Dear Sa-chan
さっちゃん、僕は。
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A college freshman in Tokyo is torn between his long-distance girlfriend and the married woman next door.
Kyosuke Katagiri, eighteen, has come from Hokkaido to Tokyo for university. He has been with Sachi Osanai, his girlfriend back home, for four years, but they have never slept together, the relationship has gone flat, and he hardly answers her letters. Returning a lost item to the flat next door, he meets his neighbour, Shino Kunikida, a married woman; they sleep together, and from then on a knock on the thin wall is enough to call him over. Kyosuke grew up with little love from his parents and does not know what love is. He gives each woman the version of himself that suits her.
Sachi comes to Tokyo in secret and finds Shino at his door. A classmate, Misuzu, spots a love bite on his neck and warns him not to hurt his girlfriend. After a fall down some stairs, Kyosuke wakes in hospital with Sachi beside him, confesses that he has been sleeping with someone else, and breaks up with her. Back home, she confides in a university friend, Makoto Isezaki. When Kyosuke turns up to return a cardigan she left behind, she begs him to try again: he may sleep with others, so long as he comes back to her in the end. They spend their first night together, and Kyosuke, feeling for the first time how much she matters, tells Shino it is over.
But Shino's husband, Kaname, has been watching through a hidden camera. He plays Kyosuke a recording, makes him kneel, demands two million yen in damages and tells Shino to give up the flat. When Kyosuke and Sachi are on a date in a café, Kaname and Shino sit down at their table. The next day Sachi goes next door to confront Shino, and that night she ends it: she should never have forgiven him. Kyosuke works himself ragged. Shino learns of the settlement and offers to pay it; he refuses. She discovers that her husband had her watched, and the couple finally say what they have kept from each other.
Kyosuke reads Sachi's last letter: she is living full, colourful days and wishes him happiness. He pays Kaname twenty thousand yen a month in person for four years, graduates, takes a sales job at a publisher and makes the last payment; Kaname thanks him, because it made him and Shino face each other. Eight years on, still unable to move on, Kyosuke glimpses Sachi in the street, pregnant, with Makoto smiling beside her. In his new building a primary-school girl called Nat-chan takes to him. She is Shino and Kaname's daughter. In the last scene a knock comes through his wall from her side, and Kyosuke raises his hand to answer it.
Starring
Keito Kimuraas Kyosuke Katagiri
An eighteen-year-old student from Hokkaido, raised without much love, who cheats on his girlfriend with the married woman next door.
Kyosuke Katagiri’s story
Kyosuke arrives in Tokyo with a girlfriend back home he has never slept with and letters he barely answers. He sleeps with Shino next door and answers her knock on the wall. After a fall down some stairs he confesses to Sachi and breaks up with her; Misuzu tells him honesty is not kindness. When Sachi offers to share him, they spend their first night together and he ends it with Shino. Then Kaname makes him kneel and demands two million yen, and Sachi leaves him. He pays it off in person over four years and joins a publisher's sales team. Eight years on he glimpses Sachi pregnant beside Makoto. In his new flat a knock comes through the wall from Shino's daughter, and he lifts his hand to answer.
Hinano Nakayamaas Sachi Osanai
Kyosuke's girlfriend of four years back in Hokkaido, who writes him letters, forgives him once, and then leaves.
Sachi Osanai’s story
Sachi comes to Tokyo unannounced and finds Shino at Kyosuke's door, then sits by his hospital bed while he confesses and breaks up with her. At home she confides in Makoto, a university friend. When Kyosuke returns her cardigan, she holds his sleeve and asks to try again: he may sleep with others if he comes back to her, and she will teach him what love is. They spend their first night together. But after Kaname and Shino join them in a café, she goes next door, tells Shino through tears that she has no one but Kyosuke, calls her despicable, and that night ends it: she never should have forgiven him. Her last letter says her days are full of colour. Eight years later she is pregnant, with Makoto at her side.
Ren Ishikawaas Shino Kunikida
The married woman next door, lonely in her marriage, who begins the affair and calls Kyosuke over with a knock on the wall.
Shino Kunikida’s story
Shino keeps a flat apart from the home she shares with her husband, Kaname, and Kyosuke lives next door. When he returns something she has lost, they sleep together. When Kaname confronts her, she says Kyosuke meant nothing, a way to pass the time, that she started it, and she agrees to give up the flat. Sachi comes to her door and calls her despicable; Shino apologises. Learning of the settlement, she offers to pay it, and Kyosuke refuses. When she finds that Kaname had her watched, she confronts him; he tells her about his past, and she says everything she has kept inside. Eight years on they have a daughter, and when Shino says she never made amends, Kaname laughs it off.
Dori Sakuradaas Kaname Kunikida
Shino's husband, who has been watching her through a camera and makes Kyosuke pay for the affair.
Hina Higuchias Misuzu Sugawa
Kyosuke's university friend, who sees through him, tells him off, and looks after him when he falls apart.
Taketo Tanakaas Makoto Isezaki
Sachi's friend at university in Hokkaido, who notices something is wrong and stays by her side.
Why it matters
Dear Sa-chan tells an affair story from inside the person doing the damage, and its own publicity admits he is hard to sympathise with. Kyosuke is not a seducer. He is a young man raised without much love who cannot tell what he feels, and who confuses confessing with being honest. The series is clear about what that costs the people around him: a girlfriend who offers to share him rather than lose him, then realises she never should have, and a wife lonely in a marriage her husband watches through a camera. It makes the price concrete, a signed settlement and four years of monthly payments, and then declines the tidy moral that paying settles anything. Sachi finds a life of her own. Kyosuke is left alone in a new flat, and the last knock on the wall asks whether people repeat what they never understood.