This brief yet very entertaining J-Drama series is also interesting on a number of levels.
Politeness. Seems to be synonymous with Japan, right ? Not to mention all that bowing, yet they have no problem blatantly referring to an "ugly" girl in the title. And, the first version of the show in 2006 was called "Can't Take My Eyes Off Ugly Angel", which is equally offensive & lacking in sensitivity !
As for the source material, it's apparently based on a book of the same name by well-known writer Suzuki Osamu & is a series of essays on married life with wife Oshima Miyuki. She was a noted comedienne, has recently given birth for the first time & is, um, not very attractive. Now, the two main characters in the latest series have exactly the same names as the real-life couple & Mr Suzuki even wrote the script, so he's fine with calling his wife "ugly". Plus he isn't exactly handsome either ! Poor woman ! Or is the average Japanese okay with this sort of thing & it's no big deal ? Very interesting.
Back to the show, which concerns a handsome, famous voice actor ( a popular occupation due to the prevalence of manga/anime ) with a slim, pretty girlfriend who nevertheless feels his life/career aren't going the way he wants. Played by Naoto from boy band Exile, he happens to meet the girl of the title ( Tomita Miu ), an overweight staffer at a hardware store who dreams of being a voice-over actor. A brief chat ignites a powerful romantic spark & an emotional connection which quickly leads to him proposing marriage. Mayhem ensues as his manager is horrified, the target of the proposal is flabbergasted & his GF is un-impressed.
Ah yes, the heart wants what it wants & that isn't always predictable. Emotion = impulse more often than not & I know what it's like to propose after a few days, then laugh about it later ( & also be grateful I was rejected ! ). To me, Ms Tomita is the charming pivot around which the series revolves & her radiant smile is quite something ( & her face is not ugly ). And the believability of her performance suggests she may have painful memories of her own to draw on. You just can't help but want the best for the poor girl, & ditto the reckless Naoto who has less to do but does it well. The motto for both leads seems to be "If you keep smiling, happiness will follow", & that kind of positivity is good to see in a world unfortunately full of misery & pain.
My only complaints are minor ones : I wish the support cast had a bit more personality, people like his belligerent manager, the assistant & the barman. Ping pong makes an appearance at one point & had potential in this area. I also think some fun could've been extracted from the physical aspect of the marriage, as Miyuki has no clue about intimacy & likely would never have been kissed before suddenly being dropped in the deep end ; I suspect she might easily develop a rapid passion for kissing & other things.
That aside, I have to again salute the economy/efficiency of J-Drama storytelling : this show has only eight episodes of 23 min each ( much reduced from 12 longer eps in version 1 ), yet does a better job than many bloated K-Dramas with their sixteen hour run times. And it's hardly a fluke, as proven by quality short-form TV like "Wedding Bells for The Otaku", "Spring Has Come" & "When One Day I Will Sleep" to name only a few.
I'm proud ( & a bit surprised ) to do the first IMDB review for this sweet, touching series, especially since I'm not Japanese or female. Still, I hope I've done it justice & encouraged you to try it.
