As a guestblogger for AVO Blog I thought: “It might be fun to write something completely different from a music or anime review”. This is how the idea came to me to review a J-drama and Japanese movies. I’ve become more interested in watching these kinds of genres when it comes to J-entertainment in the last few years. On top of that I’ve already watched a lot of them and I want to still watch quite a few, due to the big variety in this branche, because of this it seemed like a good plan.
The series I wanted to start off with is Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi. For those of you familiar with the anime Gintama, the plot will sound familiar. After the release of the movie Mahoro Ekimae Tada Benriken (2011) there was a drama series written of 12 episodes long, by Miura Shion who is also responsible for the movie’s story, intended to be a sequel to the movie. A few of the episodes were written with the help of directors Hitoshi One, Hikaru Kurozumi and Hisakatsu Kuroki. The revolves around Tada Keisuke, who after many events that are talked about in the movie, starts a company as benri-ya (handyman). He works together with an old classmate Gyouten Haruhiko who he meets again during the course of the movie. The series takes place after the end of this movie.
The slogan of his company is: “We accept jobs as much as possible”; something that leads to peculiar requests and costumers. Situations that sometimes lead Tada and Gyouten to astonishing, fun, emotional but also dangerous adventures. It’s not just about the work they have to do. Often there are multiple things going on in the life of their clients, for which they definitely don’t show a lack of regard, this is why they both always put in their best effort to fulfill their requests despite the doubts they sometimes have about those very requests.
The fun thing about these two characters, Tada and Gyouten, is that they are very different from one another. Tada is a responsible employee who, despite the mounting bills he keeps forgetting to pay, shows that he is a man of his word and takes his job seriously. He is usually polite and respectful towards his clients. Gyouten on the other hand is a freeloader in Tada’s house and workplace who is rude to basically everyone. When it comes to his job he does whatever he feels like doing, with or without consulting Tada who employed him. Despite all of this his heart is in the right place and he has a lot of insight in people which enables him to be able to help his clients in the right way. Although it seems like the two don’t get along nothing is less true.
This drama stars Eita Nagayama (Tada), known for among others Nodame Cantabile live action and Sunao ni Narenakute J-drama and Ryuhei Matsuda (Gyouten) who is better known for his roles as an actor in movies among which Nana Live action and Cutie Honey. On top of this there are also a lot of famous guest stars.
Personally I thought the series was a fun addition to the movie with funny elements but also serious topics. An episode takes about 30 minutes and this way the story doesn’t come across as too severe and the episodes don’t take you too much time to watch. The main characters are fun to watch and are especially not too polite in my opinion which keeps it fun.
After this series there is also one movie that is meant to be the sequel; Mahoro Ekimae Kyousoukyoku, that was shown at the Camera Japan Festival last year as Tada’s Do-It-All House: Disconcerto.
Studios: TV Tokyo
Started airing: 11th of January 2013
Number of episodes: 12
Rating: 68/100
