Mop Girl
Genre	Comedy, mystery, fantasy
Starring	Keiko Kitagawa Shōsuke Tanihara
Opening theme	Destination Nowhere (ERIKA)
Country of origin	Japan
Original language	Japanese
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producer	Katayama Osamu
Producer	Nakagawa Noriko
Production location	Tokyo
Running time	60 min./episode
Original release
Network	TV Asahi
Release	October 12 (2007-10-12) – December 14, 2007 (2007-12-14)

Mop Girl (モップガール, Moppu Gāru) is a television drama series based on the novel of the same title by Miaki Kato (加藤実秋, Kato Miaki); it recounts the adventures of Momoko Hasegawa, played by Keiko Kitagawa, who possesses the ability to travel back in time upon contact with belongings of a deceased person with unfinished business in life. She then has the chance to prevent the death of the would-be deceased.

Plot

Momoko Hasegawa, a girl who dreams of being a wedding planner is transferred to Little Angels, a subsidiary company of her employer that provides funeral services, following a disastrous incident in a wedding ceremony at the hotel. She acquires the ability to travel back in time at the age of ten, when she is involved in a traffic accident but is saved by a mysterious woman, who passes the ability to her shortly before succumbing to her wound. Years later, she finally learns that the trigger to activating her ability is by touching an important item which belonged to a deceased person that held some sort of significance for them. She uses this ability to travel in time and prevents the death of the deceased persons she encounters on her line of work.

Cast

• Keiko Kitagawa as Momoko Hasegawa (長谷川桃子, Hasegawa Momoko)

Momoko is a young salary woman working for Little Angel, a funeral services provider that handles a variety of cases. Despite having a low-paying job and living in a rundown apartment, she is actually the daughter of a wealthy family in the hospital business. She has a special ability to travel back in time, which she acquired in a traffic accident at a young age. This ability only becomes fully developed after she is transferred to Little Angel, as it is revealed that touching mementos which hold great significance to the deceased would activate her time-travel abilities. Throughout the series, she attempts to use this ability to travel back in time to prevent the deaths of the would-be deceased persons with unfinished business. She is obsessed with muscles.

• Shōsuke Tanihara as Shoutarou Otomo (大友将太郎, Otomo Shoutarou)

A senior colleague of Momoko in Little Angel. Shoutarou may be cruel towards Momoko sometimes, but has always come to Momoko's aid, often under threat by Momoko to reveal his secrets. He is especially interested in foreign ladies gaijin, a weakness exploited by Momoko to get him into helping her. He has a variety of skills, including picking locks, stealth infiltration, deception, and intelligence gathering; Momoko comments that he should "become a professional criminal" rather than being in the funeral business.

• Reina Asami as Hina Okouchi (大河内日奈, Okouchi Hina)

Hina is Momoko's closest friend from high school who is a Haken at a publication company. Because of her connection, Momoko sometimes asks her for help when attempting to change the future/past, and she has proven to be very helpful in some cases.

• Sousuke Takaoka as Akira Wakayama (若山朗, Wakayama Akira)

A colleague of Momoko. Akira thinks very little of Momoko, who he sometimes considers a burden, and is often seen criticizing Momoko at work. He also has a crush on Tamaki, who takes no interest in him.

• Jiro Sato as Shigeo Higashi (東重男, Higashi Shigeo)

The president of Little Angel. Shigeo is a soft-spoken, middle-aged man who is always smiling and caring towards his subordinates. He is sometimes criticized by Akira for being too tolerant to Momoko's strange behavior.

• Natsuna Watanabe as Tamaki Nakamura (中村環, Nakamura Tamaki)

Female high school student who works part-time at Little Angel. She is the subject of Akira's crush, and is often annoyed by Akira's attempts at asking her out.

• Shoko Ikezu as Miki Kataoka (片岡未樹, Kataoka Miki)

Female colleague of Momoko. She is in charge of the general administration matters at Little Angels – something she takes great pride in. Her appetite is unrivaled.

• Magy as Atsushi Yokouchi (横内淳, Yokouchi Atsushi)

The assistant police inspector. He is continually flustered by his overbearing wife.

• Dr. Hirotaro Honda as Ryuji Hasegawa (長谷川隆冶, Hasegawa Ryuji)

Momoko's father and the president of William Hasegawa Memorial Hospital.

• Mayumi Hori as the mysterious woman

The mysterious woman appears only in flash back scenes. After saving a young Momoko from a potentially fatal traffic accident, she passes the ability of time-traveling to Momoko shortly before her succumbing to her injuries. Later revealed to be Hazuki Yoko the former girlfriend of Shoutarou Otomo. It's implied that Otomo may know about her ability.

Episode Ratings

External links

• Official website