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meganbmooreSomeone in Japan seems to have recently decided that having Abe Hiroshi spend many, many scenes with wee little girls is a surefire path to success. I say this because At Home Dad is one of two recent series to heavily feature this theme. This may not be a bad thing.
At Home Dad is about Yamamura Kazuyuki, a successful ad executive who loses his high paying job due to an error in corporate juggling just after buying a new house. When he can’t find any job offers with comparative wages, his wife, Miki, takes up an offer from her former employer and he takes over the care of the household and their daughter.
The series has fun with “Abe Hiroshi vs Housework” for a little bit, but doesn’t dwell on it too much, and instead examines gender roles in Japanese households and Kazuyuki’s changing opinions*,contrasted with their neighbors, who are old hands at “working mom, househusband,” and the rest of the neighborhood, which largely has more “traditional” families. There’s also a strong secondary focus on women in the workplace, but it is very much secondary, and the series plays a bit of lipservice to considering the idea of both parents working, but is pretty strongly opposed to it.
If this were anything but a jdrama, I probably wouldn’t have checked it out. But jdramas are apparently the only format where I’ll try out almost anything. Except for vampire gigolos or prostitutes who team up with their attempted rapists to get revenge. I have limits.
The series is a bit slow at times, but is very good, and has an excellent cast.
*At one point, he decides to let Miki know he’s comfortable with their current situation by rewriting the script of a preschool production of Cinderella to have their daughter (who is playing Cinderella) declare that she won’t get married unless the prince lets her have a career, and the prince say he wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel confident that Kazuyuki did not know the boy playing the prince proposed to his daughter in episode 2. There may or may not have been a quasi-love triangle involving preschoolers.
At Home Dad is about Yamamura Kazuyuki, a successful ad executive who loses his high paying job due to an error in corporate juggling just after buying a new house. When he can’t find any job offers with comparative wages, his wife, Miki, takes up an offer from her former employer and he takes over the care of the household and their daughter.
The series has fun with “Abe Hiroshi vs Housework” for a little bit, but doesn’t dwell on it too much, and instead examines gender roles in Japanese households and Kazuyuki’s changing opinions*,contrasted with their neighbors, who are old hands at “working mom, househusband,” and the rest of the neighborhood, which largely has more “traditional” families. There’s also a strong secondary focus on women in the workplace, but it is very much secondary, and the series plays a bit of lipservice to considering the idea of both parents working, but is pretty strongly opposed to it.
If this were anything but a jdrama, I probably wouldn’t have checked it out. But jdramas are apparently the only format where I’ll try out almost anything. Except for vampire gigolos or prostitutes who team up with their attempted rapists to get revenge. I have limits.
The series is a bit slow at times, but is very good, and has an excellent cast.
*At one point, he decides to let Miki know he’s comfortable with their current situation by rewriting the script of a preschool production of Cinderella to have their daughter (who is playing Cinderella) declare that she won’t get married unless the prince lets her have a career, and the prince say he wouldn’t have it any other way. I feel confident that Kazuyuki did not know the boy playing the prince proposed to his daughter in episode 2. There may or may not have been a quasi-love triangle involving preschoolers.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 11:59 pm (UTC)Is the second one Jotei? And what on earth has vampire gigolos?
Wow, Abe Hiroshi looks really different in those screencaps. I might not have even recognized him if I didn't know. It looks almost like... he's de-aged or something? Idk.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 12:06 am (UTC)Abe Hiroshi seriously is like a chameleon sometimes. Anytime he changes his hair or scruff, he looks totally different. That said, I think the AHD character was meant to be younger than AH actually is. He's in his early 40s (or maybe just 40) and the AHD character sdtruck me more as early-maybe-just-mid-30s.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 12:30 am (UTC)(This series sounds sort of adorable.)
...prostitutes who team up with their attempted rapists to get revenge.
My brain twisted itself in knots there, because my immediate instinct was getting revenge on the attempted rapists. Once it unknotted, I wanted to hit something. Seriously?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 12:49 am (UTC)And Jotei 9the revenge one)...sigh! When it was announced, we were all "EEEE!" because it sounded cracky fun and the leads are fairly popular (and the guy is one of the few younger jdrama guys whose popular because he's good, as opposed to because he's a member of a fetishized band. Mind you, some of them are good too, but that isn't why they got popular) and then it actualy came out and we were "...!!!..." (We knew he was shady and in love with her and helping her, but not about the attempted rape. There's also apparently a lot of women ruining other women's lives by disfiguring them, from what i've heard.)