Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Keiko Yoshikawa (Yuki Matsushita) is a passionate and driven talent manager who has just been unceremoniously dumped by her latest star Reina just as she attains super-stardom, leaving her feeling betrayed and discarded by someone she has cared for with all her heart over the years.

Stumbling the streets in despair after the news, she bumps into a young man whom she immediately sees as star-making material, and, forgetting her sadness, jumps at the chance of discovering and nurturing a new talent! Below: Life has no meaning anymore!

...or DOES it?

A chance encounter in the street

Yoshikawa expressing her desire to sign him and make him a star.

He's on board!

His name is Takuto Moriyama (Kota Nomura), and as a guy who has dealt with abandonment issues all his life, warms to the kind and appreciable words from Yoshikawa’s mouth. He shyly agrees to become her new protege, and within weeks is on his way! But he will find that he may have gotten himself into a situation he can’t get out of: For as passionate as Keiko is about making him a star, her over-the-top possessiveness with him will be greater and, perhaps due to her earlier betrayal, will seek to keep and control every single aspect of his life in the days to come!!

At first, Yoshikawa makes good on her word to get Takuto in the door. And though he doesn't seem to have much actual talent, she stays by him and coaches him mercilessly every day, wanting him to be the best he can be for his auditions...

 However, when the casting agents and directors don't warm up to Takuto, we see that Yoshikawa can be dangerous and aggressive in getting her way, using favors, psychological tricks and even flat out BLACKMAIL to force the agencies to hire her new charge. Underhanded and conniving, she ALWAYS gets her way!!

Though Takuto is too naive to see how unhinged Yoshikawa can be at first, outsiders can tell what’s going on right away and try to warn him. One person who really shows concern for him is actress Miyu Nagumo (Yurika Nakamura), Takuto's female co-star in the drama they are in together. She takes a shine to him and eventually becomes his safe harbor away from Yoshikawa’s talons.

And as Miyu and Takuto’s relationship deepens from co-stars to perhaps something more, so does Yoshikawa’s OBSESSIVE grip on him, creating tensions that continue to build up until its' inevitable explosion….

HAHAHA, oh MY, I do LOVE an over-the top stalker story, and at the halfway mark DEAR MY BABY is checking off all the boxes! Utterly fantastical and entirely predicable in its storylines, it's nonetheless one of the most ENTERTAINING shows on right now!!

PS: I also love how loveable Yuki Matsushita has been making a new career playing these crazy stalker-y Mom figures- you all may remember her turn as Fuka Koshiba’s possessive mommy in “Tokusatsu Ga Ga Ga”, and here we have her turned up to 11!!!!

GOTTA see what happens NEXT!!!!

“You, Me & Bach~You and I On The G-String”

Very sweet drama about three individuals from completely different backgrounds who begin taking up violin lessons and who, through trials and tribulations, find friendship and understanding with each other as they make their way to the goal of proficiency.

All three people have had some sort of emptiness in their lives that needs fulfilling-

Yaeko Kogure (Haru) is a 30-ish woman who has been told by her fiancé just before the wedding that he loves someone else and that the wedding is off. Haru seems to take this in stride (after hammering him in the chin with a devastating right hook!) but unfortunately she’s already put in her resignation papers at her workplace and now is facing a life with no direction.

 On the day of her termination, she is wandering listlessly through the mall when she comes upon a pretty woman playing the most beautiful and hypnotic music. 

 She is Mao Kuzumi (Yuki Sakurai) and she is there to promote free adult lessons her school is giving out, While everyone loves her playing, not many take her up on her offer to take lessons, but Haru, mesmerizes by the woman’s performance (and admittedly without any more important goal to work for), grabs ahold of the idea of playing violin.

In the meantime  Yukie Kitagawa (Yuka Matsushita) is a busy middle-aged woman who is always bustling about taking care of her family, aloof husband and catty mother-in-law who is constantly putting her down.

In the midst of her hectic shopping, she is entranced by the same violin performance Haru has seen, and when her family comes to take her away, she is so enamored of the music that she grabs a flyer in hopes of becoming a student as well!

And then we have Rihito Kase (Taishi Nakagawa), a College student who, upon seeing the mall performance, seems to be more invested in the woman playing the violin than the violin itself, and once we get to know him  we find out why- Seems he’s the younger brother of Mao’s fiancé who, just like Haru, dumped her right before their wedding because of another woman. But the obvious "secret" here is that he is in love with Mao himself, and is seemingly taking the lessons purely to keep in contact with her.

Of course, none of the three know anything about each other at first, and in fact, their personalities clash with each other more than not- well, the two ladies get along, but Kase, who is rather serious about his violin practice, find them frivolous and silly at first.

It’s only after they’ve spent some time with each other that they begin to understand each other and realize every one of them has their own problems and desire to be acknowledged. Through violin they hope to reach that goal!

It will be no surprise to any of you when I say how much I love actress Haru.  Just about every drama I’ve seen her in has been great, and she’s one of those girls who really immerses herself into her roles, making for every believable characters that you love and want to root for.

This is a bit of a different take for her- playing a pretty and efficient OL who gets demoted to frumpy T-shirt wearing bumpkin (it’s like she’s playing the Haru Kuroki “Nagi” character sometimes, LOL), when I first saw the promo pic for this drama, I thought it was Riho Yoshioka, but no problem, Haru EASILY made it her own!

The last time I saw actor Taishi Nakagawa he was playing the buffoonish comedy relief in the wacky (at times) Yuko Takeuchi drama QUEEN, so it’s bit hard to see him as this “kakkoi” kind of guy. But he plays off Haru so well, it’s perfect fit!

And then there’s Yuki Sakurai. First got to see her in Zettai Seigi and then fell in love with her as the vulnerable Mana in “ Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita” and WOWOWOW, she’s so freaking BEAUTIFUL in this drama! REALLY becoming a big FAN of her!

And I HAVE to mention how comforting it is to still see wonderful Yuki Matsushita in my daily J-dramas. She was one of the VERY FIRST actresses I fell in love with back when I was first getting into dramas back in the mid 90’s and she is still as kind and lovable as ever!

BTW, this girl playing Rihito’s girlfriend or friend Yua is an actress named Haru Konishi, and, MAN , she looks SO much like actress Manami Konishi (whom we really haven’t seem much of lately), makes you wonder if they’re related somehow!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com