Koi suru Top Lady

恋するトップレディ · Mayor in Love

  • Winter 2002
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NetworkFuji TV
Broadcast8 Jan 2002 – 19 Mar 2002
Episodes11 Episodes
Viewership—
Fan score 8.0 from 1 review

Synopsis

One day, a young woman, with no real dreams or no real sense of commitment to her community suddenly becomes Mayor of her city.

The heroine of this story, Chiharu Orihara is 25. After graduating from high school, she moves to Tokyo, and works at several companies along the way, but never sticks around too long. While searching for a full-time job through the local unemployment office, Chiharu continues doing just part-time work, which helps her to get by without any problems. She is popular with the guys, but doesn't have a boyfriend, and isn't that interested in getting married. To sum it up, Chiharu is just your ordinary modern girl, that just lives one day at a time. Although her father is the Mayor of her city, he and Chiharu have a very distant relationship because they don't see eye-to-eye.

As a result of her father's death, Chiharu finds herself as the next person in line to become Mayor of Tatehama City. Being the owner of a personality that doesn't allow to be anything but honest with herself, Chiharu doesn't take much to being the puppet of those at city hall. She discovers things that even an ordinary citizen can do for their city, and this helps her to grow as a person. Although she does stumble along the way, Chiharu becomes a good Mayor, one that people can be proud of. The idea of a young woman becoming Mayor is comical, but at the same time, the idea of tearing apart the "old" ways that city hall is run by, is something that any ordinary citizen dreams of doing.

Although she's Mayor, she's still a young woman that is only in her 20's. Let's sit back and watch as she falls in love. Will she be able to become happy like the other women around her???

Shunsaku Yashio, 38, is the man that is head of security for the young woman that has just become Mayor by chance. Shunsaku, also worked for the former Mayor, Chiharu's father, whom he respected both as a politician and a person. So naturally when the former Mayor's assistant starts the push to make Chiharu Mayor, Shunsaku is completely against the idea. Unfortunately for him though, there's not a whole lot he can do. At first Shunsaku doesn't take to Chiharu very well, and they butt heads all the time while working with each other, but along the way, they build a mutual trust for one another, which later turns into romance...

The go-getter television anchorwoman from the local cable station that tirelessly follows Chiharu's story is Yuko Kondo, 22. "What can that rich girl do as Mayor?!" is the kind of feeling that Yuko first has about Chiharu, but later her bitterness turns into friendship. The cameraman on Yuko's crew, 25 year-old Yusuke Kazama, also just happens to be from the same city as Chiharu. He doesn't have much of a recollection about Chiharu from school, but even so, he turns into someone that is very supportive of her. Like Shunsaku, Yusuke too likes Chiharu, which results in him not liking Shunsaku much.What we later find out is that Yuko cares for Yusuke.

The person that Chiharu can confide in the most is her friend she used to work with, 21 year-old Mari. What's interesting about Chiharu is that she keeps the same relationship with Mari as she did before she became Mayor. When Mari loses a boyfriend or doesn't have money, Chiharu lets her stay over at the Mayor's official residence. She even goes out to parties with her to meet men sometimes. Later, Mari also falls for Shunsaku, and the story turns into a love triangle...no actually a 5-sided love extravaganza.

Synopsis: Fuji TV

Cast & characters 9 credited

Theme song

  • “Hero” ヒーロー — Enrique Iglesias

Fan reviews 1 review

8.0/ 10
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A suprise find

8 / 10

renni72 · 2004

I have never heard of or watched Miki Nakatani until a friend lent me the VCD set. So I watched Top lady without any background info and no expectations at all.

I became more and more interested in the drama as I kept watching Miki's character grow from strength to strength. She grew from an immature young lady who had no directions in life into a mature lady mayor who went through many life experiences - from pre-election to a few months after election!

I began to like Miki's character of Chiharu and felt very touched by the love and the loyalty her team began to show her as they work with her and got to know her working style, her honest opinion about everything and her child-like attitude to managing the town.

The OST Hero was suitable for the drama.

I enjoy Okina Megumi's character - a brave, direct and no-nonsense reporter.

The only thing I would like to see changed is Miki's character dressing style....she looks good in jeans and boots...but must she wear the same style from the beginning to the end of the drama? Kinda boring.