Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru

Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru is a series of 5 short stories built around the title which translate to me as dreams without a key. 5 women with dreams that don't go exactly as planned or something like that.

EPISODE 1 (Karashina Kana)

Nice girl meets rich kid who has big impossible dreams and she falls in love. Nice girl faces reality and abandons her dreams but still has a thing for the dreamer. The good thing is we have a couple of sex scenes and love hotel action. The bad thing is its basically about a girl in love with a hopeless dude and I didn't care about the dream part.

EPISODE 2 (Narumi Riko)

Domestic violence episode. At this point I'm thinking is this series about nice girls and their abusive boyfriends? The first quarter was pretty funny with a nice dose of dark humour and the three friends competing sexually but I didn't really care about the story after that.

EPISODE 3 (Kimura Tae)

Now this is the dark humour story I want. Insurance woman investigates fire and interesting and funny stuff happens. We get to hear Kimura Tae's thoughts and she plays such an interesting character. Recommended.

EPISODE 4 (Takanashi Rin)

OMG, really good episode. I recommend everyone just watch this story of friendship. Its a flashback story about Takanashi Rin's character Michiru and a transfer student. Rumours start about around about transfer student's mom and usually in jdoramas, its just gossip but in this story, it turns out to be true. The interesting thing is that the mothers still allow their daughters to be friends with the transfer student. Quiet a change from the 'you are related to a criminal so you must be bad' thing we usually see.

I love the scene where Michiru faces the intruder and then realises that she was the only one who didn't know. Not to forget when Michiru catches the transfer student doing what her mom does. Transfer student not acknowledging her. The sudden ending got me pissed off at the beginning but after thinking about it, its very appropriate. Not because of the uncertainty but the emphasis their friendship and their failures to acknowledge each other in the past.

I can easily see them tacking on half and hour on this and turning it into a great movie. All the episodes are 50 minutes but this felt the longest in that so much happens and you can't summaries it in one sentence.

Before I had heard of the word ahiru guchi, I knew it as the Hirosue Ryoko smile.

EPISODE 5 (Hirosue Ryoko)

Mom desperate wants a kid, gets kid but kid won't stop crying. ZZzzzz.

SUMMARY

What would have made the series better is if the stories were sort of linked. Doesn't have to be in a meaningful way but more than just hearing about the previous story in the news. Just watch ep 3 and 4. If you like love hotel action, then eps 1 and 2 are for you.