Title: Yutori desuga nani ka / ゆとりですがなにか
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who are in the mood for a nice blend of light-hearted humour and serious life issues featuring great acting and lovable characters and/or are fans of the cast
Liked:
- While the story featured three guys who went through education in the yutori era, it was actually easy to empathise with their experiences and struggles because these are actually common themes across generations. For example, when we were younger, our predecessors probably also saw us being self-entitled and our behaviours incomprehensible to them. When it was our turn to be the seniors, we may have also felt the same way towards the later generations which came after us. As such, seeing how the yutori generation felt blamed and wronged by assumptions made about them and their struggles in life, it was actually more relatable and engaging to watch than I initially expected. Although some of the issues featured were a bit heavy, the light-hearted touch to projecting these topics made this drama a lot more palatable while not sacrificing the seriousness angle.
- The acting from the cast was definitely top-notch with the three male leads delivering such brilliant performances. I especially liked the trio's chemistry as their "friendship" developed due to odd circumstances and it really came across that they had a close relationship with one another. While there may have been less than desirable traits about these characters, you would find it hard to dislike them and I would dare say, they were so endearing and adorable to watch onscreen.
The pairings with the ladies in their lives were also very interesting. In particular, Okada Masaki and Ando Sakura were really good as an on-and-off couple and the wedding scene towards the end was such a classic. Seeing Mikami-sensei (Matsuzaka Toori) and Koreeda-sensei (Yoshioka Riho) in a romantic entanglement as Yamaji and Etsuko in an entirely different universe was so funny. Yagira Yuuya's wife played by Eren who rattled off criticism and harsh words so naturally in that fashion also provided much comedic relief and her husband who cowered in front of her despite acting tough outside - that was so hillarious.
Even the supporting characters such as Yoshida Kotaro did their part to elevate the story so there wasn't really any redundant or boring character.
Disliked:
- There were some junctures which I felt that the humour dragged on a bit longer than desired (at least to me) so I thought that these could have been cut out to make the story flow a bit more smoothly.
- The beginning of the story was a bit abrupt and out of the blue so it took me a while to immerse myself into the developments as I was a bit bewildered by the direction. I would have preferred a more "proper" start to introduce the characters rather than be thrown into the deep end from the start and feel disoriented.
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