Ganbatte, Ganbaranai (2026)

A story about young people coming to a share house deep in the mountains, and healing from their past trauma.

When I saw this announced on instagram, you have no idea how I was so happy to get lead Akira again!!! I've been watching his stageplays lately, and even started translating one, so it's such a treat to get another project from him now. I definitely have something to look forward to now, even though I'm not a fan of summer.

I have to say, the themes? Trauma and rural setting? That's the definition of my projects. Loveeee this already.

Coming 8th of August along with behind-the-scenes! This is still quite far off, but I do have some projects I want to work on until then. Summer will be a trying time, but hopefully I can get through it in one piece.

Update 27-08-2026:

I can't believe it took me 3 weeks to post this. I finished it like 2 days after it aired, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to QC it again (maybe because I was in Dousoukai mood back then as I was finalizing all episodes of the drama). Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I won't be translating the BTS because the on-screen captions aren't properly timed, so it's kinda bothering me :/

The quality of the broadcast isn't very good, sadly. Not sure how the hardsub will turn out, but if it looks really bad, try watching the raw with the subs. I've included both .ass and .srt subs, so use what you prefer. The trailer of this drama special looks better than the actual broadcast (I hate it).

The title "Ganbatte, Ganbaranai" is certainly tricky to translate! It's like two opposites, similar to what Hirai Miyo mentioned in a BTS video (alone, but not actually alone). If I were to translate it, I'd go with something like "Try hard, but not too hard", but it's open to interpretations.

If you're wondering about the shooting locations, it's Ina City, Nagano Prefecture with its National Shinshutakato Youth Outdoor Learning Center and traditional Japanese houses in the Tomigata area.

Also, if you're wondering if there'll be more episodes - there won't be as this is very much a drama one-off similarly to what nihon-eiga has produced before with Kokoro. They've already wrapped up in the BTS. I wish it had more episodes because I wanted to learn more about the characters.

Cast:

  • Hirai Miyo as Taniguchi Hina
  • Takano Akira as Ohta Daigo
  • Moritaka Ai as Takeuchi Aya
  • Yasui Kentarou as Endou Yukihiko
  • Seki Megumi as Nakano Kumiko
  • Yoshizawa Taiyou as Miyazaki Shun
  • Arino Shinya as Sasa (Sasatani / Sasaya) Takashi (actually this one is trouble because in the drama special, Shun calls him Sasa, but the name they use for promotion and BTS reads as Sasatani or Sasaya since they add one more kanji to it. This could be a production error since it's highly unusual to shorten his last name)
 
Direction: Kohsaka Ryuunosuke
 

Hardsub

 

Raw + subs

Mega

 
 
 

 

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