Dame na wataši ni koišite kudasai

I gritted my teeth and jumped into this romantic comedy even though I don't really like Fukada Kyoko. Fortunately her character was useless, so she was able to pull it off (most of the time I get the feeling she might want to quit acting, but here everything was within tolerable limits). This is not a show where the actors give you bravura performances. This is an unadulterated romantic comedy where everyone acts like people with witty dialogue, especially Fukada x Fujioka, who were the best of the series. The plot is nothing groundbreaking, but it's fairly well handled and you could almost say that the creators avoided all the clichés; if not, they at least used them well enough that they weren't annoying. Admittedly, it did have some missteps; for example, at the beginning we were served a couple of side characters who, over time, completely disappeared from the series because they simply weren't needed – the writers threw them away. Or Miura Shōhei's voice acting, which at times I disliked; on the other hand Dean Fujioka balanced it very well. For a romantic respite, this is probably the best of recent Japanese work. (26.09.2016)