[Discussion] Otenki Onee-san

[iluvasiandrama]

TV Show: Otenki Onee-san
Japanese: お天気お姉さん
Director: Osamu Katayama, Hisashi Ueda, Naomi Tamura
Writer: Shizuka Oishi
Network: TV Asahi
Episodes: TBA
Release Date: April 12, 2013 --
Runtime: Fridays 23:15


Cast:
Emi Takei as Haruko Abe
Tadayoshi Okura as Detective Gota Aoki
Nozomi Sasaki as Akane Hashimoto
Yuko Fueki as Ran Haraguchi
Tomomi Maruyama as Endo


Plot:
Haruko Abe (Emi Takei) received her meteorologist license at the age of 11. She is a genius weatherwoman. Haruko now works as a meteorologist on a morning information program. Due to her incredibly blunt personality, a lot of people at her workplace dislikes her. Meanwhile, Haruko tries to solve cases with Detective Gota Aoki (Tadayoshi Okura), using her extensive knowledge of the weather.
-source: AsianWiki

[kotsukotsu]

Nice to see a physical science Tensai as the heroin of a drama, even though some of the details are silly, i.e. despite the plot of the first episode, ball lightening is largely regarded as a myth among meteorologists, and the speculative explanation of ball lightening as due to oxidation of nano-silicon oxide from the soil is silly. There are real life meteorologists who specialize in relatively accurate weather forecasts in specific cities, but they use computers and arrays of weather stations, a sharp contrast to this drama, in which the heroin simply steps outdoors and looks up to forecast the weather.

The "specter of Brocken" phenomenon of episode 2 is very commonly seen in modern life. I see it almost every time I fly in an aircraft and sit at a window seat at the shadowed side of the airplane. I've got the feeling they are going to run out of interesting and unusual meteorological phenomena before the series is finished, and hope they don't resort to non-existent phenomena like ball lightening again.

[GaussAlgorithmus]

Nice to see a physical science Tensai as the heroin of a drama, even though some of the details are silly, i.e. despite the plot of the first episode, ball lightening is largely regarded as a myth among meteorologists, and the speculative explanation of ball lightening as due to oxidation of nano-silicon oxide from the soil is silly.

It is still a posibility even though ball lightnings are simply not proven to exist "in nature". Therefore the scene with the ball lightning was hillarious. Not only is the chance that somelike like that (IF it even exists!) to appear right in front of you AT THE RIGHT TIME approching zero, but the slow floating of the thing and hitting the trash can was just soooo funny. I laughed really hard.

There are real life meteorologists who specialize in relatively accurate weather forecasts in specific cities, but they use computers and arrays of weather stations, a sharp contrast to this drama, in which the heroin simply steps outdoors and looks up to forecast the weather.

I think that she is supposed to have some sort of "super power", taht connect her to the weather. She said herself, that she never went to university.

The "specter of Brocken" phenomenon of episode 2 is very commonly seen in modern life. I see it almost every time I fly in an aircraft and sit at a window seat at the shadowed side of the airplane. I've got the feeling they are going to run out of interesting and unusual meteorological phenomena before the series is finished, and hope they don't resort to non-existent phenomena like ball lightening again.

I'm honest when I say: I don't care! The characters are established and interesting enought. What is with her? What happend to her parents? What is going on with the female anouncer? What is the relationship between the barwoman and the doctor?

Up to now, I really like "Otenki Oneesan" and am quite entertained by it. I have to admit that I like Takei Emi and think it's great, so her her in a totally different role compared with the last one.

[kotsukotsu]

By the way, for those who, like me, find absolutely everything Mitsuyo-san says fascinating, look at the following site:

http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/reading/mitsuyo/

Somehow she reminds me of the Mama-san at a place in Kobe many years ago...

--- バカ

[BBOvenGuy]

This was a fun show... and I can't help thinking there's a special in its future...

There's one thing I kept thinking about whenever Abe-san talked about people trying to control the weather. Or rather, one person - Edward Norton Lorenz, one of the most important pioneers of Chaos Theory, and the person who coined the expression, "the butterfly effect." That is to say, one of the people who revolutionized the way we think about what we can or can't predict in the world, and one of the people who pretty much destroyed the aspirations of people like that scientist-villain guy in the final two-parter.

You see, Edward Norton Lorenz... was a weather forecaster.

[kz_skies]

well....

the ending is very... very.... *speechless*

how come haruko is in love with mikumo sensei?

and i thought haruko's past will be dug up deeper in the final episode.
But in the end, i'm disappointing myself with my high expectation

i don't want to be rude person, but personally, this drama is a disappointment to me


fortunately, there's takei emi and nozomi sasaki to cheer me up

[BBOvenGuy]

thought haruko's past will be dug up deeper in the final episode.
But in the end, i'm disappointing myself with my high expectation

i don't want to be rude person, but personally, this drama is a disappointment to me

Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a special coming...

[GaussAlgorithmus]

I liked the show and it's characters...I really liked it. But the ending is probably one of the most disappoint I've ever seen. I think there will be a special...and I hope it will bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion, because what we've got right now is just...bad. Especially for poor Aoki-san...there is so much wrong with the ending.

- Why does she like Mikumo? There was NO hint at all about that. It was just...random
- Why did they include the scene in the drama? As it happend literally in the last 5 minute, there was no point in showing it and the rejection including her reaction to that. Why show something like that, if it can't give a) a happy ending or b) character growth?
- Why did they use all the sideplots (Harukos past, the stalker guy from the morning Z woman...) if they don't lead to anything at the end?
- Why does the drama end so bad for Aoki? He hs basically lost his job AND didn't even get the girl! How depressing is that?
- Why does it say: "Right after this, the last time Abe Haruko will..." at the end?

To me, the ending feels like the drama was designed in mind with a special afterwards or like the producers went: "Damn, the ratings suck...let's just cut episode 10 und 11 and just finish it somehow with episode 9".

I really hope for a second season or a special.

[kotsukotsu]

The ending was fine with me. Haruko likes predictable things, so from that standpoint it wasn't a mystery why she picked a predictable (Otaku) male.

I liked the drama, despite two flaws. (1) Although weather phenomena are mostly presented realistically (with glaring exceptions), Haruko's forecasting ability is said to be due to "DNA." There really exist pro weather forecasters who make detailed predictions for certain cities or whatever, but they work in a vastly different manner than Haruko. (2) The major plot premise explaining Haruko's personality was unbelievable, since humans just don't change their basic personality in that manner in response to a single past event.

The TV station politics and jealousy were unexpectedly fun to watch and full of humor.

People unfamiliar with Japan's convoluted system of certification exams may have difficulty understanding some of the references to Haruko's "genius," i.e. passing the exam without going to college and without repeatedly retaking it year after year, as is supposed to be typical for the Tenkiyohoushi exam. This type of exam helps limit the number of people entering a profession, just like you see in the legal and medical professions in the USA, so that salaries are artificially high. But unlike the USA, in Japan these exams help create artificial scarcities of personnel in far more professions. I passed a similar certification exam in Japan, and it was absurdly difficult, far more difficult than could be justified to simply judge competence, i.e. the major role was really to artificially limit the number of people entering the profession.

I'd like to see a follow-up centered on MItsuyo-mama, not Haruko.

--- バカ

[hey9]

Last ep

I loved Abe's confession. I'm the person who pairs the main character with the weird character, sometimes they're not even supposed to even remotely considered a love interest. Aoki is bland and uninteresting, and I think Mikumo is better looking. I lol'd when she confessed, and I lol'd at Mikumo's rejection of her. It's not often the main character goes out in left field and chooses the underdog, let alone in a detective drama where usually romance is only vaguely hinted at.