No Side Game is a rugby jdorama from 2019 made to capitalise on the Rugby World Cup which Japan did really well. Its been a while since I've watched a sports jdorama and similar to KimuTaku's Pride, its about the corporate team of a car manufacturing company.
Oizumi Yo is the bigwig from the main office who was exiled to be the general manager of the rugby team Astros with no knowledge of the game and no budget. The Astros also have been having bad results and in danger of being demoted. So you have manager and team who are both in a do or die season.
Somehow they've have managed to get the great Matsu Takako to play his wife but I guess the fact that her role is minor and she probably shot it all on a house stage over a few week had something to do with it. Still its a role that any actress could have done and to see Matsu Takako in it is a bit weird.
One good thing about No Side Game is that they have a lot of rugby players in it. Usually in jdoramas, they have a lot of idorus in them (I am looking at you buzzer beater) and everything looks so fake. It also helps that rugby is 15 on 15 so people are not so exposed.
They've got enough actors in No Side Game to do the acting but importantly is the people who play the sport to make it look real. We haven't had our first game yet but I'm pretty sure it will be decent and explain rugby strategies to the audience.
I really liked the twist at the end of episode 1 because it brings an interesting dynamic to the relationship between general manager and coach. And another thing, I don't remember watching any series or movie, Japanese or otherwise about the how GMs and coaches work together.
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