# Hotaru no Hikari: It's Only A Little Light In My Life (2007)

> A lazy interior designer's comfortable solitude is upended when her fastidious boss turns out to be her landlord's son.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/39147

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 21
- Episode runtime: 46 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, romance
- Created by: Satoru Hiura
- Network: Nippon TV
- Cast: Haruka Ayase, Kazuki Kato, Naohito Fujiki, Tomohiro Ichikawa, Osamu Mukai, Tomomi Maruyama, Ken Yasuda, Takuya Ide
- TMDB rating: 7.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068439/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: breezy, deadpan, comforting, wistful, gentle

## Synopsis

Hotaru Ayase (2007-2010) is a Japanese josei workplace romantic comedy series created by Satoru Hiura for Nippon Television Network. Haruka Ayase plays Amemiya Hotaru, an interior design company employee whose glamorous job hides a private life of lazing about her rented house in training wear. Her carefree routine collapses when the landlord's son arrives to inspect the property and turns out to be Seiichi Takano (Naohito Fujiki), her fastidious boss. Kazuki Kato plays Makoto Teshima, adding further romantic complication to the office and household scenes. The engine of the series is the friction between Hotaru's stubborn resistance to effort and romance and Takano's rigid expectations, played out through episodes built around everyday office politics, tense shared-living arrangements, and small social dilemmas in Tokyo. Its tone is light, breezy and comforting, with deadpan humor and gentle romantic tension. Told across two seasons and twenty-one episodes, it has the warmth of a slice of life romcom. Fans of Ugly Betty and Pride and Prejudice will find resonance in its mix of comic self-deprecation and slow-building romance.

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