Pride (Dorama)

Pride (プライド) is a Japanese dorama.

Summary

With Pride (プライド), Takuya Kimura has done it again. This time around he's Haru, an ice hockey star, and he sent the ratings puck zipping skyward in week one with the assistance of a sharply honed Shinji Nojima script. It's an entertaining romance with some serious undertones and lots of ice hockey action. Haru (spelled Halu on his uniform to provide a more exotic touch) idolizes his first coach, Anzai, played by Saburo Tokito, who, like Yukari, is also killed off in the very first episode. But he hovers over the story and Haru's life as he tries to cope with the new irritating coach played by Koichi Sato. One of the things Anzai has instilled in him is that he can't fall in love. Romance has to be a game during his serious playing career. He has no trouble following those rules until he meets Aki. It starts out as a game as his friends pick up her friends and he observes that she may be one of those rare, old-type Japanese girls who is not so quickly picked up or toyed with. This makes the game more enticing because that is the kind of woman he really wants.

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When Haru finds she is waiting for a long-gone boyfriend to return, he suggests they should just hang out together until then. Since neither wants to get serious, it will be safe for both of them. She sees through this line but agrees. This one will keep viewers coming back game after game. Four goals!

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:Excerpt from Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn, January 22, 2004

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