Papadoru Mid Season Thoughts

God, how does one even begin to explain this drama?

Watching Papadoru is like being dragged through the mud. It’s like someone attached me to a horse, slapped it, and the damned animal took off through a rocky, muddy, pit of obnoxious writing, annoying characters, ridiculous situations, and Ryo Nishikido’s salty tears. I come out of that terrible experience alive but I’m bleeding, limping, and can’t see out of one eye. Watching Papadoru is like a painful, mind numbing, experience that I can’t seem to shake after watching it.

Papadoru is a terrible drama. It’s kitsch, it’s inane, and it has absolutely nothing going for it. Of course, if you’re a Nishikido fan you’re probably eating this for all it’s worth, but for us who like Nishikido for is acting this drama does absolutely nothing but bring second hand embarrassment and misery. But, before I jump ahead of myself, let me explain what the show is about.

You see this face. This is pretty much the only face he has other than the ridiculous, holy shit what random situation I’m in now cause of my stupid ass family, faces.

Nishikido Ryo stars as himself in this drama about a popular Japanese idol in a popular Japanese boyband who, by a strike of fate, meets the woman of his life. He secretly elopes with her and is pretty content with his married life until his agency finds out. He’s then presented with an ultimatum, get divorced or retire from the industry in three months. Nishikido isn’t willing to back down and is looking at as many options as possible to make his situation work. He loves his wife, he loves his new trio of stepchildren, and he also loves his job. He’s not willing to give them up.

His agency is obviously not pleased and Kanjani8’s chief manager is doing everything in her power to push Nishikido further and further out of the spotlight as long as he continues to stay married.  This means lost job opportunities, loosing center focus in band photoshoots, and being consistently overworked to keep him away from his family. This does not mean that his family isn’t being difficult either. The two oldest children absolutely hate him, his mother-in-law has a loose tongue, and his wife is extremely passive.

Now Nishikido has to not only try to prove to the agency that he can be a “Papa doru” but that he can also be a good father and husband to his family.

….. I make it sound good, don’t I?

It’s absolute shit. Let me tell you what it’s really about,

Here, have more tears. Its okay, it’s just Yoko taking a dump on him this time.

Nishikido Ryo spends the entire drama extremely neurotic, anxious, and crying every time someone yells at him. The eldest daughter hates him so much that she slaps him, berates him, and consistently tries to make his life a living hell. His chief manager absolutely abhors the fact that he’s married and does everything within her power to make sure Ryo’s career does not advance. He has a paparazzi following him wherever he goes, trying to exploit his secrets and affairs, and Kanjani8 only pops in as eye candy — except for the 4th and 5th episode where Yasuda Shota and Yokoyama Yuu fall into ” God damn, you two are absolute cunts. ” category with the rest of the stupid cast.

Nishikido spends the entire drama kissing ass and crying when people yell at him. He’s also madly in love with his Haru-chan and acts like a 15 year old boy with a crush whenever he’s around her. Also, he throws in some weird faces and speaks in a thick kansai-ben accent that makes him sound even more nervous and anxious about his life. His family also manages to show up at all his events to fuck his life up even further. But its okay cause it’s Haru-chan.

She will fuck your life up and is a complete bitch.

What makes Papadoru a crappy, unenjoyable, drama is the the fact that they decided to make it serious. Yes, there’s comedy, but everyone approaches everything seriously. You’re left annoyed and angry rather than finding the situation funny cause of how the characters ended up in that situation. If there’s a moment where I’m supposed to sympathize with Nishikido or his family, I’m left either laughing or blocking out the drama cause it’s just so unbearable. The serious scenes are unintentionally funny while the funny scenes are just bizarre at best.

Another frustrating aspect of this drama is how everyone takes a shit on Nishikido and he just stands there crying or on the verge of tears. He just has this puppy dog look on his face that gets you angry. Why are everyone taking a dump on him? How come his bandmates are so quick to throw him under the bus? Why is his wife so fucking passive and let her children do whatever the fuck they want? Why the fuck is he even in this drama?? Is this honestly a senior debut Johnny-tier work here????

Subaru’s done with this drama too.

Nishikido’s potential is completely wasted in this drama and its fucking annoying to watch. He is such a great actor and he’s doing absolutely nothing here but be a little bitch, make funny faces, and giggle about Haru-chan.

And the chemistry between Haru-chan’s actress and Ryo is non-existant. Argaki Yui had more chemistry with Ryo than this woman. I just don’t see a marriage. I don’t feel like thse two are in love. This just seems like a fake, staged, bullshit story that’s completely awkward to watch. It’s like someone wrote a fanfic and the executives at TBS said go ahead and make it a script. Like, what the fuck am I watching here? Seriously?

Papadoru is just terrible as fuck. If I was 19 again, I might have enjoyed it, but not at my old age. I am miserable. I’ve watched more episodes of Papadoru than Strawberry Night. What the hell. I don’t even know if it’s worth finishing this drama. As a Kanjani8 fan, I’m just frustrated as hell. Fucking ARASHI got Yatterman shit and tie ins and stuff for their 10th and K8 got this craptastic drama. I can’t even right now so many god damn feels.

This review is so angry.

I’m gonna kick a baby.

Here, have more Ryo tears.