Zenkai Girl – A Lawyer, A Chef, and a Whole Lotta Children – First Impression
So, I’m back with a review now that I have some time to my schedule to dedicate to a drama or two. π
Wakaba Ayukawa is a high spirited, brilliant, beautiful, and determined young lawyer fresh out of law school who is trying to enter an International law firm and practice international law, hoping to one day work in New York City, make lots of money, and fly around in private jets. When she’s finally accepted into the foreign firm, Smith and Clark, Ayukawa believes she’s reached her goal — until the firm falls under due to a finacial scandal. It’s that moment where she bails on them, searches for a new law firm, and manages to score an interview minutes later.
I don't think teaching the birds and the bees to a 5 year old is wise but whatever
Eventually she meets Shota Yamada, a uneducated, poor, cheif at Hinata Sakurakawa’s daycare who happens to be the exact opposite of her: He loves children and is considered to be the “adoptive father” to all the children in the neighborhood. She learns that Hinata, her client, and Bii-tarou, Yamada’s adopted son, are very close friends and instantaneously, from that moment she hates him and finds him repulsive; while, on the other hand, he tries to make attempts to befriend her because of the relationship.
Hooray for drunken rants
One day, Hinata kisses Bii-tarou at daycare and is rushed to the hospital for her peanut allergy, and Ayukawa learns that Hinata wants to have a family and she kissed Bii-tarou because she believed she’ll have a baby for her new family. When she explains to her that babies don’t come from kisses, Hinata’s mother calls her up to warn, or yell at, her to not explain how “kisses work”. After being berated for being a virgin bookworm and told not to come into work the next day, Ayukawa goes to the local park and picks a fight with Yamada, blaming him for the reason why she was “fired” in a drunken rant.
Then, suddenly, she kisses him.
Zenkai Girl is your standard romcom jdrama. If there was a check list, the first episode would have each item covered –
β Tsundere Female, if lead
β Bumbling poor guy with a nice guy, if support
β Three drunken friends
β The creeper coworker
β The douchebag boss
β The playboy that the Tsundere female falls for that ends up breaking her heart by episode 5.
β The nice girl/best friend
β The quirky teacher/police officer
β The awkward/spontaneous first kiss
β Shoving class in poor guy’s face to remind him of his place in society
Let's not forget the obligatory " look into a desolate future " daydream
This drama is another case of the ” I’ve seen it before(s)”. There’s nothing original here and you pretty much know what direction the show is going to go in by the 15 minute mark. The tsundere independant woman ends up falling in love with the bumbling idiot and mellows out. They hook up and either start dating or getting married by the end of the series, not withstanding the mid season break up. Other minor characters also have some awakenings and chill out as well.
But while this cliche plotline has been done so many times that the horse is now the meat at your local Taco Bell, it is to be said that there is a refreshing quality that makes it enjoyable to watch: an interesting and likeable cast; something that romcoms tend to either miss completely or hit it on the mark. And when a diverse cast is pretty much the only element needed to sell a successful Japanese romcom drama these days, the cast either becomes the making or breaking factor of the whole drama.
I think everyone wanted to have a mental image of Ryo breast feeding. Right? No? Let's move along then.
Zenkai Girl, luckily enough, has that element despite the fact that i have seen every actor play these roles before in previous dramas. I’ve only seen Aragaki Yui play tsundere-characters, I’ve seen Nishikido Ryo play the idiotic pretty boy before, I’ve seen the cute little boy and cute little girl before, I’ve seen Sato Jiro play the creeper, etc; so it’s not like they’re coming to the table with something new… What eventually needs to come into play is the natural flow between everyone and how well they can sell the story.
And for some reason, it works.
Now, I’m not a big Aragaki Yui fan. She can’t sing, her voice annoys me, and I find her very average — another face of “Japanese beauties” that pretty much can be compared to a plank of wood when it comes to “talent” — but I found her pleasant enough in this role that I enjoyed her tsundere, no nonsense, character. Aragaki manages to make her inner struggle of a poor girl turned lawyer on a quest of financial stability believable and not a hookey cliche common in every other “coming-up-through-the-ranks” story. She’s natural, or as natural as you can get in a Japanese drama, and it’s pleasant to see a female character mold into her character rather than watching the actress trying to have the character conform for her.
A common annoyance in Japanese dramas as of late.
Shotgun wedding. Maternity Leave. Divorce. All valid excuses to not take care of your kid.
I’ve been constantly critical of Nishikdio Ryo’s acting skills since I’ve started blogging about him and his dramas 3 years ago. He is one of those actors who either slam dunks his role or totally misses the mark and in this drama it seems that he’s either hitting his mark or completely off of it. In some scenes, you see “Yamada” come out and in other scenes you see an “amped up Ryo Nishikido” in place. One scene in particular was bothersome to watch, when you see Yamada at his place of work, but Ryo completely overacts the scene.
His problem is that he’s taking care of a child that his ex-wife left him with from another marriage so Nishikido’s character isn’t going to grow and I’m not expecting it to. He’s going to be the “Maniac Pixie Dream Boy” to bring Aragaki’s character back down to Earth. I mean, he’s pretty much Kidou from JOKER, except without the quench for bloody revenge. The only difference is that his lovely item is a 5 year old boy rather than a 9mm semi automatic.
Setting up the scene.
Zenkai Girl can either go up or down from here. Looking at the Character Relationship map, there’s going to be your a-typical love triangle/quadrangle, and with the backstory presented for Yamada and Ayukawa, a lot of emotional scars to get over. So, either the writers flesh out the situations naturally or camp it up and send this drama down a hill of shit with the rest that have came before it within these last five years.
I’m interested in this show but I’m not optimistic. Hopefully it’ll only get better — hopefully. Romcoms are not my cup of tea.
Though the real burning question to all of this is: Why do they keep pairing up with women taller than him? π