Hitori-Gurashi (Living Alone) (1996)

●Screenwriter: Yumiko Aoyanagi
●Featuring: Takako Tokiwa, Katsunori Takahashi, Hiromi Nagasaku
●Station: TBS

A love story centering on our heroine, Miho, who - out of a desire to turn her life around - starts living on her own. Hiromi Nagasaku plays Kyoko, Miho's close friend from work. Kyoko can't seem to help but cling more closely to Miho the more Miho falls for a young businessman (Katsunori Takahashi). Kyoko begins to engage in eccentric behavior - like suicide attempts and sleeping with random men - just to catch Miho's attention. Lesbians are portrayed as pitiful creatures, and in the end it is explained that Kyoko's "extreme attachment" stems from her "lack of an independent spirit" - a statement not entirely a far cry from declaring that psychological immaturity led to her fall into homosexuality. This program gives a good feel for the direction that lesbians in television are about to take.

translated by rayna