. And yet, as if  unconsciously, she signs ‘she remembered’.

Yu flinches at the pain she sees in her brother’s eyes before he closes them and looks away at some faraway place.

She recognizes this look. She’s seen it before countless times when her onii-chan would unconsciously track every passing mother and her children, or the way he’d sometimes look at her, Bonji and Airu when he thought they didn’t notice. A deep longing that couldn’t be filled.

Onii-chan and her, they were family. Family was there for each other, through thick and thin, against raging rivers and bullies alike. She knew that her brother’s heart was fit to bursting with love for his family, but there was a hole there that even they couldn’t fill, she knew that.

Tsunemi is family.

But, Yae was once family too.

And she’d never seen onii-chan look at Tsunemi this way.

Yu sees her brother laugh and though she can’t hear him sob, she can see the tears at the corner of his eyes well enough. Smiling sardonically at her, he signs, ‘I saved her. I saved her this time, Yu. I wasn’t too late.’

Looking at his fragile state as if ready to break to pieces at any moment, and not because of a back injury, Yu prays that it doesn’t happen again, that her stupid, honest and lovable onii-chan never ends up being too late ever again.

She fears what’ll happen to him if something happens to her. She won’t be able to take losing her one and only precious older brother.

She puts her fear in a box and hides it deep in her chest. What else can she do as a younger sister, but tell him proudly, ‘good work’.

Yae thinks that Namiki-san’s touch is heavy. It must be for her to still feel the impression of his touch days after he saved her.

She doesn’t mind.

She is drowning in guilt that she doesn’t mind, that she wants to treasure this memory.

Even his hand on her arm pulling her back is heavy. She wouldn’t be able to escape even if she tried (even if she wanted to).

And heavier still, is the touch of his lips on hers.

ii. taste

Yae has always loved mints.

She would chew on them constantly as if chasing away a certain flavor.

And as with most things in her life that she loves, she can’t remember why.

Something is telling her to pay attention. This is important it tells her. If you hide, if you let go, you’ll never get it back.

Her heart is missing pieces and she’s afraid to look inside because what if it’s just a hollow container. There will be no ballerina dancer waiting when she opens it. She doesn’t even know where or when to look for the pieces she lost.

But on a certain day, at this certain time, up on a mountain and underneath the stars, a puzzle piece clicks into place.

Ah, it was this taste she was searching for, even if she didn’t know she was actually looking.

(call it flavor)

If this feeling inside her chest had a scent, it would smell of lilac flowers.

If this feeling inside her heart that she doesn’t dare name had a taste, it would taste like bitter cigarette smoke.

For the longest time Yae had been cold. She thought she was fine with that, but Namiki-san was a flint while she was a stone and he lit sparks in her when they collided.

When their lips move together, she ignites like a supernova.

-

But a supernova destroys everything in its path, and a star is already dead, a shadow of itself. Eventually, it has to fall.

Yae has long stopped making wishes on shooting stars.

When she inhales cigarette smoke, it only makes her cough, choking her. How bitter.

If lies had a taste, they would be sweet and cold, like ice cream.

How funny, the ice cream she’s eating only taste like ashes in her mouth as she tells him that it’s a mistake to move forward.

She’s a stone. She’s fine with never moving from this place. She is.

She has to bite back tears when he apologizes. Stop that. She was made of sterner stuff than this. She had given up something (someone) much more precious than this.

Could a heart survive breaking to pieces twice?

The ice cream reminds her of every dessert and meal of when her father had given her the best parts. But never did he give her or her mother the best parts of himself. That’s how she finds her resolve, because no matter how she feels, she never wants to do to his star what was done to her mother.

She sounds lovely, the woman he’s set to marry. There is so much care in his voice when he talks about her that the dull aching in her chest doesn’t matter at all.

She’s fine with being a transient stop on his way to his final destination.

It takes a brave man to force her to face her cowardice. It takes Otaro-san trying so hard even with failure, with shame, with embarrassment, to get her to admit that even if she is only a transient stop, she still wants their encounter to have been a meaningful one. She doesn’t want him to forget her and she doesn’t want to forget him.

She’s sick of forgetting.

She is no stranger to shame. She could stomach anything, bear anything because of Tsuzuru. That love weighed heavier than anything that nothing else mattered. So she can be brave for him too. And for herself.

If regret had a taste, it would be salty, like napolitan mixed with tears.

It turns out a heart can survive after breaking countless times after all. Her pitiful heart was strong, or at least pretended that it was.

But she’ll still see him off with a smile. Because this was a fated encounter and he changed her life, and in her memories that’s how she wants to remember the both of them.

Thank you.

I love you.

i. sound

Yae has always loved music.

Even when she felt lost, music was her compass back to herself.

Her love only grows deeper when it brings her closer to her son.

That a combination of notes could thrum heartstrings was always magical to her.

Music, especially from far off lands, was the closest she would ever feel to soaring.

That she likens Namiki-san’s voice to music should be no cause for concern.

It’s just that, the first time she hears his voice, it had sounded so familiar, like the forgotten lyrics of a song you used to love.

Déjà vu. She’s been here before, heard her name get called by that voice countless times. It’s the same, but also not quite, like a beat that’s slightly off.

She’s confident she can know him by his voice alone, place him anywhere in a crowd.

(At this point, she had no way of knowing that Harumichi had picked hers out of a sea of radio waves, a needle in a haystack. He’d known her even then.)

At first she was fine with texts, but then she began to get greedy. Cellphones were magical tools. They could so easily connect hearts. When she reads about what flying is like for him, she hears his voice clear as if he was speaking right next to her ear. She swears she could feel herself flying alongside him.

But no one told her that music could also make her crash like an airplane or a meteor falling to earth.

She’ll never get to hear this voice again, talk to him again.

He wishes her happiness, and though Yae can’t imagine how, she promises she’ll try.

Our last kiss had a tobacco flavor.

It was a bitter and painful fragrance.

One by one, the puzzle pieces she’s gathered,

I wonder where you’ll be tomorrow at this time

And who you’ll be thinking about

click into place.

How could she have forgotten…

The most important…

Now it’s still a sad love song

Until I can sing a new one

She’s been called by that voice countless times before.

Noguchi. Noguchi-san. Yae.

A cocksure voice, brimming with kindness. A deeper timbre, more formal but no less kind.

An undercurrent that he had always imbued her name with and yet only now (too late) does she notice.

Noguchi-san

She wishes – on shooting stars and birthday candles – to hear him call her Yae once more. Even if he’s no longer here to grant even her most selfish of wishes.

It doesn’t matter that it’s not the him of ten years later that she failed to meet. It doesn’t matter if it’s seventeen years later or twenty years later. She’ll wait just like he’s been waiting all this time. She’ll search for him on the path he laid out for her. And she’ll find him just like how he found her.

Harumichi, Harumichi, Harumichi

-

Tsuzuru means ‘to bring together’.

Notes are easy enough to bring together to form a melody, but maybe he can be like his mother too and bring together people.

When did he realize…?

The notes themselves were important but so were the spaces between. Sometimes you didn’t even need words.

He never saw them together since he first introduced the cool security guard to his mom, but in retrospect maybe he should have realized the obvious. Because Harumichi looked at his mother the same way he looked at Uta, but with pain he couldn’t even begin to fathom beyond his adolescent years.

He doesn’t want his mother to cry anymore. He wants someone to love his mother as much as his mother loves with her entire being.

It could be Harumichi.

But he never said anything.

So Tsuzuru couldn’t say anything either.

When Harumichi decided to leave, Tsuzuru was holding himself back from shouting.

‘Don’t you know how cool my mom is? When you come back someone else would have snatched her already. If all you do is keep making her wait then you don’t deserve her!’

But that wasn’t Tsuzuru’s choice to make.

So he pretends he doesn’t see her tears when a song makes her remember.

When his mom risks her life and limb (and his!) just to make it to the airport, that’s when he knew, she really was the coolest mom ever!

For bringing him and his first love together, the least he could do was reunite her with hers.

It takes too many years for his liking. Harumichi is hardly in one place at a time. For a while, he even vanishes. But when he eventually tracks the wily bastard to Iceland and even gets visual confirmation from Uta, he could almost sing and shout.

Instead he calls his mom.

o. sense

Yae has always loved Harumichi.

Even when she forgot him, yes even then.

Something in her had always loved him, something that couldn’t forget, maybe her very soul.

Icelandic winters aren’t any colder than Hokkaido ones but she’s perfectly fine where she is, cozy and toasty in Harumichi’s arms. There’s nothing frantic or guilty about him now. He looks like there’s nothing weighing him down. Simply put, he looks at peace.

When she looks at him, Yae remembers a passage from an English novel, about souls and what they were made of. Her mind is fuzzy as she thinks of orbiting satellites, steady and constant.  Of twilights and halfway points. Of a one in a six billion chance. She’s at peace too.

At her look, Harumichi squeezes her tighter and asks her wordlessly.

“It’s nothing…just, would you laugh at me if I told you I also fell in love with you at first sight?”

He smiles, teeth showing. “The first time or the second time?”

She huffs but lets him have it. He deserved it. They deserved this easiness after everything. “The second time.”

“Of course you did,” he replies while nuzzling the side of her head and bringing their noses together in an eskimo kiss, “I fell in love with you again and again every time I saw you.”

There are no flowers here, no color. Everything is white, or grey or blue as far as the expanse can be seen. She feels weightless like they’re in outer-space.

But the light shines on the ice turning it into glass, and the air smells clean. There’s a steady supply of corn potage to keep them warm. The both of them are listening to Tsuzuru’s new track on their old cd player when ‘U’ starts and as the familiar notes play, she turns and brings her arms around a familiar body. She knows it as well as she knows her own.

Her favorite scent. Her favorite taste.

A cigarette kiss to keep them both warm. As they open their mouths she feels her toes curl in her boots. He holds her tighter if that were even possible.

If there are tears in their eyes, she doesn’t see them. The wind is too cold here and turns them into flurries soaring and flying up to the sky.

When they separate, a mere hair’s breadth apart, Harumichi whispers against her lips, “Hey, would you laugh at me if I asked you to marry me here and now?”

My tears, silently trickling down my cheek

They tell me…

It turns out she can feel those tears after all. The cold is a shock to her system. Like a live wire she pounces on him with the snow cushioning their fall.

“Oof. Be careful, we’re not as young as we used to be. I don’t want to be rolled in a wheel chair to my own wedding,” he chides while brushing off snow drifts from her hair, and then threading his fingers through the strands.

“Speak for yourself,” she jokes with her tongue out. And well Harumichi can’t have that. She’s just too cute for words sometimes. Rolling them both over while cushioning her head, he kisses her deeply, like a man who’s loved her for over twenty years.

He doesn’t want to wait anymore.

It’s hard to kiss her like this when she keeps on giggling but Harumichi wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s always loved a challenge.

“Your mom would kill you if we got married without your family present.”

He shrugs.

“Fine, but I’m sure Yu definitely would.”

At that scary thought, he has to pause.

“We’ll get married back in Japan then. So would you? Please marry me so I can fulfill my long-held dream of having a beautiful flight attendant for a wife.”

‘So that I can fulfill my dream of making you happy, for the rest of our lives.’

Yae snorts from laughing so much, but Harumichi finds even that adorable. “Yes, of course. How could my answer be anything else? I didn’t chase you down here just to be a kept woman you know.”

There are no words for the happiness that Harumichi feels right now. It feels so much bigger than his entire body can contain. Rolling them over once again so that Yae lays on top of him, he just cradles her close, hugging her tightly and with the same feelings that once lovestruck boy felt when his first love had first said ‘yes’.

Later, they’ll head home together, perhaps warm up with a bath before making love with the stars as their only witness. At this same time tomorrow, the love of his life will be his wife, because there is absolutely no way he can wait. He’s getting a ticket first thing for the first flight back to Japan tomorrow. Hell, he’ll even fly the plane if he has to.

For now, on a certain day at this certain time, he imagines his first love in a wedding dress as pure and white as snow.

That this is my first love

I need you, I need you

#first love: hatsukoi #first love hatsukoi #first love #noguchi yae #namiki harumichi #jdrama #fic #fanfic #this was a perfect drama #someone put it best #a love letter to love #and this fic is a love letter to it #how to hyperfixate?? #write a fic about a series that already ended #but even if no one reads this #this is for me to let go of the words stuck inside my head

[sweetchan91]

Guarda "[MV] First Love: Hatsukoi | Harumichi & Yae | Rewrite the Stars" su YouTube

Why don't we rewrite rhe stars?

#drama #jdrama #first love #first love hatsukoi #takeru satoh #hikari mitsushima #noguchi yae #namiki harumichi #rewrite the stars #fanvid #fanmade #sad mv #sweetchan91 #youtube #sweet couple #zac efron #zendaya

[dramastream]

Promotional stills of Yagi Rikako as Noguchi Yae and Kido Taisei as Namiki Harumichi in First Love: Hatsukoi 初恋 (2022) dir. Kanchiku Yuri — November 24 on Netflix

#first love: hatsukoi #netflix #netflixedit #first love hatsukoi #yagi rikako #kido taisei #jdramaedit #jdrama #tvedit #cinematv #userbbelcher #chewieblog #dailyflicks #tvarchive #cinemapix #tvcentric #useroptional #usertelevision #tvandfilmdaily #tvandfilm #pocsource #luni #+ #*e

[khaoray]

an endless list of my otps ≡ namiki harumichi & noguchi yae

I think asking for your favourite food means that they probably like you, right? Then what about you? What's your favourite food? FIRST LOVE: HATSUKOI, japan (2022)

#first love: hatsukoi #first love 初恋 #jdrama #jdramaedit #jdramasource #asiandramasource #tvedit #cinematv #tvfilmsource #romanceedit #romancegifs #otpsource #lextag #userstorge #userhannah #syaring #*gifs #*otps

[mugiloves]

“𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘫𝘪𝘨𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘱𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦. 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺.. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘈 𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳. 𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 "𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳." 𝘈 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘈 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦. 𝘈 𝘱𝘰𝘱 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦. 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥. 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸... 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶?” —Yae Noguchi

FIRST LOVE: HATSUKOI 初恋 (2022) dir. Yuri Kanchiku

#first love #first love hatsukoi #hikari mitsushima #takeru satoh #jdrama #jdramasource #japanese drama #hikaru utada #first love: hatsukoi

[alexandrarosa]

scenes I kind of want to see in the ‘First love’ sequel (even though I know there won’t be one)

Tsuzuru and Uta going to his grandmother and getting a flat or some other problem with their car and a passerby recommending them to call Benji because he’s the best and the place is kind of close. Imagine Namiki family inviting them in while they’re waiting. Harumichi haven’t told them about him and Yae yet because he didn’t have the time. Imagine Tsuzuru facetiming him to ask if he’s somehow connected to the Namiki’s car shop because of the name. Namiki family is of course involved in the talk asking all the questions ‘how do you know each other?’, ‘why aren’t you calling us?’, ‘when are you coming home?’. And now imagine Yae appearing in the background. And Tsuzuru being like ‘hey, mom, look where I am!’. And the whole room falls silent because Yae comes closer – and of course they all recognise her – and then only the chaos endures. Harumichi and Yae got reunited. Her son is sitting with them. Her son is naturally their family too. And he brought a girlfriend! Imagine them. Imagine Harumichi and Yae laughing on the screen seeing the chaos. Imagine Harumichi’s mom showing Tsuzuru and Uta all the pictures and things Harumichi left. Just… imagine it.

Harumichi telling Yae the story of him looking for her for the last twenty years. And both of them crying so much.

Tsuzuru telling Harumichi he would be a cool dad and my guy losing it right on the couch and full on sobbing.

More cooking Yae because I love how she does that.

Yae and Harumichi watching the videos of baby Tsuzuru.

Yu’s daughter losing her shit meeting Tsuzuru because he’s famous.

Imagine Benji – a guy who witnessed pretty much everything from the teenage part of Yae’s and Harumichi’s relationship – getting to know that Harumichi and Yae are back together and going strong. Just imagine my guy Benji being happy for them.

Imagine Yae and Harumichi visiting the Namiki family together. That’s a party that will last three days. Imagine if Tsuzuru and Uta were there too. Imagine Harumichi constantly holding Yae’s hand or wrapping his arm around her. Peeking from the other room to check if she’s still there. Imagine him smiling the same as he’s been smiling at her his whole life.

#first love japan #first love netflix japan #first love hatsukoi #first love netflix #first love #first love: hatsukoi #utada hikaru #hikaru utada #hatsukoi #yae noguchi #noguchi yae #harumichi #harumichi namiki #namiki harumichi #satoh takeru #takeru satoh #hikari mitsushima #mitsushima hikari #uta #tsuzuru #love #romance #jdrama #japan #japanese drama #drama #hokkaido #sapporo #初恋 #first love 初恋

[reuels]

Yae Noguchi: What would my life be like now... if I had never met you? — First Love Ep. 1 (2022) dir. Yuri Kanchiku

#first love: hatsukoi #first love hatsukoi #netflix #jdrama #caps #stills #filmedit #cinematography #film #drama #screenshots #filmmaking #cinephile #quote #film stills #movie stills #quotes #cinema #screencaps #film quotes

[butterflythebiscuit]

Finding that special someone, you can fall head over heels. Makes you feel grateful to live. I think it's a pretty amazing feeling. No matter where they are or what they are doing with any person, doesn't change anything. So I think that's enough. Well I guess it should be more than enough.

- Yae Noguchi

First love 2022

#jdrama #jdramedit #first love #netflix #takeru satoh #hikaru utada #hikari mitsushima #yagi rikako #taisei kido

[kdramalands]

year-end drama recommendation

2. First Love: Hatsukoi (2022)

9 eps, 55min each

First Love: Hatsukoi is a Netflix Original story inspired by the songs "First Love" and "Hatsukoi" by Utada Hikaru. Both "First Love" and "Hatsukoi" are featured throughout the series a few times so even if they're not really familiar to you, you will be able to listen to the songs and enjoy the ambience during your viewing.

This series tells a story of high school sweethearts reuniting after 20 years apart. Noguchi Yae and Namiki Harumichi changed and moved on from their first love. Now, Yae works as a taxi driver and tries her best to bond with her teenage son, meanwhile Harumichi enjoys his quiet days at a security company and prepares for his upcoming wedding. Fate brings them together once more two decades after their parting to give them a chance to rekindle their romance.

From the bottom of my heart, I hugely respect actors behind the roles of Noguchi Yae and Namiki Harumichi. Both Mitsushima Hikari and Sato Takeru consistently deliver the best performance. I truly think that they outdo themselves with each project they participate in. Actors who portrayed younger versions of the main characters, as well as actors of the background characters did amazing job to bring this story to us as well.

The premise of First Love: Hatsukoi made me feel very emotional. I watched all 9 episodes in one sitting, waiting for the conclusion with bated breath, tears in my eyes and my heart on full display. Yae and Harumichi's journey accompanied by Utada Hikaru's powerful vocals was one of the best things I've seen this year. I'm sure this drama will be well-suited for a romance-hungry soul in need of a good cry.

Part 1 || Part 3 || Part 4

#first love: hatsukoi #first love 初恋 #mitsushima hikari #sato takeru #yagi rikako #kido taisei #kaho #jdrama recommendation #drama recommendation #year-end recommendations #japanese drama #jdrama #drama #yer2022