What a fantastic ending to a fun ride all around from the recently wrapped Fuji TV renzouku dorama 5-ji kara 9-ji made (From Five to Nine) with charismatic and gorgeous leads Yamashita Tomohisa and Ishihara Satomi. I haven’t had this much fun watching a dorama since Rich Man, Poor Woman, which coincidentally also starred Satomi. I knew my Yamapi was just wasting his god given limited yet glorious talents as a romantic dorama leading man by trying to be all serious and stuff when he’s really only good for this.
I was sad not to have time to recap this baby due to time constraints but it’s really a barrel of laughs for the most part thanks to the opposites attract hilarity of a modern English tutor and a throwback Shinto monk trying to find love, with tons of family and friends around to help and hinder their progression. A running joke was how many times the two got close to kissing but was always thwarted at the last minute, so the ending was straight out out of fairy tale fan service land as Yamapi’s Takane donned a suit for the first time in the dorama and proposed on bended knee in front of a decked out giant Christmas tree to his Junko. It ended with kisses and more, proving that when J-doramas wants to do romantic it certainly still knows how.
Ending Cut:
Kiss Fails:
Aww! I watched the first epi and didn’t continue… this is the perfect time to marathon it!
Haven’t watched a j-drama since RMPW so I decided to check this out for Satomi. So glad I did….I love this drama! Is it too much to ask for a SP??? I would never turn down a second helping of Takane and Junko!
Is it a good series?
I have been afraid to watch it, since learning that in the manga the series is based in, the relationship comes off as very misognistic & abusive. Did they manage to leave that part of the manga behaviour out of it and make it actually a healthy relationship?
I want to watch it but not if it will induce rage about the female lead being treated badly, and that is supposed to look romantic.
I think the drama was funny and cute. Yamapi’s character might appear a bit “stalkerish” at first but as the story goes on we would get to see that he is actually quite considerate and sweet, and his never – ending compliments to Junko are funny. I have heard that he is different from the manga version. So I think you should give the drama a chance.
Yup there’s a character change for the drama. Although Yamapi’s monk is privileged & arrogant he acts it in this sort of dorky way similar to Love Me If You Dare Wallace Huo’s character. Actually even the lead female is well written for a modern Japanese woman. At least she has spunk & doesn’t give in too easily.
Yup there’s a character change for the drama. Although Yamapi’s monk is privileged & arrogant he acts it in this sort of dorky way similar to Love Me If You Dare Wallace Huo’s character. Actually even the lead female is well written for a modern Japanese woman. At least she has spunk & doesn’t give in too easily.
I think this is a great series. I miss this type of stories in dorama. Most dorama I’ve seen recently is not as interesting as it used to be, but this reminds me of how romantic and funny a dorama could be. I’ve read the manga after watching this dorama but I thank God the dorama is different.. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything, but the manga is very “mature”, not the type of scene I would like to see on tv with many young viewers. And I just love Yamapi’s and Satomi’s chemistry in this drama. It makes me wanna ship them in real life ;;^^
Yes, the leads had so many close-to-kissing-scenes that I lost count of how many there were but the last scenes made up for it. Satomi and Yamapi look surprisingly good together (I had never imagined seeing them as an on-screen couple before this drama). I like their chemistry too. I had a bad feeling that I would dislike Yamapi’s character because I have heard that the manga version was an abusive jerk but fortunately they changed that for the drama version. It is cute how much Takane loves Junko and how honest and straight-forward his love is for her. Satomi is as usual very charismatic and the scenes when she was realizing that she is falling for him were very funny. I’m hoping there will be a SP for this drama.
I’m debating now if I should watch this show. I’ve been waiting to see how people reacted to the drama and whether they would change things from the manga, because my goodness the male lead in the manga had me wanting to flip shit over. I think I’ve read everything that’s been translated so far and man I like every character more than him. He was/is so manipulative, arrogant, selfish, abusive and the list goes on and on. Basically he was horrible and my dream ending based on the manga would be for the female lead to move far far away from him. But from the setup it was as if I was suppose to like them and that they were bound to end up together. I just could not continue it. So when I heard it was being made into a drama I wasn’t thrilled. Happy to hear that they changed his character though, thank goodness. I’ve read two of the author’s series and I have to say I am not a fan. Because the “male leads” are always the guy I don’t like. And the female leads…well they’re too naive and easy to manipulate. Anyways maybe I’ll binge watch this over break and see how it goes.
I enjoyed the series. They were a little slow with the eng sub, so it is perfect for a marathon. Rich Man, Poor Woman was my first JDrama that I loved and I loved Ishihara Satomi in it. I was a little bum because she played almost the same person – I wanted her to stop apologizing and to be a little more assertive.However, it was funny, upbeat, and cute. I loved that Yamashita Tomohisa showered her with wonderful gifts – from great meals to Prada! If you like romcom – you will enjoy this drama.
Their chemistry was spot on. I thought Satomi’s pairing with Oguri Shun was one of the best, but monk-Yamapi topped them because they had more swoon-worthy scenes. Satomi is always good. This monk role with the serious side and seeing according to Katane (with comical elements) really suited Yamapi to the T. I liked Buzzer Beat for the leads chemistry but Keiko Kitagawa’s acting shone much more. With Yamapi’s leaner, chiseled face, these images and even in the drama I keep seeing Jung Yong-hwa.
Couldnt agree more. I thought Satomi had the best chemistry with Oguri Shun but here’s with Yamapi they took their on screen chemistry to a different level. Seriously cant get enough of their cuteness together. Praying hard for the SP!
Can anyone suggest where to watch this show subbed? Thanks
Dramacool
My last romantic jdrama was RMPW and it was a fun ride. I wasn’t really interested in this after hearing about the manga but now I think I’ll check out…
SO CUTE! She is gorgeous and captivating. And Yamapi only gets more yummy with age. And watching Yamapi makes me feel so nostalgic. I still remember that fateful day on OT when you asked me, “Who is this Yamapi?” and I was all “WHO IS YAMAPI??!!!” Oh, those good old days, they never fade. And neither does Yamapi’s inexplicable attraction. SO CUTE!
aw… I finished watching til episode 7 and still waiting for the eng sub for ep 10 to come out for a marathon! ^_^
nikkatun dot live journal dot com has eng sub for all 10 eps.
Sorry, that should be ‘nikattun….’
Even though I’m commenting on this post rather late…
Thanks a lot for introducing this drama to me. I had zero interest in Japanese dramas but after I saw this post, I decided to give the show a shot because Korean dramas hadn’t really been interesting me lately. This drama was so CUTE, I marathoned the first 9 episodes yesterday and was so upset when I discovered that the final episode hadn’t been subbed. I basically spent the day hoping the subs would come out and have just finished watching the final episode.
I just wanted to relay my thanks for the introduction to the drama and Satomi who is probably my favourite Japanese actress now (despite the fact that I only know one :p)
This was my first J drama too. I just fell in love with it. Waiting one day was not that bad. I waited up to 10 days for an episode but it was just so worth it. dreamingsnowflake2013 had a lot of good stuff on tumblr to make the waiting bearable. It’s a shame Koala you couldn’t recap it. I’m happy you had as much fun as I did watching it.
This was such an adorable drama! I haven’t been watching many dramas recently, the repeated tropes do wear you out, and god they never do disappear in Korean dramas. Kill Me, Heal Me was the last I watched, absolutely brilliant but even that drama have to weave in faux- sibling storylines and company politics which sobered the ride.
But going off on a tangent here. This really is the cutest drama I’ve seen since Love in Tokyo/ Playful Kiss, and the 10 episode length is quite perfect, cuts down unnecessary angst. Yamapi was such an handsome, considerate, dorky, overall gorgeous character. Ishihara Satomi has been my girl crush since RMPW and was so pretty here! So friggin cute and sweet, they both were!
It as fluffiness all around and I looked forward to each week’s episode with great anticipation indeed, do not remember the last time I had so much fun watching a drama! Just pure, fluffiness and fun, with little angst or trouble. Thank you so much Koala for posting about it, I don’t think I would have heard of it otherwise, definitely recommend anyone who likes a light hearted romance, or just light hearted comedy in general to check it out!
Very nice drama from beginning to end. May watch it over and over again. Yamapi and Satomi really acted their parts very well.
I read people talking about yamapi and satomi dating rumors since yesterday..but still can’t find the english article.
i found this though, thinking again..maybe there really something behind those kisses <3
I heard that another shojo manga is getting a shojo manga remake, Hapi Mari!
Oops I meant dorama!
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