11/6/2007 - [Dorama] Yamada Tarou Monogatari

Aired:

),  Otsuka Chihiro (大塚ちひろ), Shibata Rie (柴田理恵)
Synopsis: Based on the popular manga, this is the story of "poor prince Tarou," played by Ninomiya Kazunari. Yamada Tarou is a poor boy at a rich school and is mistakenly believed to be rich by everyone in school. He and Mimura Takuya are unrivaled in academics, looks, popularity, and (apparently) wealth at their school. At first Takuya is cold towards almost everyone but finds Tarou to be an interesting person and soon befriends him, sometimes putting him in what he would find "amusing" situations. Of course, being the kinds of guys they are, both attract much attention from admirers who try to win them over. Unfortunately, Takuya is distant. Tarou is as well, but simply because he is oblivious--having a family of 6 children, a dependent mother, and a frivolous father, Tarou is heavily depended on not only for food and income but support in every other way. This doesn't dampen his spirits in any way though, for Tarou loves his family with all his being and does everything he can just to see the smiles on their face. But as high school starts to come to a close, Tarou has to figure out what to do with his future. Teachers are pressuring him to go to college.. but will he be able to leave his family on their own?
!! WARNING: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS !!
Review: This is a site about Arashi. Nino and Sho are best friends and they are playing leads in a comedy dorama.. I mean, it's pretty obvious how I would review this, ne?? (= But let's go for it anyway~
    Let me just say from episode one, I was pretty convinced this would be an AMAZING dorama--I was completely right. There's something so refreshing about seeing a dorama like this after what feels like swimming in your own tears over so much romantic ones. Family was the key in this one and more than "love" it focused on friendship as well. They really did cast Nino and Sho so well, they suited the parts perfectly! Even though Nino says that the character is nothing like the real him, I feel like there were parts of Tarou that are definitely in Nino.
    The best scenes for me were obviously the family scenes. It's odd because it doesn't take much to really pull at the heartstrings and it isn't so completely mushy. I know a lot of people disagree with me and say it's overdone, but I really don't think that at all. It is just so sweet! The simplest things can be such a big deal! For example, the karokke he promised to get his little sister for her birthday.. going through all that trouble for it, and seeing how graciously they took the news when he couldn't get it at first. Little moments like that really got to me. And there were a ton of those throughout the dorama. I really can't get over how well they did these scenes.
    Another thing was the love side story. It kind of annoyed me how stringent Takako was about finding a rich husband so I felt as if she really didn't deserve Tarou. It was a little too superficial for my tastes, even though she ended up changing her mind in the end. They were right in making it just a side story though and focusing more on Tarou with his family and his relationship with Takuya. And of course there was the other side love story with the teachers.. this is one of the things I felt this dorama could do without. First off, I think the main woman teacher is one of the worst actors in the business and she did a pretty horrible job with the role throughout the whole series. Add to this the annoying side story of her love life with that cocky lab professor and we just get a lot of wasted filler time in the series.. it was completely unnecessary. What was a better idea was the little crush Ikegami's friend (Masami) had on their other friend (Keichi). That crush led to the interesting development of one of the first homosexual crushes I've seen in doramas.. pretty funny stuff!
    In all, this was an amazing dorama. Really. 10 episodes doesn't feel like enough. I love how consistent it was with the love stories, how they didn't just make it somehow work out in the end and turn it all sappy. Also, I like how Tarou stays true to his wishes and the family stays the most important thing in his life. This dorama made me appreciate my family so much more and of course made me think.. if only there was a person like Yamada Tarou in real life.. (=
Favorite Scene(s):
1) Tarou is playing a role as a maid in the Mimura household in one of the episodes. In the end when he is asked to do the flower arrangement, I was really wondering how he would get out of that one but the result was incredible! So simple, but so touching! It really summed up Tarou's character in that one gesture, very touching.
2) Out of the many scenes that Tarou has with his family, one of my favorites was when he is having his summer vacation day but the storm comes. Seeing him torn between staying with his friends and going home kind of foreshadowed the result of what was to be with his relationship with Takako for me. Watching him run back home with all his might.. it was so sad.
3) I love the scene where Masami realizes Keichi likes Tarou.. it was just TOO funny.
4) Of course the air guitar scene and the cameo by Riida.. AMAZING!! Hahah, those were way too good!
Rating: /5