Moriyama Mirai plays Fujimoto Yukio, a 29 year old temp worker who has never been popular with the ladies. However, one day he starts to experience moteki, a period when Yukio starts to get involved with 3 lovely ladies.The first girl being Aki, someone who he met during one of his temp assignments. The second girls is Itsuka, played by the lovely Mitsushima Hikari who is a still a shoujo and gets along very well with Yukio.
The third girl is Natsuki played by Matsumoto Rio, who was responsible for Yukio no longer being a dotei. It is interesting to note that Matsumoto Rio was Stand Up! which was another show about being a dotei. The fourth girl is played by Kikuchi Rinko but that will probably be in episode 4. Can't write too much about the girls because part of the fun is watching how Yukio got involved with them in the first place. :)
For a midnight dorama, Moteki is definitely not short on talent with Mitsushima Hikari and Kikuchi Rinko. It doesn't even look like a midnight dorama and doesn't have the sterile set look of many shows. The only indication of the budget is the running time but hats off to the makers of Moteki who have given it a movie like feel.
Moteki basically deals with Yukio fumbling around the women. The audience gets to hear Yukio's hilarious thoughts as he deals each of the women. Moriyama Mirai does an awesome job of playing Yukio. He doesn't overact too much and no matter how many stupid decisions Yukio makes, he manages to keeps my empathy because Yukio feels more like a rounded and flawed character rather than a faceless protagonist of your typical harem jdorama. There's lots of humour in Moteki such as Yukio time travelling to his previous selves and vice versa as well as two 'musical numbers' in eps 1 and 3 that just had me in stitches.
Speaking of music, they use a wide range of jpop music in this show to great effect. How the hell did they manage to pay off the licensing fees for these songs. Every episode has at least 4or 5 awesome songs while most jdoramas just have a theme song and maybe a 3 types of background music. Are the budget of midnight doramas increasing or have the producers found some way to blackmail the actors into accepting minimum wage so that more can be spent on the show? The musical number in ep 3 must have taken a long time to choreograph and practice.
Could the best show this season possibly be a midnight dorama? I don't mean Moteki is good in the midnight dorama sense of having fanservice. There is only one oppai shot in 3 episodes so far. The script is funny and interesting and I can't wait for ep 4. First must watch dorama of the season and it does have a killer intro.
got the 1st episode and it really is funny. downside is, it's like looking at the mirror. ouch! hopefully a happy ending. then it would be my future me saying, "just hold it dude!".. everything will be alright!
ReplyDeletethis show is hoot to watch.
ReplyDeleteIt's like Densha Okoto without cheese and bad acting.
Thanks for writing about this. I passed on it, because I saw it was a 19+ show, and I was afraid it would taint my purity.
Jt, you mean are have experienced Moteki before?
ReplyDeleteJung, Yukiyo is as pure a character as they come with the number of opportunities for ecchi that he passed on.
it's exactly as what my life is so far. like the one being ditched in the end. haha.. although im not 29 yet, i think there is more to come.
ReplyDeletei cant wait for episode 4. my torrent is busted.
Moriyama Mirai is so believable.lol
ReplyDeleteI was gonna sub it if nobody had subbed since I wanted to show it to my American friend who liked Saru Lock.
Good thing somebody subbed is so we can watch. :)
I'll wish you luck, jt. :)
This is one of the best dramas I've watched in a long time!
ReplyDeleteKudos to the writers and good acting.