I watch a lot of dramas every season, and I should probably do something with that knowledge that’s not just reviewing the odd one or two. So here’s a snapshot of what I enjoyed, had mixed feelings on and more!
I’ve watched most of these in Japanese, but if they have English titles through licences or on MyDramaList, I’ll put those in brackets for searchability. Also, these aren’t really supposed to be reviews or anything, I’m just dumping my thoughts.
Overall Best Show: The Convenience Store by the Sea
Based on a novel series by Sonoko Machida, The Convenience Store by the Sea is a sweet story that takes place in a convenience store called Tenderness and managed by the idol-like Mitsuhiko Shiba. He’s so popular he even has his own fan club (makes for a stable customer base, I suppose!). The story follows different regulars who come to the store, all from various walks of life and suffering with some kind of problem. Through their interactions with Shiba and the rest of the staff, they usually figure it out for the better.
I do own the first two books this is based on, but I have not read them. In fairness, I only brought the second last week and the first last November when I was in Scotland for Scotland Love’s Anime, so they haven’t been here that long. I also didn’t realise when I picked this one up that it was based on those books, since the Japanese title コンビニ兄弟 is quite different to the English title.
Overall I find the quality of this one hasn’t varied much. It’s been great every single week, and although the stories are episodic, they tend to build upon one another and paint a bigger picture of everyone’s lives. Plus, there’s a passionate fujoshi out there living her best life! And Mitsuhiko is played by Kento Nakajima, who does an excellent job. (Casting an idol to play the idol-like manager – smart work, casting team). I guess Nakajima being in it meant it was a must-watch for me from the off even if it hadn’t been so good…
This one is available to stream in English on Amazon Prime Video. It is running 2-3 episodes behind the Japanese releases, but that’s not so bad, all things considered.
Didn’t Expect to Enjoy So Much: 余命３ヶ月のサレ夫 (Cheated in My Last Three Months)
This is a cheating drama, and those I usually avoid like the plague. Look, I watch and read a lot of stuff, but I don’t have the patience for 45-minute episodes of suffering every week where the end goal is to take revenge on your cheating spouse (especially in a language I am not fluent in and still learning!). Doubly so if they’re presented in a dark and gritty manner. But I tried the first episode of this anyway and found myself really invested (although it did get silly toward the end, of course).
The story is about Aoi Kosaka, who thinks he has the perfect life with his beautiful wife, wonderful son and a job he enjoys. Now he absolutely dotes on his family and is the one regularly taking care of everything; he’s a good man. But one day he’s diagnosed with cancer and given three months left to live and then learns that his wife Mizuki has been cheating on him. He’s absolutely devestated, but most importantly he’s worried about his son and what will happen once he’s gone.
I think what I liked about this one is that Aoi isn’t looking to take revenge, and the story is more about his grief and what he’s leaving behind. The show does try to make you feel some sympathy for Mizuki since she’s a woman shaped by her own troubled upbringing, and I think that helped take some of the edge off even if I feel she got what she deserved in the end. As I say, the series gets kind of silly as time goes on, but I enjoyed it way more than I expected to. It wasn’t doom and gloom; Aoi is trying bitterly to hang in there despite the odds, and he has a really strong support network by his side.
Ruined by the Ending: GIFT
It has been a while since I have felt my feelings for a show completely evaporate due to the ending, but that is where we are with GIFT. This starred Yuki Yamada, an actor I’d been interested in since earlier in the year when Mamoru Miyano was guesting on Yamada’s All Night Nippon radio show, and I’d heard a lot of good things about his work.
Gift is about wheelchair rugby and the struggling team Blaze Bulls. I knew absolutely nothing about this sport, but the show did a good job of teaching the audience. Yuki Yamada plays Ryo Miyashita, the ace of the team and someone who ended up in a wheelchair after a horrible accident. The show is both about following the members of the team and their lives, bringing on new players and helping the group grow to the point where they might be able to beat their rivals, the Sharks.
The problem is that one of the two final episodes kills off a key character in a way that felt senseless. There were other directions to take that character story. And then the final episode just feels like a total wash because not only do you have that event hanging over you, but it feels like we entirely drifted away from the central themes. I enjoyed Yamada’s acting, and the show itself was great up until the end, but this may be my biggest disappointment all year. If I do a yearly round-up, I’d not be surprised if it’s in it for that reason.
Good Use of Time Travel: Reborn
Initially I picked this up because Ouji Suzuka was in the cast and had relatively low expectations, but it was a damn good watch! We follow Kosei Neo, who is a successful IT company president but finds himself being pushed down a flight of stairs and going back in time to 2012 (it was originally 2026!) and waking up in the body of Hideto Nomoto. In the original timeline, Nomoto was supposed to die, but fate seems to have intervened, as Nomoto is the son of an important figure in the nearby shopping district that in the present day has become a wreck due to the actions of Neo’s company.
This one is interesting because Neo has a lot of regrets about what happened to the shopping arcade, and he sees this as a chance to make amends. He has knowledge of the future that he can use to his advantage, but will that be enough to change things for the better? And what about the Neo who exists in this timeline? And then of course there’s the question of who pushed him down the stairs in the first place… There’s a lot happening, but the writers juggle it well, and I found myself staying invested until the end. If I had one complaint, it would probably be that there are too many characters, at the shopping arcade especially, and they end up feeling a bit underdeveloped and flat.
This one is available in English on Netflix.
Questionable Manga Adaptation: The Flowers of Evil
I am a huge fan of Shuzo Oshimi’s work, but I do not think it is the kind of thing that transitions well into live action. I had not heard great things about the previous attempt to adapt The Flowers of Evil, so I was not overly optimistic. The only thing that made me hopeful was casting Ano as Sawa Nakamura, and now at the end… that is still the only saving grace.
The main problem is that the writers clearly do not get what makes The Flowers of Evil so compelling, and they’re trying to adapt the whole thing in 12 25-minute episodes, which isn’t enough. It’s rushed; the direction is poor, and Fuku Suzuki is really flat in the role of Takao. It probably doesn’t help that he is entirely overshadowed by Ano, who slides perfectly into the role of Sawa and gives an absolutely amazing performance throughout the show. She does understand what makes this work tick!
I would say that the first couple of episodes of this are quite bad, and then it gets better. That is not to say we’re ever really in the realm of good, but it’s certainly watchable if you’re a fan and find yourself curious about it. And in some ways I think if you’re familiar with the original work or a hardcore fan, then I’d encourage you to sit through it just for Ano’s performance. Otherwise, this is an easy skip.
Whimsical Romance: 今夜、秘密のキッチンで (The Secret Kitchen)
I wasn’t sure what to make of this to start with. It follows Ayumi Tsubokura, a former actress now married to a rich businessman and with a young child. From the outside it looks like she lives a happy life, but she’s emotionally abused by her husband and mother-in-law to the point where the only place she feels happy is in her kitchen cooking. (She actually does like cooking as a hobby; this isn’t some kind of housewife thing). Then one day a chef called Kai appears in front of her, but he hasn’t broken into her house or anything. He’s actually a spirit with amnesia; he knows how to cook and he knows his name thanks to his uniform, but everything else is a mystery. And he can only appear in her kitchen on nights with a clear moon.
After we find out he’s a ghost, I expected the whole thing to be a sad romance where they can never be together. But Kei is still alive! He’s just in a coma! (We find this out within the first 3-4 episodes, so it’s not particularly a big spoiler). Now there are other reasons these two may or may not end up together; I mean, Kei has a whole life waiting for him should he wake up, and Ayumi has her whole situation. Still, it gave the viewer hope for a happy ending, and given how awful Ayumi’s husband is, that made me happy.
A lot of the romance dramas I’ve been watching this season have been complicated™, so this is the closest we got to pure love. And I did quite enjoy the concept of Kei’s soul leaving his body and ending up in this ghost-like state; that doesn’t happen all that often. In TV shows anyway, I have seen it as a BL trope plenty of times.
No Idea If a Bad Adaptation: 時光代理人 (Link Click)
I have been told to watch Link Click before; I have not (yet) listened. And I started this drama having no idea it was based on that Chinese web series until I got far enough in to see the characters using their powers. But it was interesting, and I will, someday, watch the original.
This follows two men working at Time Photo Studios. They can use their supernatural powers to go back in time to when a photo was taken, giving them a unique way to investigate cases for their clients. But they have one rule: Never do anything that will change history. They can get answers, but that’s all. No matter what may lay in store.
I like mystery stories, and this ultimately had a pretty unique spin, so I quite enjoyed watching week in, week out. Having not watched the original, I have no idea if it does the original any justice, but unlike, say, Flowers of Evil, I think this stood on its own pretty well! It even had Shunsuke Kazama in, who I was happy to see. He’s been in a lot more shows lately after taking what seemed like a long hiatus.
Secretly a K-Drama?: 10回切って倒れない木はない (Ten Strokes to You)
Sho Aoki lost his parents as a young child and was adopted by one of Korea’s leading conglomerates. He grew up believing he would inherit the business, but after the death of his adoptive father, he’s kicked out by the family. He chooses to return to Japan, where he meets Momoko Kawase, a woman who comforted him when his blood father died despite having just lost her own father at the same time.
The problem is, their lives are complicated. Sho with his family situation and Momoko with her work as a nurse at a children’s centre and a close friend who has feelings for her too. And although Sho vaguely thinks she could be the girl he met all those years ago, he isn’t sure. Still, this is a charming romance with a dash of drama, and it felt much freer and less dramatic than a lot of the other shows I watched this season.
I call it a ‘K-Drama’ in playful fashion largely because there has been a rise in shows that incorporate Korean characters as of late and take several production cues (such as the addition of quirky sound effects) from the Korean-produced dramas. There are a number of Korean actors here and a lot of Korean dialogue, which makes sense given Sho’s adoptive family, who are a major part of the story. And since it’s not based on any existing work, I can only assume it’s another one of those that are trying to cross the boundaries and capture a bigger audience. And I have no problem with that since it’s turning out good works. For the most part, anyway.
And that, over 2,000 words later, brings an end to that! There are a bunch more shows I watched, but I think this covers everything I wanted to highlight. It wasn’t the best season since I’ve gotten so heavily into watching J-Drama’s, but it certainly had a lot of interesting ideas. Let’s see if I actually come back and do another one of these in the Summer~