Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi eps 5-11

Its been a while since I saw this. I watched the final episode on my 5th day in Japan at bframe5's place. It was recorded from tv so it had ads/cms and I was like OMG its got ads! Watching downloaded doramas ads are always cut and when one is left in its like an exciting thing lol.

First half of Saigo Kara was immaculate. Somewhere down the line, its started unraveling. Main thing is that it stopped being funny save for Wahei and Chiaki fighting, a well that IMO, the writer drew too many times from. The Wahei mother and daughter story fizzled out. It had the potential to be very funny but it never went anywhere.

Chiaki and Asada Ryutaro's story was never going anywhere. It was boring after Asada's secret was revealed and so Uchida Yuki stepped into the brother's role. It was boring and her best role in the series was locking herself in so Chiaki could do the funny scene where she talks about her own troubles. Its like they gave Uchida Yuki more stuff to do because she's Uchida Yuki and the Chiaki needed someone else to play off before the end but it was just a waste of time. Ijima Naoko's internet dating story wasn't interesting, probably cause the show did not give me any reason to care for her character.

The first half of the show had a lot of the usual mid life crisis stuff to say and it did it with great humour. The only thing the second half had to say was that people who actually like each other should be able to fight all the time and not be super nice to each other all the time. Probably the worst mistake was not getting Asada and Tomomi fighting a lot earlier. Their relationship feels so tacked on like the usual 'let's put the two supporting characters who have done their part together'.

So it was a long wait for Wahei and Chiaki to get together and even then it was a sudden, anti-climatic finish. The one dorama I compare this to is KDO which had a great build up with a nice quiet ending that fit the show perfectly. Saigo Kara's finish is like more like a slow trek and by the time it got to the finish line, I didn't care about the race anymore.

Not to say that Saigo Kara sucks. First half is a blast and I just marveled at the writing and how well all the elements are put together. Second half was Wahei and Chiaki don't really have anything going for them when they are not together. Its a watchable dorama, just a shame it couldn't be what the first half promised to be. If you're after a really good Koizumi Kyoko dorama, watch Manhattan Love Story.