Learning is often called a lifelong process, but what is the meaning of education to someone whose days are known to be limited? This is one of the questions addressed in the new drama series "Denchi ga Kireru Made (Until the Battery Runs Out)" (TV Asahi, Thursday, 9 p.m.).
Satori (Naomi Zaizen) is a teacher hired to teach classes at an in-hospital school. The classes are for children who, due to their treatment, are required to stay at the hospital for a long time, thus preventing them from attending regular school. Satori's class contains elementary school students and one junior high-school student. Some of the students are terminal cases.
In the first episode, Satori discovers that a former student of hers now works at the hospital. She also gets her comeuppance from Dr. Suenaga (Takenori Jinnai), a physician who scolds Satori and tells her that the classes she teaches should never interfere with the treatment he administers because making the children well is the most important thing. In addition, Satori's lone junior high-school student, Kaoru, doesn't show up for the first day of class.