I enjoyed Good Morning Call. I love Japanese culture and the uniqueness of its displays, and this was but another vehicle for some of that exposure. As anyone who is reading reviews likely knows, this is about a romance that develops between two high school students who accidentally live together, sharing an apartment, during their second-to-last year of high school. That part of the premise requires a suspension of disbelief, as if the cultural norms in Japan as expressed in this show are truly so puritanically opposed to an unmarried, underage boy and girl living together, there is no justification that would actually allow this to happen under any circumstances.
I watched both Seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 is better, cuter, and more well-written. Second 2 starts off rocky, as the characters move to their college years, and most regular characters from Season 1 (most of whom I really liked) were so much more depthful and interesting than the limited development provided to the three or four new characters added to Season 2 (Uehara's research supervisor, for instance, is entirely unbelievable and acts simply as a caricature of a character with limited exploration). That said, the fundamental failing of this show is that the characters grow so little and repeat the same cycles of insecurity and confusion that the show gets old and ultimately tired, particularly in the 17-episode Season 1. In every episode, Nao (the female love interest) questions whether Uehara really loves her. She works so hard to get his approval. She obsesses over every detail, fearing that one tiny misstep will bring the wellspring of this supposedly "true love" to drought. This is not a feminist-themed, modern-day love story. This is an old-fashioned tale where a woman is nothing without her man, and however idiotic and emotionally stunted he may be, if he is good-looking, tall, strong and silent, the girl should do whatever she possibly can to hold onto him. Snore. I will give this show some leeway given that it was adapted from Japanese Manga (which I've never read or seen), and I do not know how much of this what faithfully adapted from its source material or re-envisioned for the life-action show. Still, the repetitive themes of "am I good enough?" and "will he still love me if . . .?" repeated ad nauseum in every god-forsaken episode got old. What's more, despite the events apparently taking place in the modern age, Rated G material was treated like Mike and Carol Brady when the Brady Bunch first aired: separate beds. Would it be possible for two madly in love teenagers to keep their hands off each other if they were living under the same roof? Along these lines, the idea of sex was barely suggested (fewer than six or seven times in 17 hour-long episodes), and we are supposed to believe that nothing more than kissing ever took place between them for the duration of their unassailable connection. i would have liked to have seen more mature themes, but as I said above, essentially the main characters did not grow, did not learn from their experience, and did not evolve into deeper and more thoughtful people. This is a failing of the show.
That said, Haruka Fukuhara, the lead who plays Nao, is a gem. She is truly the reason to watch this show. She is like peanut butter is to chocolate - delicious to watch. Her expressions, many times without words, were impressible and her range of playing such a naive and almost impossible to beat down character, who at times (particularly in Season 1) is whiny, immature, and girly was a pleasure to enjoy. Who couldn't love her? I couldn't tell whether the male lead who plays Uehara was a limited range actor or his character was simply a dud. I would have liked to have learned that he was a deeper, more pensive, and truly wise character, but in the end, he was simply clueless. And that got booooooring too. At the end of one episode, all would be reconciled and he would give a token of affection, but in subsequent episodes, that same wheel had to be reinvented every time. He acted most of the time as if he didn't love her, didn't care, and couldn't be bothered. It was ridiculous. When he'd go to hug her, he literally grabbed her arms and thrusted her close. No romance. No tenderness. There was some tenderness, but most of it was inferred. The physical interactions between the two leads were awkward every single episode and every single time, including up to the end of Season 2. How on Earth are we to believe that these two are soulmates? If they are going to be together for years, one would think that they would have worked that out, but whether it was poor acting choices, poor writing, or poor direction (or a combination of all three), it was downer for the show.
Great costumes, great sets, good music, lovely Japanese charm. Haruka Fukuhara is worth watching. She's a toasted sesame bagel. You could eat her up, she's so cute. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed it, but at the same time, I'm okay that the show ended. It's the same rehashed story with themes that never changed. Enough is enough. Will there be a Season 3? I somehow doubt it, but if there is, I won't last more than an episode or two if these same themes of insecurity and worthiness never become integrated by the characters.
I watched both Seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 is better, cuter, and more well-written. Second 2 starts off rocky, as the characters move to their college years, and most regular characters from Season 1 (most of whom I really liked) were so much more depthful and interesting than the limited development provided to the three or four new characters added to Season 2 (Uehara's research supervisor, for instance, is entirely unbelievable and acts simply as a caricature of a character with limited exploration). That said, the fundamental failing of this show is that the characters grow so little and repeat the same cycles of insecurity and confusion that the show gets old and ultimately tired, particularly in the 17-episode Season 1. In every episode, Nao (the female love interest) questions whether Uehara really loves her. She works so hard to get his approval. She obsesses over every detail, fearing that one tiny misstep will bring the wellspring of this supposedly "true love" to drought. This is not a feminist-themed, modern-day love story. This is an old-fashioned tale where a woman is nothing without her man, and however idiotic and emotionally stunted he may be, if he is good-looking, tall, strong and silent, the girl should do whatever she possibly can to hold onto him. Snore. I will give this show some leeway given that it was adapted from Japanese Manga (which I've never read or seen), and I do not know how much of this what faithfully adapted from its source material or re-envisioned for the life-action show. Still, the repetitive themes of "am I good enough?" and "will he still love me if . . .?" repeated ad nauseum in every god-forsaken episode got old. What's more, despite the events apparently taking place in the modern age, Rated G material was treated like Mike and Carol Brady when the Brady Bunch first aired: separate beds. Would it be possible for two madly in love teenagers to keep their hands off each other if they were living under the same roof? Along these lines, the idea of sex was barely suggested (fewer than six or seven times in 17 hour-long episodes), and we are supposed to believe that nothing more than kissing ever took place between them for the duration of their unassailable connection. i would have liked to have seen more mature themes, but as I said above, essentially the main characters did not grow, did not learn from their experience, and did not evolve into deeper and more thoughtful people. This is a failing of the show.
That said, Haruka Fukuhara, the lead who plays Nao, is a gem. She is truly the reason to watch this show. She is like peanut butter is to chocolate - delicious to watch. Her expressions, many times without words, were impressible and her range of playing such a naive and almost impossible to beat down character, who at times (particularly in Season 1) is whiny, immature, and girly was a pleasure to enjoy. Who couldn't love her? I couldn't tell whether the male lead who plays Uehara was a limited range actor or his character was simply a dud. I would have liked to have learned that he was a deeper, more pensive, and truly wise character, but in the end, he was simply clueless. And that got booooooring too. At the end of one episode, all would be reconciled and he would give a token of affection, but in subsequent episodes, that same wheel had to be reinvented every time. He acted most of the time as if he didn't love her, didn't care, and couldn't be bothered. It was ridiculous. When he'd go to hug her, he literally grabbed her arms and thrusted her close. No romance. No tenderness. There was some tenderness, but most of it was inferred. The physical interactions between the two leads were awkward every single episode and every single time, including up to the end of Season 2. How on Earth are we to believe that these two are soulmates? If they are going to be together for years, one would think that they would have worked that out, but whether it was poor acting choices, poor writing, or poor direction (or a combination of all three), it was downer for the show.
Great costumes, great sets, good music, lovely Japanese charm. Haruka Fukuhara is worth watching. She's a toasted sesame bagel. You could eat her up, she's so cute. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed it, but at the same time, I'm okay that the show ended. It's the same rehashed story with themes that never changed. Enough is enough. Will there be a Season 3? I somehow doubt it, but if there is, I won't last more than an episode or two if these same themes of insecurity and worthiness never become integrated by the characters.