Review of Kare, Otto, Otoko Tomodachi Ep 1

This drama focuses on the love lives of the Inuyama sisters Asako (Kimura Tae), Haruko (Maki Youko) and Ikuko (Kaho) but thankfully, it is not a longwinded romance tale. The pacing is rather fast and things move along quickly, given that it is shorter than most full-season dramas. The first episode gives an introduction of the characters and shows how these ladies view love differently despite being raised in the same family.

Haruko, an event planner, sees off her boyfriend Kumaki (Tokui Yoshimi) at the airport as he is a photographer who has to go to the Middle East for work. Although Haruko shows her reluctance to see Kumaki go, the moment he goes off to board his flight, Haruko actually feels that this is the end of their relationship because she doesn't foresee Kumaki coming back to her or her waiting for him. To Haruko, love is only in the present and there's no point thinking about the future.

Haruko accidentally bumps into her ex-boyfriend Yagi at the gym who is a married man now. Despite having no intention to rekindle their relationship, Haruko agrees to sleep with Yagi mainly because she feels lonely and wants to have sex while he seems to take it to mean that she still likes him.

Asako is married to a bank employee Kunikazu (Yusuke Santa Maria) and they look pretty much the picture-perfect couple. However, Asako lives in fear of Kunikazu because of his sudden outbursts of fury. Whenever he does that, he would always "compensate" Asako by buying a book that she likes which she had already read before and a copy already sitting on their family bookshelf. Asako doesn't tell Kunikazu this and can only dispose of the old copies quietly whenever this happens.

Right after attending cooking class, Asako meets up with Haruko who passes her a leaflet for their mother Yoko's flower arrangement exhibition. Haruko tells Asako to come for the exhibition and return to their family home for dinner but Asako tries to reject it by saying that she can't leave Kunikazu to have dinner alone. Haruko remarks in jest that Asako's world is now centered on Kunikazu and says that it should be fine to do it for one evening since it's been a long time since the family got together.

That evening, Asako finally summons her courage to ask Kunikazu if she can go for dinner with her family. To her surprise, Kunikazu agrees to it although Asako was expecting that he would object. During dinner, Kunikazu keeps finding fault with Haruko and Ikuko by saying that they are weird and abnormal and ends off by saying that he married Asako because she's the most normal in her family. Asako can only manage a weak smile at this remark and can't defend her sisters at all in front of Kunikazu.

Ikuko is a graduate student whose major is animal behavioural science and appears cold and aloof on the surface. Being just a junior high student when her parents got divorced over her father's affair, Ikuko cannot comprehend what love is all about. While at a group date, Ikuko is approached by one of the guys who ask her to leave the party with him. She agrees readily when he asks her for permission to kiss her but declines when the guy asks to spend the night at her place. Actually, Ikuko doesn't really care who she sleeps with but in her mind, she has this weird logic that if the guy asks her the same question by their third date, she might allow him to come to her place. To her, sex is merely a means of procreation and she sees no joy or meaning in the act itself.

On the day of Yoko's exhibition, the three sisters get together again with Kunikazu making a brief appearance to greet Yoko. When their father Shuji comes to congratulate Yoko, Ikuko wants to leave to avoid seeing him but is stopped by Haruko. The family gets together for a homecooked meal when Shuji remarks that Yoko is such a good cook. However, Ikuko says sarcastically that even if Yoko is a good cook, Shuji still went ahead to have an affair with someone else and dumped the family behind which sort of dampens the mood at the dining table.

Just then, Asako gets a call from Kunikazu saying that he can't start his dinner without mayonnaise. Asako is sure that there is mayonnaise in the fridge and directs him to find it but Kunikazu lies that there isn't. He wants Asako to come back immediately or else he can't eat. This makes Asako extremely uneasy and she finally decides to leave the gathering earlier than she would have wanted to. Although nobody else seems to have noticed it, Yoko sees how uptight Asako is but decides against asking her.

When Yoko, Shuji and Haruko send Asako off at the gate, Shuji's girlfriend Masami comes to pick him up although he seems rather displeased by her appearance for whatever reason. Masami seems uneasy at seeing how well the family gets along but tries to conceal her true feelings.

At the same time, Ikuko asks her mother and Haruko why they can still treat Shuji so well as if nothing had happened. Yoko says that they only meet a couple of times each year and since they are both old now, there is no point in treating him badly since they will only get to live for another 10 or 20 years. She might as well treat him well so that it's easier on herself rather than getting riled up when she meets him.

Asako rushes home to find Kunikazu still sitting at the dining table with his dinner untouched. She finds the mayonnaise still in the fridge and knows that he was lying to her so that she would come home quickly. Kunikazu scolds her for getting too carried away when he allowed her to go home for dinner and even smashes the cake Yoko made and asked Asako to bring home.Asako keeps apologising but Kunikazu gets so angry that he even pours the mayonnaise over Asako and slaps her while pining her to the floor.

On the other hand, Haruko goes home and finds the familiar fragrance of stewed meat and potatoes which Kumaki always makes. She is elated to see her boyfriend back after three months and pounces on him in excitement...

Haruko - "Watashi no ai wa ima shika nai" (My love is only in the present)
Asako - "Watashi no ai wa nigeba wa nai" (There is no turning back for my love)
Ikuko - "Watashi no ai wa jittai ga nai" (My love is intangible)

These three statements actually sum up the three sisters' attitudes towards love very nicely. For example, Haruko doesn't think of what her actions will lead to and simply do what her heart desires. She doesn't believe in the future and this could be due to her parents' divorce although she seemed relatively unaffected when compared to Ikuko. Looking at what happened, she might have thought that the future is so unpredictable that she doesn't bother thinking or planning when it comes to her relationship. I believe that she does love Kumaki but the thing is, she isn't sure whether or when he was going to come back so she told herself that their parting at the airport actually meant the end of their relationship, at least to her.

On the other hand, Asako knows that her husband has a problem and is being a possessive control freak who treats her violently and yet tries to soothe the pain by doing something as redundant as buying a book which his wife already read. It leaves me to wonder whether he's doing it on purpose to test Asako or simply being ignorant about what's on his bookshelf. If Asako had left the bookshelf full of copies of the same book, who knows what he might have done to her? Or if he finds that she threw his new copies away, he might have used it as another reason to beat her? The surprising thing is, Asako doesn't retalliate or show any displeasure at being treated like this and of course, this sort of gives Kunikazu "encouragement" that he's doing the right thing by punishing her. It's as if she's giving him "permission" to treat her violently but of course, the drama may explore more on why their relationship is like this as the story progresses. I don't suppose someone will "mutate" from an ordinary person to a violent one for no apparent reason but at the moment, Kunikazu looks like a total jerk while Asako is simply a wimpy victim who can't protect herself.

Ikuko is the weirdest of the lot, so far. She doesn't seem to have any emotions and simply goes with the flow according to her expectations. Frankly speaking, she has no feelings for the guy she met at the party but somehow, she isn't one to reject people who show interest in her. To her, relationships are a total waste of time. She has this idea that one day she'll probably get married to have children which is in line with what nature has in store for human beings but she has no way of giving out her love because she views her love as something intangible. Of course, this mindset seems to be largely due to the divorce of her parents and as Asako puts it, Ikuko took that very hard because she was just a teenager when it happened while Asako and Haruko were already adults then. Shuji did have an affair with Masami which led to the divorce but it's not as if Shuji and Yoko are still on bad terms or anything. In fact, the way Yoko looked at Shuji when they were at the exhibition speaks volumes of her feelings for him. She still loves him a lot while Shuji still cares for her but maybe not in the same intensity as she does. Maybe that's why Ikuko cannot comprehend why Yoko can still treat Shuji or even Masami well when they are the ones who betrayed her and caused the breakdown of her marriage.

It's rare that I find a drama which offers a lot to think about just in its introductory episode so I'll be looking forward to see how the lives of these three sisters develop. The dynamics of their family relationship will also be something worth checking out.