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High school teacher Takanobu Ogawa is transferred to a girls' school in Nara prefecture, famous for its herd of deer. Awaiting him there are stuck-up girls, peculiar teachers, and...a deer. Takanobu's life in Nara changes drastically when that deer begins talking to him. Takanobu will be in charge of class 1A. When he's making the students introduce themselves, he realizes that Ito Hotta is absent. Just when he's about to mark the attendance sheet, Ito walks in. Without a "hello" or "Sorry I'm late," she walks to her seat and sits down. Furious at the girl's attitude, Takanobu demands her to explain why she's tardy. Ito explains, "I got a parking ticket when I tried to park my deer at the station." (asiawiki - 2008)
Every time I tried to read what this dorama was about, I got weird summaries like the one above. In reality, it is about a nervous guy professor (Tamaki Hiroshi) who moves to Nara to replace a pregnant teacher. There, he meets a naive, intelligent but weird girl (Ayase Haruka) and a girl student who is excellent at kendo and seems to hate him (Tabe Mikako). In one of his first days, a deer suddenly talks to him. The deer gives him a mission, and in order to accomplish it, the deer "marks" him, making poor Ogawa see himself in the mirror as a man with a deer-head. Luckily for him, he gets Fujiwara (Ayase Haruka's character) to help him on his mission.
This dorama is one of those that is typical Japanese. Like, it is impossible to have a remake of it in another country. Doramas like HYD are easy to remake, but this one can't be done. First, the setting (Nara) is important. I am glad I watched it before visiting Nara. It was very refreshing and enlightening. Nara is a little town surrounded by deers and big shrines and other national treasures. Since I am going in October, and this was filmed on October, I see that it is going to be very cold!
Then we have the kendo competition at school. Fujiwara leads a group of girls in the kendo club, which lately joins Tabe Mikako. There are many scenes in the first episodes where we see the girls practicing kendo, and then, having the match.
We also see many typical food and what I assume is a popular tale/fable in Japan (the rat, the fox and the deer). Also, there is a scene where Ogawa-sensei talks to Nagaoka-sensei, which was pretty much several Japanese puns.
I liked the dorama although there were times were I lost concentration. Meaning, I was not particularly hooked, but it was very entertaining, I liked the characters, Ogawa's mission, and the deer was very amusing. I also liked the end... I don't know why, but in this case only, I did not mind the love-triangle (ish) or love-square (ish), because all three girls were nice and likeable and not silly at all. SPOILER: if I have to be honest, I liked Hotta's kiss more than Fujiwara's kiss. The one with Hotta was kind of surprising, and I liked how the people at the train were then staring at Ogawa-sensei. On the other hand, Fujiwara's kiss... This is one of the things I hate about Ayase Haruka. She is the same as Horikita Maki: when there is a kissing scene, they both just stay there, still as a statue and with eyes wide open. Geez, couldn't they show more something??
Besides that awful kiss, she was pretty much like Nodame: like when she was jealous or was surprised and was there with her eyes wide open. On the other hand, Ogawa-sensei was far from Chiaki. He made the funniest expressions. This is the first time I thought (several times) that Tamaki looked to goofy. I know, him! One of the most attractive J-actors.
All in all, it was a nice dorama, with plenty of sightseeing (for me) and lots of bad, but funny special effects.
***My rating: 7.5/10***
Every time I tried to read what this dorama was about, I got weird summaries like the one above. In reality, it is about a nervous guy professor (Tamaki Hiroshi) who moves to Nara to replace a pregnant teacher. There, he meets a naive, intelligent but weird girl (Ayase Haruka) and a girl student who is excellent at kendo and seems to hate him (Tabe Mikako). In one of his first days, a deer suddenly talks to him. The deer gives him a mission, and in order to accomplish it, the deer "marks" him, making poor Ogawa see himself in the mirror as a man with a deer-head. Luckily for him, he gets Fujiwara (Ayase Haruka's character) to help him on his mission.
This dorama is one of those that is typical Japanese. Like, it is impossible to have a remake of it in another country. Doramas like HYD are easy to remake, but this one can't be done. First, the setting (Nara) is important. I am glad I watched it before visiting Nara. It was very refreshing and enlightening. Nara is a little town surrounded by deers and big shrines and other national treasures. Since I am going in October, and this was filmed on October, I see that it is going to be very cold!
Then we have the kendo competition at school. Fujiwara leads a group of girls in the kendo club, which lately joins Tabe Mikako. There are many scenes in the first episodes where we see the girls practicing kendo, and then, having the match.
We also see many typical food and what I assume is a popular tale/fable in Japan (the rat, the fox and the deer). Also, there is a scene where Ogawa-sensei talks to Nagaoka-sensei, which was pretty much several Japanese puns.
I liked the dorama although there were times were I lost concentration. Meaning, I was not particularly hooked, but it was very entertaining, I liked the characters, Ogawa's mission, and the deer was very amusing. I also liked the end... I don't know why, but in this case only, I did not mind the love-triangle (ish) or love-square (ish), because all three girls were nice and likeable and not silly at all. SPOILER: if I have to be honest, I liked Hotta's kiss more than Fujiwara's kiss. The one with Hotta was kind of surprising, and I liked how the people at the train were then staring at Ogawa-sensei. On the other hand, Fujiwara's kiss... This is one of the things I hate about Ayase Haruka. She is the same as Horikita Maki: when there is a kissing scene, they both just stay there, still as a statue and with eyes wide open. Geez, couldn't they show more something??
Besides that awful kiss, she was pretty much like Nodame: like when she was jealous or was surprised and was there with her eyes wide open. On the other hand, Ogawa-sensei was far from Chiaki. He made the funniest expressions. This is the first time I thought (several times) that Tamaki looked to goofy. I know, him! One of the most attractive J-actors.
All in all, it was a nice dorama, with plenty of sightseeing (for me) and lots of bad, but funny special effects.
***My rating: 7.5/10***
