Bhavna

The Ultimate LOL Role Reversal Comedy

This series is quite light hearted and funny, and the creators/director have really brought out the spirit of a manga/anime in all its strange weirdness, and I love it. I found myself thinking, there are very few shows that make me laugh out loud, even if I love many of them. This J drama is a rare gem although it goes way downhill in the last 3 episodes because of the female lead and her Debbie Downer best friend. The earlier episodes made me feel joyful just to watch it, even the intro song and their little moves they do- for some reason it makes me happy.. This is the kind of thing I can never find in the West, and why I love J dramas and anime so much. All the characters are a bit cooky and humorous, which makes them quite lovable. I love the characterization of Yamamoto’s protective older brothers acting like parents over him- it’s quirky, cute, and very anime like. Especially that 2nd older brother, the sassy cool Patisserie one Kaoru is straight out of Sailor Moon- he gives me Sailor Uranus vibes.

Hayami surrounded by an ocean of good looking men. It’s a sight for sore eyes.

I should give a 10 just for Yamamoto Chihiro and Akamine. Meanwhile, the female lead, Hayami and the actress who plays her is truly awful - a love pentagon revolving around a female lead who is not good looking and wears mom jeans style pants what on earth. I loved the show, but hated the female lead. She starts off dimensional, emotionally unavailable, and jaded like she doesn’t really care about anything including herself. And she largely remains that way from beginning to end. Shes almost in the wrong show because she’s so dull. All she has is her sales work persona. But Yamamoto is just adorable from all angles- he’s so handsome, so vulnerable and innocent, does all the physical and emotional labor, and his expressions and acting are just adorable. But there’s the whole fan/celebrity vibe in his dynamic with Hayami who he calls senpai, being 7 years younger than her, which is another detracting point from the possibility of a truly equal loving relationship..

But let’s get back to Hayami- I think she’s actually struggling from depression and a deep lack of self love and purpose. She puts on a decently happy face outside, but her house is a disaster and she eats spoiled food, doesn’t clean, or cook for herself. She doesn’t know or care how she feels about anything, and constantly lies about her feelings, and just says “I’m fine” and seems like she doesn’t care about Yamamoto, despite benefitting from his overdoing of all the chores while she just sits around taking advantage. She doesn’t care to know about their “1 month anniversary” which Yamamoto went all out preparing a feast for, and instead invites a colleague to eat the feast that was meant for them. She seems quite callous and empty on the inside like a black hole, confused, self absorbed, but not in a self loving way, but rather in a avoidant, almost narcissistically selfish kind of way. Like she doesn’t care about herself or her own feelings and doesn’t truly care about anyone else either. When Yamamoto leaves, she’s like “Oh well, guess I’ll just go back to the way I used to live,” and starts buying her usual junk. She’s a character that doesn’t really seem to change and doesn’t care either. She offers half apologies, and then runs at the first sight of vulnerability, while firmly keeping the lines of communication closed even when the onus to reach out is on her. Meanwhile Yamamoto, even though he can be a smothering mother type, puts in all the effort, and is typically the one who truly cares about her well being, while she still doesn’t care. But honestly from the beginning, Hayami never even desired to change because she didn’t think anything needed to change- it’s just what she did. She didn’t care if her house was a mess or if it was clean- the only reason she asked Yamamoto for cleaning help in the beginning was to appease her parents. But she herself didn’t care whether she ate garbage or the feast that he prepared. She literally doesn’t care about anything, except her job and maintaining the outer hollow shell. In the beginning she even says “I don’t have anything to offer you,” (except money) and that was right. Its interesting how all the men are so attracted to her outer shell, when she is so hollow and empty inside. Yamamoto makes her life easier by cooking and cleaning, like a live in maid, and asks how she’s doing. But that’s it. She made a sales presentation to Yamamoto’s brothers saying that she would make Yamomoto into a “sales God,” but did nothing of the sort, instead just drove him out while taking advantage of his cooking and cleaning. It’s a weird relationship, but if you reverse the roles, this is how many husbands are to their overworked wives. And this is how many women become attracted to hollow shells, shiny on the outside, but offer them nothing. A shell of a person who despite appearances, has low self worth , who doesn’t care about themselves or others, but is childish and selfish and just takes in the relationship, without giving anything of true value back (apart from a paycheck). To be honest Yamamoto is too good for her- but he’s drawn to her because his own mother was like that, so this is why his brothers have protected him so well, and yet the attraction to the parental wound was still too strong.

When Yamamoto goes to Akamine’s house to “do chores” (lol), Hayami ignores him for the most part, and doesn’t apologize until the other colleague (Koga) suggests it. She has no emotional intelligence, doesn’t care that she drove out Yamamoto, and then at some point drags him out of Akamine’s house by the hand just to ask if he helped her in a sales deal, and then says “I sort of miss you, and I don’t want you at other people’s houses.” Spoken like a man who tries to monopolize his wife for himself right? She says exactly that, “I want to monopolize you, but if you want to stay there I’ll leave,” and then walks away leaving him hanging and needing to do all the emotional work for her. Then she chickens out of talking to the brother/mother-in-law by saying “When I think about it, I’m not sure if I really like him.” I think she likes him and feels possessive in the same one would feel over a vacuum cleaner that does a good job. Not that she’d ever use one of those, though.

The only time where Hayami does any real work is during her birthday camp, when the brother/mother-in-law makes her chop wood, carry water, and all these chores, which is kind of funny. Other than that phase, she is kind of dead throughout the relationship, with Yamamoto having to compensate and pick up the slack.

It’s interesting how all the characters around Hayami are quite dramatic, flamboyant, and exaggerated (not to mention all fans of Hayami), although Hayami herself as the center seems to be quite uninteresting and dull in comparison. I’m not sure if it’s a casting issue but the actress who plays Hayami lacks spirit or vitality in her role compared to the others.. but then again, maybe that is part of her character in the series itself- she is truly lost- putting on an ace sales facade for the world, but an empty shell in her inner life, which is why something seems missing in her. It almost seems like she’s being dragged from scene to scene as an obligation, rather than by any inner spark or passion. It leaves a sorely lacking chemistry between her and Yamamoto or any of the other characters who are bouncing up and down the walls in comparison. They are all compensating for her dullness. But her character itself is like that so maybe it’s not a casting issue. Her focus and priority seems to be on her outward performance and appearance to the company and others, while her inner room/Self remains dirty, ignored, and unkept. To disregard one’s own house to that extent while maintaining an image of outer perfection reflects a profound lack of self care and self love. She’s often clueless about her own feelings and true needs, while her outer veneer remains impeccable. Yamamoto San and everyone else in the office who declared her as the “perfect wife material” is essentially in love with her fake outer shell, while knowing nothing of the true person, who is deeply unloved and uncared for. It’s only Yamamoto that broke past that outer shell and still continues to accept her the way she is, although he’s putting on a performance of his own in order to “earn” her love or acquire her like a toy or possession that he really wants. And meanwhile Hayami has ignored herself and her own physical and emotional needs for so long in the favor of tending to the needs of others that she has no idea who she really is or what she wants. None of this is real love so far (as of episode 4), but certainly it can go past surface superficiality. Let’s see…

I’ve never seen such an animated, vibrant bunch of supporting characters. As mentioned, Yamamoto’s brothers are unique in their characterization and lovable, even the office staff supporting characters are good looking and likable. Then there is Akamine San, the diva like villainess (almost seems like the author of the story itself, she says a line in episode 10: “Since I’m the writer, I can create one wave after another!”) who’s in HR, but her entire persona is an HR violation. With an aggressive crush on Hayami, she is quite entertaining in all her little schemes, while remaining thoroughly lovable and attractive which is rare and difficult to do in such a role. She lit up the screen every time she came on, and I was intrigued to see what facial expressions would come out of her next. The only supporting character who was rather dull was Hayami’s cafe owner friend, who was a perpetual downer. She, like Hayami lacked vitality or spirit in her role, and when I see the contrast with the other characters, it becomes very obvious. Somehow whenever I saw Hayami say “Daijobu da yo! /I’m fine!” With a facade while hiding her true feelings, it annoyed me. I guess, something about her (and her friend) is not likeable like the others. She actually seems disingenuous, fake, and inauthentic, while totally lost on the inside. She really doesn’t have it together at all in any way. Her dad captured it in the most LOL line at the beginning, “We were so worried that you’ll end up dying alone in a pile of trash!”

With all that said, the love “confession” and first kiss were actually really sweet, where for the first time I saw Hayami putting in effort (physical and emotional), not by force, but from her own inner feeling. I think the camp scene was the first turning point of the series, showing a real change in our main character. And from this point outwards (episode 6 onwards, my poor assessment towards Hayami shifted slightly.

But then episode 10 comes around and when poor Yamamoto fails an interview, but makes a feast anyways, and says he wants to continue being serious about their relationship and to get married. And what does Hayami do? Instead of being supportive of him, she acts like marriage is a shock (so what is she dating him for anyway?) and breaks up with him and says she’ll stay at someone else’s house and then goes with Koga like she has fallback options when one falls through. What is wrong with this character?! Her behavior is so irritating. Why can’t she openly communicate what’s wrong or show basic human empathy and affection instead of just breaking up when the poor guy just failed an interview. Man she’s so callous and cold. And then she can’t even do a 5 year old’s level of cooking and cleaning, that Yamamoto has to take on all the housework because she’s so useless despite her “trying so hard” and burning all the vegetables and throwing everything in the kitchen sink and messing up the house, while falling asleep in front of her laptop while the kitchen burns. And then she pouts to Yamamoto saying “I tried so hard, but it’s impossible.” And he’s wondering how she’s so awful at housework despite “trying really hard.” And of course she goes back to “let’s break up.” She’s an awful partner. She puts in zero effort and destroys everything and then breaks up without mutual consent, despite Yamamoto carrying the whole relationship. Then she goes around saying “We broke up - when she just gave up on the relationship because she ruined everything, and acts like everything is fine with her usual fake facade. Then sobs at home as if she’s the victim when she’s the one who ended the relationship and threw Yamamoto away. Then she does the usual trope of the mad dash to the airport before Yamamoto leaves and then gets there panting and puffing and says “Have a safe flight.” And he’s like “Uh is that what you came all this way to say?” And that’s it. That’s the extent of her communication skill. Shes an awful, awful character. She’s back to zero in my books. Yamamoto deserves better. Sadly his script dictates otherwise.

All the usual J drama tropes:
-Love triangle revolving around the female lead: In this case, more like a love pentagon. One of the love interests in a previously known dude from childhood or college or coworker.
-Lead has not had a relationship in a long time and acts like they have no clue how all this dating romance game works. Acts like she’s never seen a pot and pan in her life.
-As soon as love is confessed and locked down, the ex shows up with a “cut music” and echo of footsteps.
-Onsen intimacy
-An amazing job opportunity requires one to go for a training or whatever somewhere else which causes a temporary separation.
-An impeding temporary breakup over some stupid miscommunication turned catastrophic because the immature female lead refuses to communicate openly
-Backup romance prospects on the bench are called up to bat
-Some airport scene where people are running to catch the person before they go to America or (insert far off place here) for a “1 year training trip” … if they go, the relationship is on pause until a year passes by in 5 seconds and they pick up where they left off as if nothing and no one has changed.

I took off some acting points because of Haru and her character.

Hayami “is fine” after not seeing Yamamoto for 8 months and stayed busy at work. Seriously why is she in this relationship? And why is Yamamoto so “in love” with her? If he didn’t have that strong parental wound with his mother, this relationship would have ended long ago!

Rewatch value is actually a 10 for all the characters except Hayami- but since Hayami is the main female lead, I had to reduce the rating on that too.

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Ikemen Overload: Koseki Yuta is Freaking HOT!

I remember this guy from Calm Seas and Beautiful Days with you.. He was a sight for sore eyes- not only handsome but ever so charming. To me he overshadowed the main leads and I wanted to see more of him.. so luckily this series popped up.

Is the guy a sociopath to be so charming? Normally men that hot are players and toss multiple women around instead of obsessing over one. For one such man to obsess over one woman in this world means he has mental problems? How sad. Also, when someone obsesses over a person and stalks them, it’s usually because they cannot get close to them - the unavailability makes the mind go crazier- more like an early childhood parental abandonment wound. But Nishina coming close to the Fujiko San and developing a friendly neighborly relationship usually should mean this obsessive feelings go down because reality has a sobering effect- usually obsession is based on a fantasy and distance that builds as a result of not having a close relationship to that person despite the desire. But this series shows Nishina obsessing a lot even after interacting everyday with her which is rather strange. Stalking results from control issues- the person doesn’t see their object of desire in a loving way of wanting their freedom and happiness through free will, but rather wants to possess the person like an object. It’s sad. Even though Nishina is developing a good relationship with his person of desire, he still can’t let go of his secret craziness and obsession- his public person is truly sweet, but his private expressions are straight up weird.

And dude.. clean up your apartment of all the crazy photos and video monitoring equipment when you have a snoopy brother or snoopy everyone who wants to blow your cover. Why would you have all those pictures of your neighbor on the wall when they can come in any moment and it can destroy your entire relationship? If he had kept that mess on lock then no one would even know his intentions. Seriously though, if Nishima had gotten rid of all his stalking evidence and made his apartment like a normal home, then he could have had an actual serious relationship with the person he obsesses about 24/7. Why did he have to blow it by having all these pictures of Fujiko San on his wall and her popsicle sticks, strands of hair and other weird stuff? She actually liked him, and they kissed. If he had at least created the facade of being normal they could have had an actual relationship. It’s kind of annoying to watch Nishina ruin his own chances with his own weird obsession. Why obsess over photographs when you have the actual person in front of you? Even when she’s there he’s taking her pictures like a stalker or fan- like dude she’s right there throwing herself at you, why don’t you enjoy her company instead of taking sneaky pictures like a weirdo?! What is up with this dude. I want to shake Nishina and say, “She’s already in love with you, man. What the heck is your problem?”... It’s like seeking an image of the person when they’re right in front of you.

Most stalkers never get so “lucky” where the woman they’re stalking is actively in love with them. Usually the person wants nothing to do with them. But this stalker has to be the stupidest (and hottest) one that ever lived. He dug his own grave. Wait, why am I giving advice to the stalker?

Who knows but my goodness Nishina is so handsome. My rating has inflated just for his good looks and charm. Ikaemen is a real phenomenon. But seriously where are all these incredibly hot anime looking Japanese men hiding?

But what if he wasn’t young, rich, successful, and so hot? What is if he was ugly, fat, sweaty, bald, and middle aged? The stalking is still a symptom of a serious mental illness.

Speaking of stalking, isn’t most of romance a milder form of stalking? Like Fujiko san’s coworker, or the sexual harassment guy, or the many other problematic male employees. Of course Nishina is over the top but society considers a milder form of stalking to be acceptable. When the romance copilot thinks of each other and stalks them in different ways, wondering if each other is thinking about them etc. Isn’t it all the same thing? There is an obsessive element in romance too… the same possessiveness, jealousy, controlling aspect.

A really stupid dialogue in Episode 10 between Fujiko’s junior female colleague who’s aggressively obsessed with romance/sidekick and Sakamoto San, a male colleague: “You like Fujiko san don’t you?”
Sakamoto San: “it feels wrong …like I’m taking advantage of her when she’s weak”
Junior female sidekick: “huh?! Isn’t that love? Are you OK as you are? Honestly, she doesn’t see you as a man at all, Sakamoto.” - this line exposes this weird double standard where men are supposed to stalk a bit otherwise they won’t be seen as a man, but not too much otherwise they’ll be called a stalker and sent to the police. This female colleague is so annoying- she’s the one pairing people together, and then she tells Nishina she’s calling the police on him. She’s so annoying and just wants drama.

Episode 8: But why does Nishina like Fujiko so much? She’s a regular random woman and he acts like he’s never seen a female before in his life. Why is he in love with her? His back story seems to start with her- “I met her 4 years ago”- it’s as if he decided to take up stalking as a hobby and found a random female to latch onto. He’s so good looking and successful- surely he would have been approached by many women already. But why this one like she was chosen by random? It makes no sense! (More on that below)

Despite the fact that Nishina San is off his rocker, there is something innocent I see in him- like a child. It must be the actor- he’s so good. Even though his role is odd and doesn’t make sense even for a stalker (getting into a relationship with the object of desire and continuing to stalk as if he’s a distant fan), I don’t sense any pretense in the actor- it’s like he’s totally earnest in this role and it somehow makes it feel real.

Why does Fujiko San have like 3-4 men after her one after the other? It’s an interesting juxtaposition where the pursuit of romance by men is all stalkerish in some sense.

I wonder why doesn’t the series explore more of Fujiko San’s mixed feelings for Nishina San? They just make her scared of Nishina after she sees his photo shrine and then that’s it. She was in love with Nishina- why don’t they explore more of the complexity of her emotions rather than pretending she’s perfectly fine after he’s gone? Like come on man why not listen to what he has to say? And get a proper backstory from the guy like why he started this mess in the first place. Because his episode 8 backstory was nonsense where he acts like an alien that came to planet earth and decided to stalk the first female he laid eyes upon.

Ok he later explains how she talked him off a ledge when he was about to end it all. But somehow magically she doesn’t remember him at all? After seeing his face up close and hearing his voice? Would you not remember such a person in such an intense situation even if it was 4 years ago?

Then Fujiko San’s brother says something interesting, that even though Nishina San had a wall full of her photos and it was kind of creepy, it’s not like he did anything to harm her, quite the opposite actually. He was protecting her. At least so he thought until he scared her away. Now if you want to see a real stalker, the weird chubby dude who stalks her in the beginning is quite the creep. Nishina San wasn’t a harmful type- he even honestly admitted his stalking to her younger brother, but he did get carried away. It’s.. a stalker with a heart of gold? Or am I just falling for his incredibly good looks once again?

But Nishina San says something incredibly wise in the end: “I think I avoided facing myself by leaning on Fujiko.”

I started getting annoyed at Fujiko San in the end- Nishina San when takes a knife for her- gives a dying lecture stalker to stalker… I somehow wanted her to accept his feelings. I felt his pain more- the pain of avoiding myself by obsessing over another. Even though I have been in her position before, I found myself empathizing with him more.

As per Nishina San’s dad, he was always too kind since he was a kid, lacking in assertiveness. It seems he was always putting others before himself, and looking for a reaction in them- the people pleasing trauma wound from trying to please the overbearing perfectionist parent. Then as his old self died that day, it seems he took on a new unavailable “parent” in protecting/stalking Fujiko San, and lost himself again. Interestingly he was on the same wavelength as Fujiko San who was also lacking in assertiveness and pleasing the people around her, as if she had no will of her own, and no control over her own life. One has to live for themselves and not sacrificing their own will for others.

Even despite their love for each other in the end (who does Fujiko San love exactly- the people pleasing stalker version of Nishina?), Nishina San realizes he can’t keep living like that anymore and needs to build himself up in a new way and face himself and face things head on. He ends up being a former stalker with a heart of gold. He goes on to do great things building his company in developing countries, and stands on his own two feet. I believe the initial suicide attempt and subsequent stalking was a distraction for him to not face the pressures of his high profile life as an heir to his father’s company. Then he faced himself… wow this story ended up being a lot deeper than I had originally thought. My rating is going up. Omgggg I just can’t with this Nishina character I keep falling more deeply for him in each scene…

The last scene is everything- I was wishing for Nishina San to come back and have a picnic with Fujiko San once again. I cried tears of joy. Yokattaaaaa!!

P.s: is it just me or does Yabuki Nako (the actress who plays the romance obsessed junior coworker) look almost exactly like Haruka Fukuhara (Secret Mekover)?

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