Breaking News: Keiko Kitagawa in New Drama!

Hey Moonies! We’ve been so busy behind the scenes that we almost completely missed this one that we became aware about only a few days ago, completely by accident. We heard of an interesting Japanese TV show called Mop Girl and thought "instant hilarity!”" But later, we learned that it is not about a genki girl’s misadventures with a magical mop, and it most certainly isn’t the lighthearted comedy we expected. Now can you all see why we need another writer ;) ? It’s hard chasing everything all the actors are up to!
‹ end shameless plug and terrible pun ›

Now that we’ve gone off tangent, back to the headline! Keiko Kitagawa (PGSM Sailor Mars) is now playing the role of funeral servicewoman Momoko Hasegawa, who has special powers. If she touches something that was connected to a dead person with unfinished business, she will travel back in time to save that person from their dismal fate. Momoko is one of the lower ranked employees of the Little Angels company , and carries a mop as part of her job cleaning up these scenes. Sound familiar all of you Tru Calling fans? Let’s hope that this one doesn’t end abruptly with a cliffhanger. Yes, some of us are STILL wondering what would have transpired between Tru and Jack. Maybe there’s someone more considerate than Gail Berman calling the shots! Mop Girl is based on the popular novel series of the same name by Miaki Kato

We’ve gotten the chance to see the first two episodes, as well as a special promoting the show where they interviewed the cast and showed a few previews. We’ve uploaded a few clips of it.

Online Videos by Veoh.com
Keiko Interview Part 1.
Keiko Interview Part 2.
Introduction to the show's plot.

The first episode begins with Momoko as a child, who crosses the street in the rain under a large umbrella. She doesn’t see a motorcycle zooming up towards her, and her mother pushes her out of the way, saving her life. As her mother is dying, she holds Momoko’s hand, and Momoko feels something surge through her, though she doesn’t quite know what it is. 12 years later, Momoko is working as a wedding planner, and she is waiting in a corridor with a wedding cake about to be presented. A maid carrying a large stack of towels drops them behind Momoko, and she helps her to pick them up. As she is standing up, the maid bumps into her, and pushes Momoko face first into the cake! The doors open, and there is Momoko, an embarrassed mess of icing and cake decor. As she comiserates by a bridge, she meets a handsome guy who wants her to take a picture of him and his girlfriend. She spends the rest of the night drinking at a bar with some friends, and prepares for work in the morning. Momoko finds out she has been fired from her job, since she has had quite a history of these accidents. Her boss suggests that she works for a funeral planning and services company, Little Angels. As she is making her way there, elsewhere in the city a man robs a bank, and is shot to death as he is running by police. Momoko first job is to clean up the blood stains from this, and it is then that she comes into contact with something that was connected to the robber. At the morgue, she sees the robber’s body, and later holds a picture of the robber’s family. It is then that something strange happens to her, and her day rewinds to the morning and she spends the rest of this episode trying to find the robber and save his life. We’re not going to spoil why the robber’s life was spared, but we’ll tell you all this show is a lot deeper than it looks. In the second one, she saves a model at a bridal show from eating poisoned chocolate given to her from one of her assistants. We’ve got one clip from this episode where Momoko stamps several certificates in the wrong place.

Momoko's Morning (Episode 1)
Momoko's Mis-stamping (Episode 2)

This series is looking to be huge in Japan, and we wish Keiko the best of luck! This is her first ever starring role in a drama, and though she finds it a bit of a challenge compared to her DoCoMo 2.0 Commercials and Shorts, she isn’t afraid! Keiko can also be seen playing Nao in the movie Heat Island which just opened in theaters yesterday. This movie is about gangs fighting over money in Shibuya. For those of you who enjoyed the theme song of Mop Girl, the name of the song is Destination Nowhere and it’s sung by Erika. Fans may also be interested to know that DoCoMo is one of the show's sponsors!