Takane no Hana Episodes 1-4

Once upon a time the normal guy beautiful princess genre started with 101 Proposals and it was good. Then came Yamato Nadeshiko with the fishmonger and air stewardess.

Now we have Takane no Hana which is the result of an NTV executive who watched Kiseki no Hito and wanted to do another version without the kid and make the woman an ojousan and add high society storylines.

THE GOOD

+ Nojima Shinji dialogue. This dude is a master wordsmith. Any actor would happily do a Nojima Shinji monologue for free. I love the conversation about girls and teddy bears in episode 3 and how it ties up into the punch line at the end. Note to self: check out Kareshi wo Ron de Kaimashita after this.

+ Looks very beautiful as can be seen from screenshots. I love how the colours in this show just pop.

+ Cosplay girl always has something new each episode to look forward to.

 + I really like the 'normal' people aka Kazunobu Mineta's friends and Ishihara Satomi playing the hostess.

THE BAD

- Not much chemistry between Ishihara Satomi and Kazunobu Mineta. Not negative chemistry but nothing close to what he had with Aso Kumiko.

- I don't care about Ishihara Satomi's stupid sister or the mother sleeping the bad guy or anything to do with the stupid family. It feels like a very bad and cheesy jdorama. They should just jump off a bridge.

- I don't know where the story of the fat kid on the bike is going. I thought Kazunobu Mineta was suppose to have some special ability to deal with problem people but I haven't seen anything.

THE UGLY

- I hate the casting of the bad guy. He just does not have  gravitas and is just so fake and I just want to punch his face out.

SUMMARY

Takane no Hana aka Rich Woman Poor Man is better than Rich Man Poor Woman or was it Poor Woman Rich Man? Watchable because of Nojima Shinji. No English subs are available. Thanks to Keiko1981 for retiming the Japanese subs.