Notes on "Muchaburi!: Watashi ga Shachou ni Naru Nante"

 Hinako Takanashi (Mitsuki Takahata) is the harried yet highly efficient assistant to a company president named Hiroto Asami (Shota Matsuda) who keeps her busy following his eccentric directives! 

While she is regarded by the employees as Asami’s “yes man” who seems to kiss up to him and lick his boots, in reality she is laid back and realistic girl who spends her evenings chilling with a beer in hand playing video-games while she rants to herself about how the President is driving her CRAZY with his demands, forcing her to clash with employees and even walking his pets!!

Takanashi already knows to expect curveballs when dealing with the flighty Company boss, even she isn’t prepared when one day he announces that one of her submissions (made early in her career when she still had a zest for it) has been chosen- a new foray into the world of restauranting…and he has chosen HER as its new PRESIDENT!

Takanashi is naturally flabbergasted to hear the announcement and constantly tries to beg off the offer. But the President seems to believe in her (though he may have some ulterior motives, he’s acting very fishy) and wants to see what she can do!

If Takanashi is surprised, it’s nothing compared to fellow company man Ryo Taiga (Jun Shison) who submitted what he (and others) feel is the superior proposal and is stunned by the President’s choice in installing this obvious novice into the rank of Leader!

Even more insulting as that he is transferred into being part of Takanashi’s new team, along with Miyauchi (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa),Tanabe (Shugo Oshinari) and Miyama (Maho Yamada) who are all gathered to make her new project go through!

But it will be an uphill battle, for Takanashi has neither the knowledge or the authoritative voice to solve problems when they clash with the former restaurant chef and staff, and at one point it seems all will be lost. But between it all, her sincerity comes through, and if she can just believe in herself, maybe she can get others to follow her lead as well!

When the drama began, I thought it was going to be like the Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock movie “Two Weeks Notice”, following the hijinks of a eccentric boss and his eternally set-upon assistant, but the thing about taking over the restaurant was a 180 degree turn and I realized it was gonna be more Grand Maison Tokyo...
NOTES:
I know I’ve said this before, but Mitsuki Takahata is such a great actress. While watching this, I thought to myself, “it’s been awhile since I saw her in anything,” before remembering I had JUST watched her in “Iribito”- that’s how much I believed her character in that show. Dark and brooding, it was like a COMPLETELY different actress!

Guess that dude  Sho Kasamatsu from "Eroi Kareshi ga Watashi wo Madowasu" is going to be some love interest or rival or something, as he's introduced and a big deal is made of their meeting...

Also pretty funny to see Jun  Shison here as the uptight and brooding restaurant concept man- the last time I saw him was as the uber-incompetent in “Heaven Gokurau Restaurant, would have been something to see what one character woulda thought of the other!!!
Oh, and in another “Deja-Vu” sighting, that office garden that Takanashi always goes up to (where she clashes with Ryo Taiga)...

Is the same one used in the drama Kaseifu no Nagisa San with Mikako Tabe and Maryjun Takahashi!

Gosh, look at the grass in Nagisa san! Hmm, comparing the two, I see that the garden, which was at first so green, is in dire need of some watering! Or maybe it's just winter....

Heaven? 終わり

 
As a huge fan of Satomi Ishihara, I remember being excited to hear of her new role as a Crime Novelist turned French Restaurant owner in the drama “Heaven? Gokuraku Restaurant”, and dove into it with gusto!

It was fun to see Satomi in action, however I remember being a bit put off by how selfish and mean-spirited her character of Kanako Kurosu was! Every time you thought she was doing something with love, every time you saw her giving seemingly kind advice, it always turned out that she was doing it for her own greedy agendas!

Ah, but as the show went on, you began to see how the employees at her restaurant began to predict how she would act in any given situation, and it became a fun battle of wills to see the noble workers doing their very best to wrangle in their rambunctious owner!

Episodes were based around the various adventures the crew had dealing with business and their wacky owner, and truthfully, Heaven might have gone on to become just an “OK” drama for me, but there was an outside factor that helped make this drama more precious and special:

Heaven? was initially picked up by subber “Madmad227”, who noted from the get go that translations were only  a side project of his and that it might be sometimes slow in coming, however he assured everyone that no matter how long, he would surely finish the series.

And the subtitles came very slowly indeed, at about the rate of every four months or so, but whenever we would see the happy news that a new episode was posted up, we were SO doggone HAPPY and would all scramble to watch it! I began to enjoy and anticipate each new subtitled release!!

The release rate pace was as follows:

1- 2019.07

2- 2019.08

3- 2019.08

4-  2019.10

5-  2020.02

6-  2020.04

7-  2020.05

8-   2020.08

9-   2021.05

10- 2021.07

You would have thought that it would be frustrating to watch in this way, but Heaven? was such a whimsical, quirky drama that even though you might not see anything for half a year, you EASILY slipped right back into the show comfortably when you resumed!

And in fact, the long wait between episodes seemed to make the time spent with Satomi Ishihara and the gang at her restaurant seem even MORE significant- if I has seen this drama completed back in 2019, I would certainly have quickly blown through it and would probably not remember too much of it. Instead, I’ve spent a good TWO YEARS on it, and in that time it has become a durable endeavor and that time I spent "living" within the restaurant, enjoying the atmosphere, the employees, and Kanako’s zany hijinks became all the more PRECIOUS!

By the time of Heaven’s final episode, though it might not mean much to anyone watching it complete in one sitting, for me who has spent so LONG with it, it was really emotional saying goodbye to dear friends and I must say I even shed a tear or two as it wrapped up!

What a wonderful two-year long journey for a sweet little show!

Posted by zdorama @zdoramagain.blogspot.com