TELEVIEWS / Lonely hearts dominate drama lineup
Wm. Penn / Special to The Daily Yomiuri
Here we go again. Another new drama season debuts next week with all the familiar characters on board--flight attendants, unmarried thirtysomethings, cheating husbands, and yakuza portrayed as basically nice guys.
Most Japanese dramas are watchable for at least one week. Then, viewers usually lose their passion for them because there is so little passion in them anymore. This quarter's Oishii Puropozu, which reminded me of the '90s hit Imoto yo but exuded only 1 percent of its passion, ended somewhat happily but with no proper proposal, no clear answer, no kiss and not even a hug. He did order some spaghetti though. Ugh! No wonder viewers are losing interest in the drama genre.
But for all of us eternal optimists, this quarter's lineup begins with Masakazu Tamura returning once again to the TBS network's Sunday, 9 p.m. slot as dear old dad in Dare Yori mo Mama o Aisu. The twist in this one is that he will be a househusband whose life revolves around his family and his wife's work.
Next up on the week-one checklist is Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (starting July 4, 10 p.m., Fuji TV network). Hiroshi Abe stars as a 39-year-old guy who has yet to find the girl of his dreams. The cast includes three strong candidates for his affections. Reiko Takashima works for the same architectural design company. Ryoko Kuninaka lives next door to Abe and Yui Natsukawa is the emergency room doctor who treats both Abe and Kuninaka.
Wednesday nights will feature yet another look at life at 30,000 feet with Arisa Mizuki as our cabin attendant in CA to Oyobi (starting July 5, 10 p.m., NTV network). Mizuki has real comic talent, so this series may provide less turbulence than the typical in-flight drama. It also adds a touch of reality to life in the skies as Mizuki will play an overworked, underpaid contract employee.
Romantic comedies and school dramas will predominate this quarter.
The networks are finally realizing we are getting more than enough dark drama from their real-world news reports. The only serious marital distress will come from Fushin no Toki: Women Wars (starting Thursday, July 6, 10 p.m., Fuji TV network). A wife will attempt to fight a club mama for her husband's affections, but even this series offers a bit of wry humor. The victimized wife is played by Ryoko Yonekura. She is usually cast as the conniving other woman, but Yuki Matsushita has the role of the other woman in this one.
Rounding out the cast are Kaoru Sugita, Kotaro Koizumi, the prime minister's son, and Junichi Ishida, who in real life coined the oft-repeated phrase: Furin (extramarital affairs) are part of the culture.
Naturally, he is cast as the best friend and accomplice of the philandering husband.
This series is likely to have a tough time in the ratings since Yonekura will be up against that other Ryoko--Ryoko Shinohara of Hanayome wa Yakudoshi (starting July 6 at 10 p.m., TBS network). She plays an aging news announcer who is assigned to a stint on a variety show, which includes a stay on a farm owned by her former boyfriend's mother. Shinohara has been ranked the third-highest female ratings draw after Nanako Matsushima and Yukie Nakama in a new book called Tarento Kakuzuke Rankingu Bukku 2006, which rates celebrities and claims to reveal how much they can command for a TV performance.
Week one ends with My Boss My Hero (Saturday, July 8, 9 p.m., NTV network) starring Tomoya Nagase as a successful but uneducated yakuza who goes back to high school at age 27. This series is loosely based on a popular 2001 South Korean drama. NTV is obviously hoping for another mega-hit like Gokusen, the ratings winner that featured Yukie Nakama as a high school teacher and heir to her grandfather's gang. Such series usually end up glamorizing gangs, but Gokusen was done with just enough silliness to make it little more than stress-relieving fun. It will be interesting to see if Nagase can do as well.
In week two of the new season, fans will be back to school again for summer sports training with the college rowing team on Regatta (Fridays at 9 p.m., TV Asahi network) and cheerleaders on Dance Drill (Tuesdays, starting July 11, 9 p.m., Fuji TV network). The latter is loosely based on the true story of the 18-member Kanagawa Prefectural Atsugi High School dance drill team, who made it to a major cheerleading competition in the United States.
The biggest attraction of week two will be the return of Misaki Ito in Sapuri, a romantic comedy scheduled for the coveted Monday, 9 p.m. slot on the Fuji TV network, starting July 10. Ito plays a commercial ad planner. We may not get a romantic ending but maybe we will at least get some insights on how commercials are made.
Follow-Up Dept: Remember last week's gripping story about the "kuwagata (stag beetle) on your nose" challengers? If you wondered why such spectacles enjoy prime-time display, the answer is simple. Video Research Co. data reveal that for the week of June 12-18, Mecha2 Iketeru (Saturdays, 7:57 p.m., Fuji TV network) was the 12th highest-rating show on air in the Kanto region, with ratings of 17.9 percent. Only 11 shows did better, and two of them were Japan's World Cup soccer matches with Australia, at 49 percent, and Croatia, at 52.7 percent viewership. All the other soccer action last week brought in lower ratings than the Kuwagata Cup.
The only other shows topping the Mecha-Ike crowd were four dramas (two of them from NHK) and five variety shows. (Two were only 0.1 percentage point ahead of Mecha2 Iketeru. When it comes to figuring out Japanese TV, all you have to do is follow the ratings.
(Jul. 1, 2006)