With a title like that, you can bet your savings that Kare, Otto, Otoko Tomodachi is a female ensemble dorama about relationships. Normally I would avoid such doramas after getting sick of Renai Dekinai but finding rare gems is what makes putting up with crappy shows worthwhile. In a nutshell, this dorama is about 3 sisters. Older sister is married to Santamaria Yusuke and they have a very weird and non-genuine relationship which reminds me of Sono Sion's Guilty of Romance. Eg, husband doesn't like tv so wife doesn't watch tv.
The second sister is independent and in a relationship with a reporter who goes off to the middle east. Second sister is probably the most 'real' and interesting character. She's a sexual being who knows what she wants and has more personality than all three women in Renai Dekinai combined. The running gag about her junior seeing her getting sexually harassed and hearing her phone call about sex is funny.
The writer is not afraid to put in a female character who likes sex for sex. Contrast with the fairy-tale approach of Renai Dekinai with Yoshitaka Yuriko character having all that sex but is void of emotion. Whatever happened to lust and the physical pleasure part of it? Needless to say, second sister is my favourite and I love her response to getting proposed.
The third sister played by Kaho is the weird one of the bunch. She's sort of detached in that she sees things and people from afar and has a grudge against her father. The youngest sister sees relationships as a necessary evil in order to fulfill her function of procreation. There's a character you don't see every dorama. There's also a mystery about her and a homeless dude. I don't know where her story is going except for her father issues but I want to see what the writer can do with her.
The one thing that really got me was the whole unreality of the first sister's marriage in contrast to the other two sisters who are interesting and seem like genuine people. The whole housewife who has no life apart from her husband and is dutiful despite the lack of care shtick has been played out so many times in jdoramas that it belongs in the same jdorama world as Renai Dekinai while the two sisters seem to come from our world. However, it does pay off at the end of ep 1.
In ensemble doramas, characters have to start as as their easily defined or cliched roles. This is byproduct of the fact that there is not enough time to delve into each character. The audience has to be able to watch a scene and get the character. The important thing is whether the characters grow outside their cliches and whether the dorama tries to bring them on an interesting journey.
Story wise, the first two episodes have good cliffhangers and I am excited about the fourth episode which is titled dad's secret. I watched two episodes without skipping any scenes so its certainly good but I am hesitant to say its must watch until I can be sure its not headed into mediocrity. It certainly shows promise and has the foundation to rise above the usual boring jdoramas.
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