After watching the first episode of Keiko Kitagawa’s sequel drama Ie Uru Onna Gyakushu (Your Home Is My Business: Counter-Attack!) featuring unstoppable Realtor Machi Sangenya, I have to say with much admiration and love that there just isn’t ANY other show like it- it's simply ONE of a KIND!
I'll admit, When I began diving in to this sequel series, I was taken aback by how wooden and cartoony everyone was acting. “Was the acting in this show always so bad?” was my first thought, LOL!
But as I continued to watch it, I was reminded of a fundamental point of the show- Ie Uru Onna is like watching a MANGA come to life! EVERYONE is over-the-top and ultra-zany, and only when you get into the mind-set that you are seeing a cartoon come to life can you truly appreciate how frickin’ GREAT it is!
Set-ups and situations are done in such an outlandish way you practically expect to see sound effects like BA-BOOOOOM! BOINGGG! and ZZING! appear on the screen, and why not? For all intents and purposes, Ie Uru Onna IS a SUPER-HERO show with Sangenya Machi as the everyday house-seeker’s real-estate CHAMPION!
Now, every good hero needs his villain, and I was THRILLED and ENTIRELY INTRIGUED when the show introduced Sangenya’s very first Arch-Enemy in the form of Genius Realtor Kenji Rusudo, played by Shota Yasuda.
Where Sangenya is a cold, oddball eccentric who is terrible with customer coddling and feelings, Rusudo is the exact opposite, compassionate, suave and smooth, easily slipping in and stealing clients from right under Machi’s nose! NOW we'll be getting some REAL adversity for the infallible Agent!!!
Clash of the Super-Realtors:
All the regular cast members are back, all except Yuko Araki (which I already mentioned left the series even before the special) but she’s been replaced in turn by the pretty yet entirely lazy Mijika Nagai (whose character seems to be an amalgam of Araki’s girly character and Mika Shirasu's lazy one)
Speaking of Mika, she of course is back at her loud-mouthed best and though her character was ceremoniously fired from the company by Sangenya, she is put to good use as Machi’s unwilling assistant for her covert missions, LOL!
Yudai Chiba is back as overachiever Adachi, whose admiration for the cool Rusudo is leaving him with mixed feelings. He’s always been frustrated that Sangenya beats him, but to watch her get taken down by the maverick realtor Rusudo has him feeling uncomfortable!
Asuka Kudo is back as the affable Seiji Niwano. In the first season part of his character was his passion for Sangenya that crept secretly into something like love, but now that Sangenya is firmly married to Yashiro, I hope they develop more for him to do that just follow Machi around.
And on that front, it is cute to watch the extremely odd relationship Machi and Yashiro have!
Though now blissfully (?) married, they still act like Boss and Subordinate!
Dai (Toru Nakamura) is clearly smitten with Machi and readily shows his love for her, but it’s fun to watch the robotic way SHE shows her affections to HIM, stomping in the house and with no amoral feelings at all, ordering, “Section Chief, Let’s Get it On!” LOLOLOL Oh man so FUNNY, not just because she asks for sexy times so bluntly, but also for the fact that she still calls him "Section Chief"! AHAHAHAHA!
As usual, Machi is at her best when she’s in her element: either meticulously surveying properties, her eyes scanning left and right like lasers, jumping around on floors and considering walls...
...or her forte of admonishing her not-too-bright clients into submission with her extensive and bottomless well of knowledge!
Ahhhh, I’m SO jazzed for this new season!!! When I finished watching the first episode, it felt like I’d just watched a MOVIE, and the excitement that there will be an entire SEASON of this fun has me all smiles! Can't WAIT to see how the rivalry between Sangenya and Rusudo elevates and develops!!!
