DASADA

DASADA is a Hinatazaka46 drama. It aired from January 16, 2020 to March 19, 2020.

Information

• Episodes: 10
• Broadcast Network: Nippon TV, Hulu Japan
• Air time: 00:59
• Running time: 23 minutes per episode
• Theme song: Seishun no Uma
• This is Hinatazaka46's first drama as Hinatazaka46. However, some members starred in Keyakizaka46's Re:Mind when the group was still known as Hiragana Keyakizaka46.

Synopsis

DASADA is a drama set in an all-girls high school. One day, second-year student Sada Yuria suddenly learns that her parents are in debt and at risk of losing their clothing shop unless they can pay their ¥10,000,000 debt within six months. Yuria decides to start a clothing brand, "Dasada", in order to help repay her parents' debt. She is helped by her friend Shinohara Saori and various others along the way.

Cast

Main Characters

• Kosaka Nao – Sada Yuria (Second-year student)
• Watanabe Miho – Shinohara Saori (Second-year student)

Classmates

• Sasaki Kumi – Tachibana Yuriko (Second-year student, Yuria's friend)
• Tomita Suzuka – Hataya Nanao (Second-year student, Yuria's friend)
• Sasaki Mirei – Okada Ichigo (Second-year student, sister of Tororo)
• Miyata Manamo – Naoshima Shouko (Second-year student, volleyball club member)

Senpai

• Kato Shiho – Takato Serena (Serena~de) (Third-year student who works as a model, most popular girl at school)
• Ushio Sarina – Ogiwara Miki (Third-year student, Serena~de's friend)
• Nibu Akari – Harusawa Kurumi (Third-year student, Serena~de's friend)
• Saito Kyoko – Ogawara Makoto (Third year student, volleyball club president, and childhood friend of Serena~de)
• Tano Yuka – Neruma Matsuko (Third year student, volleyball club member) (Former AKB48)

Kouhai

• Kanemura Miku – Furuoka Satsuki (First-year student)
• Kamimura Hinano – Gotanda Sumire (First-year student)

FACTORY Members

FACTORY is a fictional idol group introduced in Episode 2

• Higashimura Mei – Guinomi (youngest in the group)
• Matsuda Konoka – Ochoko (leader of the group)
• Kawata Hina – Tokkurin (oldest in the group)

Other entertainers

• Takamoto Ayaka – Mahopoyo (model, rival of Serena~de)
• Iguchi Mao – Tororo (gravure idol, sister of Ichigo)

Others

• Takase Mana – Kirari (FACTORY fan)
• Hasegawa Tomoharu – Yuria's father
• Ikehata Reina – Yuria's mother
• Nomaguchi Tōru – Ushioka (Saori's father, debt collector)
• Kanda Uno – Saori's mother
• Moriya Yuuta – Torata (Ushioka's henchman)
• Kenta Charles Ezemeta – Pondy (worked in a Chinese restaurant next to Yuria's house. After the restaurant owner ran away from debt collectors, he decided to start cooking for Yuria's family)

Episode Guide

Episode	Name	Plot	Air Date
1	Encounter (出会い Deai)	Sada Yuria (Kosaka Nao) is asked about her future career plans by her teacher, and she says she wants to have the most beautiful face. One of her goals is to own the grey tie that is part of the uniform at a popular boys' school nearby, as all the popular girls at Yuria's wear those ties to show they are dating boys from the nearby school. Her parents, who own a clothing store, are attacked later that day by debt collectors demanding to be repaid money they had lent to Yuria's family. Yuria promises the debt collector to make ¥10,000,000 within the next six months to save her parents' business. She finds out that her classmate Shinohara Saori (Watanabe Miho) likes designing clothes, and asks her to help her create a fashion brand, but Saori declines.	January 16, 2020
2	The Beginning (始まり Hajimari)	Saori meets up with a fanclub of the female idol group FACTORY, but ends up leaving quickly because of their dull fashion sense. On the way home, she runs into Yuria. A man falls down the stairs next to where Yuria is trying to sell white t-shirts for ¥10,000 each, and he ends up buying one for a very reduced price after Saori writes the word "DASADA" on it. Yuria asks Saori to help her create a fashion brand once again and tells her the real reason why she needs money, but Saori still declines. The next day, however, Saori shows up at Yuria's home and agrees to work with her. At the end of the episode it is revealed that Saori's father is the debt collector cornering Yuria's family.	January 23, 2020
3	Make Believe (偽り Itsuwari)	Yuria decides that the school's most popular girl, Takatou Serena (Kato Shiho), should become the model for their new fashion brand now called DASADA. Serena already works as a model outside of school under the name Serena~de, and Yuria is hopeful that she will join them. Together with Saori, Yuria takes Serena and her friends out to karaoke. They explain that they would like her to model the DASADA line, to which Serena agrees – as long as the clothes fit her high standards. It is implied that Serena and her friends do not believe in Yuria and Saori's abilities. Yuria and Saori learn that Serena doesn't actually like Yuria at all, and thinks that Yuria's pretty face is a threat to her popularity. Still, they ask Serena to model the brand for them. This episode also reveals that despite being popular at school, Serena struggles to keep up with other models at her work.	January 30, 2020
4	Kindness (優しさ Yasashisa)	The scary volleyball club president, Ogasawara Makoto (Saito Kyoko), is on a hunt for Yuria. Yuria's friends, Tachibana Yuriko (Sasaki Kumi) and Hataya Nanao (Tomita Suzuka), explain to Saori that Makoto had recruited Yuria to be part of the volleyball team that year, but due to Serena's influence, Yuria quit the club. However, Yuria insisted that it was because Makoto was scary. Saori forces Yuria to confront Makoto, who then asks the two to produce 15 uniforms in four days as an apology for quitting the team. Yuriko and Nanao tell Yuria that they overheard the volleyball club members scheming to make Makoto quit the club, as they dislike her too. Makoto requesting new uniforms might simply be an attempt to win her teammates over. Yuriko and Nanao urge Yuria to stay out of things and not to produce the uniforms, but Yuria and Saori decide to finish the job. Yuria suggests a tiger pattern, but Saori's father wears a lot of tiger patterns and she refuses to ever design anything with a tiger pattern. They see a classmate of Makoto, Neruma Matsuko (Tano Yuka) tell Makoto that she should quit the club and leave it to the younger generation, and modify the uniforms once again to help Makoto win over the volleyball club members. Eventually, they get it done the night before only because of the help of Yuria's parents and Makoto herself. When Makoto gives the members the uniforms the next day, she simultaneously quits the club and tells Yuria that this was her way of saying sorry for being so bossy and scary before. At the end of the episode, Yuria and Saori are called to the headmaster's office and are told they are suspended from school.	February 6, 2020
5	Betrayal (裏切り Uragiri)	Yuria and Saori are told it is forbidden for students to sell things amongst each other. They get out the situation by claiming they were actually selling in the name of Yuria's parents' shop rather than for themselves. Makoto corners Serena, believing that Serena told the teachers. Serena meets up with them at a noodle restaurant and swears it wasn't her, but apologizes for trying to sabotage her anyway. Makoto exposes Serena's tie as a fake, bought online, and that Serena's popularity is based on rumors and lies, which she spread herself. She agrees to model for Yuria and Saori, and once the modeling photos are posted, they begin to receive hundreds of orders. Then, a Twitter account run by a boy from the popular boys' school posts about Serena's fake tie, calls Saori's fashion sense awful, and exposes Yuria's family debt problems, so everyone quickly cancels their orders. The famous gravure idol Tororo-chan (Iguchi Mao) suddenly comes to school and says that her sister Okada Ichigo (Sasaki Mirei) forgot lunch at school. Tororo recognizes Yuria and Saori's brand DASADA and mentions that her and Ichigo overheard everything they talked about yesterday at the noodle restaurant because it belongs to their father. Saori realizes that it was Ichigo who revealed all of the secrets, and it ends with Saori attacking Ichigo.	February 13, 2020
6	Crack (亀裂 Kiretsu)	Makoto suggests to the others that they should participate in a "Designer Under 20" contest to get new buyers for the brand. Tororo brings Ichigo to Yuria's home and tries to get her to apologize, but Ichigo refuses. Yuria says it's fine if she doesn't say it, as long as she feels sorry, and asks her to join DASADA as the marketing agent. Just then, the debt collector comes in together with his henchman and Saori. Saori had asked him to extend the deadline for the debt on Yuria's family, and he has now come to tell them to stay away from his daughter. Saori stops designing for DASADA, but the other girls use her design book to create at least one of the designs for the contest. Yuria keeps her updated with messages but Saori never opens them. Eventually, when they're done with the design, Saori opens the chat. When the girls arrive at Yuria's home that day, Saori has delivered a new design book, having added one more feature to the finished design. Yuria runs to Saori's home and asks her to come back to DASADA, but when she looks up, Saori has disappeared. However, at home, Saori tells her father that she doesn't want to stop and begs him to let her go back to DASADA. He tells her if she really wants to do something, she shouldn't beg for it and smiles encouragingly. She runs after Yuria, who has returned home and they hug each other while crying. The next day, the five of them – Yuria, Saori, Makoto, Serena and Ichigo – get ready for the contest.	February 20, 2020
7	Friends (友だち Tomodachi)	Yurika and Nanao feel abandoned by Yuria. Meanwhile, the DASADA team was disqualified from the contest for starting a paint-throwing fiasco at the contest venue. They argue with each other, but eventually make up again because of Yuria's positivity and intend to continue working hard. Ichigo tries coming up with ideas to make the brand gain popularity: they go around school promoting, Serena wears the clothes at a professional photoshoot, and Ichigo's sister Tororo records a video for them, but nothing works. Miki (Ushio Sarina) and Kurumi (Nibu Akari) ask Serena why she keeps helping Yuria, and Serena, thinking they are judging her for hanging out with "uncool" Yuria, tells them they don't have to pretend to be her friends anymore. Miki and Kurumi are surprised, and tell Serena that they will always be her friends. Yurika and Nanao witness the scene and decide to make up with Yuria, so Nanao orders 2 pieces from DASADA's website. Yurika, who is good at makeup, and Nanao, who is good at hair styling, join the group and help them set up a professional photoshoot to showcase the brand's identity, but still no orders come in that day. The next day, Saori wakes Yuria up because of people at the door and Ichigo finds that they have 8,000 online orders – when a customer shows them a photo posted on Instagram by the idol group FACTORY wearing the DASADA clothing.	February 27, 2020
8	Speculation (思惑 Omowaku)	It turns out, Pondy (the foreigner cooking for Yuria's family) ran into Tororo at a studio because he was delivering food to his former boss's son. All three of them happened to wear DASADA t-shirts, and coincidentally, DASADA's first customer also happened to be there. The members of FACTORY saw them and asked for shirts as well. It is implied that selling the 8,000 online orders was enough to clear Yuria's family debt, as it is not mentioned again after this. After DASADA's sudden success, the girls are excited to continue the brand for their remaining school days, and receive extra help from a PR advisor. He gives Yuria advice on how to move forward with the brand from now on, and she recruits first-year students Satsuki (Kanemura Miku) and Sumire (Kamimura Hinano) to help out as well. Yuria becomes serious about making DASADA "the real deal," and impressed with her drive, Saori pushes herself to come up with a new design. After the PR advisor tells Yuria that the design isn't great and Yuria asks Saori for another design, Saori can't think of anything. The girls are told they have been invited to the upcoming Tokyo Girls Collection fashion event (TGC), and they need their next design ready. Saori struggles, when she suddenly receives a private message from FACTORY's Ochoko. When she meets up with Ochoko a the bubble tea store owned by Ichigo and Tororo's father, Ochoko unexpectedly asks her to join FACTORY.	March 5, 2020
9	Farewell (別れ Wakare)	DASADA's PR advisor brings his own design to a meeting with the girls (without Saori present) and says the clothes can be produced faster from now on in a factory. Ichigo asks if Saori is okay with someone else's design being used, when Saori comes in and questions what is going on. Ichigo shows everyone a video which she received from her father, where Ochoko asks Saori to join FACTORY. They only watch it up to the part where Ochoko asks her to join, and Yuria wishes her well. Saori feels abandoned and leaves, even though she had – unbeknownst to the rest – declined Ochoko's offer. After Saori leaves, Yuria disbands DASADA. Two weeks later, Saori is a member and also the designer for FACTORY. However, when she wants to suggest her designs at a group meeting, the group's producer lays out his own design – a tiger pattern dress – and Saori learns her title of "member and designer" as just a marketing tactic, and she was never meant to be the real designer. She realizes that everything about FACTORY is fake, and when she cries outside, Yuria finds her and reaches out a hand to her.	March 12, 2020
10	Inevitably (必然 Omowaku)	Yuria drags Saori all the way to the beach. Saori asks her if she realized that the design wasn't hers because of the tiger pattern, but Yuria admits she forgot Saori doesn't like tiger patterns until she mentioned it, and only came to the live event to cheer Saori on, but when she found her crying, she wanted to run away with her. FACTORY's manager sends a blonde girl on stage and they try to sell her as Saori, and it's very obvious that it isn't her, but people still like it anyway. Ochoko finds Yuria and Saori due to Yuria's incessant social media posts, and tries to convince Saori to choose FACTORY over DASADA. Saori chooses DASADA, and when they return home to Yuria's family shop, Makoto, Yurika, Nanao, Serena and Ichigo are already waiting for them. They talk about reviving DASADA when their old PR advisor joins. Yuria's parents eventually kick him out, removing him from the team, and they upload a timer for a new announcement on the DASADA website. When the timer hits zero, they announce that DASADA will go on a break so they can all pursue their own goals – Serena will focus on her modeling career, Ichigo will study economics and learn about filming and editing videos, Makoto will get a teaching degree and help the volleyball team, Nanao will become a makeup artist, Yuriko will become a hair stylist, Saori will keep learning about design, and Yuria will (even if she doesn't know how yet) make DASADA into "the real deal." Afterwards, they all say good bye to Saori, who is moving to London because her family wants to work other jobs and not negatively affect Saori's future, and Saori will study design and fashion there.	March 19, 2020

Trivia

• The name DASADA is a pun on the main character's name, Sada Yuria, and the Japanese word for lame, ダサイ (dasai). Usually, adjectives ending in -i do not have a -da ending attached, but it is sometimes used to sound harsher. In Episode 3, Saori tries to insult Yuria and calls her ダサダ (dasada) and Yuria, being the airhead that she is, thinks it sounds really cool rather than takes offence to it.
• The producers appeared to intentionally cast some Hinatazaka46 members into roles that were opposite their real-life personalities. For example, Saito Kyoko, who is known to be very unathletic, was cast as a star athlete. Ushio Sarina and Nibu Akari, who are known to be two of the kindest members of Hinatazaka46, were cast as "mean girls". Even Kosaka Nao, who is known for being calm and reserved in real life, played a bubbly, air-headed main character. This was likely done for the sake of comedy, as well as a way to encourage members to push their limits as actresses.