andoR

Sorry to reply to a year old comment, but because of your conversation I was able to steer clear of another one of those "if you're not ready to behave like a man, then women should take care of the household and not work in a male environment" dramas. Just wanted to thank you for that.

I was also intrigued that you said it's set in 2006 and they behave like 1986. That's probably because Japan (I don't know about other Asian countries) is always about 15 - 20 years behind when it comes to women's rights, their viewpoint of working women and what you called the "feminine movement(s)". Think about it, they only granted women the rights to vote or even have the same opportunities to go to school as men in 1947 because of an US drafted constitution. You only need to look at statistics of women in leading business positions to know how much they're behind. Japan is last out of every industrial country in that regard, and by a wide margin. I think they were at 13% in 2021 while the US and a lot of EU countries were over 40%. If you watch newer dramas centered around work with female leads, it's still pictured exactly the same in serious dramas as it was in the early 2000s. Career women are either totally looked down upon, only work menial tasks in short skirts, are simply there to flirt with the male employees and/or go on gokons every second day of the week to snatch a rich guy with a nice face. It's like this the higher the career ladder a woman climbs. And the higher she gets in a company the less she's taken seriously, especially by her bosses, the more other female employees talk behind her back that she's a hag without femininity and the more she needs help from other male colleagues or men in her private life. "If a woman wants to have a career she needs to behave like a man" is probably the most accurate message JDramas convey to this day and it's a real shame.

That's what happens when you have an adult romance drama/movie in a culture/society in which Idols (male or female) and young actors/actresses (especially female) are put on a pedestal of pureness. If they'd let an Idol do a kiss that looks remotely realistic the producers would probably get death threats from a lot of fans of the group (only talking about Japan, I don't know anything about Thai culture or entertainment).

I don't remember much about the Ghibli Anime because I've watched it 10 some years ago, but according to the synopsis it seems like this is a sequel? If yes, I'm pretty intrigued to see a live-action continuation of an anime movie.

It's a side story of Ishii Anna's character that aired after every main drama episode on the web service PARAVI. But that's all I know because it never got fully subbed, only the first episode as far as I know.

Let me say this first: If this was a KDrama it's score would easily be 9.x.
Best drama I've seen in a while. It's funny, it's heartwarming, it's sad, it's relaxing and by episode 3 at the latest you could even be envious of the main characters' friendship and the whole community in the village. Also, don't be like me and let the illness tag prevent you from watching. It's handled in a very positive and supportive way and the drama doesn't turn into a tear jerker or anything like that.
I knew Takahata Mitsuki was a good actress, but this performance elevated my personal score of her even more. After seeing her "I'm not angry face" it took me a few days to recover from the sore stomach muscles I got from laughing. And together with her two housemates they made up a perfect combo of "too serious" (Kitamura), "not one bit serious" (Iura) and "I'm just watching until the chaos is over because what I say goes anyway" (Takahata).

Sadly, everything you wrote is an everyday occurance in Japan, even today. Cheating is and always was a normal thing. It probably got better over the years with a bit of female emancipation in society (even though Japan is 20 - 30 years or more behind the west in that regard), but until a few years ago if a man cheated in a marriage it was often made out to be the wife's fault, even from her own family. It's the same with sex crimes, that's why Japan has such a low crime rate concerning assaults on women and rape, because only a small percentage of women even reports it to the police in fear of being accused that it's her own fault, not being believed or even laughed at or disgracing her family (amongst other things).
And the thing about "before these couples get married, didn't they spend time with each other? didnt the wife see what kind of a man he is?": I haven't watched the drama, but it's still normal to have arranged marriages or even "blind" marriages in Japan. If the woman turns 28 - 30 or "needs a man to support her because she's helpless on her own" or the man turns 35 they're pressured into oblivion by family and society to marry. And then they often marry without even dating or getting to know one another, not to mention love each other. Which is also one of the reasons the birth rate is steadily declining. People date and marry because "it's normal" and they have to do it, not because they explicitly want to in many cases.

Agree 100%. I liked Oh! My Boss! more and thought both dramas are a lot better than most J-romcoms because the FL can think for herself (in Oh! My Boss! more than in Koi wa Tsuzuku), but I actually started them almost at the same time and needed to put one on hold because they started to blend together in my head after episode 3. If Mone gets more roles like these she's going to become kind of a Fukuhara Haruka, only that her characters have self-respect and common sense. She's small and "I want to pinch your cheeks cute", rather than looking like an idol/model, so unfortunately it's probably the role she's going to get boxed in for a while.

Even as Kawaguchi Haruna fan I couldn't watch more than 2.5 episodes. I had high hopes because I love these stereotype breaking stories, a woman that works wholeheartedly even though she's in a relationship. It's nothing you see everyday in Japan(ese dramas), which is sad in and of itself.
I don't know how the story progresses, but for me the relationship was so toxic that it almost corroded my brain. If you look at it objectively, the ML was using the FL for anything but to wipe his butt and the FL turned braindead as soon as he made puppy eyes at her and did everything he asked for without a second thought. I don't care if it's the woman or the man or both that are working/at home, but you should at least do your share to support the other one, otherwise you shouldn't be in a relationship because it'd just be one person using the other for their convenience. And, for me, the stupidest thing of all is to just explain it away with a "because they love each other". This may be only my opinion, but if you love someone you want to support them, not drag them down or hold them back.

Love the anime and even though the 2010 movie was ok, I hope they go a bit more in depth with the drama. But let's hope first that we get fansubs, even though it's Netflix, so we can avert another Good Morning Call subtitle tragedy. The subs from that drama are the worst I've ever seen in a JDrama, they kill every nuance of a Japanese slice of life/romance story.

Try Transit Girls. It's the only JDrama about GL without the leads realizing halfway through that they were just waiting for the right guy (for real, it's the only one, at least as of 2019). It has it's own problems, but at least it's not "two girls are just in love with each other until they meet a man" like any other (J)drama that's focussing on two women in love with each other.

If you think the plot sounds interesting... watch the anime. Please. Everyone's acting is pretty bad, especially when it comes to their chemistry, both the romance and the friendship. It's like they're just reading out their lines most of the time. Pretty much the only thing the creators of the drama got right when comparing it to the anime is the bust size of Asakawa Nana. I don't want to step on anyones toes, but she should stay with gravure and maybe roles that don't require... acting (like a café waitress or something). Please Japan, just because some guy has cool looks or some girl has a lot of cleavage doesn't mean you should cast them in dramas all the time.

This was "only" my 8th Asadora, but compared to all the other ones it didn't feel like one at all to me. Even the Asadoras I didn't like at least gave me the feel of what this format's all about (at least in my opinion), discover a dream/goal and work hard to achieve it. This was more like "I have an idea I'll immediately immerse myself in until it fails or something stops me and then I'll come up with something new". Manpuku was well executed and acted, but I feel like it would've been more fitting to make it into a normal, weekly drama.
What I'll probably remember most is going to be the ever repeating dialogue of Manpei's "ah, it's a failure" and Fukuko's "don't mind, I sacrifice everything, you just do your thing".

Must have been untagged when I edited after finding some typo or other, sorry. I hope I didn't mess up the drama for you because of it.

Another failure in my quest to watch a Japanese drama about an environment of working women only without at least one of the main or supporting cast members being addicted to Goukons and/or super desperate to marry so she can quit her job. Other than that, the drama reminded me a bit of House MD, only without all the illegal methods, a female doctor as main character and a lot more unnecessary power struggle.

I think this is just Viki saying "We removed the show, so let's just use "it's not available in your region" as an excuse". Happened to me a handful of times now with different shows, sometimes even from one day to the next inbetween watching episodes. I'd advise everyone to stay away from Viki if they're not someone who binge watches whole shows in one go.

Really liked the drama, but the last few episodes were just beyond my comprehension and completely ruined the whole premise for me. To cry and agonize over someone who tormented her and basically ruined her whole youth is something I'll never understand. She didn't have one single good memory of her grandmother and after the "she physically and mentally tormented me, but that was actually a show of her kindness and love" monologue under tears I needed to skip through the remainder of the drama.

It's not really the drama writers fault. Unfortunately the majority of Japanese society still thinks marriage is the epitome of happiness, especially for women. It's one of the reasons why Japan is in last place of OECD member countries when it comes to women in leading business positions (in 2020 only 13% of all manager positions were women while it was 42% in the US, just to compare). Let's hope that the millenial generation can slowly but surely distance themselves from that view and we get less J-dramas idealizing marriage.

Loved the first 7/8 of the drama. Overall funny, but at the same time a lot of character growth all around in the more serious parts. It's unfortunate they needed to include an unnecessary and artificial romance just to have romance at all, but if you can overlook that part, I highly recommend it.

Edit after rewatching: I think this is the role model drama of why Japanese men can't get married these days. Every single guy in this drama is just telling a woman that he's going to marry her out of the blue without even being in a relationship before or thinking of asking if she even wants to first. And everyone around them seems to be totally ok with it and happy? It could've been a drama set in the bubble era when every woman just married the richest guy available without the need for feelings so she could become a housewife and I could have comprehended it, but not in 2008 - 2010. To top it off, the men who are already married are like Showa flashbacks, too. Not able to even cook rice even though they basically work from home and trying to control the decisions of their family members because of their insecurities. But the unmarried or not proposing men, as well as most of the women (at least from Osaka) are likeable and/or fun characters most watchers can probably connect with in some way or another.

Someone should either clean up the Tags or change some of the Supporting Roles to Main Roles. I almost didn't watch it because I thought it's another "naive weak female OL always gets in trouble and some guy gets to help her out of it" drama as the Tags suggest. It's the complete opposite of that, so the Tags are pretty misleading.

Super funny drama and one of the better comedy Manga/Anime adaptions.
I usually don't say anything bad about subtitles because I really appreciate the people doing them and I know it's hard work, but unfortunately the only available subs I know of are pretty bad, so, in my opinion, to really get all of the humor you either need a basic understanding of Japanese or you need to have watched the Anime.