Still, the loves she’s had remain in her memory, and she is devastated when she finds that the funeral she’s preparing that week is for her first love Jun Karibe (Shunya Shiraishi).
He’s left behind a young son named Ren, whom Aiko immediately bonds with! The two begin having a nice conversation together....
..until they are interrupted by a mysterious, brooding man in black who corners Aiko and asks her if she wants to be in love. Turns out that this is Jun Karibe’s socially awkward older brother Seiichiro (Ryohei Suzuki), but she doesn’t know this and shoves him away. The funeral staff see this assault and promptly fire Aiko, leaving her worried about how she will pay all her bills!
She is met by a dapper man named Kogo (Ainosuke Kataoka), who offers her a job on the spot, without revealing any of the details. Aiko knows she should ignore this guy, but with money issues in mind, she accompanies Kogo to this unnamed job.
When they get to their destination, she is shocked to find the dour Seiichiro there. Come to find out, when he confronted her at the funeral and asked if she wants to fall in love, he was offering her a JOB!
Seems Seiichiro is actually a famous mangaka of girls’ manga, under the female pseudonym of “Maria” Karibe, and, in a slump of sorts, wants to hire Aiko to have a romance so he can use her experiences to fuel his next story!
Aiko at first balks on this idea, citing her bad luck in love and distrust of Karibe as primary reasons...but when she hears that this gig will pay her a million yen, WELL! That changes things!
"I'm IN!" She declares!!!
In an instant, Aiko is thrust into training for her role of a succesful OL in a big company, with fashionable new clothes, attention to makeup, and a strict schooling by Kogo about the particulars of socializing! And after severe effort the NEWAiko is ready to go out in the world and find her new (if completely bogus) love!
In no time, the usually unlucky in love Aiko has met up with a charming young man named Tsuyoshi Hayase (Ryo Ryusei) and, unbelievably, actually strike it up and make plans for a date!
Her mission a success, the crew go back to the house to break down her new encounter, where Seiichiro immediately begins putting her experience down on paper. He is meticulous and Aiko is in awe of how her adventure has inspired this story appearing before her eyes!
From there Aiko’s days are spent slowly working on her fine, burgeoning romance with the unwitting Tsuyoshi, and then at nights reporting back to Karibe to inspire his new works!
But what happens when Aiko actually finds real love with this sham romance. And what happens when Seiichiro himself finds himself attracted to Aiko…? These problems and much more await Aiko as she goes about this very unusual new job!!
From it’s comic-book art-style promotional pictures, Renai Mangaka already reminded me a lot of the Haru drama “Survival Wedding”, but MAN, I had no idea how MUCH it would be alike! In Survival Wedding, Haru is instructed to meet a guy, fall in love and and get married all for the sake of her job, and the stakes seem almost identical in Renai Mangaka! They even both feature the young miss being instructed by a older, dapper guy!
So far, seems like a fun show with a whole smorgasboard of great actors, including personal fave of mine Haruka Kinami as Kogo’s rival Karen Kinjo in the publishing house where he works! As the two agents in control of the company’s top talents, they constantly clash, with Karen determined to meet the mysterious woman “Maria” Karibe!
BTW, in another one of those wonderful j-drama deja-vu moments, it seems the house where Karibe lives...
...is the Ballet Studio that Kana Kurashina and Yoshihiko Inohara visited in "The Company" a few weeks back!
One other thing: this thing about guy authors pretending to be female mangakas has GOT to be one of the most overused twists in these comedies, besides Renai Mangaka, we also have Yasuko To Kenji, Himitsu No Hanazono, AND Hanbun Aoi to name a few! LOLOL
In any case, seems like a GREAT little drama so far, and it's been so NICE seeing Riho Yoshioka back playing yet another one of her disarmingly adorable female lead characters!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com