Wow. What a show. I can't believe Nile Perch no Joshikai was made by TV Tokyo and not WOWOW.
Mizukawa Asami plays Shimura Eriko, a career women who works at a trading company and seems to have the world at her feet. However she still lives with her mother and does not have any female friends. Eriko likes to read the diary of a housewife Maruo Shoko and one day they meet in a cafe and become friends.
Nile Perch no Joshikai was a difficult for me to watch in the beginning because the character of Shimura Eriko is very unlikeable. There is something not quite right about her but there is a depth to her character and I had a feeling the story would go somewhere interesting.
There are so many layers to Nile Perch no Joshikai. It is about the line between celebrity worship and friendship. It is about two women who do not have female friends and whether women can actually be friends?
It is about people never being satisfied and needing validation or looking down on people to feel better about themselves.
It is not often that we can find such complex characters as Shimura Eriko and Maruo Shoko. Their relationship is scary yet fascinating and when I finished Nile Perch no Joshikai I thought this is one of the rare times when jdoramas rise above being vehicles for boybands and talentos and just becomes telling interesting stories about complex characters.
Without a doubt a must watch dorama and contender for best show of the year. Huge thanks to Gabrielmpf for subbing!
I think not everyone will like Nile Perch no Joshikai can be uncomfortable to watch but I guarantee there is lots of depth for you.
It is always a good sign when the first sentence of one of your posts invokes the gods of WOWOW. Thanks for the great review... I wasn't sure about this drama but now I'll definitely be watching it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your review I will try watching it, thanks!
ReplyDelete@Robert & suppaf: I would be interested to hear your opinions!
ReplyDelete@Akiramike sure thing! Just finished watching ep1, can't wait to see where it goes from here. Glad to see Mizukawa Asami again, I got struck by her figure from the times she played the violinist in Nodame :)
ReplyDeleteJust watched all of this over the last couple of days. Thanks for the recommendation... it was an excellent drama and absolutely a Must Watch. Really great work by all of the actors involved.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was an excellent drama! I enjoyed watching it because I never knew what the
ReplyDeletecharacters would do in the next episode and the production values were really high.
Can't say I liked it though because the situations and characters were pretty much scary most of the time（￣□￣；） But very interesting...
@suppaf: The characters were scary and I think Mahiro (Koike Rina) turned out to the be the scariest character.
ReplyDelete