Aliada da Justiça (2008)

One of the first Jdramas that I watched, and one of my all time favorites. The story revolves around 2 sisters, Shida Mirai and Yamada Yu, and Shida has to deal with her older sister's ridiculous demands. She believes that she is the only one who can see her sisters true self, an evil dmeon hiding behind a pretty face. Through constant mishaps, the older sister is dubbed "The ally of justice" even though her motives were just for self gain. The drama is meant to be funny and I feel that the actresses did their part(well, Shida Mirai's unfortunate circumstance and the situations she's put in makes it funny.) If you're feeling down or just want a quick and quirky laugh, this is a good drama to watch.

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I started watching this series because I was looking for a drama that wouldn't take itself too seriously -- something I can sit back and enjoy without thinking too much. This was a huge mistake.

The show started out great. I watched the first episode and it was exactly what I was looking for. A light comedy with actors/actresses I'm familiar with. I really enjoyed Shida Mirai's performance in Jyoou no Kyoushitsu. I think she has talent and a lot of potential. I think she did a good job here in portraying the role she was given. But assigning a physicist to do janitorial work is not the best way to go.

The show didn't get better with each episode. In fact, it didn't really go anywhere. To my left is a message that says not to post any spoiler info here, but it's pointless because there is nothing to spoil. Why? The show is exactly the same from beginning to end. Character development is non-existent; there are no characters to grow with. There is no message to be learned from. No moral. Conflict is present but doesn't serve any purpose other than comedic value.

The portrayal of modern women is changing in Japanese media, and this show is a definite departure from the male-dominated norm. I applaud the effort, but only with one hand. Instead of showing strong women, they characterize them with plenty of negative traits for the sake of comedy. For example, Makiko is portrayed as a selfish working woman that acts as a child, only putting in effort on things which give her immediate satisfaction. She acts like this non-stop. At first it was funny, but then it began to wear me down. Near the end I wanted to tear my eyes out. Yoko is a complete pushover and completely subservient to Makiko and pretty much anyone that comes in contact with her aside from her friends. She also is indecisive to the point that she never achieves anything of her own volition. Again, both of these characters are exactly the same throughout the show. No matter how horrible Makiko treats Yoko, she simply takes it to the point that her character is completely unrealistic, and her character becomes a plastic cog that turns the other plastic cogs in a machine designed to roll around in circles. In the end, Mirai's overacting was charming and appropriate, but she couldn't save her character or the show. The mother (in-law) was incredibly annoying, and the feud between her and Makiko (and Yamashita-san and Makiko) was so stressing I wanted to throw my own fecal matter at my computer screen. It wasn't funny at all. It was painful. This show is not a good example of portraying modern women. Ohitorisama (Winter 2009) is a much better example.

The only character that actually changes is Chika, but only slightly in that she reluctantly accepts Riku's feelings for Yoko and steps aside. It seems, though, that her feelings don't change -- she just represses them to use Yoko to keep Riku from leaving (which fails). In fact, the relationship between Yoko and Riku actually had an opportunity to go somewhere, but doesn't.

I know this show is meant to be watched once a week. I saw each episode over a period of a week, which may affect how I watch it. I think I'm a pretty relaxed watcher of Japanese dramas. I, more often than not, give the benefit of the doubt when watching them. I even went into this series with the lowest hopes possible. I did laugh a few times throughout the series, but the trade off was not worth it at all and I was deeply disappointed. Please give me back my eight hours of life.

(Originally posted December 17th, 2009.)

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