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Engine (TV series)

Engine
エンジン
StarringTakuya Kimura
Koyuki
Yoshio Harada
Yuki Matsushita
Opening theme"I Can See Clearly Now" (Jimmy Cliff)
Country of originJapan
Original languageJapanese
No. of episodes11
Original release
NetworkFuji TV
Release18 April (2005-04-18) –
27 June 2005 (2005-06-27)

Engine (エンジン, Enjin) is a Japanese television drama series from Fuji Television, first shown in Japan from 18 April to 27 June 2005.

Plot

Kanzaki Jiro (Takuya Kimura) (who used to be a star driver back in Japan) is a backup F3000 driver in Europe. During a practice run, he accidentally crashes into his first driver and loses his job. No other club in Europe would hire him as he is deemed too old for the sports. He has no choice but to return to Japan to his previous racing team. Unfortunately, the team now has a better and younger driver, and feels Jiro has nothing more to contribute to the team, and do not want him back.

He goes back to stay with his foster father and sister, and finds out his foster father has converted their home into an orphanage for unfortunate children whose parents are unable to take care of them. Tomomi Sensei (Koyuki), is a newly hired caregiver at the orphanage. She is not popular with the children as she does not seem to understand their feelings and makes misguided attempts to help them. Jiro, on the other hand, was an orphan himself, and being a big kid at heart is able to click with the children.

Despite the fact that Jiro hates children and is more interested in getting back into racing than helping out at the orphanage, he nonetheless agrees to be the orphanage's driver in exchange for being allowed to live there.

Cast

The Children of Kaze no Oka Home

Ratings

In the tables below, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.

Episode # Original broadcast date Kanton region
1 April 18, 2005 25.3%
2 April 25, 2005 22.5%
3 May 2, 2005 19.6%
4 May 2, 2005 23.1%
5 May 9, 2005 22.3%
6 May 16, 2005 21.5%
7 May 23, 2005 22.2%
8 June 6, 2005 21.5%
9 June 13, 2005 21.8%
10 June 20, 2005 22.5%
11 June 27, 2005 24.3%
Average 22.4%