Call Center no Koibito
Posted on December 12th, 2009
Call Center no Koibito
[Rating: 7.5/10]
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Tokura Wataru is an ambitious young employee who gets off on the wrong foot with the star of the company he works for. He gets demoted and sent to work in the company’s customer service center, located in the middle of nowhere. There he struggles to fit in with the rest of the call center team, and life in a rural town. An enlightening and insightful show on the the lives of the often underappreciated people who have to handle customer complaints.
Despite the comedic tone of the show, it doesn’t fall short of its purpose – to give one an insight, and perhaps a newfound appreciation of the people who work long hours to take our calls, no matter how silly or unreasonable they may seem, and some of the customers will just make you shake your head because you know that such people do exist. The call center employees straddled the line of lifeline helpers as some customers would just pour out their woes onto them, or call simply to vent their anger on their purchase as an outlet for their own personal problems. I really liked how every member in the support team had their own distinctive method of helping the customers, showing that employees are not all the same and everyone has their own talents.
I wouldn’t say the acting was particularly great, but it was decent and fit their characters well. I’d say the focus of the story was on the team as a whole even though the two main characters were Tokura and the mysterious Aoyama Kyoko. Speaking of Kyoko, I felt she was a little flat as a character though she was the ‘star’ of the call center. She just seemed rather monotonous in her reactions, but I do admit her backstory was not something that I had expected. I actually thought her backstory was more related to Nankyoku Aisu, especially after all that build up and tension between them, so it was a bit of a disappointment in that respect. And on the ice-queen host, Aisu turned out to be a surprise. I expected her to be one of those stereotypical domineering diva figures but I actually felt a bit of sympathy for her, like in the episode where the guy pretended to court her, and in the end she saved the day.
Overall, while the show was a little more than lukewarm, it was a rather unique slice-of-life drama with a good concept.
Filed under: ** jdrama