Sakura Kara no Tegami

About a month or two ago, I watched this AKB48 drama called Sakura Kara no Tegami. It's basically about a portion of the AKB girls in their last year of high school and they need to figure out what they want to do in the future. Usually, the homeroom teacher helps them out, but their homeroom teacher is very distant from them, and everyone thinks that he doesn't care about anyone except a dying Sakura tree in the middle of the school grounds, which is a symbol of the school and the reason why the students are called Sakura maidens (it's an all-girl school by the way). 

What causes the lives of these girls to be shaken is that their homeroom teacher suddenly announces that he will no longer be their homeroom teacher because he has pancreatic cancer. Of course, the girls don't really care that he's no longer their homeroom teacher because he didn't do much for them in the first place, but what shakes them up is the personalized letter that he gives to each of them that he says might be his will. Some try to read the letters, but can't understand the message, and the others stuff it in their bags. 

Throughout the series, you eventually find out one by one what the letters mean and how they end up solving the problems of each girl and guiding them to who they should be or what they should do. You even find out why the homeroom teacher was so distant, and his strained relationship with his daughter. When the girls realize how much their homeroom teacher did pay attention to them, they wanted to repay him somehow. During this time, the principal decided to cut down the Sakura tree becomes it seems like it's dead. However, the students do their best to protect it and make it grow before graduation. They try everything to revive the tree, but with no success. So they decide to make Sakura flowers and stick it on the tree to make it appear as if it is in full bloom. Their homeroom teacher is wheelchaired to see their work and he is proud of every one of them. He then passes away a few days later, leaving his students changed for the better. Eventually, the Sakura tree does come back to life again and all the students come to visit it and reminisce about their last year in high school. You can check out all 17 episodes (which vary from 5 mins to 1 hour in length) subbed at vid48.com (starting from page 3).

What I like about this series is how it kind of represents what would the AKB girls be like if they were normal high school students not bound by idol rules. It's obvious that Kasai Tomomi would have a boyfriend, as well as Kojima Haruna. Although, it seems like Kashiwagi Yuki always gets the psychologically depressing roles since in this drama she's a cutter, and in the Give Me Five long PV, she's kind of mentally unstable and rips clothing to vent out her negative emotions. The situations and how they are solved are well thought out and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to many of the situations these girls face. 

What I find interesting is that out of all the cancers they could have chosen, why pancreatic cancer? This is because pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose, but when you do see symptoms related to this cancer, the person is already nearing the end stages of it, and the survival rate is extremely low. Metastatic pancreatic cancer, which is the worst form as the cancer has spread throughout the entire body, gives the patient suffering from this a maximum of 6 months to live. A rule of thumb concerning all cancers: if you can detect  the cancer early, then the person can be easily cured, but symptoms often show only when the cancer is pretty advanced, which becomes more difficult to treat depending on whether the tumours of the cancer are benign (all in one place) or malignant (able to spread throughout the body).

Something else involving the pancreas that is also dangerous is pancreatitis, which is when the pancreas becomes so inflamed that it can rupture. The pancreas contains, among other things, digestive enzymes to help break down food, and absorb nutrients in the small intestines. If the pancreas is ruptured, those digestive enzymes will leak out and start to digest the pancreas itself, which is extremely dangerous and that person needs to get to a hospital ASAP. You may not have known before what the pancreas does, but it's pretty dangerous when the pancreas is not in top shape. Who knew that one line in a drama could hold so much important information.