I finally got started on Amachan, my first asadora after all the recommendations. Its the story of a young girl, Aki who for some reason doesn't enjoy living in Tokyo and begins to fall in love with her mother's rural hometown of Kitasanriku after her mom played by Koizumi Kyoko is called there on the pretense that Aki's grandmother was sick.
The Amachan in the title refers to female divers of the village who Aki's grandmother is the head of. All the divers/ama are in their 50s and 60s and they are a dying breed but Aki thinks that diving for sea urchins is pretty cool and enjoys hanging out with old ladies living without a fibre optic net connection.
Written by Kudo Kankuro (Manhattan Love Story, Tiger & Dragon), Amachan is a breeze to watch. It never feels like its wasting time. I've been rewatching Patlabor and that show is not made to be binged. The story in Amachan is simple and its about country life and the effects of young people leaving but it never feels contrived and the dialogue and people feel real. *cough* Umi no Ue Shinryoko *cough*
The 156 episode count is still pretty intimidating though. Can Kudo Kankuro sustain my interest for another 142 episodes about this cheery girl and the colourful cast of characters? Will the storylines become more complicated soap opera-like or will Amachan maintain its fun innocence? Why didn't the snack's business boom after Koizumi Kyoko became the mama? How the hell did the snack survive without some decent looking women?
Please don't tell me Ijyuiin becomes Aki's love interest because that is so wrong. I know he looks 18 but after years of playing Ijyuiin in Iryu, I can't imagine Ijyuiin with a high school girl. I enjoyed the 12 episodes but its way too early to give it a must watch considering how much further we have to go.
amachan is good and it moves by pretty fast. good supporting cast. fun story. it might get slow near the end but this show is actually the first asadora i was interested in. tried churasan but that was just ehh...
ReplyDeletenah you dont have to be worried. ijyuin doesnt become her love interest. since she was ignorant of it at first, then later outright rejects him.
so he gets resigned to being her first fan lol.
also the asadora after this with anne called gouchisosen has been getting pretty high ratings and has surpassed amachan in ratings. but for me the acting in that one is just meh...plus anne does not look good. i think the reason it has been doing better is because its about food. food shows always do good imo.
Yay! My first asadora too, after all the rave reviews. I think I'm up to ep 45 ish, and I still find myself humming along the opening sequence.
ReplyDeleteIt's very light hearted family show, and you can easily gobble up half a dozen episode in one sitting.
My only beef is, the show centers a bit too much around Amachan and her friend, at least for my taste, considering the solid supporting cast.
But show is called Amachan, so it's to be expected.
Having watched all of Amachan, I can say that Kankuro san manages to keep it exciting to the end. The ensemble acting is also very good all the way through. I felt sad when I had finished it and really went through an Ama-withdrawal : )
ReplyDeleteStarted Carnation after Amachan and that really helped! Carnation is among the best dorama's I've ever seen (I watched at least 250 j-dorama's in the last 5 years)! It's more mature than Amachan and very sad at times. It has a very realistic feel to it and the cast is incredible with Ono Machiko and Kobayashi Kaoru especially shining! A hidden gem in this series is Aso Yumi. She is wonderful as Itoko's mother in the background. You see her growing old in the many eps, and she really transforms to an obasan.
recommended!
Thanks for this tip, also my first asadora. Very impressed so far, better than most evening doramas I've watched over the years. Also, why has no one mentioned how cute the actress who plays Aki is?? Stunningly pretty! :-o
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