Lately Netflix offered more and more Japanese movies and series and that’s fantastic for several reasons. Subtitles are always available in multiple languages, the quality is higher than 360p and it’s as legal as can be. A couple of months ago a new series appeared on Netflix; the drama show Good Morning Call, made in association with Netflix. The comedy-drama is based on the manga “Guddo Moningu Koru” made by Yue Takasuka and was published from September 1997 till April 2002 in the monthly manga magazine Ribon.
The series is about a high school student Nao and the most popular guy at school, Uehara. Nao convinced her parents to let her live alone so she could be close to her high school, after her parents moved to the country side to take over the farm of her recently deceased grandfather. However when she arrived at her new apartment there was a small issue. Uehara also rented the same apartment. The landlady said they would just have to live together and that’s what they decided to do. They both didn’t have enough money to live somewhere else and student housing was completely filled. It soon becomes clear that Nao has a thing for Uehara. However, Uehara has been in love with the wife of his brother, Yuri, for a long time, who comes over a lot and Yuri’s presence makes Nao very insecure about herself. Nao has an admirer herself, a guy she has known from a young age named Daichi.
It’s really hard for Nao and Uehara to adjust to living together at first, but as the show continues, positive changes happen in the household. They learn to live together better and they can get along better and better. They take each other into account and especially Nao takes really good care of Uehara. Uehara has a I-don’t-care-about-anything vibe around him, while that’s often not how he really feels.
Most love-dramas of course have drama and this series is no exception. There’s a lot of commotion, insecurities and awkward situations all the time because of the complex relationships between the characters. That’s a given of course when so many people like one another. This is cliché, but clichés are there for a reason. It’s entertaining to watch and it’s not hard to follow if you watch the show from the beginning. The complex relationships keep the show exciting to watch and provide enough material to always show something new.
The series is a typical Japanese series. The editing is sometimes very childish with stickers and transitions that look like they were made in Windows Moviemaker. The emotions are delightfully over the top and the actors often talk to themselves out loud. As I said before, the plot is very cliché. But all those things are very good reasons to watch this show. This show is especially perfect if you don’t really want to think too much and just want to watch something light and fun.
You sympathize as viewer with the characters and that includes their vicarious shame, sadness or joy.
So if you’re looking for the perfect sympathy series, Good Morning Call is a good contender!
Date of release: 12th February – 10th June 2016
Directors: Yo Kawahara and Takashi Fujio
Rating: 80/100
