Sakamoto Yuji should be declared a national treasure of Japan. Remember when Renai Dekinai Riyuu declared that it was a true to life love story and turned out to be a boring 2D soap catering to the lowest common denominator? Remember how it spawned Kekkon Shinai? Thank the jdorama gods for putting Sakamoto Yuji on this earth to give us real characters and sweet delicious dialogue.
WHAT I LIKED
- Hamasaki not changing throughout the series but still remaining an engaging character. A real difficult tightrope to walk and Eita and the Sakamoto's writing really pulled through. It would be easy to make Hamasaki change but I'm glad they took the difficult path.
- Ono Machiko's Yuka is the Matsu Takako of 2K10 jdorama era. Yuka is the most well developed nice girl main character in a romantic comedy I've seen outside of Hayasaka sensei from KDO. You just fall in love with her character not because she's nice but because of who she is.
- Sakamoto Yuji has done it again. He is as good as Nojima Shinji in terms of rapid fire entertaining dialogue and he has the Ozaki Masaya ability to create dialogue where its more about the person speaking than the words being spoken. Lots of great moments jdorama moments especially in the last episode.
- Great quite moments as well where its just music and the facial expressions. To me this is the Love Generation of the 2K10 jdorama era.
- Maki Yoko finally showing us her moe face.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- The ratings. Average of 11.8 which is less than Kekkon Shinai!!??? WTF Japan!
- Sometimes the plot does get a bit soapie and it has pacing issues in the middle but Sakamoto always pulls it back with his great dialogue.
- I didn't really care about the Ryo and Akari storyline at the end but they're effectively the supporting characters.
SUMMARY
Must watch. Do not miss this. Sakamoto Ryuji is a jdorama god. Thank you Sakamoto sensei for Saikou no Rikon and Soredemo Ikite Yuku. I guess I am going to have to try Makete Katsu without any subs and Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien despite the fact I don't want to see Ashida Mana's face. I just wish someone had retimed the Japanese subs cause retiming is a pain.
Story had a nice ascending pace from start to finish, but it started a tad slow for my own taste. A personal nitpick is I wished they didn't include pregnancy into the story cuz it was convenient.
ReplyDeleteIf you think Ono Machiko did well here, wait till you check out Carnation. Maki Yoko made Akari's character unique, but somehow it got ruined by the actor behind Ryo, or limited by the story.
@Akiramike: have you watch Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi? It has Eita and Matsuda Ryuhei and awesome story packed altogether. I prefer Mahoro to Saikou no Rikon as the best in the season
ReplyDeleteI really liked this drama. I thought it was refreshing. I also thought it was a bit 'soapie' at times and I thought Akari sounded like a character from a Murakami Haruki novel occasionally but I still really liked this one.
ReplyDeleteAlso liked Mahoro Ekimae like ricecakestrong although haven't finished it.
The guy who wrote this was the guy who wrote kekkon dekinai otoko -- one of my favourite dramas -- so I agree he should be a National Treasure.
@sonaaa:
ReplyDeletebut somehow KDO beats Saikou no Rikon by some margin. The script was so damn smart and it has no cheesy and draggy moments
Yeah, the pregnancy was too soapie. Ultimately, this went from a 4 people dorama to Hamasaki and Yuka story.
ReplyDeleteMahoro Ekimae is on my to watch list.
KDO is an absolutely perfect dorama. I could rewatch it again and again. Saikou no Rikon is slow at times but achieves what a lot of jdoramas try to do.
Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi rules.
ReplyDeletematsuda ryuhei kinda sucks in this one and Eita seems like pre soredemo mode in this one too. its really just the short stories making it enjoyable, rather than the execution or even presence of the actors.
ReplyDeletespring seasons ain't looking too exciting either...going to check out oldie mada koi instead.
what does KDO stand for??
ReplyDeleteKekkon Dekinai Otoko
ReplyDeleteLoved Mada Koi when I saw it years ago. Wonder how it'll stand on a rewatch, not that I have the time.
ReplyDeleteAck. Last episode was the DADDY!
ReplyDeleteYes Mr. Sakamoto for National Treasure! Woot~
You should defo check out Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien - it's a must-see for fans of this writer.
LOL! Mana-chan isn't a very prominent face in this don't worry, the other kids steal the show. And there's Mitsushima Hikari(!) being winsome as always.
finished mada. the divorcee club got too irritating at the end!
ReplyDeleteSu, glad to know that they don't try to put Ashida Mana's overexposed face into every frame.
ReplyDeleteSakamoto Yuuji has written a number of good dramas indeed. I need to catch up with this one soon.
ReplyDeleteAny reasons why you refer to him as Ryuji?
Ooops, thanks for pointing that out.
ReplyDeleteJust rewatched this and it's better than I remember... maybe I wasn't paying so much attention last time around. Despite plenty of sad moments given the plot, this is one of the funniest dramas I've seen. Eita and Ono Machiko are both excellent (and hilarious). Probably the best Sakamoto drama of those I've seen.
ReplyDelete@Robert: I need to rewatch this one day because I don't remember much besides Eita getting into idorus.
ReplyDelete