Itsumi Momose

Itsumi Momose Gallery

Itsumi Momose
MangaManga | AnimeAnime | Live-actionLive-action
Kanji	百瀬 逸美
Rōmaji	Momose Itsumi
Live-action Name	Yi Mei (逸美)
Personal Information
Gender	Female
Age	17 (Start of Year 1) 18 (Start of Year 1)
Birthday	November 16th
Status
Status	Alive
Occupation	Actor
Debut
Manga	ACT.055
Anime	The One Who Deserves to Be
Game	PS2 Game
Live-action	Episode 11 (Live-action)
Portrayal
Seiyū	Nabatame Hitomi (Japanese) Do Yeong Song (Korean)
Live Action Actor	Cherry Hsia

Itsumi Momose (百瀬 逸美 Momose Itsumi) is one of the new fast-rising stars in Japan who co-starred with Ren Tsuruga as his love interest in the drama, Dark Moon.

Appearance

Momose has chest-length pale-blonde hair (she later cuts her hair short after finishing Dark Moon), grey eyes and a slim body.

Personality

Momose is shown to be a straight-forward young woman as she said out-loud that she thinks Kyoko Mogami's acting skills are far better Ren Tsuruga's, because of Ren's inability to act as Katsuki Tachibana in a key romance scene between him and Mizuki Hongo. 

Later on, she is also shown to be friendly who finds herself in the company of Kyoko and Airi Oohara.

She is a realistic and mature person, for when her co-stars and extras are irritated and perhaps envious of Kyoko's easy relationship with Ren, saying Momose should be the one who is closest to Ren, Momose points out that although Katsuki and Mizuki are lovers in Dark Moon, that is only an act and doesn't mean she and Ren must be lovers in real life. Momose has deep compassion.

Background

Momose was born in November and is seventeen years old at the start of Dark Moon. Not much is known about her background, aside from the fact that she is one of the new fast-rising stars in Japan. She seems to have a pretty large male fan-base.

Plot

Dark Moon arc

Considered to be a rising star, Momose was very excited to get the role of Mizuki Hongo in Dark Moon, partly because she gets to work with Ren Tsuruga, who is considered one of the best actors in the industry. She was also a little irked when she heard that the director himself scouted the unknown Kyoko Mogami to play the part of Mio Hongo.

However she was greatly impressed with Kyoko and became really scared when she acted opposite her, but was less than thrilled with Ren when he encountered a slump. She even went to the extent of considering Kyoko to be much more talented than Ren, since repeating scenes over and over with Ren reduced the emotional impact on the actors.

When Ren finally showed up on set for his acting test with the president of his agency, he declared that he will improvise the scene and make Momose act out accordingly. This annoyed Momose because she wasn’t the one who was having problems and she decided to get back at him for that bold statement. However, she ended up being carried away by Ren’s acting. She was quite distraught after watching the replay of the improvised scene because she set out to challenge Ren but the performance he provoked from her was better than anything she could have done.

After, she became determined to improve as an actor, going so far as to request she be allowed to ride along during the car stunt to make her acting more realistic, even though she's not fond of thrill rides like rollercoasters. Although she doesn't admit it, another reason was being both intimidated and inspired by Ren's determination to do his own stunts.

Suddenly, a Love Story arc

She eventually became friends with Kyoko. They even shared a room in the Kirigataki Memphis Hotel when Dark Moon went on their location shoot in Karuizawa. She started suspecting something happened between Sho and Kyoko when they saw each other again in Karuizawa because Sho had already visited her on the Dark Moon set in Tokyo. She questions Kyoko about it later while they are getting their make-up done, and Kyoko irritably explains that they are what one would call "childhood friends."

Itsumi wasn’t aware of what happened to Kyoko when she and the director disappeared. She believed it was what Hiroaki Ogata said: that Kyoko was found unconscious in the woods. When Sho came to see Kyoko in their room, she realized that Kyoko was missing and they called the director and found out that she was with Ren. She remained clueless about the whole incident and thinks the only reason Kyoko is in Ren's room is that Ren and Kyoko are good friends. She sees Ren's true form when Sho informs him of what really happened, but she puts it down to him being so into Katsuki's character.

Violence Mission arc

On the Dark Moon transport bus, Yashiro, Ren, Kijima, and Momose are a few of the many cast and crew on board waiting for filming to be ready. When Kyoko comes to visit Ren as Natsu, others who are on the side of the bus look out through the windows and exclaim at how mature and beautiful Kyoko looks. In the back of the bus, fellow Dark Moon cast mate Hidehito Kijima hears the description of Kyoko's appearance and asks Momose about it, who also can't imagine but couldn't get a glimpse of Natsu.

During the car stunt, Momose is screaming in fear throughout the stunt from the back seat, since she was not a fan of rollercoaster rides.

Psychedelic Caution arc

The interviewer is with Momose Itsumi and asks her which scene left the greatest impression on her. Momose says that it's a hard question because there are a ton of scenes that she can think of. After musing it over she answers that it has to be the car scene for the final episode, because she was actually in the car riding with Naoyuki (Kijima's character)(stunt performed by Igarashi).

The host asks Momose to tell the viewers more about the scene. Momose says that her scene originally had her be in a separate shot, but she begged Director Ogata to let her in the car no matter what. Momose states that it was very scary and when the car stopped, she was unable to move. The host comments Momose doesn't experience freezing up like that too often. Momose giggles and agrees.

Momose thinks that it's better that she doesn't mention the near-accident and instead covers by mentioning her dislike of roller coasters. The host asks why she requested to be in the car. Momose pauses then lies and says it's important to challenge oneself as an actress. But the truth is, she thinks wryly to herself as she walks away from the interview site, that it was because Ren had taken up the challenge of doing the car stunt himself. Momose thinks the host would have laughed at her for feeling competitive with Ren.

By the time Dark Moon wrapped, she cut her hair short. Momose says that Kyoko seems to be the hot topic of the Fuji News Channel. Kyoko bows to Momose apologizing, saying that she is the most junior member of the cast yet she stood out for being strange again. Momose tells Kyoko that it’s not that big a deal; that in showbiz, no one could really survive if they don’t stand out.

She also was in the opinion that Ren and Kyoko suited each other very much after seeing them together in the promo for the Dark Moon special. It is possible that she had feelings for Ren and envies Kyoko, based on her hesitation and expression when she and Kyoko talked to each other in TBM Studios.

Dark Breath arc

Kijima explains how he used the second wrap up party to get Kyoko's phone number. While Ren was surrounded by female groups he approached Kyoko, Momose and Airi for them. Kyoko offered her mail ID after hearing from both Oohara and Itsumi that they usually exchange contact information.

Note: this is mentioned to happen in Psychedelic Caution arc but was only shown in Dark Breath arc.

Relationships

Ren Tsuruga

Momose and Ren worked together in Dark Moon as each other's love interest. At first, Momose doubts Ren's acting skills because of Ren's inability to act as Katsuki Tachibana. After Ren's improvisation with Momose during his Katsuki Acting Test, Momose starts to think more highly of Ren and also swears that she will not fall for Ren's acting skills again. Ren becomes a goal for her as an actor, for she realizes her skills are far beneath his after the acting test. It's possible she may have some romantic interest in Ren for he does stun her with his angelic smile during the acting test and compliment her in front of everyone, demonstrating his legendary co-star killer charm. Momose also hesitated to say that he and Kyoko look good together to Kyoko Mogami. 

Kyoko Mogami

Although she initially thought that Kyoko was someone who landed roles through connections, Momose soon find her to be more talented and they grew close enough to share a room at times. Itsumi believes Kyoko to be a friend of Ren Tsuruga, which Kyoko couldn't agree with. She is usually found in the company of Airi Oohara and Kyoko on the Dark Moon set.

Etymology

• The name Itsumi means "deviate, idleness, leisure, miss the mark, evade, elude, parry, diverge" (逸) (itsu) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
• Itsumi's surname Momose means "hundred" (百) (momo) and "swift current, rapids" (瀬) (se).

Live Action

• Yi means "escape, avoid, dodge, drip, leak, leisurely, outstanding, relaxed, owing, restful, slow, unhurried, unresolved, unsettled" (逸).
• Mei means "US/USA, nice, beautiful, good, pretty" (美).

Gallery

Main article: Itsumi Momose/Gallery