RE: my viewing habits—
Despite feeling pleased with the quality of dramas I saw last year, I was pretty discouraged when I saw that my yearly drama count went from 34 to only 19. I haven’t been watching much lately, so I thought maybe I was becoming picky or there just wasn’t much to watch.
Looking at what I finished, I know that isn’t the case. 2017 had a lot of good dramas I missed! And looking back at my yearly roundup posts, I realized something very important… I’ve always watched dramas less dramas during school. The only time I really ramped up my viewing habits was when I was on a school break, like now.
For k-dramas I do generally prefer to watch live/normally because the series/episodes are way too long for me to ever want to watch otherwise. Seriously, when’s the last time I ever watched an OLDER k-drama? There’s a reason why I still haven’t finished Misty! J-dramas are short, sweet, and easy to finish within a day or two. So I actually think it’s better for me to wait until an extended break for me to watch whatever I want rather than feeling overwhelmed and ultimately discouraged when I end up dropping everything and watching nothing, lol.
[white_box] Spoiler free reviews on Kangoku no Ohime-sama, Totsuzen desu ga, Ashita Kekkon Shimasu, Okusama wa, Toriatsukai Chuui, Okaasan, Musume wo Yamete Ii desu ka? after the jump. [/white_box]
Kangoku no Ohimesama was like a mixture of Prison Playbook and Oceans 8, haha — bit a little more wholesome? I loved the reason why all these women came together to help the eponymous “princess”. It was really cute and I loved that bit by bit, pieces of the story all came together. I’m a Kudo Kankuro fan for a lot of reasons, but I didn’t enjoy his last drama (Gomen ne, Seishun). It wasn’t until Quartet (acting), Unubore Deka, and TOO YOUNG TO DIE (writing and directing) that he earned back some of that goodwill. This was good though. Iseya Yusuke is distracting to look at, Mitsushima Hikari can elevate AN Y TH ING, and we are so lucky to have her in dramaland.
It’s too bad Totsuzen desu ga, Ashita Kekkon Shimasu didn’t fare as well for ratings because it was actually quite cute! I mentioned this last year but I loved that the couple was mature enough to know where the other person stood; they just wanted to be together because they genuinely liked each other, and that was enough. Sometimes it really is that simple! Not for everyone else around them though, LMAO. It ain’t a romantic comedy without some interlopers! This wasn’t the most outstanding drama out there, and Ryu had to be the most PASSIVE male lead of all time, but he was good to Asuka and that’s what matters to me! And as charming as Yamamura Ryuta is, sometimes it was just glaringly obvious he lacked serious charisma/energy/range compared to his romantic rival, Kamiya (Yamazaki Ikusaburo). 😩😩😩 Despite him being way too pushy (like… too much LOL) about his feelings, I could hardly find it in myself to hate him because of what he brought to the role.
Okusama wa, Toriatsukai Chuui was a dream for me because ever since I went to Japan, I’ve ALWAYS wanted Ayase Haruka (Nami) and Nishijima Hidetoshi (Yuki) to star in a drama together after seeing them in a really cute beer ad. They were in Yae no Sakura together but it wasn’t enough! But at last, NTV delivered. The drama was pretty episodic, and ex-spy-now-housewife Nami basically went solving the problems of other housewives in her neighborhood. The structure was basic, but I appreciated that the stories and issues they touched upon were not. THEN THAT TWIST! THEIR MARRIAGE! MY HEART! I won’t say anymore though. Well, except that I am still feeling some type of way about that ending. I needed MORE! :\ Watch for Nishijima Hidetoshi, who exists to be the perfect caring husband of your drama dreams lmao. Ayase Haruka is charming as heck, AS ALWAYS.
Now that I think about it, Okaasan, Musume wo Yamete Ii desu ka? was way better than I thought it would be — to the point where I can say I give it my strongest recommendation of all the dramas in this post. It’s not without its frustrating moments, but I can happily say it’s more on the part of characters and what they DO (and good lord was the mother FRUSTRATING… and obsessive… and manipulative… LOL) and less on the part of the writing. I do wish there was less time spent on certain subplots (did we really need to focus on Taichi’s mom? NAH) and more on how we arrived to certain satisfying conclusions made in the last episode. In fact, I could have done with AT LEAST two more episodes. But I liked the way things ended up.
And shoutout to Haru; she’s by no means a powerhouse or even the strongest actress out there, but this had to have been her best performance IMO.