Iyashi no Otonari-san ni wa Himitsu ga aru (2023)

This show doesn't excuse stalking-

But it does aspire to redeem a stalker. I found this show fascinating and very enjoyable. As a dark romance book lover, I was fully prepared to overlook the stalking anyway (I'm not here to defend my book tastes so don't come for me ?), however this show did not intend to let the viewer overlook this.

Nishina was very mentally unstable and unhealthy. He was suicidal and latched onto the person who saved him and this grew into obsession. His obsession lead to his delusion that what he was doing was just keeping her safe. We watch as he breaks down and comes to terms with his actions. Sakamoto sees that his intentions were well placed, but poorly executed. He stands firm that regardless of your intentions, how your actions affect someone else are what matters, therefore his actions were inexcusable. This hard truth really opens Nishina's eyes and crumbles the illusion before him. He realizes his actions are no different than Fujiko's workplace stalker and harasser.

The show doesn't excuse Nishina. He says, "but I didn't hurt her, I wasn't violent." because he only followed from a distance and took her picture. The message is non-negotiable that despite the intent, the trauma caused to Fujiko is the same. In his case, maybe worse because she truly fell for him. This is where he is redeemed. He truly did not realize his actions and takes the time to process and reflect. He realized the harm of listening to his inner voice rather than considering her feelings. He admitted he had been so in tune with his inner monolog, he was too far gone. He took his talk with Sakamoto to heart and began the process of actually changing.

The proof of his change is really highlighted by the scene where Fujiko says she loves him. He doesn't immediately abandon his dream and his journey for himself. He acknowledges that he does love her, but he has to change. These two demonstrate a healthy relationship foundation through supporting each other, even in times of distance.

Nishina definitely needed therapy. But I did appreciate this show demonstrating his commitment to becoming a better person. I think this was well done, well acted, and definitely worth the watch!

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I must confess I started watching this "Iyashi no Otonari-san ni wa Himitsu ga aru" only out of my love for Tanabe Momoko, who's my #1 fave of the current generation of Japanese actresses (and considering that she has some fierce competition there, that's saying quite a lot, isn't it?). And indeed she was once again perfect to a "T", gorgeous and tremendously talented as always.
On the other hand, I didn't have any expectation at all about the drama itself: I was actually expecting the Nth crappy hollywoodian story of "the good guy next door seems nice but actually is a psycho, so beware of other people, stay alone and unhappy 'cause that's how we want you to be"...but it ended up being, much to my surprise, quite the other way around!
The writers aren't keeping from us that the ML is a "psycho"; I mean, seriously, they portray him right from the beginning with a demented grin on his face, and on top of that, humming the European Union anthem! Hard to be crazier than that, right? >___<
(...yeah, I know it's Beethoven's "Ode to the Joy", but the EU using it has ruined that completely for me, sorry...)
Back to what I was saying (and more seriously!), what the writers did here was to actually orchestrate an intricate "double play": on the surface, we have the FL finding out, slowly but surely, that the ML ain't what he seems...but on a deeper level, we viewers take just the opposite path, finding out precisely that he's not as crazy (nor as "stalkerish") as we initially thought him to be! So in the end the message is a completely non-hollywoodian "the next person might be a lot better than you think, so open up and be happy", which is pretty damn nice, coming to think about it!
The music is good, the "packaging" too, the scenography great (I want an apartment like that! Of course as long as I could share the balcony with Momoko-chan, LOL).
But the absolute best part is the acting. ALL the cast did marvelously, with virtual standing ovations for both leads!
The only reason I'm not grading this as a "Perfect 10" (SPOILER ahead) is that I've found the stabbing scene with the subsequent endless monologue really forced and overall annoyingly clichéd; had they done that more nicely, it would've been perfect. But it got close.

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Femme Fatale?

Surprised to see only one review for this drama, I decided to put down in words some of my impressions.

Well, Japanese have done it again: they took an ordinary topic and gave it a typical unconventional Japanese twist.

The story follows a young woman who falls for her neighbour: a kind and sweet office worker. The alarm bells start to ring when she discovers that he is in fact, a rich heir:so why does someone like him live in a cheep rundown studio apartment? But she has already fallen for him, hook line and sinker and she does not want to think about every illogical thing happening around her. Until one day she enters his apartment and realizes he had been following her around, stalking her.

As I said only Japanese find a way to make stalking romantic. Here they did it by comparing him to another stalker. Poor girl, being nice to some men makes them fall in love with her and get obsesses with her to the unhealthy levels. The writers decided to show us two levels of stalking: one is just pining from afar while the other one slides down into violence very quickly. One is redeemable on its own if the stalker realizes the error of his ways. The other is punishable by law. This distinction honestly made me uncomfortable. Stalking is a scary, unhealthy and criminal activity. And even though a person might repent and regret, what is there to prove that he won't start doing it again? I wish they showed us him getting some professional help not just having her talk to him once and him finally being aware of his misbehaviour, to put it mildly.

The whole cast was perfect especially the ML who managed to show us the fine line between the madness and kindness in his actions. Amazing actor indeed!The FL was rather refreshing as well: a strong woman,competent with a tiny chip on her shoulder but knowing what is right and what is wrong and an excellent judge of character, when she wants to. Those who actually stole the show for me were her coworkers, her three friends who encourage her and help her when she needs them to. They can be fun and funny just as they can be serious and fierce when needs be. They are actually the ones who made me finish this drama when I realized the direction it was taking.

The episodes are very short (20min) though I had impression of every episode being at least one hour long: the event were moving on very fast, sometimes too fast. The story is told in voice over by both ML and FL taking turns from one episode to another. I like it since it gives us different point of view of same actions and helps with understanding characters' motivations.

Personally I do not find stalking cute and romantic so I am not optimistic as far as their relationship's future is concerned. They are happy now but for how long?

All in all, a typical j drama. And I love those!

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