Mei-chan no Shitsuji

A cheesy MESS- But worthy of love!

I must presume that only people who will agree with my review of "Mei-chan no Shitsuji" will be those of you who, much like me, grew up on Japanese dramas. If that`s so, then this little cringy gem was surely a part of your childhood. "Hana Yori Dango", "Hana Kimi" and this drama could very well be referred to as the Holy Trinity of early 2000s Japanese drama world. And if you`ve followed me this far, then you must realize why my rating is so high. And you would be right on the money. Pure, unadulterated NOSTALGIA.

Is "Mei-chan no Shitsuji" a collection of over-the-top scenes that amount to slapstick jokes and overdramatic revelations most of the time?Well yeah, it`s based on a shoujo manga by an artist whose scope of world building and character development is very, very flawed. Most of the characters, excluding the main ones, are positively one dimensional. And stereotypical at that. A womanizer, a rich heiress, a rich girl who won`t stop eating, macabre couple of misfits...check,check,check! And despite all that, there IS this sense of overall earnestness that made this drama so popular in dark, private Japanese drama circles(just kidding). And the majority of that likeability falls on our lead pair and most importantly, on the character of Mei. Her story is completely clichéd, `fish out of the water` type that became worn out even back in 2009. However, much like "Hana Yori Dango"`s Makino(a less developed version for sure), Mei is a character who was extremely amplified by the actress playing her, to the point of where she`s miles ahead of her manga counterpart. The actress Hana Eikura decided to be on her A game while shooting this drama, and brought us a character that`s sarcastic, everyman and for the most part, relatable(except for the whole falling in love with an S rank butler of a prestigious academy part). Her love interest Rihito, played by the ever so charming Hiro Mizushima, is also one most Jdrama watchers remember due to his charisma and dare I say, appropriate chemistry. Don`t be fooled by my review, it`s nothing like the chemistry level of Makino and Tsukasa(Mao Inoue and Jun Matsumoto) but it is there. Now, if I were to dive deep into the many, many flaws of "Mei-chan no Shitsuji) this review would take a nosedive into those dreadful 4s, so I`m not going to do that.

Yes, the plot is exasperatedly overdone and obvious. Yes, the situations are cringy and villains cartoonish and...Well, hm.
About that "cartoonish villains" part. Unlike vast majority of dramas dealing with this subject matter, the actual villains in the form of Shinobu, Shiori, Tami and Kanda are better than what you would expect. I remember the 12 year old me being shocked that Tami and Kanda were that blood thirsty and ready to execute their plan of getting rid of Mei when they were with her at the bottom of the ladder for such a long time. That reveal alone, albeit a bit predictable, made me appreciate the show that much more.

Be it for uncontrollable amount of love and unwarranted protection I`ve got for this blast from the past, be it for something having possession over me, I have to give this show an 8 because I still genuinely rewatch it from time to time and still have the fun of my life doing so. I`m not saying you`ll like it(in fact I`m sure you won`t) but maybe give it a try for when you just want to watch something outlandish but still fun as hell.

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I was expecting something totally different than what I watched. This show is terribly boring and dumb. FL was another super annoying character that I really couldn't root for. The 2 FL/villain was more interesting but ultimately she was the typical antagonist to the FL.

I did like the supporting cast and many of the girls and their butlers made quite the pair. Mameshibe was the only character I actually cared about and wanted to see. The good news is that this is a 10 episode series and not a lot of time was wasted on it.

There were some genuinely funny scenes, especially in episode 8 at the beginning and at the neighbors house when all the girls went to FL's small town. I also, really liked episode 5 b/c one of the characters got a chance to be a little girl and not some robot for the government.

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More absurd than expected

The reason I watched this dram was solely for the eye candy if I'm being very honest. I had no expectations when I started watching but I don't think I was prepared about the whole butler genre being a thing in Japan. The story intrigued me in the beginning but in the end, I don't think I could get past the absurdity of it all.

As it was a manga adaptation I looked into it a bit so that I could briefly compare how faithful the drama was to the source material. Unbelievably, the manga and characters felt even more shallow than the drama itself. At least in the drama Mei-chan was at least good at something and didn't feel so useless. But that is not saying much. She was insipid and whiny while having more than one guy pining for her for reasons I cannot fathom. As much as I tried I could not see the chemistry between the leads nor I felt invested in Mei-chan's struggles. Unless you're looking to watch your faves previous works, you can skip this one.

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Funny, romantic, perfect. This is my description of the drama. Like serieusly if you haven't watched it yet. DO IT RIGHT NOW!! >.<

Mei-chan is a really strong character. She lost so much but still keeps it together. She looks like a though girl but is breakable.

Kento is also amazing, he really enthousiastic and a bit clumsy but still very cute. ( don't know if that is good for a handsome gguy -.-???)

I also love how mei and kento call each other four-eyed udon and Mame Shiba. They are reallyy close.

Rihito is the hot badass guy in the story. He is a perfect butler you won't be able to find any flaws.
He also developes more further in the drama, you learn about how he really is and what he feels and thinks. This is something good because i like mysterious things.

All the classmates are also amazing, although that the acting could have been done better, it is still amazing. All bulers have a different personallity that you learn about further in the drama. All girls have different problems and find different ways to resolve it.

Of course with help from mei.

It is really worth watching, so go right now 0-0

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Me seeing Hiro Mizushima and Osamu Mukai as casts was enough reason for me to sit in front of my lappy and ''marathon'' the whole drama.......... enough of fangirling~~

It has a common storyline, that I have to admit-- The Forbidden love storyline. Although the storyline is nothing new, the plot was wonderful. The plot had a twisted feel to it, the scenes weren't predictable AT ALL (....hmmm... okay some were)

Needless to say, Mizushima and Osamu Mukai keyed into their roles wonderfully, they were really perfect for the roles. The actress was okay, this is my first time seeing her in a drama, nevertheless, she acted her role well. There were a lot of cute, random and weird moments/scenes among the maidens and their butlers, these are not moments or scenes that you what to miss out on. There were a lot of face-offs between the casts, this made the drama more interesting.

It's really worth watching.

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