Kudo Kankuro is one of the best jdorama writers ever with Manhattan Love Story, Tiger & Dragon, and Ore no Ie no Hanashi and of course Zebraman. I reactivated my Netflix because the new Kengan Ashura is coming of course to watch all the new jdoramas and the first one is Rikon Shiyou yo!
Taishi Shoji (Matsuzaka Tori) is the idiot son of a politician family who inherited his father's seat in Ehima and is married to Kurosawa Yui (Naka Riisa) an actress who is famous for playing this jdorama character Mikochan. Politician husband and actress portray a loving couple but their relationship is in shambles because Shoji cheated on Yuri with a female announcer Mimata 3 years ago. However both their careers are dependent on them staying married for their success. Shoji relies on Yuri or rather Mikochan's popularity to get support and Yui relies on being seen as a model wife for her acting roles.
I have the first 4 episodes of Rikon Shiyou yo! are some of the best episodes I have ever seen. Chemistry and pacing were very good and it was so freaking funny. I loved the whole fighting all the time and then pretending to be happy for live streaming and kashikomi kashikomi.
The best was when Furuta Arata appeared as Kurosawa Yui's divorce lawyer Henry. It reminded me that the last time Furuta Arata had a comedy role where he had to say English words was the very funny Gal Circle. I was thinking Naka Riisa's acting was so awesome and everything Taishi Shoji did was funny. I was sure if the rest of the show were this funny Rikon Shiyou yo! would be one of the greatest jdoramas ever.
Unfortunately, the middle got really slow especially with the appearance of Nishikido Ryo as the pachinko artist and the show stopped being funny. Rikon Shiyou yo! became a slow serious show with extremely slow pacing. I perked up everytime Furuta Arata and Itaya Yuka showed up but that was far and few between and I was thinking what happened to the comedy for this show to become some sort of stupid melodrama?
I wished I had written about the first 4 episodes first because it would have been such a happy post but now I mostly remember how freaking slow the middle and end bits were and I just wanted to fast forward through everything. That said there are so many things comedic things that I liked like Yui's drama scenes, Taishi's ability to do the wrong thing all the time and Naka Riisa's angry Mimata voice!
Rikon Shiyou yo! started as an excellent romantic comedy and halfway became a dark comedy that was neither dark nor comedic. I appreciate that Kudo Kankuro went for it and Naka Riisa's acting is amazing but I think he should have went for crowd pleasing all the way. I appreciate the effort but meh from me overall. If you want to watch a good divorce jdorama, watch Saiko no Rikon and stay away from Rikokatsu. Now to see what other jdoramas are on Netflix.
Haven't finished this series yet but if you want to watch a better kudokan drama produced this year, watch A Town Without Seasons. Imo it's one of the best dramas this year and it's also available on disney+/hulu.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Thanks for the recommendation! Will put on the list. I think I saw something about the shooting of the show in Japanese News before. Didn't think it looked interesting but if anyone can write a good script it is Kudo Kankuro!
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