Maybe Horikita Maki has retired, but Kimura Fumino looked a bit like Maki (in my opinion) in this dorama. It may be her short hair. It may be her high cheekbones and sweet smile. From certain angles, she looked like Maki.
I don't understand why some people say she was frustrating in the first couple of episodes. I think any girl, especially any girl with bad experience in love, would be wary of any guy, no matter how cute or honest he looks, who approaches her and tells her he is her destiny. It is expected of the girl to be cautious, to be in doubt. If she agreed to be with him from the very beginning, I would have thought she was too naive and easy.
The story has the perfect amount of friendship (Makoto and his "rival", Haruko and Mitsue), good comradeship (Makoto and GOD, Makoto and his boss, Makoto and his coworkers), a nice rival (who is not really a rival, and who is just one of the nicest guys ever), present parents (who are there for their daughter). I liked the different tasks Makoto had to do, since it all served for a reason.
I am not satisfied with the ending. I was left with a "this is it??". I think there should be a SP. There HAS to be.
I love the OP and ED sequences. The dance was cute, and the song is pretty. I also like Yamapi's smirk when both of them are sitting in the couch, in the ED sequence. Only that, that same smirk is somewhat bittersweet in the final episode :(
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When it comes to J-dramas, I would fall into the 'beginner' category. So while I won't be able to tell you how good or bad it was as compared to other typical J-dramas, I'll try my best to tell you what I enjoyed in this drama.
THE STORY:
The plot-line of the drama is certainly a unique one. It's not everyday you see a drama where God Himself appears to help two people fall in love.
The drama follows Makoto who seemingly has the worst luck when it comes to women. It's not until a person claiming to be God appears before him that he finds out why. According to God, Makoto's bad luck in women is because he hasn't met his 'soul-mate' yet. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that his destined person works in the same office building as him, and they have met several times before, even without both of them knowing. Now, when it comes to making her fall in love with him, well, that's no easy feat, giving the fact that she cringes at the word 'destiny' alone.
THE CHARACTERS:
There are 3 main characters for this- Makoto (male lead), Haruko (female lead) and God.
-Makoto's character was a dedicated one. He was ready to do just about anything to make Haruko fall in love. And not just with her, his efforts to win over Haruko's dad as well as her best friend, were really commendable.
-Haruko's character may seem a bit annoying, at first, given that she pushes away our main lead repeatedly, when we know that he's such a good person. But try to imagine the situations from her perspective. A stranger comes along, and says stuff about them being 'destiny', her reaction was completely logical. Ofcourse, the circumstances in which her previous relationship ended, sure didn't help the situation, either. Despite of it all, she came to know him as a person and finally
-God's character was....awesome. He was my favorite character in the drama. And that's all I can say without spoiling anything.
-The supporting characters like Sadaoka, Sekihara, Mitsue etc, were also really interesting to watch. Specially their comedy parts.
THE PACING:
-The drama consisted of only 10 episodes. And the pacing was good.
-The twist they pulled out in the last few ep...Did not see it coming. It was perfect.
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THE CON(s):
- Even though I understood the decisions the female lead male, her character was still somewhat frustrating. It just felt like her indecisive phase stretched for a bit too long.
-Unfortunately, for me, the bromance eclipsed the romance part of the drama. Although, that's not to say that the romance part was not interesting. But more like, I loved the bromance way more than the romance.
-This one is not really a con, but I wish they'd shown more of Ichirou in the last ep.
All in all, this was an enjoyable watch. I hope you give this a try.
Happy Watching!
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One thing I've learned over the years about Kame is that he manages to have chemistry with everyone. I don't know if it's a Pisces ebb and flow thing, but there's never been a point in any of his dramas that I've thought 'ugh, why are they even in the same space?' He may prefer other roles (murderer, thief, alien, spy), but he excels at comedy and romance. In Boku Unmei he leads a great cast that work together like a well oiled machine. Aside from the 3 leads, the cast is peppered with great veteran actors. Their chemistry is fantastic. They truly work well together.
Boku Unmei's production is top notch. It's well written. The directing and editing are good and there are no glaring continuity issues. There are many humorous if not downright funny scenes. The funniest are, of course, the ones between Mokoto and God. So, yeah, the story is pretty damn good. It's fairly original. God comes and tells an ordinary salaryman that he has to romance and impregnate his destined woman within a few months in order to save the world in 30 years. No pressure.
The music is fine. There's a lot of classical including my favorite, Claire de Lune. The ending theme sung by Kame and YamaPi is fun only because of the ending scenes. Other than that it's pretty forgettable.
Boku Unmei no Hito is a thoroughly enjoyable romcom with a high rewatch value. The characters are oddballs and the cast is great. The story is solid and good. You don't have to be someone who has been waiting for a Nobuta reunion of sorts to enjoy it. If you've never seen any of these actors before or if you've never watched a Japanese drama (for some odd reason), this is the one to watch.
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I was looking forward to the Kame & Yamapi reunion, but I was really disappointed in how little Yamapi was actually in the show. The Kame & Yamapi scenes were funny and I enjoyed them ...but there just weren't enough of them to keep me interested in coming back. The female lead was unlikable, she didn't seem to have any real personality and was out-shown time and time again by her supporting female friend. I found myself enjoying the romances between the 2 minor role couples more than the leads!
The show definitely has it's funny moments and I would still recommend it to people because the story is cute, but that's all it is: an okay drama.
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What I like about the drama is the fact that the main lead is like your everyday ordinary guy who has his own struggle with love and works hard for it. Every episode, you just want to cheer him on. In addition, I also like the fact that the female lead is cold and logical but actually has a warm heart. I will miss this show a lot. I was so sad when the ep end, but it was a great ride without too much pull.
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i don't know what to say !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Not my first time watching short drama boring like this one .. but this beats them all
it could take Oscar award for the most shallow drama i've ever seen
no plot, no sense of humor, i couldn't even smile .. and no story
the romance was soooooooooo cold and lukewarm
the FL was too cold till the limit she could beat a fridge in her face expression
THE MOST SILLY co-workers i've ever seen during the time i watched dramas in
i regret wasting my time watching it ..... T_T -_-
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Man, I really wanted to like this drama since the premise is so good - a great set up for a slow burn romance! Granted, the bromance is excellent but really that is the only saving grace.I liked the first few episodes when we are introduced to the characters and I love that the FL is not some gullible love struck woman, as is common in most japenese dramas - she's reserved, introverted and rational while still sporting a warm but wounded heart. She wants so desperately to be loved and cherishes her relationship with her family and friend. I love that she knows how to take care of herself and that episode where she eats ramen and drinks by herself on her birthday is honestly so special and rare to see in any kdrama or japenese romance drama I have seen. I like how she takes her time to warm up to the ML and her reservations are valid. Unfortunately, when she does open up to the ML and takes a chance, there's hardly any chemistry between the leads and it's not because they get together so late into the drama but because the leads simply are not able to act out their chemistry real well. They are awkward together and their conversations a bit silly despite them being grown adults. This is my main gripe with most romcoms - the leads simply do not talk about things that matter and their relationship is akin to that of high schoolers and it is simply not cute. If I wanted to see that kind of relationship, I would watch a high school/coming of age drama and not this.
The ML started off as endearing, passionate and determined. He is not aggressive in his pursuit but quite patient and kind. I was afraid his relentless pursuit of her may border on stalking and boundary pushing behaviour but he is careful and seems to takes on rejection well - it helps that destiny and "god" is on his side and they keep having chance encounters and so perhaps he doesn't need to be creepy. I liked that he was kind of a dork in the beginning but then it got old & boring really fast and his chemistry with the FL just fell flat because of his awkward and shy ways. I also felt that his acting was a bit over the top - I am new to Japenese shows and so I am wondering if thats just the nature of Japense cinema? The acting is kinda exaggerated, anime-ish and it takes time getting used to. It is particularly exaggerated in the comedy genre and so some of the "funny" gimmicks came off as a bit cringy to me - simply not my cup of tea.
"God" was perfect though. He was hilarous, bossy, rude and arrogant. He had excellent chemistry with the ML - I loved all of their interactions and they looked like they were having a ball of a time while on scene. His departure in the end was not really a tear jerker for me but that may also be that I had stopped caring for the drama by the end though I still enjoyed his scenes and he is the reason I would give this drama 5/10 for acting because he is just that good.
Finally, even though the second leads were excellent, kind hearted and loyal friends they were pigeon holed into caricature like roles. A lot of their buildup probably happened off screen and that's fine, I guess, but may have been interesting to watch especially when the storyline started to get more and more contrived with the dad objecting to the leads relationship for no logical reason, the ML having to force his boss to eat carrots (WTF was that lmao?), long montages of him excercising and learning how to detect people's ring sizes and other such nonsense tasks he was assigned by God. Some of the tasks made sense and I understood the overall message of the drama which is that effort + destiny together makes or breaks the final outcome but it was just dragged on for so long and took up way too much screen time. The space could have been taken up to flesh out the SMLs or even build the chemistry of the leads themselves.
I am not going to bother talking about the other characters such as the workplace employees and the parents because they were all so cringy and annoying to watch. The FL's mom was nice but the dad's acting was again so OTT and I did not care for these side characters at all.
Anyway, my final verdict is that it was just an okay watch. I am still on the hunt for compelling japenese romcom in order to get me through my kdrama slump and I guess I must keep looking because this was just not it.
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The overall theme of drama is romance but I still like that it does not fully focuses on that alone. The "efforts" done by the main lead is really attractive for me as a watcher of romance genres. The conversations between him and 'God' in the drama is so fun, the sideline characters - friends, coworkers and family are good addition to a simple plot that the drama presented.
Even though it is more likely a cliche storyline, I like that the pacing of the drama is not the usual and how the whole story is done. The drama exudes cuteness. Japanese dramas that I've seen are more likely incline to teach you something along the way, and I did feel that I learned throughout the drama. I had fun watching this one. Excited to see more Japanese dramas.
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Still, I did give this a shot.
And yes, I sure enjoyed the main-guy/God interactions way more than the main-guy/main-girl interactions. Ironically, since the God's intervention, main girl grows to dislike main guy so much that he's got less chances to date her than if he just kept randomly meeting her at the elevator. As his attempts grew more and more desperate and actually drew his girl from him further and futher, I just wondered why the God did not appear to HER to explain the situation. After all, the woman with her biological clock ticking she wished for a child, did she not? But, I did enjoy the two guys scenes the most so, what the hell.
The side characters are interesting, though also annoying. Romance is nice, though I did not like the main girl (also the actress has weird cheek dimples in both cheeks when she smiles, it changes her face), bromance has a poignant twist in epi 9/10, but in the final it is absent entirely. I would not rewatch this.
By the way, the ending credits would make good opening credits.
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Was just looking for a fluffy romcom to binge to. However, I was in for a treat when Yamashita Tomohisa was part of the cast, since I have never been disappointed by his drama choices.Storyline was great as it kept you on your toes, on who YT was, though I had a rough idea that he was from the future rather than God.
Love Chemistry was ok, it just didn't develop naturally.
It has a low re-watch value, since knowing it's plot would spoil it for you.
Overall, I was glad I picked this up.
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