Air Dates: October 17th until ?? on Fuji-TV, Thursday nights at 10:00 pm
Episode one rating- 5.6%
Main Cast:
Yuko Araki as Yurika Nanba.... 27 year old woman who can't get over her ex-boyfriend
Kengo Kora as Makoto Saito.... the ex-boyfriend who disappeared for five years
Kenta Homano as Akio Yamashita.... businessman from Hokkaido who moved to Tokyo
Minami Tanaka as Mugi Kurusu.... radio announcer from Hokkaido
Yoshiko as Hiromi Suo.... nail stylist and Yurika's best friend
Shinya Kote as Ichiro Ando.... manager of Tilolien Real Estate
Kanro Morita as Masaru Osawa.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Mandy Sekiguchi as Tadafumi Shirai.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Sayaka Yamaguchi as Sakura Marunouchi.... Makoto's current girlfriend
Shuri as Chizuru Kaga.... young OL who has a crush on Akio
Usually I run away from rom-com dramas as they've gone way downhill the past few years and can't think of the last one I viewed which was halfway decent. But have watched the first two episodes, enjoyed them so much thought I'd recap the series and this is one I will definitely finish. The whole cast is a very good one, perhaps no superstars but have seen most in other dramas and they're all quite good at acting. Surprisingly there's some videos of the show on YT which is rare for Japanese dramas, hope they don't get deleted and will have a different one for each post... on to the recap!
Yuko is the main star of the show and it's her first leading role. I've been getting into her so much lately which is one reason I decided to check this drama out and think it's her first time playing such a quirky character. She's been in almost every scene so bet 80% of the screenshots will include her. Her character's name is Yurika Nanba who is a 27 year old female who is currently unemployed. The big reason for that is because Yurika can't get over the breakup with her boyfriend.... but that happened five years ago!
All day long Yurika thinks of the man whose name is Makoto but often she refers to him as Makochi. Yurika thinks she has some sort of 'mania', hence the title of the show. Her mania is of being so consumed with her ex-boyfriend(motokare) and it's really prevented her from living a normal life. Then again not sure if Yurika knows what a normal life is for her as she's been a bit of a shut in for the past five years. However that carefree style needs to change as her unemployment benefits are soon going to end, Yurika has been applying for jobs to no avail.
Not sure what her qualifications were but seems she may have been an OL. One of her jobs ended with the company going bankrupt while another because the office president was arrested for some financial wrongdoing. Finally Yurika has been told she can come in for an interview, it was for Tilolian Real Estate.She had never worked in that line before but it's come to the point where Yurika has to accept any job that may come her way. Life may be looking up for Yurika as she was accepted on a trial basis with the real estate office where a trio of men work, there's four actually but for now Yurika was unaware of that. The other woman in the next screenshot is Hiromi, she's a nail stylist and Yurika's best friend who often gives her good advice which is ignored.
Yurika is the first woman ever to be hired at Tilolian and the men are a bit apprehensive about her. Not that they don't like Yurika but with all of the harassment claims going on these days the men were worried about a woman in the office. As you can see above they had even created their own men's club called 'PHBIH'.... prevent harassment before it happens. Yurika has assured the men there's nothing to worry about and she's eager to get started on her new career. The trial basis is for one month, she had better sell some houses or rent some apartments very quickly.
Things seemed to begin smoothly for Yurika as she met a businessman named Akio Yamashita who had just moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido. She's shown Akio many apartments, he can't decide on one that's perfect for him but it's just a matter of time until Yurika will have her first success. She hit it off so well with Akio as the pair quickly became 'friends' or at least they often went out together. Akio has admitted he also has a 'mania personality' but it's with many subjects such as food blogs. It is true Akio has a mania but not what he confessed to Yurika, the real one will be revealed to her in the next episode The following day at work Yurika noticed a fourth male's name on the agency's board, someone with the name of Fukumori.
Shortly after that who should walk into the real estate office but..... Yurika's ex-boyfriend form five years ago, Makoto Saito!!!! However he's changed his name to Fukumori as his mother had gotten married again and to honor her Makoto changed his name. To say the pair were shocked to see each other was an understatement. The other trio of men in the office quickly saw the pair knew each other but to Yurika's bewilderment Makoto simply said they had once worked together. That severely disappointed Yurika who went along with Makoto, was he so embarrassed to see her again?
Though they're in the same office Yurika doesn't work too closely with Makoto, she's at her wit's end on what to do. Once again she can't get her ex-boyfriend out of her mind, should she make the first move to reconnect or just play things coolly? Which is what Yurika did but one night it was the pair alone in the office. Not much was said about the previous five years but Makoto did start a conversation, would Yurika be interested in renting a different apartment? Is that all Makoto thought of her Yurika wondered, to become just another sales conquest of his?
That scene ended with no outcome but least Yurika had one bright spot in her life as Akio has decided to rent an apartment, she needs to rent a few more to become a permanent employee. Yurika has really become so close to Akio who is about eight years older, he's a nice gent but isn't exactly the most handsome man in the world while Yurika is very attractive. The pair easily can talk with each other and Yurika has no qualms about revealing her broken past to Akio, he's also stated he had a girlfriend but didn't go into it much until the next show.
So far Yurika just enjoys a friendship as for years she's had only Hiromi to talk to but us viewers can see that Akio is falling for Yurika rather quickly. For now that's put on hold and could it be forever as to Yurika's amazement Makoto has asked her out to for a casual dinner. She was going back and forth with herself, should she or shouldn't she accept the offer? During that scene is when we met Yurika's other 'personalities' who we'll be seeing every show. All of them are a different side of Yurika, her smart side, athletic side, party side and many more, screenshot of them is below. She uses them to discuss her life and the 'team' has decided to accept Makoto's offer of a dinner.
Final segment, will keep all of them to just four medium sized ones. This first one was just a bit longer as the show was 56 minutes in length while the rest will be 45 plus needed to introduce many characters. You can't turn the clock back Yurika discovered as the dinner with Makoto started out fairly well but ended up in shambles. Over the last five years Makoto has changed for the better as he's worked in America and has really improved his life, makes me wonder why he's just working at a real estate office? Yurika though has remained the same person, still lives in the same apartment and has done zero to improve herself over the past five years.
That brought Yurika down a bit but not as much as the some other news which Makoto had which was that he's living with a woman! We didn't meet her in this show but she's a writer and one that Yurika knows well from reading her stories. But Makoto's confession was the icing on the cake as Yurika ended the date right then and there as she quickly dashed out of the restaurant. Makoto ran after her but couldn't catch his ex-girlfriend in the pouring rain.
To stay out of the rain Yurika ducked under a building where she called her new best friend Akio. He quickly ran to Yurika's aid and brought her back to his new perfect apartment. There Yurika broke down and complained what a loser she has been for so long, all because she couldn't get over the breakup of her boyfriend. Akio assured her over and over Yurika wasn't a failure which is when he made a startling announcement.
Akio himself wasn't a 'mania person' or at least he didn't think he had the qualifications to be one. Of course he is but the truth behind it doesn't come out until the next show. To end off the pair huddled together, would Yurika sleep with a man she's only met a few times? She didn't appear to be that type of woman and they didn't but the talk has made them even closer which is where this episode ended.
That bottom screenshot opened and closed the show, it was the only time we saw Mianmi at all. But we do see her quite often in the next episode and think her role will be a medium sized yet important one. As mentioned at the top did enjoy this first show and the second episode was quite good too, recap for that is the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment