Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu (2016)

It was okay. It definitely brought a more realistic look at what contract marriage looks like. It wasn’t as predictable as you may think. It was a bit slow but good enough to keep watching. I think most of the shows that you watch about marriage contracts I’ll have the male lead and female lead fall in love like it was just meant to be but this one gave a more realistic interpretation of what it would really look like to enter into something like that. On another note their situation with a bit different in the Internet for a more strange reason. Nonetheless it was innocent enough and not too boring. If you’re looking for something that is honestly pure in I think most of the shows that you will watch about Mary‘s contracts I’ll have the male lead and female lead fall in love like it was just meant to be but this one gave a more realistic interpretation of what it would really look like to enter into something like that. On another note their situation with a bit different in the Internet for a more strange reason. Nonetheless it was innocent enough and not too boring. If you’re looking for something that is honestly pure in heart you may like it. Nothing to extravagant. No big surprises.

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A good rom-com that is so grounded that you can build a house on it

Japanese drama love to explore weird and quirky scenarios and characters. This show is almost the opposite to that which is quite refreshing. Other than one brain explosion from the FL which set up the whole “quirky” main plot, the rest of the show is surprisingly grounded. Of course, there are some over-the-top characters like the FL’s parents, but they are largely inconsequential to the bigger picture.

If you are thinking that this show must be boring, then you are mistaken. It is actually very enjoyable and endearing to watch. This is largely because of the chemistry of the leads. They are both introverts but they are also soulmates just needed a chance to meet. With that type of personality, you don’t expect fireworks, but it is the methodical exploration of their feelings and the steady growth in their relationship that we are invested in.

The show is not without angst but the bulk of it is self-inflicted. The ML is so awkward around the FL that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry most of the time. It is just as well that the FL wears the pants in this relationship, and it is she who teased and nudged the ML out of his shell. There are other challenges which our OTP has to work together to overcome, and we bear witness to their growing attachment as a result. The 2OTP is also well written. It was not the usual fast track to romance like most 2OTP setup. It was full of uncertainties and trials. There are some really heartfelt moments with their interaction as well.

Acting is good from the pair of leads. There is an honesty in their portrayals. They don’t scream for attention, quite the opposite but watching their interaction is calming and gratifying. You just want to fan their little spark of romance; you want them to succeed. As I mentioned before, some of the support cast can be a bit loud but they provide most of the comic relief, so it is to be expected.

Actually, I stand corrected, the show can be quirky too. Every episode there is a segment where the FL would face her demons in a cartoon-y imaginary world. These segments are certainly cute and quirky. All the main characters do a happy dance during the end credits which is an unexpected highlight for me. The theme song is such an earworm.

At 11 episodes, the show is easy to binge and rewatch. There is an 2 hours special which was released several years later.
P.S. For bonus points, tell me the relationship of the leads in real life.

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Started watching this drama a bit late because I became a fan of Gen Hoshino and found out that he's also an actor.

It brought up some topics that so many people are thinking about. Marriage, Housings, Money. The arrangement between Hiramasa and Mikuri might be one of the better solution hahaha. Really recommending it as a pick me up series to watch because you won't have the time to be sad while watching Hiramasa and Mikuri trying to work through their contract. The story are kinda fast paced (for me at least since I'm used to watching K-Dramas with the minimum episodes of 12 / 16), but they tell it in a flowing way so it didn't overwhelm the audience with so much data right at the beginning.

The supporting characters around the main couple are a band of unique and interesting personalities, Yuri and Numata are my favorites...look out for Mikuri's sister in law too btw (cue to her Kabedon-ing Chigaya at their parents' house)

The awkwardness between Mikuri and Hiramasa is just too cute!! My favorite scene between the 2 of them is the one where they practiced hugging and when Hiramasa tried to hide that Cobra extract from Mikuri hahahah

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High praise for the show's blend of humor, creativity, and emotional depth

"The Full-Time Wife Escapist" is a delightful Japanese drama that blends humor, creativity, and emotion in an 11-episode journey. The story revolves around Mikuri Moriyama, a psychology graduate struggling to find her footing, and Hiramasa Tsuzaki, a single professional for whom she becomes a housekeeper. The series expertly navigates themes of societal expectations, career, and married life, presenting a fresh take on the 'Contract Marriage/Fake Relationship' trope.

The acting, particularly by leads Aragaki Yui and Hoshino Gen, is top-notch, showcasing excellent comedic timing and genuine chemistry, translating into their real-life relationship. The show's technical aspects, including cinematography and editing, are commendable, with special mention of the detailed graphics in Mikuri's daydream sequences. These elements, combined with a stellar soundtrack featuring a catchy closing theme by Gen, contribute to a rich viewing experience.

While the series is a must-watch for fans of light-hearted comedies, it requires patience for lengthy internal monologues, especially in the later episodes. Overall, "The Full-Time Wife Escapist" is a well-crafted drama with excellent writing, casting, and a thoughtful message, making it a refreshing addition to the genre.

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Delightful romantic comedy and a must watch in the contact marriage genre

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2016 Japanese romantic comedy drama with 11 episodes in season 1 ranging 45-58 minutes run time and 1 spcial in season 2 running 121 minutes. It is based on a popular manga originally titled "Running away is shameful, but useful“ after a Hungarian proverb.

First I provide a synopsis then review

Synopsis
Moriyama Mikuri (Yui Aragaki) graduated and has only been able to secure part time work. Dreading being back out in the job market, her father secures her a house keeping position with a former work associate, Tsuzaki Hiramasa (Gen Hoshino). For the first time Mikuri feels supported and appreciated by her employer so when her father decides to retire to the country Mikuri comes up with a wild plan. Hiramasa at first rejects the idea but then runs all the scenarios and determines if Mikuri became a contract wife as she proposed, they could continue their mutually beneficial arrangement while keeping up social appearances. Knowing their friends and family would not approve of their arrangement, hilarity ensues as they struggle to make their marriage seem outwardly real. Soon they discover there may be more than just a contract drawing them together.

Review

I have not watched many Japanese dramas as I found they were either way too sexualized for me or didn’t make the manga to live action transition well. This one was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed the marriage of convenience premise and that they fell in love very naturally. There were some breaks in the 4th wall moments but they were not obnoxious. It is overall a well paced and heart warming romance with many comedic moments. Highly recommend to anyone that is a fan of marriage contract and just heart warming rom coms with straight forward plots. The 2nd season special episode was actually a nice wrap up to the story. It was as well written as the main story and did not seem like an afterthought as some do.

Spoilers*
Hiramasa is very robotic in the beginning and it can be frustrating knowing how he really feels about something and watching him struggle to express it. These are big, complicated emotions for an engineer. It is enjoyable to observe his character development and they do a great job bringing the viewer in on that journey. Mikuri herself can be a little ridiculous about her emotions. I felt there were several times she misread a situation and got all spun up about it when she should have known he did not mean it the way she was taking it. But that is love which can cloud rationality. It took on some social issues like the traditional male and female roles. Japan is on a different path than the US and it is hard to watch them making some errors that US made that I think have caused problems. Mikuri wants to be equal with equal responsibilities and winds up putting a lot of pressure on Hiramasa. He learns and I think their relationship is better for it but it seems they are able to make it with one partner working and the next level is people not being able to make it and the state raises the child. They also tackle unequal treatment in the workplace, age gaps and homosexuality. To me it was interesting that the age gap was too large between the aunt and Hiramasa’s work colleague at 17 years but between the gay couple the age gap was not even mentioned. 17 years is a large gap but I don’t think, since they were both fully adults that is the only consideration. In their cases she was 50s but had a young bright personality that resulted in her fitting in with the younger crowd better than those her age. Her younger love interest, in his mud 30s, was so selective about partners that it seemed he would never select anyone his agenor close. The very things he did not like were attributes of his generation or younger. They were very compatible personality wise and it seemed if they weren’t together both would remain single. The special was also a reflection of early to mid COVID pandemic when we all though asymptomatic transmission was a thing, children were at high risk, and social distancing, masks and sanitizers were going to save us. It was heartbreaking their young family was apart but was an accurate reflection of the world at that time.

Deep Spoiler* Their chemistry in this is very real as the main couple married in real life. Gen Hishino is most famous as a singer and you can see a lot of his music videos.

#FullTimeWifeEscapist
#YuiAragaki
#GenHishino
#MarriageofConvenience

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Directionless towards the end

Leaving the spoilers for later, this series has a bit of something for everyone in a progressive sense but leaves you to fill the gaps at the end. I would love for a show to pick up from where this one left off as the show didn't resolve the issues it presented.

Spoilers:
This series reminded me a lot of the Korean drama 'Because This Is My First Life' in the first episode. However, Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu created its challenges and failed to address them by the end leaving it open-ended and that left me disappointed. It was a unique opportunity to show how couples can balance work and home if they are supportive of each other. Though the show presented the value of a housewife's role, the couple in the end seemed to reach an impasse and left the solution up to the audience to decide.

Another progressive aspect of the show was the second couple of the older woman (49) and younger man (32). However, it seemed like the director only liked to play with the idea but preferred to leave the actual romance and relationship to the audience's imagination as well. When I had lost all interest in the main couple, I was hoping something would come of the second couple but alas. A missed opportunity to tackle society's perceptions of such pairings despite both being adults.

The positives:
The main couple is cute. It is nice to see a male lead that is polite, gentle and well mannered. Just when I started feeling like wives being solely responsible for housework and cooking and should enjoy it was being shoved down my throat, the female lead proclaims that she was only dedicated to those tasks when she was being paid to do them. There was a good explanation of how women are exploited because of their love for their families and expected to give their all without any pay or appreciation of all that they do. The actors played their parts well and the chemistry was palpable and many characters were relatable.

If you're expectations are not too high and don't mind leaving things to the imagination, you might enjoy the show more than I did.

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Just WHOLESOME!!

I was expecting another romcom like "Good Morning Call" but this drama was just so wholesome and heartwarming throughout! Every single character made a huge part of the storyline and I just LOVE the main characters and how they built up their relationship throughout the episodes. Romantically. Physically. Mentally. Their communication?!? Just loved everything about it.

Ok but can I just mention - the representation?! This is one of the few dramas I've seen were you can see all sorts of representation that is just so heartwarming. A fascinating thing is how they bring different topics which can be a bit controversial in Japan, even till this day! Aswell as one of the main plot points was open discussions of gender inequality and the consequences behind it but without behing so aggressive. It was so refreshing to watch!

The ending song got me dancing along with them loll definitely my new comfort show!!

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"Dismembering the concept of marriage"

This was interesting. It made me really think of marriage in lot of ways.

My favorite moments where all the imaginary scenes where FL told the story in her head through TV programs (or other types of media references)! Also all the scenes where the FL and ML work together to get the result they want. It makes this really pop and fun.

I feel like the story itself in theory isn't that interesting, but it was written and directed really well. I kind of just watched this out of curiosity and I feel like I didn't waste my time. However this explains why I first dropped this back in 2018.

But it's really worth a watch, especially if you are in a similar moment in your life!!

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[WARNING: the rating and review I give have the possibility to be subjective due to my preference for the genres, scenes or casts]

It's funny, heartwarming and sweet. I love how awkward Hiramasa and how logical is he. I also love how funny when they're try to convincing people that they're married.

The conflict so far quite simple, just around how they’re convincing their relation that they’re married based on love, not based on contract. Even the conflict quite simple, but they take an action which more than simple, because at the beginning they’re clueless about their feeling.

The casts’ acting are great, and they have the good chemistry one and another.

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Low Self Esteem 'Pro'-Bachelor

Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu (We Married as a Job) is a solid drama and I do appreciate the effort, but it came to a point in the story for me where I dropped the show out of frustration. At many points in the drama, for every step forward in the main leads relationship, there would be 2 steps back due to the the ML's "Low Self Esteem" Herbivore Nature. At first it was fun and interesting to watch, but when it is repeated multiple times every episode, I did not see any big progression in their relationship after many episodes. Being a RomCom, I wanted to see the couples growing and improving upon each other, but I kept feeling the ML was holding back the FL and being 1 hour episodes (which is on the longer spectrum for JDrama) it became a grind waiting to see what happens next. The point where I decided to call quits was also in agreement when the FL's character said "I'm tired, let's call it quits and return to our tranquil life"...

Quick Story/Plot
Moriyama Mikuri (FL) was recently laid off and needed a new job. She was introduced by her father to Tsuzaki Hiramasa (ML) to assist in cleaning and working as a housekeeper for the ML. Later seeing how good the FL was at cleaning and being a house keeper (house-wife :P ), they engaged in a de facto contract marriage where the FL will get paid as a house-keeper and the ML being the employer. Eventually due to external factors and pressures from family/friends, the couple started to show and wanted more than just an employer/employee relationship. The "Job" relationship between the couple is very embedded in the story and narration, where most of their interaction and lines are business talks rather than a normal conversation. (It was ok at first, but became too much)

Quick Acting/Cast/Characters
- Moriyama Mikuri (FL) was recently laid off and needed a new job. She is good at cleaning and makes nice looking food, an ideal house-wive. Later on, it was the FL that took the initiative in wanting to improve her relationship and wanting more than just a standard employee. She did her best in starting to want more show of affection like wanting hug days, but is always "wall-blocked' due to the ML's timid herbivore nature. Aragaki Yui acted the character very well.
- Tsuzaki Hiramasa (ML) is an IT Engineer and needed someone to clean his house as he does not have the time nor motivation to frequently clean his place. Multiple times in the drama, the ML is called out to have "Low Self Esteem", "Herbivore", "Pro-Bachelor" and other names to show that he has little experience in relationships with women. I think part of my frustration and disappointment were due to the fixed names and images set for him, I started to feel frustrated with the writers not wanting the character to change outside of the set parameters.
- The remaining support/side characters are there as factors and pressures for the main leads to improve their relationship and become closer.

Music/OSTs
Music was nice and the ending closing OST with the characters dancing was cute.

Rewatch Value
Would not rewatch, apart from a few notable scenes.

Why my rating (8)
Episode 7 was a good place for me to stop where the main couple are currently in confusion if there is something more going on between them and the lines between employer/employee getting blurred with becoming lovers. This sounds exciting, but the drama has strung me on for too long. Most of the episodes would be first 30 - 40 minutes of build up and holding our breath to see what happens next, 10 minutes of frustration where we thought something good was going to happen, cliff hanger, then final minute of unexpected action that hooks us back in for the next episode. The drama would have been great if we are just shown the notable memorable parts, none of the filler scenes in the office and side characters bar hangout which provided nothing to the main story. My rating of 8 was my appreciation for the drama, but the story and writing was not good. Have I also told you the FL would sometimes narrate her life as a reality TV/Documentation format, which is very funny, but difficult to follow.

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Let's tick this off the list; firstly: you may be inclined of thinking this is too much like a Korean series named "Because this is my first life". No. Do not compare the two. They MAY look alike, having the same premise, but the similarity ends at the surface. Dig a little deeper like me: my happy-meter has been showing so much MORE pure, heart-warming joy after every Tuesday in the lives of our OTP in this one.

WHY I LIKED IT?
After meticulously cleaning Hiramasa's house, Mikuri procedes to cleaning up his life. Just like a perfect professional: cleaning even the sun netting on the windows, making everything spotless, she's moved on to doing some emotional cleaning, persistently pushing his boundaries of low self-esteem. I like the way the Show shows progression of our OTP, where there is no sudden change & where every thought is presented (hers especially, like a reality TV, political speak, close-up interview, or a mini-me version of Mikuri jumping up and down on a table top..).
I like how side characters don't cash with OTP, but they build up their story. Without them, their prying, their misunderstanding and being nosy, OTP would probably never mover forward. Without the meal-a-day Instagram feed, they wouldn't start speaking to each other, without a ticket none of them asked for, they wouldn't find out how much they already know one another. Rarely are the side characters so crucial to Shows dynamic.
Oh, and the OTP! The cast was picked perfectly - no wonder they received an award for BEST show. You can realte to both of them, especially Hiramasa, and I know some folks out there pick the show according to actor's atractive looks; but THIS show is all but the looks! An overly attractive leads would draw to much attention away from the tender touches the Director placed in their relatioship and interactions. Actually, to me -they are CUTE.
WHAT I DID NOT LIKE
Generally, when I decide to give something a 10, that implies there's NOTHING to dislike. No cringing, no slow pacing, no excessive drama, no post-show trauma.. only the vague thought of "I wish this ride doesn't stop" as it approached the end and we realize that, after episode 11 we'll have to get back to our regular lives.
THE MUSIC
There's a main theme, and then there's a DANCE at the end of every episode, performed by the cast. I dare you not to dance along. It's catchy, not complicated and bright (dang, like the whole show!) The sounds in this Show are done pretty well, following the scene perfectly. That said, I must admit: I'm a sap for jdrama's music scores! :)
RE-WATCH VALUE
Abso-freaking-lutely! Imagine yourself feeling a low, doubting the light in life - I tell you this: just one scene from this drama will produce so much warmth inside your chest because it's a little guiding light of joy. So: YES. This one is entirely re-watchable. I'd skip nothing!
OVERALL
Love Tuesday (watch to know why!).. and recycle. :D

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