Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Keiko Yoshikawa (Yuki Matsushita) is a passionate and driven talent manager who has just been unceremoniously dumped by her latest star Reina just as she attains super-stardom, leaving her feeling betrayed and discarded by someone she has cared for with all her heart over the years.

Stumbling the streets in despair after the news, she bumps into a young man whom she immediately sees as star-making material, and, forgetting her sadness, jumps at the chance of discovering and nurturing a new talent! Below: Life has no meaning anymore!

...or DOES it?

A chance encounter in the street

Yoshikawa expressing her desire to sign him and make him a star.

He's on board!

His name is Takuto Moriyama (Kota Nomura), and as a guy who has dealt with abandonment issues all his life, warms to the kind and appreciable words from Yoshikawa’s mouth. He shyly agrees to become her new protege, and within weeks is on his way! But he will find that he may have gotten himself into a situation he can’t get out of: For as passionate as Keiko is about making him a star, her over-the-top possessiveness with him will be greater and, perhaps due to her earlier betrayal, will seek to keep and control every single aspect of his life in the days to come!!

At first, Yoshikawa makes good on her word to get Takuto in the door. And though he doesn't seem to have much actual talent, she stays by him and coaches him mercilessly every day, wanting him to be the best he can be for his auditions...

 However, when the casting agents and directors don't warm up to Takuto, we see that Yoshikawa can be dangerous and aggressive in getting her way, using favors, psychological tricks and even flat out BLACKMAIL to force the agencies to hire her new charge. Underhanded and conniving, she ALWAYS gets her way!!

Though Takuto is too naive to see how unhinged Yoshikawa can be at first, outsiders can tell what’s going on right away and try to warn him. One person who really shows concern for him is actress Miyu Nagumo (Yurika Nakamura), Takuto's female co-star in the drama they are in together. She takes a shine to him and eventually becomes his safe harbor away from Yoshikawa’s talons.

And as Miyu and Takuto’s relationship deepens from co-stars to perhaps something more, so does Yoshikawa’s OBSESSIVE grip on him, creating tensions that continue to build up until its' inevitable explosion….

HAHAHA, oh MY, I do LOVE an over-the top stalker story, and at the halfway mark DEAR MY BABY is checking off all the boxes! Utterly fantastical and entirely predicable in its storylines, it's nonetheless one of the most ENTERTAINING shows on right now!!

PS: I also love how loveable Yuki Matsushita has been making a new career playing these crazy stalker-y Mom figures- you all may remember her turn as Fuka Koshiba’s possessive mommy in “Tokusatsu Ga Ga Ga”, and here we have her turned up to 11!!!!

GOTTA see what happens NEXT!!!!

Namiyo Kiite Kuru おわり

One from a few seasons back, Nami yo Kiite Kuru was always on my back burner and has FINALLY wrapped up, to GLORIOUS appeal! Gotta say, for a show that started out nutty (and, admittedly, sometimes irritating) as hell, I have to say how much this drama grew on me until the point where I just LOVE it to death!  Funny how a show can hit one way and then end up being one of your favorite shows of the season!!

 Fuka Koshiba excels as radio personality Minare and the individual episode stories are fun, but I think it's the development of Minare’s friendship/partnership with the AD Mizuho (played by Hara Nanoka) that really sold me on the show. Initially starting out as mere associates at the radio station, when Mizuho gets promoted to becoming Minare’s program director, they become really like partners in crime, so fun and rascally with each other!

The two have such distinct personalities: with Mizuho the soft spoken and thoughtful one and Minare the loudmouthed, brash fly-off-the-handle type they play quite well off each other, and as the show went along, Minare and Mizuho became almost like equal co-stars as they investigated each new topic for their night program, getting into all KINDS of shenanigans in the process!!!

Such a joy watching them interact each episode, and despite any differences they have, you can tell they really adore each other and it always puts a smile on my face when they unabashedly assert their love for each other!

A perfect example: Mato (Kazuki Kitamura) tells Minare she has to attend attitude meetings if she wants to keep the show afloat, to which she threatens to just axe the show. But Mizuho cries out against the news, to which Minare pleads her love for her no matter what!

LOLOL

In another one, they're going over a potential story, and Minare is shocked to find Mizuho becoming more and more devilish with her plans to nab a good story no matter the cost.

"I'm the rotten one...you're supposed to be the sweet one!" Minare cries as she hugs Mizuho, scared that she is turning into Mato as she becomes more responsible for her programs!

Such a FUN and SWEET pairing! It’s for this that when the drama inevitably ended, I was achingly missing them and wanting to drop in on them again! Such is the mark of great characters!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com