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Taikan Yoho japanese drama review
Completed
Taikan Yoho
0 people found this review helpful
by 07222023
Oct 16, 2023
8 of 8 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
This review may contain spoilers

My Personal Weatherman was more personal than I thought

So I waited for this series to finish airing to finally binge it and I have to say, dark as it got, I enjoyed My Personal Weatherman immensely. I’m both pleased and shocked to see that the directors and screenwriters are all women! I will touch on this later~

Right from the get-go you have to expect toxicity; your leads are walking examples of a typical traditional man of the house and housewife. No one likes a tyrant and I’m not one for extreme conservative practices, but when the show spoon-fed us the characters’ weaknesses and flaws 2-4 episodes in, we can’t expect significant growth. Especially in 8 episodes each ranging 20 minutes and the production team choosing to overkill with repetitive flashbacks. Either way, I can’t say that I’m all that disappointed, I also tried to be more flexible as this is a slice of life.

This is my second Japanese BL in 10+ years, the first one being the Takumi-kun series, and this one really brought back a lot of nostalgic memories for me. It reminded me of how beautiful and well-written Japanese films are, especially when it comes to slice-of-life and romance!

I adore the cast here, they had great chemistry and each character is so different in his/her own way.
Higuchi Kouhei is such a delight to watch. He had a lot of range in his expressions and body control, and he’s just drop-dead gorgeous! That hairstyle, someone please give his stylist a raise! Originally, I wasn’t impressed with Segasaki but considering who he hung out with in university, the saying ‘show me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are’ really fits him! Mizuki is an overachiever who sees himself as superior not because of his appearance, achievements, or popularity but his abilities. He’s confident, highly intelligent, and dogmatic. It’s clear that Mizuki cares for Yoh but Yoh’s denseness makes it difficult for them to be on the same page and transition their relationship into that of a more romantic one. Yoh’s slowness was also something Mizuki initially liked until the final episode where he seemed annoyed by it twice.
Mashiko Atsuki did an introvert justice. Yoh is a seemingly darker and gloomy character who concentrates on the negatives; since he’s cooped up at home and has more internal monologue and inner thoughts, he’s consistently doubtful and has the tendency to build up people’s persona in his head. While we see Mizuki applying and taking his meteorologist knowledge and career seriously, Yoh doesn’t seem to have the same passion for his mangas. Then again, if he has to cook and clean all day every day, he’s probably got writer’s block. I wished their little outing inspired something in him other than ‘bed sheets’ :/ I mean it was cute, but it wasn’t cute.
Manju is sooooo adorably funny! I had so much fun whenever she was on screen! Yoh is NOT the good friend she needs and deserves but if she’s happy helping him then girly do you!
Manju’s husband, Atsuya, was interestingly fun. You can tell he’s used to Manju’s quirks and shenanigans in the way that he reacts and supports her.

I like that the show touched on some stereotypes and modern issues such as women saying the opposite of what they want/feel (Yoh) and the wives' jobs don't matter to today’s husbands (Mizuki to Yoh). That being said, given that the directors and screenwriters are women, I wanted to see these two conflicts play out but oddly yet not surprisingly enough, there were no follow-ups. Aside from the problematic theme, on multiple occasions, the conflicts were either never resolved or forgotten. Nothing ever came of Mizuki and Yoh wishing they’d happily smile at each other as they do to other people; please don’t tell me the ending at the dining table was an implication of that. Yoh lying about working with Manju because he’s afraid Mizuki would judge them was unnecessary as Mizuki hasn’t struck us as an unreasonable character – lustful, possessive, and condescending yes but not entirely unreasonable. How hard is it to tell Mizuki that ‘glasses guy’ is Manju’s husband? And Mizuki, knowing that Manju has a husband never put two and two together? Why not? Communication between Mizuki and Yoh started off fine (for roomies who sleep together) until we got to them being jealous and possessive of each other. I hate to believe it but that may be the show’s way of telling us that Mizuki and Yoh were ‘falling in love’ after living and sleeping together for four years. The show would be a perfect 10 had they just replaced at least two sex scenes with serious conversations between the leads but no :/

I’m definitely rewatching for Higuchi Kouhei’s smugs, though Mizuki needs to take a hint, 'no means no' and 'stop! he's drunk!'!
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