Terrace House
テラスハウス
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Six strangers share a house; the show's quiet realism made it a global cult until the 2020 death of Hana Kimura ended it and forced a national reckoning on reality-TV cruelty.
Terrace House, made by Fuji Television, put three men and three women who had never met into a stylish house with two cars and filmed them, promising no script. There were no rules; residents left when they chose, and newcomers took their places. A studio panel of comedians and celebrities, among them the comedian Ryota Yamasato, watched the footage and joked about it. The show began on Fuji TV in 2012 in Shonan, moved to Netflix in 2015 with houses in Tokyo, Hawaii and Karuizawa, and came back to Tokyo in May 2019.
That last season, Tokyo 2019–2020, is the best documented, for the worst reason. Its first months were quiet. Haruka and Risako both fell for Kenji, a musician, and argued over him; he confessed to Risako on a stormy beach date, and when he moved out she left with him. Residents came and went. The professional wrestler Hana Kimura moved in that autumn and fell for Ryo, a basketball player, who grew closer to Vivi, an aspiring actress. Kai, a comedian, comforted Hana, and the two went to Kyoto on a trip with another couple from the house. Then Kai accidentally washed and shrank the costume she wore in the ring. In the episode released on 31 March 2020 she shouted at him and knocked his cap off, and he soon announced he was leaving. The abuse she had begun to receive online became a flood. Her mother later said staff had pushed Hana to lose her temper on camera; Fuji TV denied forcing anyone.
Filming stopped in April because of the pandemic. On 23 May 2020 Hana Kimura took her own life. She was 22. Fuji TV cancelled the season four days later, leaving two filmed episodes unaired, and Netflix later withdrew the episodes she appeared in outside Japan.
Starring
YouPanel
The television personality who sat on the studio panel from the first episode in 2012 until the show ended.
Ryota YamasatoPanel
Of the comedy duo Nankai Candies, a studio commentator from 2013 to the end, whose remarks about residents were later criticised.
Hana KimuraParticipant
A professional wrestler who moved in during 2019 and was abused online after the costume episode; she died in May 2020, aged 22.
Kai KobayashiParticipant
A comedian who comforts Hana, later ruins her ring costume by accident, and leaves the house after their argument.
Kenji YoshiharaParticipant
Kenny, a musician among the first six residents, courted by both Haruka and Risako, who leaves the house with Risako.
Risako TanabeParticipant
A fitness trainer among the first six, who argues with Haruka over Kenji and leaves the house with him.
Why it matters
Terrace House was admired abroad for how little happened in it; TIME named its Karuizawa season among the ten best television shows of 2018. That gentleness rested on a promise that nothing was scripted, and on a panel whose jokes about the residents were part of the pleasure. The death of Hana Kimura showed what the arrangement could cost a young woman whose worst moment was edited, streamed, broadcast and then answered, every day, by strangers. It forced questions the genre had avoided: the duty of care owed to people whose lives are the product, the staging that can hide inside 'reality', and whether commentators who mock can set the tone for an audience. In 2021 Japan's broadcasting ethics body found the network had failed to consider her mental health. In 2022, in response to her case, the Diet made insult punishable by prison. Her mother founded Remember HANA to fight online abuse.