Proposal Daisakusen

Japanese title: プロポーズ大作戦

Aired on Fuji TV
April - June 2007
on Monday at 21.00

11 episodes + a Special (March 2008)

Main cast:

Yamashita Tomohisa: Iwase Ken

Nagasawa Masami: Yoshida Rei

Fujiki Naohito: Tada Tetsuya

Eikura Nana: Oku Eri

Hiraoka Yuta: Enokido Mikio

Hamada Gaku: Tsurumi Hisashi

Mikami Hiroshi: the Yosei/Fairy

Notes:
- I rewatched it for the second time and my opinion hasn't changed.
- Hello Manager and one of the coworkers of Hotaru no Hikari.

Review: +/-

Title: Like I ended up doing in most reviews, I’ll  actually use this section to give a short synopsis. In this drama, Boy attends his childhood friend’s wedding. He loves her but never confessed and is full of regrets. Every episode, he returns to a point in the past, starting in high school, to change his actions and better convey his feelings to her hoping she won’t get married to another man.

Girl: She’s nice. Though she has liked Boy since they met as kids, their relationship is based on teasing and she has never managed to confess to him.

Boy: He’s a quiet guy. His present self works hard to change the past and does really cute things for Girl but his past self was at best, totally clueless and more likely but worse, a tool. Therefore it’s too easy to understand why Girl would move on.

Other boy: He’s socially awkward but very earnest.

Friends: I talk about them early in the review because they are important in this drama. Though it’s in the background of the romance story, the friendship theme is indissociable. Girl’s best friend is energetic, joyful and she likes to go out with boys. Boy has two friends: one of them is sincerely in love with Girl’s best friend and has no shame expressing himself openly though he always gets rejected, the other is calm, mature, smart, in a word, cool.

Relationship: Ouch. This is where this drama falls apart. My opinion.

1^st: No chemistry between Boy and Girl. I buy them as friends but not as lovers. Their interactions are mostly teasing and I get that it’s hard when you grew up together to change the relationship you have but the will-they/won’t-they tension was lacking.

2^nd: There is no deep discussion between Boy and Girl, like discussing their dreams, their problems. Emotion only comes from their repressed feelings towards each other and common memories of their school years. Which is not enough to make me believe that two people are endgame.

3^rd: Past Boy didn’t seem to care that much about Girl’s feelings and she was right to move on to Other boy with whom she has better chemistry and who is a great guy.

4^th: Boy is actually quite selfish. He realises he has loved Girl for 14 years, which I’m not convinced of, and decides to win her back. But their love seem childish while her relationship with Other boy feels more mature. Indeed, their characters go better together while her feelings for Boy are kept alive in part by nostalgia.

Funny factor: Running gags. Also Boy keeps talking about events or using catchphrases before they happen, which is fun if you are really familiar with these Japanese pop culture references.

Music: Okay.

Bottom line: This is a high-concept drama. Bonus point for originality but the format of each episode gets tiring. Introduction: he goes into the past. Conclusion: he comes back. Seeing only “moments” in their lives was a bit superficial. I didn’t root for the main couple but I have to say that the returns to the past were well-handled and interesting, as a concept. I don’t know how it could have been better but it could have been way worse so +/-.