Half Blue: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

In 1971, the year after the Osaka Exposition, a girl called Nireno Suzume was born to the owners of a small eatery in a town in Gifu Prefecture's Tono region. She was a healthy child who ran around the hills and fields every day. But when she was a elementary school student, she ended up losing her hearing in one ear because of an illness. Her loving parents and childhood friend born on the same day at the same hospital were the ones who give her encouragement. After graduating from high school, Suzume sets her sights on writing manga for girls with her unique creative powers and leaves for Tokyo which is in the middle of the bubble economy. Put through training by her teacher, she tries hard to improve herself by learning from fellow assistants and devoting herself to studying but soon faces setbacks. Suzume gets married and has a daughter but the family finances are dire. She ends up divorcing her husband who is a dreamer. The bubble economy bursts before she realizes it and enters a period of low growth. After repeated failure, Suzume returns to her hometown as a single mother. What awaits her will become an unexpected turning point in her life..

Series details

• Title: Half Blue
• Format: Scripted
• Language: Japanese
• Genres: Drama
• Premiere date: 2018-04-02
• Final broadcast date listed: 2018-09-29
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: NHK
• Network country: Japan
• Typical episode runtime: 15 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 36817
• IMDb ID: tt6568122
• TVDB ID: 346995

Cast and credited roles

• Mei Nagano — Suzume Nireno
• Takeru Sato — Ritsu Hagio
• Yasuko Matsuyuki — Haru Nireno
• Kenichi Takito — Utaro Nireno
• Kaisei Kamimura — Sota Nireno

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2018-04-02; final listed air date 2018-09-29; episode order: 156.

Source and licence

Adapted from Half Blue on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.