Saiga Kara is so fun to watch. I just love how shallow Chiaki (Koizumi Kyoko) is. She gets a photo of Iryu sent to her phone as an apology from Uchida Yuki and she tries to innocently get all her staff to notice the picture but does it in such an over the top way that its so funny. Her staff know her game but try their best not to play along.
As I've said before, at its core, Saigo Kara is essential an obasan dorama dealing with your obasan issues but its just done in such an interesting and entertaining way. Chiaki and her two obasan friends remind me of the three sisters in the first season of Shinya Shokudo with their friendship being their support for being single but at the same time they want to leave this support system.
The three obasan scene in ep 4 with the dolled up writer is pure hilarity. (I'm going to run out of synonyms for funny at the end of this review because every scene is just fun.) They feel threatened by the writer and they do not hide it but console themselves by claiming that they used to be like her. Its amusing how self conscious these obasans are. They are always in a competition. There is no other way for them to view a younger woman other than as a threat. The punchline is of course when the writer reveals that she has nothing in common with how the obasan trio were in the past and the obasan trio end up slouching in defeat but quickly recover when Chiaki brings up Iryu.
Saigo Kara pokes fun at obasan issues., highlighting their insecurities as they pine for their lost youth but at the same time are desperate to seek approval and praise from society. At the end it is a sisterhood for consoling each other when things go bad because they can't compete with the younger girls anymore and need to band together. As mentioned earlier, their friendship is based on shared misery and if someone achieves 'happiness', the friendship is over because its going to be a case of rubbing it in the others' face, that is until things go sour and everyone can be miserable together. A misery likes company support group.
From the obasan three, we go to the amusing 'misery' of Wahei and his mother and daughter problem. Its a problem I'm sure any guy would like to have and while Wahei doesn't embrace this fortuitous conundrum, he is not your boring, generic, faceless harem protagonist who keeps running away ecchi situations. Wahei's problem is the opposite of the obasans'.
Wahei is comfortable in his own skin. He has accepted who he is and is not clinging to whatever shred of his lost youth he can get. He also does not have any friends to confide in because he doesn't have any problems. Wahei also does not have any dreams and expectations and is unable to believe his luck when the mother daughter situation happened. Personally, I hope to see the mother daughter competition heat up because there's so much potential for comical situations.
I enjoyed the conversation between Wahei and Chiaki in ep 3 when he went to visit Chiaki at her workplace. For the first time they were able to have a polite conversation and I think Chiaki remarked how different Wahei is at home and outside. He automatically acts as society wants him to and it is only at home where he can say what he wants. The witty part of the conversation is watching these two try not to get into a fight again.
I have absolutely no complaints about Saigo Kara. There are plenty of other positives about this show and I'm continually surprised at how consistently funny and clever the writing is. The supporting characters are also coming into their own but I think I've been typing long enough. Do not miss this.
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