After the drama ended in June last year, FujiTV follows up with a Christmas SP, supposedly to depict life after the fairytale marriage for the unlikely couple, Osamu and Miyuki. However, if you are hoping for a saccharine-sweet scenario in this SP, you will be sorely disappointed. Frankly speaking, I never expected this SP to be more of a recap of the drama rather than an extension of the storyline so I was really bored at the replays of significant scenes involving the couple. For viewers who have not watched the drama beforehand, I surely don't think the recaps lend much insight into the original plot and spur interest in watching the series. As such, this SP seems to be going nowhere i.e. not satisfying the needs of viewers who want to know what happened after the drama's ending and not being able to interest first-timers to watch the drama for the sake of knowing how the couple got together.
It's been six months since Osamu and Miyuki got married and they are eagerly anticipating the thought of spending Christmas together for the first time as husband and wife. Well, Miyuki seems more hyped up though. However, she has never been fully convinced that Osamu married her because he loved her and she constantly feels insecure about the possibility that he will leave her one day. Miyuki starts to worry about Osamu patching up with Yumi and dumping her in the end when she realises that they are still in touch with each other. To make things worse, Osamu is delayed at work and only returns home much later than expected thus adding on to Miyuki's apprehension. 
In the end, everything turns out to be nothing but a scare for Miyuki. There's obviously nothing going on between Osamu and Yumi and the misunderstanding stemmed from a series of coincidences which resulted in Miyuki getting the wrong idea. Of course, Osamu has to pacify Miyuki by saying something mushy to give the latter the much needed assurance. I guess this scene was meant to be on the touching side but when I saw it, I couldn't help shaking my head and marvel at how unnatural it sounds. It's not due to the fact that I don't believe there is love between the couple but somehow when you look at the two actors, it's so evident that Murakami Tomoko seems very engrossed in playing her role while Inagaki Goro feels rather detached and I'm not convinced by his potrayal of Osamu as someone who truly loves Miyuki. To date, I still have the nagging feel that Osamu likes Miyuki for her "interesting-ness" rather than love her for who she is.
In the drama series, there wasn't any kissing scene between Inagaki and Murakami. It was even rumoured at that time Murakami was quite unhappy about this because she had admired Inagaki and was waiting for this climax scene. Although they did exchange kisses in the wedding featured in the last episode, it became apparent through this SP that it was merely a camera trick and their lips didn't seem to touch at all. Well, Murakami gets her kiss through the SP but it's just a little peck on the cheek. I would have thought that there might be more intimate scenes between the two now that they have gotten married.
In conclusion, this drama SP failed to match up to my expectations. The main reason was over-emphasis on the scenes from the series and failing to describe the married life of the leads in greater detail. I'm sure this would have been what the viewers are looking for especially for those who have watched the drama. Secondly, the gap between Inagaki and Murakami's involvement in potraying their characters shows up sharply where one is obviously more engrossed than the other. Last but not least, the corny scene of Osamu telling Miyuki about his feelings outside the bathroom was more hillarious rather than touching and I felt that it could have been handled in a better way. This drama SP is much shorter than usual 2-hr SPs so if you are interested in watching how the couple addresses each other as Mu-tan and Mi-tan and acting lovey-dovey (although I'm not convinced by this unnatural intimacy), this is worth giving a shot, provided you don't mind sitting through the recaps. Otherwise, there's little reason for you to spend one hour over this.
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