From the Heart, Episode 1

The series opens with a woman walking in the forest and coming upon a small pond, which ends up being a pond by a building. She walks around taking photos and making weather measurements.

The woman (Mayuko) is talking to a man (Shinichi) and staring at something. She doesn't see a bicyclist speeding along the sidewalk and Shinichi grabs her and keeps her from being run over. Afterward she just sort of wanders off.

Mayuko's brother wants to become a doctor. Apparently Mayuko wants to start going to the hospital again. She suffers from autism. She apparently publishes her weather predictions on the internet and a TV show talks about how popular she is.

Her brother talks to a teacher who used to be a university psychology professor and he asks if there is any cure for it. He also reveals that his parents never told Mayuko that she has a form of autism. Mayuko's brother wants his teacher to meet with her since, for some reason, spring is a hard time for her.

Her father doesn't really want her going back to the hospital for treatment since there is no actual cure for autism. The father doesn't want Jun, the son, to go to medical school, either.

The teacher and a friend of his are eating together. Something had happened in the past to some woman and that is what caused Shinichi, the teacher, to quit the hospital where he was teaching and become a cram school teacher instead.

[Cram schools are special schools that many Japanese students go to to help them catch up on their studies or even get ahead. It's sort of like the summer school sessions in the U.S., but going on during the regular school year, so a student might go to school during the day, get out, then go to cram school for a few hours, then finally get to go home. By the time he or she gets finished with homework it's basically time to go to bed. Many Japanese students have little if any time for socializing.

Jun's teacher Shinichi gives him some papers he copied on autism. Mayuko at the moment is in the swings.

Mayuko meets Shinichi.

When Mayuko's web site on weather got mentioned on TV it resulted in her mother getting lots of calls from newspapers and tv reporters who wanted to interview her daughter.

The reporters try to interview her even though the mother doesn't want them to and Jun has to rescue her from them.

She reacts strongly to the reporters.

The sister of the girl Shinichi knew has gotten into his apartment with a key that had been her sisters.

She seems to have some implied criticism for him. It's not, though, as she has an invitation from your family for him to attend a gathering honoring the third anniversary of the woman's death.

His doctor friend says that Junichi suffers from Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and has lost the ability to cry due to his seeing his girlfriend die in an accident.

He runs into Mayuko who is waiting to see his friend.

Later she sees Junichi at the park using eye drops.

He tells her he waited there since he wanted to have a long talk with her.

Mayuko's father has promised that he will take her to meet some guy about Mayako's talent for predicting weather.

Shinichi is unable to be there to meet Mayuko on time. She leaves him a note that says breaking a promise is like lying, and she won't make any more promises with him.

Hello there. I am teed off. Really really teed right now. Both at her father and at the unfilling, greed-filled insurance person who has just made his pretty little speech. Mayuko's father said she was to accompany him that day, but didn't bother explaining what for. It's obvious the beans-for-brains father of hers doesn't have any understanding at all of her daughter's problems or needs. To do something like this to her is unforgivable.

She collapses from the pressure of all the photos being taken, the talking, etc.

]

Shinichi comes to her rescue.

Apparently nobody had ever told Mayuko that she has autism. Shinichi explains to her that she still has normal intelligence. She says she thought she was the only one who was "different" and that she never had any friends.

She adds that people picked on her and she thought she was a bad person.

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From the Heart synopsis and stills

From the Heart general review

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