Kono sekai no katasumi ni

Based on a comic by Fumiyo Kouno, the story is about war time Japan in the city of Kure where the Japanese naval shipyard was located.

Suzu Urano (Keiko Kitagawa) was a young girl who liked to draw pictures living in a war time Japan. The story is about Suzu, her upbringing, her marriage, and her life during the war. Suzu is somewhat of a free spirit, and she often surprises people in her family that she married into. She would be drawing pictures of warships that are moored and get mistaken as a spy. She would meet an old time friend and forget about her job to take lunch boxes home etc.. But the tides of war starts to cast shadows on Suzu's life too, and lack of supply forces Suzu to cook using plants she collected in the fields. She's also worried about her husband Shusaku as he works at the naval war department in Kure. Eventually war ends, and Suzu recounts what has happened to her and people around her.

This was created as a TV special commemorating the end of war, and was aired on August 15, 2011 (Day of Japan's surrender). The story isn't a tragic as "Hotaru no Haka", but contains painful separation war brings to the family and oneself. This program will probably never see wide of an audience as "Hotaru no Haka", but was a worthwhile TV special reminding the tragedy of war.

Keiko Kitagawa puts in a credible performance as she usually does, and keeps the story going. The story focuses on how people felt during the war. Most people of the time were not given truthful information about their country's war efforts. Their confusion, and worries are depicted in this drama. A war time story that remind us of the tragedy of war, and the people who lived through that time.

This version corrupts the plot in several places. Different people die in this version and Suzu's actor is too beautiful and rarely smiles. Things don't fit and it doesn't do justice to the manga at all.

But I enjoyed the other versions so much (manga, anime, live action series) that this sort of works as an alternate reality version. Now everything is worse than the other versions... Its not worth watching unless you have seen those other versions and would only recommend it if you enjoyed them as much as I have. Just keep your expectations low!