Kanojo-tachi no Yoake (2025) Radio Drama

Chihiro, a 35-year-old lesbian woman living in Aomori, always harbored romantic feelings towards her friend Sawako, with whom she lost touch over the years. After a period of eight years of no contact, Sawako returns to Aomori. The two reconnect as if no time had passed whatsover, spending irreplaceable moments together.

This drama is set in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture, which is part of the Tsugaru region (Western region of Aomori Prefecture). In the drama, you can hear spoken Tsugaru dialect (especially by Shougo), and Nanbu dialect. Tsugaru dialect is considered one of the hardest Japanese dialects, so you'll have to excuse any errors considering I earsubbed this. Honestly, I can't believe it's finished. I've spent so many days subbing this, so it's a good project to celebrate my 4th year subbing anniversary. I might change some lines later since the script wasn't easy to grasp at all.

Cast:

  • Sasaki Shiho as Ohsawa Chihiro
  • Shimizu Hazuki as Yamamoto Sawako
  • Kudou Chinatsu as Ohsawa Ryouko
  • Ikuta Shunpei as Ohsawa Shougo
  • Wada Hanako as Takano Fumi
  • Yamada Momoji as Sanjou Daisuke

The characters' names actually bear some very popular names in Aomori, so good selection on their part.

Crew:

  • Production supervision: Ikawa Seiichi
  • Technical production: Tada Chihiro
  • Sound effects: Inoue Naomi
  • Advisor for Aomori dialects: Kudou Akane
  • Gender and sexuality consultants: Nakamura Kasumi, Wakabayashi Yuuma
  • Direction: Ishina You
  • Script: Yamada Yuri

Yamada Yuri (whose work you might recognize from tsukutabe) was actually approached by the director Ishina-san to write this drama. After doing research about LGBTQIA+ community in Aomori, they were saddened to hear how much the community goes through in rural areas, and so this radio drama came to life.

Actual queer people worked on this radio drama, such as Nakamura Kasumi (who's lesbian and quoiromantic) and Wakabayashi Yuuma (who's a transgender man).

Here's an introductory segment from a variety show in which Yamada Yuri talks about the radio drama. You can watch this before watching the radio drama since there are no major spoilers, but watching it afterwards is fine, too.

Hope this radio drama warms your heart a little, especially considering the current state of the world and how much meaningless content comes out these days.

 

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