7 Mio Imada dramas and films to watch, from ‘Merry Berry Love’ to ‘My Happy Marriage’

Audiences may recognise Mio Imada from the live-action film adaptation of Akumi Agitogi’s popular My Happy Marriage novel series, which also inspired a hit anime that streams globally on Netflix. In the period romance fantasy, Imada plays Miyo Saimori, a young woman who has known little but cruelty at home. Sent to marry Kiyoka Kudou, a man with a fearsome reputation, played by Ren Meguro of J-pop group Snow Man, Miyo initially expects little from her new life. Instead, their relationship gives her the chance to experience kindness while uncovering powers she never knew she possessed.

The film debuted at number one in Japan and eventually found an international audience, with scenes and fan edits from the movie further gaining traction on TikTok. Imada’s portrayal of Miyo captures both the character’s vulnerability and quiet courage as she gradually finds her voice and learns to embrace her gifts, while her palpable chemistry with co-star Ren Meguro captured the imagination of viewers.

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In NHK’s prestigious 112th asadora, or morning drama series, Mio Imada landed the lead role of Nobu Asada after beating 3,365 other hopefuls in the audition. Inspired by Komatsu Nobu, the wife of Anpanman creator Takashi Yanase, Anpan is a fictionalised biography of two people whose lives are shaped by love, loss, war and their shared pursuit of a better future.

The series, available on Apple TV+, follows Nobu and Takashi from their youth at the beginning of the Showa era through the hardships of World War II and the challenges of rebuilding their lives after the war. It tracks Nobu’s transformation from a headstrong girl deeply influenced by the militaristic ideals of pre-war Japan into a pioneering female newspaper reporter. Amid all of this is a quiet love story marked by resilience, trust and the pair’s unwavering support for each other as they navigate some of the most difficult periods of their lives.

In Tokyo Revengers, the live-action big-screen adaptation of Ken Wakui’s hugely popular manga, Mio Imada stars as the bubbly and outgoing Hinata Tachibana, whose death in the present propels the story forward. When Takemichi Hanagaki, played by Takumi Kitamura, learns that his first love, Hinata, has been killed by the Tokyo Manji Gang, he is given the chance to change her fate. He discovers that he can travel back in time to his middle-school years, where he begins trying to alter the events that will eventually lead to her death.

Following the first film’s run as Japan’s top live-action release of 2021, the two-part Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween sequel arrived in 2023. Imada reprised her role as Hinata in both Destiny and Decisive Battle, as Takemichi becomes entangled in the Tokyo Manji Gang’s violent past while once again trying to protect the people closest to him.

Mio Imada took over the title role in the 2024 revival of Jun Ikeido’s Hanasaki Mai Speaks Out, playing an outspoken bank employee who refuses to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. Mai starts as a teller at Tokyo Daiichi Bank until an unwelcome transfer to head office puts her on the on-site inspection team. There, she and her partner, Ken Souma, played by Koji Yamamoto, visit branches to investigate problems and settle internal disputes, bringing her face-to-face with the bank’s deeper scandals and entrenched corporate culture.

Based on Ikeido’s novels Hanasaki Mai Ga Damattenai and Fushouji, the series, available to stream on Prime Video, revives the popular workplace drama with a new cast and storyline. As Mai investigates cases ranging from information leaks and ties to organised crime to branch-level collusion and attempts to bury damaging information, she repeatedly chooses to speak up for employees and customers caught on the wrong side of the bank’s power structure.

Following their first pairing in the film My Happy Marriage, Mio Imada and Ren Meguro reunited on screen in the J-drama Trillion Game, available on Netflix. Imada takes on a very different role as Kirika Kokuryu, the formidable heiress to Dragon Bank, opposite Meguro’s charismatic entrepreneur Haru Tennoji and Hayato Sano’s highly skilled engineer Manabu “Gaku” Taira.

Together, Tennoji and Taira set out to build a company from scratch, pitting their fledgling start-up against the powerful Dragon Bank and its ambitious leadership, with the audacious goal of making US$1 trillion.

Adapted from the manga by Riichiro Inagaki and Ryoichi Ikegami, the ten-episode series ran from July to September 2023 before returning to the big screen in 2025. Imada, Meguro and Sano reprised their roles in the theatrical follow-up, which picks up their story as Haru turns to a bolder venture: developing Japan’s first casino resort.

Bad Girl: Glass Ceiling Crushers marked Mio Imada’s first starring role in a television drama, with the actress playing Maririn Tanaka. Based on Jun Fukami’s manga, the ten-episode workplace drama follows Maririn, a sunny but hopelessly green new recruit at a major IT company. She lands in the overlooked equipment management department, where her senior colleague Yuki Minegishi, played by Noriko Eguchi, nudges her to aim for the top.

Part rom-com, part career story, Bad Girl uses Maririn’s unorthodox approach to work to explore shifting attitudes toward careers, gender and workplace culture in Japan. She is driven as much by a chance encounter with a man she can’t forget as by her desire to break the glass ceiling. As she moves through the company’s departments and gets pulled into her colleagues’ problems, her relentless optimism helps propel her from an inexperienced new recruit into an unlikely force for change.

From cross-cultural romance and period drama to manga adaptations, workplace stories and ambitious business ventures, Mio Imada’s filmography reflects the breadth of roles she has taken on across Japanese film and television. Her performances in Merry Berry Love, My Happy Marriage, Anpan, Tokyo Revengers, Hanasaki Mai Speaks Out 2024, Trillion Game and Bad Girl: Glass Ceiling Crushers offer a look at the different characters and genres that have shaped her career so far, making these seven titles a useful starting point for exploring her work.

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