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.