Atashinchi no Danshi
Posted on August 14th, 2009
Atashinchi no Danshi
[Rating: 7/10]
Genre: Family, Comedy
Chisato is poor and homeless, left to fend for herself after her debt-owing father ran away. One day as she is escaping from the debt collectors, she is saved by an eccentric inventor, Shinzo, who gives her a life-changing proposal – marry him and spend the last days of his life with him, and he’ll clear her debt. Desperate, Chisato agrees and she finds herself warming up to Shinzo despite his quirks. However, when Shinzo’s time comes, Chisato finds herself saddled with yet another contract – before her debt can be paid for, she needs to be a mother to his motley band of sons!
This show started off rather uninteresting, and I just continued watching it to see what other strange secrets the Okura mansion held. The inventions, puzzles and secrets of the mansion reminded me of old family classics such as Home Alone and Richie Rich. But as the characters developed it became more than just a random comedy. I began to enjoy Chisato’s interactions with the Okura brothers, as well as the different relationships between the brothers, in their little pair and trio units- my favourite being Sho and Takeru, who were the closest pair. Some moments were rather teary-eye inducing even though there wasn’t anything sad, just those ‘awww’ moments you get in a family drama. My favourite brothers were the three youngest, Masaru, Satoru and Akira – Akira was a delight to watch as he’s so innocent yet so much more mature than his older brothers, and it was cute how he automatically falls asleep at the same time, regardless of what position he’s in or where he is~ I didn’t really care for Chisato’s dad or her net-cafe friends, who seemed to be there as plot device but weren’t very memorable in the end. I also have no idea what to think of Inoue-san, the housemaid… she looks so androgynous that half the time I was wondering if she was a guy or girl and even checked the cast list haha. I think that her character could’ve been handled better because it is clear that she pretty much runs the house and raised the boys, so I’d have liked to see more solidness in her development and personality overall, otherwise her randomness just made me go “wtf?” have the time. And Shinzo was a pretty awesome character even though he was dead. He’s crazy but there’s no doubt he’s a masterschemer~ it was amusing how the others were his pawns in the end, even the bad guy.
I think that AtaDan is a pretty decent family show, although it’s rather outrageous (in a ridiculous way), and I don’t think Chisato was particularly outstanding as the main character, though she worked well when with the others, but newcomers to Japanese dramas who want something light-hearted should like it.
Filed under: ** jdrama, family