[Discussion] Dare yori mo mama wo aisu

Aulcard · Post by **Aulcard** » Sep 11th, '06, 12:34

I was surprised to find that there was no discussion thread for this series, since there has been one for every other series I have watched recently. Unless there actually is one and I am totally blind. If so please delete this thread or something. Anyway, now that the season is over, I was wondering what the D-Addicts viewership felt about this particular series.

At first I was hesitant to watch it simply because it is a family drama. I have resisted all family dramas since the pain of having to watch awful american sitcom/family dramas from the 80s and 90s, which I found mind numbingly boring, but there was nothing else on television. With this series I was, however, pleasantly surprised. I found tsunami's initial stages of drunkeness rather amusing and was also pleased with her overall progress throughout the series. She seemed to make the most personal progress out of any of the characters. Of course all of the characters went through some kind of change, except I think papa who remained ever loyal to his wife. Of course he did have his troubled moments as well.

Perhaps the whole gay element bothered some people, I dont know, but it did not bother me. I found akira's situation quite amusing as he tried to get pinko out of his life. Of course that all changed with time.

Anyway, opinions, comments? I liked the series, how about you?

zhongie · Post by **zhongie** » Sep 11th, '06, 12:44

I'm in love with this drama too, except I've only watched up til episode 5, since subs haven't come out yet...! It's such an unexpectedly funny drama, and I like the non-stereotypical characterization of all the characters. Even Pinko has depth, which is unusal for a caricature...

Post by **mizune** » Sep 12th, '06, 04:44

I've been meaning to start a discussion thread for this drama for awhile now, but never got around to it... ^_^;
I really liked this series a lot (haven't dl'd the last ep yet though). Although it might take a little time for some ppl to get over the "Father Knows Best"-camp kind of atmosphere in the first ep or two, this is actually a very well-done drama. All the characters start out as over-the-top caricatures/stereotype personalities, but as the episodes go on, you begin to see a lot of depth to each of them. Supporting characters were also awesome, with nicely developed backgrounds as well (except Gekidan Hitori's character, Yamashita who seemed to just kind of... be there a lot of the time... o_o ).

The social issues that this drama chooses to deal with are an interesting mix not all that typical in most family dramas either. At times I do think that it spread itself a little too thin with all the plots and issues that it was trying to address... but even so, it does a fantastic job dealing with the subtleties of most of the problems it brings up.

Wonderful drama. More ppl should watch it.

JC · Post by JC » Sep 12th, '06, 14:07

(I posted this in the wrong topic, so I'll post it again! *lol*)

The last episode is REALLY good. I was only able to pick up bits here and there, but it seems to be a great episode.

And as for this...

And also this...

Great drama. I'm sad it's over!

JC · Post by JC » Sep 12th, '06, 14:22

I agree wid ya mizune. And I definetely agree with ya zhongie about Pinko. He surprised me too. He started off as this really over the top and stereotypical gay character, but he began to develop into a meaningful force who was detrimental to Akira's development as a person. I personally felt out of all the relationship arc's, theirs was the most interesting. Because in the beginning you didn't see alot of what happens coming. And also, because gay relationship's aren't a common theme in many J-drama's. I don't think it ever will be, but still: I felt it was great for the writers to include one and help make it less of a taboo subject.

I think it would've been cool if Akira had to fight with it more though. His family seemed extremely accepting of his relationship with Pinko. It was great the family were accepting, but I would've liked to have seen Akira fight with it more. It was cool toward the end though as Akira started missing Pinko when Pinko made the decision to back off.

I felt Yamshita and Yuki's relationship didn't develop enough in my eyes though. It seemed the other reltaionships arc'd fully but theirs didn't. I haven't watched all the episodes with all the subs, so maybe I may have not caught something (which is more than likely

) but based on what limited parts I was able to pick up and from what I saw - their relationship didn't seem to resolute completely as everyone else's did.

Overall it was a great show. It should've gotten better ratings and more recognition because it dealt with some real issues. Though I would've liked it to have gotten a bit more darker in places to really bring the situations home. It seemed to make too light of what are serious issues.

sayochama · Post by **sayochama** » Sep 12th, '06, 20:12

I definitely agree that the while drama spreads itself a little thin with all of the social issues it tries to tackle, it handles everything with a lot of grace and sincerity. I did get annoyed with the charactersat times, but I never hated them, and that's one of the things that elevates a good drama into a great one for me.

I think it would've been cool if Akira had to fight with it more though. His family seemed extremely accepting of his relationship with Pinko. It was great the family were accepting, but I would've liked to have seen Akira fight with it more.

I think I have to disagree with you, JC. Akira spends the entire series fighting, occasionally violently, with himself. Part of fully letting his old self go is accepting Pinko romantically, so Akira's struggle is a major part of the last half of the series even if he doesn't get much screen time. Still, I agree that the family's reaction was great -- it just adds to the repeated message about Papa's love.

Who else thought it was funny that all the kids' love interests are just like either Mama or Papa? ^_^

JC · Post by JC » Sep 12th, '06, 20:55

^^^ Hmmmm. I guess so.

Either way. As I mentioned before - I felt their relationship was the most interesting because of the way it affected the 2 of them so greatly. The way Pinko had to deal with knowing he may not win Akira's heart. And Akira not realising how deep his feelings were for him.

It's still a great show, but I just wish they had gotten a bit deeper and darker in places.

I have to say, I liked every character in this show. I hated Mama at first. But once she got diagnosed - her character lightened up a bit and I warmed to her. Just because she began to realise how much how family meant to her when she realised she could lose them. I guess it was intentional for the writers to have her pan out that way.

I'm just sad the shows over.

There were so many moments where I'd laugh out loud and constantly rewind. It truly was a great show. Much better than say: Sapuri in my opinion. It started great and now it's just so-so.

I gotta give major props to Abe Sadayo too. That guy is a great actor. EVERY drama he's in, he plays a completely different character with a completely different look. The guy's a chameleon!! When I first saw him, I was like "That can't be the detective dude from Unfair!?!?"

Aulcard · Post by **Aulcard** » Sep 13th, '06, 01:25

I must admit I seriously disliked the mama character for a large part of the series. I was quite dissapointed in how they finally handled the issue the family was having with her. After her being so cold toward the children with her inability to listen to what they had to say, always just saying she didnt want to hear excuses, it was understandable that it pushed everyone away. I would liked to have seen her realize that rather than her standing here in the 'im right zone' and everyone being on the outside, that she was infact the one on the outside, in the wrong. Not that I am saying the way the family behaved was right either, but I felt it was a cop-out for them all to be apologizing for their bad behaviour while she basically remained as the 'right' one and never stopped to listen to them. At the end of that episode she apologized to papa because she realized she had been taking him for granted or something, I forget. Next episode suddenly everything is back to normal, without any kind of two way resolution. But she did seem to get more likeable after that. Toward the end I was finally able to see that she cared about her family etc and wasnt really so cold.

Keeping in mind I watched the entire series RAW and could have greatly misunderstood some things. I have no intention to watch with subs, however.

Post by **mizune** » Sep 13th, '06, 04:05

Aulcard wrote: Keeping in mind I watched the entire series RAW and could have greatly misunderstood some things. I have no intention to watch with subs, however.

I think you missed out. If not the series, I would at least watch that one ep where everything gets resolved with subs... ^_^;

I have to agree that I found her goddess-like Mama Knows Best attitude annoying at first, but once everything was resolved, it actually showed how very human she is. Just as Papa made sacrifices for Mama and the family well-being, Mama has done the same... just in a different way. Mama is a very observant and calculating person...

Like I said before though, the neat little trick of this series was starting out with all these characters on the stereotypical extreme and then fleshing them out into something more tangible.

As for Akira's struggle, there wasn't really any need for the family to come up in arms about it b/c it:
1) would be out of character for the family who have been brought up by their non-traditional parents -- particularly the mother, a crusader for social justice
2) was already addressed with Pinko's family problems

JC · Post by JC » Sep 13th, '06, 12:24

^^^ I never said I wanted Akira's family to be up in arms about it. But they didn't even seem shocked. At least an "Ehhh!?!?" woulda been cool. For comic relief if nothing else. At least from Karou who perhaps wouldn't understand how two men can actually love each other. But I do think it was nice how accepting they were of it and just poked fun. Like when he drinks his tea with his pinky stuck out. *lol* It seemed that the family knew Akira really liked Pinko-san before he did.

As for Mama, I think it was intentional to have her be cold that way in the beginning, because she did mellow out once she got diagnosed. But I have to say, I hated Papa at certain points because he sided with Mama even when she was in the wrong. But I guess that just convey's how much he loves her.

The scene where Akira pushed Mama down was fan service for me. *lol* I'm not condoning pushing your mum violently to the floor, but I have to say a small part of me was like "Yeah! Take that ****!"

But you could see at certain moments Mama regretted what she did. Like when she went and sat in the toilet in the dark because she felt somewhat guilty. But I didn't like how everyone else punished themselves for the things they did, but Mama didn't. Was the breast cancer her punishment? Who knows! But she didn't appear to be as hard on herself as the others.

I also like how they worked Tsunami-san into things too. She annoyed me at first, but she quickly grew into a character I loved. But, you would have thought she would have spoken to Mama about what happened to her and her family. Maybe she does in the episodes which haven't been subbed yet. But I felt she should've told Mama about the mistakes she made.

This discussion topic shoulda gone up AGES ago!!

Aulcard · Post by **Aulcard** » Sep 13th, '06, 12:47

mizune wrote:I think you missed out. If not the series, I would at least watch that one ep where everything gets resolved with subs... ^_^;

...

Just as Papa made sacrifices for Mama and the family well-being, Mama has done the same... just in a different way.

Yeah, I did pick up from the RAWs that mama had also made sacrifices for the family. But I think you are right in that I should atleast watch the resolution episode with subs. It would help me get a better understanding of what happened there. But I certainly wont watch the entire series again with subs since I just watched it and I dont want to watch the whole series twice in a row. I didnt start watching until episode 05 or 06 or something so I basically crammed through the first half of the show in a few days.

@JC : Yeah I was surprised not to find a thread about it, over the last few weeks I have been keeping an eye on the JDrama Discussion forum hoping one would open up. But now that its open it would be good to hear a few more opinions. Is it just me, or is it kind of quiet in here? Am I imagining things, or is this drama somewhat underappreciated? The torrent threads didnt get much in the way of response either..

JC · Post by JC » Sep 13th, '06, 18:46

I think it's GREATLY underappreciated.

Probably because the drama came up around the same time as the likes of Sapuri and Kekkon dekinai otoko.

Any drama with a Johnny's in it always seems to attract attention and get a topic go up with 100's of posts related to the starring Johnny and not the show itself.

And then you got Abe Hiroshi in Kekkon dekinai otoko the chick that played Chisato from Brother beat. (Not that she's big, but people will recognise her face).

I guess there wasn't really a big name to front this drama. (Even though Tetsuji Tamayama's been popping up in everything - he still isn't huge) And I guess people saw the whole kiddy style family image of them all on that cycle-thingy and assumed it would be this happy go lucky drama with no substance - when in fact it dealt with many serious issues that few Japanese dramas I've seen have dealt with.

Who knows - I could be way off!!

But the people who missed out on this show - it's their loss. Hopefully this topic will raise awareness of it and maybe people will catch onto it late.

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