Marumo no okite

Mamoru Takagi (Sadao Abe) is a salaried worker working at a stationary equipment manufacturer's claims department. He gets involved with his high school buddy's children when his buddy dies of cancer. The two kids he decide to take in are girl and a boy twins. Kids starts to call him Marumo, and accepts him as their family. Not only that, he ends up taking in a talking dog as well.

Kind of an unlikely story especially for Japan for a single man to take on the responsibility of raising kids. I'm not even sure if a single person are allowed legally to adopt children, so on paper he's just their legal guardian. Although impossibly unlikely the story, Sadao Abe looks like just the person who would do something like this. Sadao Abe shares a leading role with Mana Ashida who's only seven years old, making her the youngest female lead in Japanese television history in the popular Sunday evening spot. Her acting chops are something to behold for someone so young.

Of course there are lot of adjustments both the twins and the Mamoru has to make, but they get support from their land lord (Masanori Sera) who runs a restaurant downstairs. Especially the divorced daughter (Manami Higa) of the landlord seems to have a crush on Mamoru.

Loyalty Mamoru and the kids develop for each other is really touching to watch. It also shows how important altruistic love is in society. This is a really good television series and is worth a watch.