5-ji Kara 9-ji Made

Japanese title: 5時から9時まで
English title:  From 5 to 9

10 episodes

Aired on Fuji TV
From 2015 October to December

Main cast:

Ishihara Satomi as Sakuraba Junko

Yamashita Tomohisa as Hoshikawa Takane

Tanaka Kei as Kiyomiya Makoto

Takanashi Rin as Yamabuchi Momoe

Hayami Mokomichi as Kimura Arthur

Furukawa Yuki as Mishima Satoshi

Yoshimoto Miyu as Ashigaka Kaori

Ono Takehiko as Terada Kouei

Kaga Mariko as Hoshikawa Hibari

Shison Jun as Hoshikawa Amane

Saeko as Mouri Masako

Nagatsuma Reo as Hachiya Renji

Takada Hyoga as Satonaka Yuki

Tsunematsu Yuri as Sakuraba Nene

Toda Keiko as Sakuraba Keiko

Ueshima Ryuhei as Sakuraba Mitsuru

Production credits:

Original work: Manga 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made by Aihara Miki

Screenwriter: Koyama Shota

Producer: Goto Hiroyuki, Kinjo Ayaka

Director: Hirano Shin, Tanimura Masaki

Music: Dewa Yoshiaki, Habuka Yuri

Review: +/-

Title: Girl teaches English at a language school. I guess, the timetable for her classes is from 5 to 9.

Girl: She's passionate about her job and her dream is to go to New York. She's pretty, kind and self-willed. I can believe that several men are in love with her.

Boy: He's a Buddhist monk, in charge of a temple, which is a kind of family "business". He's serious, earnest but lacks some social skills.

Other boys: As I said, there are two other men in love with Girl. I can't say much without spoilers but they are not really interesting.

Other girl: Her marriage with Boy has been arranged by her family and Boy's grandmother but she really wants to make it work.

Plots/relationships: Boy and Girl are both great characters and I believe that they can be together, that she fills something in his heart. However, the biggest problem of this drama is the pure stalking going on.

Of course, dramas have to contrive to make their characters meet again and again. I stopped counting the chance encounters in the drama I'm currently watching. Another way is to make one of the party interested. But since the other cannot reciprocate so soon, or there is no drama apparently, he (since it's usually the man) has to resort to stalking despite Girl's protests. I know I let it pass in Secret garden but the difference is that Girl here is clearly very upset to be pursued in that way. And it is upsetting to watch.

Something else I didn't like: the villains are caricatures. One of them has a motivation that doesn't make sense, as for the other, the motivation for their entire behaviour is revealed in the last minutes of the last episode... so too late.

Other characters: Families and her co-workers. There are two other relationships that are developped between secondary characters.

What the...?: Weird fakeouts.

Clichés: Embarrassing first meeting. Opposition of his family. Insta-love. Rain. Stalking.

Funny: Yes.

Bottom line: I watched it two months ago and I couldn't remember how it ended so I took it as a sign as I was unsure about the + or +/-. Once again, there was potential because most of the characters are interesting, even original, but I couldn't overlook some of its flaws.

Algernon ni Hanataba wo (2015)

Japanese title: アルジャーノンに花束を
Other title: Flowers for Algernon

10 episodes
Aired on TBS
From 2015 April to June

Main cast:

• Yamashita Tomohisa as Shiratori Sakuto
• Kuriyama Chiaki as Mochizuki Haruka
• Tanimura Mitsuki as Kawaguchi Rio
• Ishimaru Kanji as Hachisuka Daigo
• Kubota Masataka as Yanagawa Ryuichi
• Kudo Asuka as Hiyama Kosuke
• Hagiwara Masato as Takebe Junichiro
• Oomasa Aya as Koide Mai

  

Screenwriter: Nojima Shinji, Ikeda Natsuko

Producer: Han Choru, Sato Atsushi

Director: Yoshida Ken, Sakai Masahiro, Matsuda Ayato

Notes: Based on Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (which I haven't read).
Hey little sister from Buzzer beat, you're all grown up now.

Review: -

Title: It comes from the book. I like it, it's poetic and relevant. Algernon is the name of a mouse, who's been given a new substance that develops its intelligence.

Boy: He has the intellectual development of a child. He wants to be like everyone else and he is very persistent. He is good-natured and usually defuses the fights between his co-workers who are young offenders.

Girl: She is a researcher. She is impulsive and good-hearted.

Other girl: She is a student, nice and shy, but also brave.

As you can see, I'm not really inspired...

Plot / relationships: I don't know if this comes from the source material but I didn't care for the pacing. It felt like it took forever to get to the premise and then raced through the consequences. Moreover, it doesn't use that time to make the characters more dimensional. And I didn't really believe in the main love story. It got too intense too fast.

Other characters: I was more interested in the circle of friends around Boy. The character of the mother which is super important (according to the Wiki article) was not convincing. She was everything and its contrary.

Funny factor: Not at all.

Bottom line: The premise was not my jam but I went into it open-minded. I was not convinced. Though there was an interesting twist leading to a dilemma, it was not enough. It didn't even make me want to read the book.