Why Kibougaoka no Hitobito might be the best show this season

WHAT IS KUBOUGAOKA NO HITOBITO?

Sawamura Ikki's wife dies and he and the kids move into her childhood house in Kibougaoka.

WHAT'S SO GOOD ABOUT IT?

1. Its a WOWOW dorama. That automatically guarantees its at least better than 70% of shows this season.

2. Its being written by Okada Yoshikazu fresh off giving us the excellent Kiseki no Hito after misfiring on Kokoro ga Pokitto ne and Dokonjo Gaeru. If I were Okada Yoshikazu, I would work exclusively for WOWOW and NHK.

3. I haven't seen kid characters this good since Suzuki sensei. Most of the time in jdoramas, kids are just there to be cute or pitiful. In Kibougaoka, the two kids feel real, not just because the acting is good but also the dialogue. They just sound like real kids with real personalities.

4. Sawamura Ikki is good as the widower who is trying to deal with loss and struggling to connect with his two kids.

5. Real family fights where they fight over stupid reasons but the fights are actually about something else.

6. Interesting and weird supporting characters.

7. There are a couple of scenes which start into encroach into the Soredemo Ikite Yuku/Woman level of 'holy shit this is so tense and wonderful'.

8. When I hear the characters speak in Kibougaoka, the dialogue doesn't feel generic. I feel like Okada Yoshikazu is really channeling the characters. I just have this feeling that he is channeling the characters in his head or maybe I'm just going crazy.

9. The cute waitress in yellow, Sumire always has something to do as a background character.

SUMMARY

When I first found out about the premise, I thought it would be a very difficult job to make it work. I can pretty much imagine the generic Fuji TV version with way too much crying but Okada Yoshikazu has written a very good human drama so far.

Like Kiseki no Hito, it is oh so close to must watch. I really want to give it a must watch because its just so good but I'll wait and see what happens in the last two episodes. Raws are available at nyaa and doramax265. This definitely deserves to be subbed.

Speaking of subbing, Juken no Cinderalla is being subbed at d-addicts and I highly recommend it if you love Medaka and Dragon Zakura.