100-manen no Onnatachi~ Million Yen Women

Million Yen Women

Was sent this article with a list of “Top 20 Dramas To Check Out” posted by The Smart Local Japan, citing 20 dramas “from 2000 to 2020 to catch up on while stuck at home”.

Most of them were fairly predictable as shows like Hana Yori Dango, Hanzawa Naoki, Code Blue and Midnight Diner are pretty much universally liked, alos had a few I was surprised ranked so highly, however, there was one drama I hadn’t even HEARD of, a show called “Million Yen Women” from 2017 which was at the top of their list!

Not only was I surprised that a show I'd never heard of ranked so high, it co-starred Yuko Araki, and as some of you may know, she’s an actress that I absolutely ADORE and always make time to see!
My curiosity getting the best of me, I ran online to see if anyone had picked it up, thankfully, as a NETFLIX original show, most uploads already came fully subtitled and I wasted no time grabbing’ the entire season and sitting down and WATCHING it!!
Million Yen Women tells the tale of an introverted young writer named Shin Michima (Noda Yojiro) who suddenly finds himself living with five mysterious women of all ages and lifestyles and a rambunctious kitten to top it all off! How did such a situation come to be?

Shin himself doesn’t know, and neither do we! All he knows is that one day, in the midst of his piddling struggle as an up-and-coming author, a strange girl appears in his house. 

She introduces herself as Hitomi Tsukamoto (Rena Matsui) and tells her she’s here because of the invitation. Invitation? Shin has no idea what invitation she is talking about nor who would send such a thing. As per this unseen invitation, Hitomi hands him over a million yen which she has agreed to pay for her monthly rent- she plans on LIVING with him!

As a struggling writer, the money can come in handy, but he is bewildered as he has no IDEA what is going on! And before he can even ask, the doorbell rings..with yet another girl at the door with the same invitation and million yen in hand, and then another and ANOTHER!!!
There is the shy and reserved Yuki Kobayashi (Miwako Wagatsuma)…

The innocent school girl Midori Suzumura (Rena Takeda)

The radiantly sunny Nanaka Seki (Yuko Araki)

and the striking and headstrong Minami Shirakawa (Rila Fukushima) a femme fatale who likes to lounge around naked (!),  to round them all out!

The outspoken girls quickly make themselves at home as establish some ground rules: they will each pay Shin One Million Yen for lodging and cooking for them, but he must never ask anything personal about their lives nor ever go inside any of their rooms. 

As Shin’s severely reserved anyway, he stays away from the girls personal lives, and begins a new one cohabitating with these five vibrant women and all their odd eccentricities!

Shin needs all the help he can get. For he has a past that he’s been struggling with for some time. His father is a murderer who killed Shin’s mother and her lover as well as a young policeman.

Besides the usual shun of society for being related to such a person, Shin must deal with constant death threats and insults via his fax machine.

Shin must also deal with the ascension of a rival writer, the young Yuzu Hanaki (Tomoya Nakamura), who, unlike Shin, is charismatic and writes about popular things. Along with a prejudiced journalist Moriguchi (Tetsuhiro Ikeda) who disdains Shin’s work, they become more and more successful as Shin wallows deeper and deeper into self-doubt.

Shin does have one light in his life, the (perhaps superficial) love of his soapland favorite, Hotaru (Moeka Hoshi), and she is the one who he goes to to relax, when he is in doubt, frustrated, and, of course, horny!

But as Shin lives with the girls and they interact with him, he finds talking to them helps, and in time he and the girls learn to turn to each other for help. And who wouldn’t want such a bad-ass group of gals behind you?

This is one hell KAKKOI troupe here!
This was one heckuva drama, with up and downs as you meet the good guys and bad guys and find that not all bad guys are bad and not all friends are friends! Had me guessing throughout and I binged it all in one frantic sitting!
I LOVE how you got to know every girl as the show progressed. I remember back when reading the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons classic comic WATCHMEN, they used the twelve issues with every other issue delegated to a character’s backstory and the other half forwarding the story. Million Yen Women does the exact same thing with their twelve episodes, with half the show  dealing with the “origins” of the five girls so we learn what their motivations are and what makes them “tick”!

Everyone was great, but special mention must be made of Yuko Araki!!! Oh My GOSH,as the PRINCIPLE reason for me even watching this show to begin with, she was an absolute DARLING, easily my favorite character in the show and one whose sweet and wholesome outlook simply STOLE every scene she was in!!!!

If she hadn’t been a Crush of the day at least two times over already, this drama certainly woulda done it again!
A BIG thumbs Up for Million Yen women!!!