Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai (2016)

Breve e dispersiva

Commedia che non riesce a dosare per niente i tempi - notoriamente brevi nei drama giapponesi che contano solitamente non più di una decina di episodi - e tende a divagare in modo inutile. La fine di uno dei primi episodi sembra innescare la miccia, ma si tratta in realtà di una falsa partenza. Si torna a riservare spazio e scene ai rapporti di lei con gli altri e di lui con le altre. Non sono tutte vere e proprie relazioni, ma comunque accenni, che coinvolgono talmente tanti personaggi da formare addirittura un esagono, al posto del classico "triangolo" amoroso.
Va da sé che la coppia principale non ha grande margine di sviluppo: ci sono dei momenti apprezzabili, ma sono davvero pochi - pochissimi - che riescono a ritagliarsi un posticino tra un episodio e l'altro. Anche nel finale si arriva a fare il focus su di loro praticamente agli sgoccioli, negli ultimissimi minuti.
E' un peccato, perchè la coppia in sé funziona anche e aveva un buon potenziale. Doveva essere il fulcro centrale della serie e invece ha preso le vesti di un contorno in un menù di troppe portate.

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After some recent disappointments in the josei department (I'm looking at you, From 5 to 9), I wasn't expecting to be blown away with this. I was pleasantly surprised.

I see this drama as Hotaru no Hikari with a sprinkle of Nodame Cantabile. There's the same sort of chemistry between the leads as in both but, unlike Hotaru no Hikari, I didn't find the lead unbelieving silly but, more like Nodame, just too kind, which some people look down on or take advantage of. When you see her for the first time, you think it's probably going to be a drama going around in circles but it's actually very direct. Kyoko Fukada is so versatile you don't know what you're going to find with her; her character, though too kind for her own good, is also very honest. Let me tell you, for a drama like this, that's actually refreshing.

But what I liked the most about this drama and the main reason I'm actually writing a review is the following: this is a romantic drama with love triangles and unrequited feelings in which none of the involved ladies take it on each other. They're not resentful, not vindictive and actually talk to each other about things other than the men in question. Heck, I even liked the relationship between the lead and her co-workers, which got developed from cliches that may have been unnecessary to something more realistic and interesting. There's a lot of ladies standing up for each other in this, I don't know if that's a merit of the manga which this is based of or not but hey, I'm so grateful.

All in all, I was faced with situations in which I thought the drama was intending to go towards a cliche and there it was, doing something else (especially with Shohei Miura's character). It's not devoid of cliches, mind you, there's a stern cold-seeming male lead saving a heartwarming cutesy female lead, but there's a lot in between I found absolutely worthy of my time.

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