The (Un)Talented Miss Takano: Nanao in "Munou no Taka"

Nanao as the titular Takano-san.

 The zany "Muno No Taka" follows two Office workers who are looked down upon by their co-workers for their weaknesses, yet they both harbor strengths no one else can see...

Michito Hiwada (Akihisa Shiono) is a man with a mind for graphs, statistics and numbers, and is quite good with his predictions and assessments. But he is a jumpy bundle of nerves, and with his stammering and sloppy appearance, makes no one take him seriously or even listen to what he has to say, a real shortcoming for someone in outside sales! Though he is smart about his work, his constant scoldings by his superiors makes him dread every day at work.

Tsumeko Takano (Nanao) is the exact opposite: Svelte, stylish and brimming with confidence, she is someone who commands respect whenever she steps into a room, and one cannot help but get invested in anything she has to say...

However, this assessment is literally only skin deep, as her company soon finds that outside of her powerful illusion of intelligence, Takano is incompetent at every aspect of her job, from filing papers, organizing files, or even simply making copies on the xerox machine! Nonetheless, she faces each day with a huge smile and a twinkle in her eye as if she's just made employee of the month!

The company's supposed star...

...who can't even STAPLE papers together correctly!

Supervisor Hatoyama looks over the mess....

...but clueless Takano thinks she's done a good job!

It's all he can do to keep his patience!

Though their immediate superiors (Arata Iura, Asuka Kudo, Honami Sato) are trying their best to work with them despite their glaring flaws, their section chief (Katsumi Takahashi) is on his last straw with them and has plans to fire them if they don't improve.

When he hears this, Hiwada talks it over with Takano, and is shocked to find that despite this news of her impending doom, she remains positive about her future with the company. For a guy like Hiwada who worries about every day, he wishes he had some of her confidence...the things he could do if he were only HALF as self-assured as her!

Then, like a bolt out of the blue, he comes up with an inspiration: Teaming UP with Takano, taking her WITH him to his sales meetings, and using her POSITIVE ENERGY to work the deal in his favor!

"How would you like to join me in sales?"

????

The company has huge misgivings about trying something like this, but Hiwada points out that if they don't try, they lose the contract and the two of them will lose their jobs ANYWAY!  So their very futures are riding on this!

And so it is that the two venture out as sales partners of sorts, planning on using the strengths of each other to "boost" their chances!  

Takano takes the lead, starting the meeting with confidence and energy, relaxing the clients and making them eager for the sales-pitch...

...and once they begin asking about the specific details, Hiwada steps in with his concise information and assessments. And when he starts to falter, Takano is right there to bring back up the mood of the room!

With this remarkable strategy, they unbelievably SEAL the DEAL!! it's the first victory for BOTH of them!

With their very first sale under their belts, their jobs have been saved for just one day longer, and this looks like the beginning of a BEAUTIFUL partnership! But how long can it last? And what ELSE might develop from this teaming up?  Only time will tell!

PS: If I have one gripe about this show, it's the huge inconsistencies in Takano's intelligence. Depending on the situation, they'll make her either moderately competent and in others so dumb  that it's impossible she can even life life normally. Like in some scenes, she's be wasting time on her phone or browsing the web, but in the next episode she doesn't even know how to work the computer, click on icons, open folders and use apps... she doesn't even know what the MOUSE is, and I'm like "Brah, I just SAW her using the computer just fine in the episode before!" Let's get CONSISTENT here! 

"That's a mouse"

My only explanation is that they're going to later reveal that her stupidity is all an act for some reason and reveal she's actually a genius who is only pretending to be an ignoramus to hide/repress something bad, or she's an investigative agent placed in the company to infiltrate some kind of corruption or something...Make a lot more sense than this fluctuating intelligence, but I guess we'll see!

Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii

Although the Nanao action comedy “Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii” was pretty high on my list of “Want to Watch” dramas from the past season,  now that they’re finally getting around to subbing it, I must confess it hasn’t really been wowing me.

I know they were going for a “Lupin No Musume” vibe, with all the secret identity action going on, but in execution it struck me more like the recent Mitsuki Takahata vampire Comedy, which you may recall I felt very slapdash in its take, as if it were a high school production rather than a professionally produced drama. But that’s just my feel.

Nanano plays Hotaru Kusakari, a pharmacist struggling with her marriage to her husband Goro (Nobuyuki Suzuki), a Postal Worker, who never seems to understand her feelings and what she wants.

Their differences have made the two even consider divorce, but what neither of them know is that their significant others are BOTH part of clashing Ninja Clans, and when they’re not bickering at home about housework , they’re covertly duking it out on the battlefield!

Their differences have made the two even consider divorce, but what neither of them know is that their significant others are BOTH part of clashing Ninja Clans, and when they’re not bickering at home about housework , they’re covertly duking it out on the battlefield!

I was expecting  action-packed laugh out loud comedy, but so far I feel it's been a fairly mundane affair. As you can see, it wasn't even enough for me to bother screencapping! Too bad because I love most of the actors and actresses in this, including Maika Yamamoto, Rie Tomosaka and even Alice Hirose as Nanano's point-man!  Seriously, this cast is almost TAILOR MADE for me!

Ya know with the talent involved, I'll be sticking around....Guess we’ll see how this one goes!