Hougen Ren'ai

方言恋愛

Hougen Ren'ai

movic

About: A collection of short love stories, with the many dialects of Japanese from different prefectures in Japan as the main theme.

Trivia: The female MC, as well as all sub characters, are fully voiced.

Aichi prefecture (CV: Sakurai Takahiro)

The MC came to Aichi for a long business trip. She met Mase at where she was staying and kept bumping into him. Mase is a serious but sincere. He also had done several jobs around his hometown that he is very well known within the community. There is one scene that MC almost got offended by his remarks but it was actually a misunderstanding of the local dialect. Although still struggling with communicating, she seemed to enjoy her time in the area and got used to the dialect over time. When it finally time for her to return to Tokyo, Mase expressed his feelings to her and wished she would stay with him.

Koichi prefecture (CV: Ono Daisuke)

MC's bike malfunction while she was on her way to her first driving school lesson, and she hitchhiked on the passing cars. She shared with the driver that she had lived in the area for one year when she was an elementary student and got really friendly with the next door twin brothers, who were high school students then. The driver then scared her with threatening not to drop her to where she wanted, just drove passed by the school's front gate. He instead steered to the staff parking entrance and revealed that he is one of the teachers there, also he is one of the Hirose twins she talked about. As they were catching up for old times sake, MC asked for the younger twin but was never answered directly. When she came to visit his house to meet his mother she was then told that the younger twin had died in a motorbike accident. Hirose's mother said her son might chose to become a driving teacher to make sure his students abide to the rules and be more careful so such accident may never occur again. After graduating from her lessons, Hirose didn't want to lose his chance to fate and told her that he liked her.

Kyoto prefecture (CV: Yusa Kouji)
A man named Sawaragi stopped a woman who jumped into swamp, thinking she was suicidal. But she then explained she was trying to retrieve her phone she dropped. Later she realized she was missing her bag filled with her belongings as well. MC shared with him her story about her quitting her job and wanting to run away from her old life after finding out that a man she was dating for 7 years was actually hiding a wife and kids. Sawaragi offered her to stay at his large house which he lived alone at first only for the night, but then after hearing MC's story, he offered to be a live-in housekeeper instead. Sawaragi also paints (I think?) as a hobby, that he does all of that in a separate building within his property which he called his atelier. After some time working with him, MC noticed that her employer, though may appear kind, he didn't seem to trust anyone at all. She later learned that it's probably because after both his parents died when he was young, there was a argument between the adults in his family as to who would have the right for his parent's property. It was why he would rather live in the large house alone for so long. MC tried to point it out and wanted Sawaragi to open up to people but he assumed MC was just trying to marry rich with him. She slapped him, but the next day apologized to him. After some more scenes later, Sawaragi managed to bare his insecurities to her and wished she would stay by his side forever.


Yamaguchi prefecture (CV: Taniyama Kisho)
MC is a photographer for a travel magazine and was in the area for her assignment. She got interested with the local delicacy, the kamaboko, and wished to buy and taste the famous kuromame kamaboko that was sold by only one person, a man named Kurashige. Kurashige has a bit of a bad luck in general, which he called himself the Prince of Bad Luck. He always managed to get himself in an accident or unfortunate situations, but his original recipe of kuromame kamaboko was his best pride. MC told him she, too, would call herself a very unlucky person. No matter how many times she came to Kurashige's shop to buy his kamaboko, they're always sold out. Thus Kurashige wanted to make one batch just for her and give it to her personally. But since the machine to make the delicacy was broken, he offered her some time to see the local area for her field work while he got the machine fixed. Somehow, them being together, had the mysterious unlucky power to cancel out and allowed them to enjoy their time together. After he finally managed to make the kamaboko, he wanted to deliver it to her in person, but there was a heavy rain and it flooded the nearby river. The phone call he had with her ended with her exclaiming something fell in the water. Worried, he raced there, imagining the worst due to their general bad luck. Thankfully, MC was fine. Only her phone fell in the water. Kurashige then took the chance to express his fondness of her.


Fukuoka prefecture (CV: Ueda Yuuji)
One summer, MC was found fidgeting around a local Shinto temple and was greeted by the priest there (he has a name but I can't pick it up. MC only called him kannushi, lit. Shinto priest). She said she wanted to offer prayers for her university entrance exams will do well, but didn't know the details how. Kannushi showed her how, then later asked who and where she came from. MC is a very serious and has a fear of failing, so much that she wouldn't do anything she believe she would failed or something she didn't have any knowledge of experience prior. When most students her age would have already take it easy because the entrance exams will not be for another year (I think?), she preferred to stay at her hotel room and study in advance of the courses she would take. Kannushi decided to teach her how to take it easy and took her for a ride on his motorcycle. MC was quite uncomfortable at first as her first instinct is to avoid things she didn't know, but over time she relaxed and enjoyed her trip around the area. Although the time they shared were short, MC said she treasured it and has learned how to let loose sometimes. They part afterwards and a year afterwards she came back to the temple to see the kannushi but he was always absent then. Only after the year her acceptance into the nearby university did they finally met. Now an adult, MC decided to tell him that she had fallen in love with him.


Niigata prefecture (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)
In a shinkansen trip to Niigata, MC happened to sit side by side to a young up-and-coming actor, Oshimi. The conductor made an announcement that the train will stop for an undefined length of time due to power outage. Oshimi wanted to call for his older sister who will be picking him up at the station but his phone was dead. MC lent hers instead. She shared that she is an art... collector? I'm not sure, but it involves with the art museum. After arriving at their destination, Oshimi & his sister offered MC a ride to the museum as thanks for lending the phone. He then took her for a trip around the local area, although he himself is not that aware of the famous places of his own hometown due to him moving out to Tokyo to pursue his career in acting. Oshimi is actually in a slump and losing confidence whether he could do well in this line of job. He was offered a role for a major movie but couldn't think that he would do well. He met his former buddy while still apprenticing at the local theater but got upset when the friend said he had given up on his dreams, saying that just having dreams can't afford you to live. The friend also criticize for his poor performance of Oshimi's last major role, saying he should be better than that. While slowly taking the criticism to heart, Oshimi could return to Tokyo with a renewed goal. At the same time, he began to send emails with MC and enjoyed getting to know her. But soon when his the production of the movie started, he lost the time to keep her in contact. Cut to the end of the year, the movie was a success and Oshimi was gaining fame. He invited MC to come to the premier of the movie, but she left before meeting him. His old buddy was the one who told him about her leaving early and Oshimi went out to catch up with her. They met, then later confessed of their mutual feelings for one another.


Ibaraki prefecture (CV: Maeno Tomoaki)
Shibamori is one of the small-staffed local train station. He was called Mameshiba by fellow employees due to his tendency to be teased. He also likes gardening and is tending a small lot just by the station as a hobby as well as to make the station more welcoming. One day while helping a passenger on a wheelchair, he noticed there was a book that seemed to be dropped by accident by another passenger. The book was about how to properly raise a rose garden and Shibamori understands it must have been a very important book to someone. MC came later in searching for the book and was completely grateful he kept it for her. He asked if she also interested in gardening roses and they spent some talks about the shared hobby. They later reached a decision to try to plant the 'cornelia' rose and for their off days, driving to many nurseries and gardens to find it. After a long day of searching, they finally found one and planted it by Shibamori's train station. As it supposed to be a rare and hard to care for, it takes time for the rose to bloom, and soon MC said she would have to move back to Tokyo. Shibamura had taken a liking on MC from the time they spent together but one day got jealous when he saw her talking very closely to one of his fellow co-worker. Because of the jealousy, he didn't pay attention to the potted rose and one day it broke. Thinking it's just her bad luck she wouldn't be able to see the blooming rose, she was to go on her way to head back to Tokyo. Shibamori was not about to talk to her for the last time until his co-worker told him the other day she was just trying to secretly asked what to gift Shibamori for Christmas. Shibamori used the announcement system of the train station to stop her and exclaimed his feelings for her loudly for all to hear.


Nagano prefecture (CV: Hatano Wataru)
In the cold winter in the remote village in Nagano, Hodaka works as the postmen very diligently. As the village only has several people living together, he knows every one of them, and also became an important messenger by the villagers that consists of mostly elderly people. He saw an unknown girl studying the many stone statues (dousojin/道祖神 I think) scattered around the village and one day told her off since there are some reports of tourists vandalizing the statues. MC apologized, saying she was only studying them for her drawings. She mentioned she's there for the month as a holiday and staying at a homestay nearby. For the following month, Hodaka would see her around the village and even helping the elderly residents here and there. He also gotten close to her and found that it's easy to talk to her. MC admitted one day that she thought she was going on the right path when she pursued her passion of art for her career, but soon the stress and burden that comes with it no longer brings happiness to her. Thus she decided to take a month off and goes somewhere no one knows her to refresh herself. Hodaka, after many times getting to know her, found that he likes her. With the support of the villagers who were well aware of his feelings for her, he managed to let her know before her train home arrived.


Kagawa prefecture (CV: Nakamura Yuichi)
MC just transferred to Kagawa branch of her company and she worked under a man named Kamaji. I actually found the most difficulty in understanding the dialogue in this volume. Basically, MC, though can be pretty panicky when overwhelmed with work, she always gets them done. And Kamaji, her boss, took a liking at her work ethics. One day, while she was on her way to somewhere (not sure where, but she took a boat/ferry there) on her day off, she met Kamaji coincidentally. He was on his way to a home of a friend (or something?) that has an olive orchard. He invited her to stay there during the whole time. Another time later, there was a bad storm coming through the area and he immediately went there to save the orchard somehow. He was very surprised to see MC there too, also worrying about the same thing. The story ended with Kamaji saying he's gonna handed off his work to MC and he's quitting the company to pursue his passion to the orchard. He also confessed he had feelings for her.  


Fukushima prefecture (CV: Matsukaze Masaya)
Kanome works in a small cafe in the city and one day his classmate walked in to his shop with another classmate of his that he hadn't seen since she moved after only one year there. MC said she was just positioned there as a teacher in their alma mater. Though they only known each other for one year, Kanome and MC shared a very memorable moment together in school when they were the only one tending their class' record shop for the cultural day. At first it was awkward between them as they never talked to one another prior to that, but soon they shared the same liking towards a certain music they had playing in the back. There was another issue regarding Kanome that I just can't understand much. Whatever it was, Kanome was tied to the owner of the cafe he's currently working, and has to listen to her orders, or some property of his (I think) would be at risk of lost. Yeah, I was really lost there. Anyway, the owner, for whatever reason (I think she forced him to marry her?? IDK) forbid him to see her again. Kanome complies at first, and even asked MC to stop coming to his cafe with a heavy heart. However after being advised by his mentor, someone he really respected and also was his teacher back in school, he ran after MC. Unfortunately, a car crashed on him and he was taken to the hospital. Although no danger to his life, he was hospitalized for the major injury. When MC came to see him at the hospital, he told her that he loves her and wished she would stay with him.


Hyougo prefecture (CV: Nakai Kazuya)
Segawa is the usual office worker who had lived alone for a while. One day, he had to take care of his young nephew due to his brother-in-law had to be hospitalized and his sister had to mind him. At the same time, a new tenant moved in just next door to his place. From the get-go, it's very obvious that MC went all out of her way to stay away from Segawa, like excusing herself and literally running away from him. Yet his nephew, Takumi, said he had no problem with her, and even went to her place to play almost every day. Takumi shared that MC had a very big problem with confronting adult males in general, which she also admitted to Segawa himself some time later. She said it's probably because she went to an all-girls school and university all her life, and that she's easily intimidated towards loud voices. MC knew she just need to get used to it and come over her anxiety, and she did this by building a good relationship with Segawa. Soon, she began to gain more confidence that she agreed to join her co-workers with their drinking party. However, Segawa felt a bit uncomfortable when he heard she was over with her fear of men. He, a bit drunk that time, got upset with her when she came back home late from her night outing, and didn't want to talk to her. MC was taken aback, but she left him alone as he asked. The next day after getting sober, he gave her a bouquet of flower to her in person in her home and apologized. He admitted being jealous and wanted to be the only man in her life.


Ishikawa prefecture (CV: Terashima Takuma)
A young man calling himself K.J. liked to wander around the city, trying his luck with any ladies he found, in order to meet his "true love". Usually he would ended his day still single, but this time around MC said she was willing to let him show around the famous places around the area. After a delightful day spending time together, they part, but K.J. didn't felt the usual disappointment that comes after. Cut to some time later, he was minding his home/shop when he heard his father greeting a customer that sounded very familiar. He peeked and got excited to see MC again. By coincidence, she was interested with the salt his family produced themselves and even wanted to experience the whole process of salt-making. His father called out to him, but he came out to greet her with disguising himself as a 'friend of Junta'. MC would probably found out his little lie but he let him be "K.J." and followed him to see how salt was made for a few days. However Junta got too over-excited with his new found "love" that he began to make her uncomfortable. He blamed himself when MC couldn't just laugh off at his attempts to woo her anymore and even stopped coming. In another scene, his father explained to MC that Junta's like that was because of his mother who died when he was very young (that I can't really understand what or why). MC came to see Junta again as he was busy with his salt-making before she went back to Tokyo. She said she preferred the Junta that's serious with his work compared to the playboy-wannabe K.J.. As Junta, he again apologized for making her troubled, and expressed that he liked her very much.


Final say: I have a strange attraction and curiosity towards the many different dialects of Japan, though prior to listening to this series, I only know the Kansai and Kyoto dialects. So you can't imagine how happy I am when I found this series. However, yes, I do not actually understand 100% of what was said here, but it just made me very excited to hear them. The short love stories are sweet too.

Another say: I really wish the official site for this series was still up. I really want to know the casts who played the MC. I thought I heard Sawashiro Miyuki in Fukushima prefecture side, but I can't tell if it really was her because I don't have the cast list because THE OFFICIAL SITE IS NO LONGER UP!!!!!