Though I had no knowledge of the original dramas and movies about the Yamada Takayuki “Ushijima the Loan Shark” series, when I learned that a spin-off called “Yamikin Saihara-San” was being made featuring actress Maryjun Takahashi in the lead role, THAT piqued my interest!!
As you know, I love Maryjun, ESPECIALLY when she's playing badass female characters like her roles in dramas like ”Avalanche”, “The Sniffer”, and the recent “Black Postman”, and as SOON as I saw the promotional pics for the new drama with Maryjun center oozing swagger as the titular kick-butt Loan Shark enforcer Akane Saihara, I was ALL IN for it!
The series came out late last year (dramawiki stats say it was September to December of 2022), and though it seemed to generate little fanfare, a subbing team picked up the drama a few months back, and just this past week, announced that they had completed it! WOOT! When I saw the whole series up for grabs, I wasted NO TIME snatching it up and DIGGING IN!
Coming into a series after two compete seasons and two movies seems like a daunting task to undertake, and I fully expected to be ‘lost” for a while, however, I found it exciting to dive into this world of Yakuza, Loan Sharks and Con-men all duking it out in the underground without knowing anything beforehand. In fact, unless they inserted “flashback” scenes from previous seasons when relating past acquaintances or events, I simply took it as the drama’s natural character development and worldbuilding, and loved learning about them at my own pace!
SO MANY fun
and intriguing characters, not least of all the titular Saihara, the savage Loan Collector who, along with her henchmen Murai (Makita Sports) and Hazama (Ryubi Miyase) , use the most brutal (and yet highly entertaining) means of extracting the money out of their deadbeat clients!
Threatening a deadbeat client by putting her hand into a meat grinder and threatening to churn it up....
...One way or another she gets her mark!
Though they are not Yakuza, Saihara’s Rhino Collection Agency factors intricately into so many of the organization’s secret doings that when a war starts brewing between the various Yakuza factions, Saihara and her troop find themselves smack in the middle as key players!
It will take all their brains to make sure they stay on TOP of the blitz!
Besides the Yakuza plot, there are several storylines interwoven throughout the series which also have their own merit, including the trials of Aizawa (Nakao Akiyoshi), an ex-yankee from previous seasons, who, along with his wife Akemi (Haruka Kinami), is trying to ‘go straight” and run a ramen shop, while having to deal with past associates and the orders of Saihara herself.
There's a very sweet storyline following Hazama who falls for one of the debtors he is charged with collecting from, a young woman named Tomoka Sakurai (Seika Furuhata). A prostitute by trade, when Hazama learns she is a single mother on the lam from an abusive husband, he finds himself worrying for her well being, and in time they develop a close bond with each other.
And then there’s Kina Yazaki!!!
WOW, as the struggling wannabe Idol Melorin, she practically STOLE THE SHOW for me!
For me, her parts were my favorite scenes of the entire series!!
Part ditsy air-head and part conniving vixen, she spent half her time charming lonely guys out of their wallets as an idol and the other half blowing it all it on her host club boyfriend- In any case, she never has enough cash, making her a constant thorn in Saihara’s side when it comes time to collect each month!
It’s not even that she’s come up short every week as much as the cavalier attitude she has about it, which drives Saihara crazy and causes her to dream up some of the most creative "late payment" punishments for her!
Melorin: "Tee-hee, not enough, getcha next week!"
Murai: "You better have it!"
Saihara: "If you're so broke, why are you still buying bottled water?"
"If you're so broke...DRINK FROM THE WATER FOUNTAIN!"
Melorin: "Blub, blub!"
Another week of payment shortcoming.
"I don't have the money!"
"If you're so broke, why do you have new clothes?!"
"I'm an Idol! I need to look good!"
Melorin at the receiving end of another one of Saihara's punishments!
Another week of coming up short. This time, Saihara makes Melorin eat wasabi and then forces her to do one of those "If you can eat the whole bowl it's free" Pasta Challenges, LOL!
Saihara: "Here, I'll hypnotize you into thinking this wasabi tastes like chocolate! Open wide!"
Squirting the wasabi into Melorin's mouth while crudely waving a token back and forth to "hypnotize" her....Did it work?
Melorin: "Bllleeehhhrghhhh!"
Next: Eat the entire bowl of pasta and it's free! (LOL, look at that heap of noodles)
Melorin: "guhhhh..."
As she gulps down another forkful, you know she must be thinking that it might be easier to just pay off her debt! LOLOL
A large part of the time is spent on showing Melorin's attempts at getting money, whether it be getting herself deeper in debt with MORE loanshark businesses....
...or even attempting racy camgirl work when her regular idol streaming gig dries up!
(She ends up abandoning it, but MY doesn't she look fetching here! Heck, I woulda tipped her big!)
In another one of her cheese-cakey schemes, Melorin invites one of her idol customers, a businessman named Tanaka (Masanobu Katsumura) to a karaoke room. She fake cries to him, saying her mother is sick and she needs money and will do ANYTHING for it!
As she says this, she slowly starts undressing, telling Tanaka he can do whatever he wants with her if he can give her the money she needs....
This is an offer Tanaka can't refuse, and he excitedly (if foolishly) promises to give her ALL the money she needs!
Of course, once he's promised, she IMMEDIATELY puts back on her clothes, leaving Tanaka wide-mouthed and confused. Has he just been duped into promising MORE money to this girl?
SUCH a naughty trickster, but a girl's gotta do what she needs to get by!
PS: Don't worry, Melorin's story (and character) is one of the few in this drama that has a rather cute and satisfactory ending! Which is more than you can say for the fate of MOST of the players here!
Nicely paced, fun, exciting and wildly witty, I BLEW THROUGH the entire 15 episodes of Yamikin Saihara San over the weekend and by its conclusion, was clamoring for more! Sigh, this drama was supposed to fill up the space while I waited for the other dramas this season to air, but I blew it all in one crack!
I know there’s always the original series to check out, but to me the real selling point is Maryjun Takahashi…will I enjoy such a series without her? I suppose eventually I’ll have to check it out- I love this drama too much!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
