Season: Summer 2022
Broadcast by: Kansai TV
Rating: 8.5/10
Recommended for: those who like to watch renovation shows and slice-of-life romantic comedies as well as fans of Haru & Mamiya Shotaro
Liked:
- The better-than-expected story: although the format of each episode is the same i.e. solving the problems faced by customers through renovation, the underlying story of Koume, Gennosuke and the people at Marufuku "renovating" their lives and solving the issues they had was presented in a very heartwarming manner that made these characters really endearing and easy to empathise with. I found myself rooting for Koume and Gennosuke in particular which is surprisingly rare for me of late because there were many love stories I watched where I couldn't care less whether the main couple got together or not.
- The acting from the cast especially Haru and Mamiya Shotaro - to be honest, I have not really taken to Haru's acting in love stories so far because I always had a nagging feeling that she hadn't fully immersed herself in these roles and it felt so much like forcing herself to "love" someone on screen. Maybe it has to do with her cool demeanour which can come off as icy at times and somewhat emotionless even though the stories may require her to show the excitement and dizziness of someone in love. However, her collaboration with Mamiya this time felt really natural and the interactions between them flowed so smoothly that it was easy to picture them as a couple in the drama. Mamiya also managed to show the adorable and somewhat pitiful sides of Gennosuke so well that it was hard not to like him despite his "not-so brilliant" track record in his love life.
- The amount of effort put in to showcase the before-and-after changes - usually for such shows, I wouldn't be surprised if the "after" scenes would be presented in drawings or 3D simulations. However, to see the proposed designs come to life and how the customers could improve their lives through renovation (sometimes, they were just minor tweaks only) was very interesting and made the ending credits a must-see in every episode. I wonder how much money they had to spend to make these for every episode?
Disliked:
- The slight hiccup before the last episode where Koume had to leave Marufuku for a while in order to protect the people there - I felt that it wasn't that much of an issue in the first place and could have been ironed out by talking things through and dealing with the problem directly. Of course, in dramaland, such things don't happen since there must be a conflict to lead to a resolution and ultimately the climax.
- The so-called conflict between Kuranosuke and Arikawa was rather underwhelming. I was expecting something major but it turned out to be quite meh? I get it that Arikawa felt betrayed by Kuranosuke quitting from the company and leaving him to face the music when they screwed up but then, instead of wallowing in self pity and wasting energy on trying to snatch business from Marufuku, there could have been other things Arikawa could do. However, I guess the kind of atmosphere that this drama created didn't allow for overly dramatic or extreme developments so this would have to do given the constraints.
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