Doesn't everybody want somebody who understands their true inner self? For some, it's a spouse, for others, a friend; for others still, it's Mom. Some, however — and not all under the age of 5 — have this meeting of minds and hearts with a figment of their imaginations.
One such person is Kie Hirano (Haruka Ayase), an average OL ("office lady" or female clerk) in a large company and the heroine of Masato Hijikata's cute, if predictable rom-com "The Kodai Family" ("Kodaike no Hitobito"). An inveterate daydreamer, Kie has tete-a-tetes inside her head with a white-bearded gnome who is always ready with a question or a quip. But he is only one of a cast of characters that populate her woolgatherings that include a portly mustachioed villain who, together with a gang of clones, comically tries to do her in, until she is rescued by a dreamboat with a flesh-and-blood existence in the real world.
Her "hero" is Mitsumasa Kodai (Takumi Saito), a tall, handsome, well-bred scion of the fabulously wealthy Kodai clan, whose recently deceased grandfather founded the company. Known to swooning OLs as the "prince," he glides through corporate halls like a being apart, with a strained smile on his face. Then, seemingly out of the blue, Mitsumasa begins to woo the tongue-tied, if furiously fantasizing, Kie, responding to her inner doubts and objections as though he were reading her mind.