Watashi ga renai dekinai riyuu starts off by asking the audience whether they are in love, showing some random normal looking women with their attitudes towards love written on the screen. Then we are introduced to our three main characters ; Karina plays a tomboy who is best friends with a dude, Yoshitaka Yuriko is two years out of uni, looking for a job and has a lot of fuck buddies and lastly Oshima Yuko is young, very straightforward virgin.
The purpose of the elaborate introduction in ep 1 is too fold. First is to say that the three ladies are ordinary girls and asking the female audience to relate to them because apparently girls watch doramas/movies to relate to the characters and project themselves onto them. First off, if you look like Yoshitaka Yuriko and you have problems finding love, what you are claiming is an impossibility. Secondly, the whole let's talk about modern girl issues could quite possibly take a back seat to telling a good story.
I can't complain about what Renai Dekinai is. I very much want it to be watchable because its got crazy eye candy. I am so tempted right now to buy the Kurashina Kana calender. I went into this series with the lowest of expectations and so far its been pretty good. Its clearly got a high budget with cool music everywhere but the surprising thing is that this is one 'trendy' dorama in a long time that doesn't try to hard. I don't even want to go near the new Kimutaku one. If Renai Dekinai can be half as fun as Love Shuffle, I will be happy.
So far, the stories are holding up. Karina's got the best friend who's getting married plot. Hhmm, I never really bought her tomboy act which she started in Freeter though. Now if they got Yoshizawa Hitomi, that would be different. Looks like there's trouble in the horizon for Karina's best friend's engagement. Personally, I think Karina stands no chance against Kurashina Kana. Oshima Yuko has the most boring story of this girl who is too serious for her sempai. Her most important role so far has been the catalyst to cause Yoshitaka Yuriko to rethink her stance on fuck-buddies.The best storyline so far belongs to Yoshitaka Yuriko who will undoubtedly get involved with the married T.Shiraishi.
One sign of the apocalypse for me is Katou sensei from Iryu/Mrs Shiraishi on the title screen. Please do not have her move into the house and have an episode of them sleeping in the living room together bashing men for one whole episode. Actually, I wouldn't mind it if they were all wearing lingerie. Just gotta have the older woman who wanted independence and then turns around when her biological clock is ticking and makes decisions on her own.
In summary, pretty watchable and I hardly fast forwarded anything. A must watch in terms of eye candy but story wise remains to be seen. Everytime I see Oshima Yuko, I can't help thinking about the ending in AKB1/48 where after running from paparazzi, Yuko asks the player to wait for her to become a full fledged actress as love relationships are forbidden in AKB48.
Things I like about this show:
ReplyDelete1. Like you said, they spent some money on camera work. Many scenes are beautifully shot.
2. So far, all main girls have distinct social groups and story lines, though Oshima has the fewest number of ancillary characters associated with her subplots. Since she is the most blank canvas out of the 3, theoretically, her storyline can turn out to be the most interesting and shocking. And I would be curious to see how her trashy little sister would get folded into the story mix. How funny would it be if she turns into Yoshitaka Yurkio? lmao
3. Eye candies of all ages. And Kurashina has grown on me too.
One big problem with this show is lack of strong male leads. I have no doubt that this was an intentional decision by the directors. They pretty much went out of their way to cast the most lukewarm male actors possible.
If this was done to keep the storyline focus on the female, to break away from the typical pairing-up doramas storyline, I hope they have some additional tricks up their sleeves soon.
If not, I'll still watch the whole series. :-P
7.. there are seven chicks i've seen so far. even if there's five, four, 3, 2, or kana kurashina.. it's still watchable! kurashina vs another girl again? although this time it took me 60 billionth of a second to decide that kurashina wins compared to soredemo dorama girl.
ReplyDeletei agree that yuriko's character is pretty interesting. the akb48 is cute that sometimes i forgot to read the subs. and karina scares the hell out of me. she is totally different from love shuffle.
at least im certain that in the future.. i am going to finish this one.
as for kanji, im proud to at least know one called 山. haha.. i can read the anatomy and physiology book but kanji is just too difficult for me. and so i give up on that one.
hontou no renai wo shiranai ... i do not know real love ...
ReplyDeleterenai ga mendokusai ... Real love is troublesome ...
omoi (you were right), to yoku iwareru ...heavy, has often been said (about me)=> i have often been told that i am fat? ... (i am kind of iffy on this one though)
「就活中」is the short form for 就職活動 (shuushokukatsudou), or 'job hunting'.
ReplyDeleteTo asiancinema I go! ^^
er.. I meant:「就活」is the short form for 就職活動
ReplyDeleteBtw, Runaway is entertaining to watch. Ya'll should give it a go.
ReplyDeleteCompared to the usual female ensemble doramas, the male leads in this one are stronger than usual.
ReplyDeleteRunaway is fun!
ReplyDeleteHaving watched ep 05 I must say that Saki is the most interesting character so far and I'm officially a fan of Yoshitaka Yuriko now.
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