Watashi no kaseifu Nagisa san

This 28 year old girl has a gigantic daddy complex (and a mommy complex since her mom traumatized her as a little girl and well into adulthood) cause otherwise I don't see it, I just don't. I watched three episodes and although there is some real life stuff in there that is treated fairly decently it just bored me from the very beginning. There's no spark, no hook, no appeal to it. For me, at least. And indeed I kept wondering who is she meant to fall for but then I went on MDL and got the gist of it, so I lost interest in it even more. Luckily, somebody posted that the tenth episode is actually a special that summarizes the whole thing so I went right to that one. Interestingly enough, the summary shows almost none of the office drama, while the episodes went pretty deep into it. Actually they went in depth but it just didn't interest me. Plus the workaholism culture is just insane. The main actress is very beautiful and the other guy is very cute, I even considered the new trainee, but what I did not expect was Nagisa-san. I mean, he might as well be her father, but nobody bats an eye about it. That girl is for sure going to be a widow in twenty years. If only they had found a silver fox or any other attractive older actor, but man, why? How? Children? Yuck...

You might take a jaded look at the poster and think : yeah right, cheap/predictable laughs from an old man cleaning up after a messy young woman.

Yes, an easy assumption to make though you'd be mistaken. This very interesting series has other things on its mind.

Driven, 28 yo career woman Mei ( Mikako Tabe ) works for a pharma company as a medical liaison. And while she's good at her job, she has no clues about housework & her apartment looks like a bomb went off. Her sister runs a domestic help agency, so as a birthday present, gives Mei the services of a skilled housekeeper for a while. Mr Nagisa ( Nao Omori ) might be 50, but he's very efficient, an excellent cook & wanted to be a mother when he was little. He quickly conquers her misgivings, & assorted adventures involving her parents, a handsome pharma rival and other matters ensue.

Taken from a manga, a couple of very convenient coincidences can easily be forgiven when the writers have bigger & more intriguing topics to tackle. Like the nature of relationships in the modern day, as well as the notorious workaholic culture prevalent in East Asia. I found it telling that with the loss of two experienced colleagues at Mei's work, no replacements arrive & nobody questions it; they're simply expected to work harder & longer into the night. No wonder breeding/boosting the failing birth rate is too damn bothersome due to people being too tired !

So the narrative weaves various strands together nicely and the conclusion is also well done at the end of 9 eps. I did find the double-ep "finale" ( called ep 9.5 ) rather odd : ninety percent of it is flash backs, though the flash-forward was fine. As to direction/photography, it's good & more slo-mo would've made it better. And I really liked a few small cute touches, such as Mei's phone alarm music & how the title appears in different places every ep.

Proper casting is clearly crucial for the 2 leads & full marks to both. Ms Tabe is very appealing and Mr Omori is extremely likable; his role has a bit more dramatic challenge & he manages nicely. The support players are really effective, especially Mei's co-workers & her BFF Kaoru ( Maryjun Takahashi ). Her search for a marriage partner is quite entertaining.

But instead of a cat, it's a real human taking care of you and your mess, and i love how this series makes me feel.

Watching this show, I was swept away by how it skillfully evokes a wide range of emotions: warmth, sadness, happiness, and just the right dose of feel-good moments to refresh the soul.

As a 27-year-old, I found myself deeply connecting with the experiences of the 28-year-old female protagonist. Her journey as a hardworking individual living alone, shaped by the absence of parental love growing up, felt so real and relatable. The series not only offers a touching exploration of her personal growth but also beautifully highlights the quiet, meaningful bonds we can form with others, even when life feels isolating.

It's the kind of show that lingers with you, offering both solace and inspiration.

This was great to watch to practise my Japanese, at least for the first 2/3 of the series. The characters were mostly realistic, and the chemistry and comedy in the workplace were great. The attempts at romance are where it falls flat - no romantic chemistry at all or even any attempts at it.

It's been almost 20 years since I lived in Japan, but this made me realise a few things (as I assume it's a reflection of life in Japan):

• The workaholic culture still hasn't changed, even after many people have died from overwork. I know Mei is the one pushing herself to stay up all night studying, but why does a pharmaceutical rep have to know all the ins and outs of every drug the company makes? And why is the only alternative to quit your job or hire a housekeeper?

• Why is there still so much pressure to get married by the age of 30? It seems like more of a business arrangement, the way men who haven't even kissed her are basically proposing to her and she's just worried about housework and her lifestyle? Surely if you ask someone out and they say they need to think about it, the answer should be no. Then we're supposed to be happy about who she ends up with?!

I don't understand the point of the last episode. It was such a long recap of the whole series, with a few new bits interspersed so you couldn't fast forward. It was good to see a bit of what happened with some of the other characters, but I feel like they deserve more attention, especially to take the attention away from the way Mei's story ended up. It's a shame because the series was entertaining at first.