Otto no Katei wo Kowasu Made

Marika Matsumoto with trouble in mind...

Ever since they were classmates together in school, Minori (Marika Matsumoto) has pledged all her love and devotion to Yudai Kisaragi (Terunosuke Takezai). She always saw him as her only one, and when they got married and eventually started a family with a young son, she felt her life couldn’t get better!

This all comes to a crashing end when Minori accidentally sees some indiscreet texts on Yudai’s phone, the kind of which seems to indicate that her husband isn’t being honest about where he is and what he’s doing on all those evenings when he’s saying he’s working late or entertaining clients!

Minori’s friend and fellow lawyer Sara Hori (Rina Ota) cautions Minori not to jump to conclusions as there are many reasons why her husband might have lied- maybe he’s planning a surprise for her. Maybe she misunderstood. And so, needing to see with her own eyes what she suspects, she begins tailing her husband.

On an evening when he says he’s meeting with co-workers, Minori sees Yudai meet up with a teenage boy. Confused as to what she is seeing, it gets even MORE conusing when they go to a restaurant, and another WOMAN (Maho Nonami) shows up!

Tears form in Minori’s eyes as she witnesses her greatest fears coming to reality: Yudai is INDEED cheating on her, and with a woman with a grown son besides! How LONG has this been going ON, Minori wonders,  and when Sara sees the damning pictures, recognizes the woman as an old classmate of theirs. Yudai and this woman have been together THAT far back??? Minori is shocked and shaken to the core!

All her dreams of  the perfect life with this man are now marred with betrayal and dark thoughts soon cloud Minori’s mind. If she cannot attain the happy family life she wanted, she can’t imagine  allowing Yudai to enjoy HIS cheating life and begins plotting her revenge: By DESTROYING her husband’s family!

Otto no Katei wo Kowasu Made promises to be one hek of a psychological drama, only I'm still not sure what kind it's going to be- At fist glance seeming like a drama like  the excellent Wakana Mtumoto thriller "Fukushuu no Miboujin" (which I gushed about here) , by the drama's synopsis on MDL, seems more like it will be a character study of Minori and her own tortured past. This drama could be great or a real slog...for the moment, I'm cautiously invested!

Let’s Go Fishing with Asami Usuda in “Choi Tsuji Dandy”

Whether it be a show like Haru Kuroki’s “Mi wo Tsukushi Ryoricho”, Tina Tamashiro’s “Tetsu Ota Michiko 2 Man Kiro” or Haruka Fukuhara and the gang in “Yuru Camp”, I always love to have a show where it’s not so much about any particular story so much as a place where you can slow down, relax and “take the time to smell the roses”, and for this season, it HAS to be “Choi Tsuri Dandy”, following the goings on of a fishing-obsessed young lady!

Choi Tsuri Dandy stars Asami Usuda as Nagiko Dan, a soft spoken and thoughtful agent working for an architectural firm by day, and a passionate fisher(wo)man once she is “off the clock”!

Hmmm...the water's looking fine...

Hello, Boss? I've completed my meeting with the client and am now on my free time!

Boss surely knows where Nagiko's going...

Time for some fishing!

As expected, there is a lot of narrative explanation of equipment, history and technique, but the thing that really gives me a Yuru Camp/Tetsu Ota vibe is the time spent just taking in the ENVIRONMENT around her. You can feel how serene the places Nagiko chooses to fish feels and at once begin to relax as she does!

Nagiko's passion earns the interest of a high school girl (Itsuki Nagasawa)

Did a lot of Bamboo Pole fishing as a child, and there is nothing quite like the feel of a fish taking a nibble of your line, a wondrous feeling Choi Tsuri Dandy takes great pains to convey to the viewer!

snagging a nice catch!!

Giving away the fish to the high schoolers and then it's back for more fishing...

So sweet! Is this Asami Usuda’s first leading role in a drama? Can’t remember if she’d been the lead in anything I saw before, but it’s always thrilling to see another MEI-CHAN NO SHITSUJI alumnus doing well!!!

Oh, and besides Yusuke Kamiji as Nagiko's boss, we also have the always entertaining Rina Ota as Nagiko's bar Mama friend. (I find it extremely funny to see Asami on the other side of the bar as I know her SO WELL as the Chichin Puipui Bar Owner in Ie Uru Onna!)

With such a lively cast and soothing premise, this will be a nice one to save for the nightly cup of tea!