Mondai no Aru Restaurant

At first I was pretty annoyed by the concept – women are poor, straight men are bitches, we're black and white, so cheers! Fortunately, over time "all men" weren't such bastards anymore, there started to be more shades of grey and it became interesting. It certainly showed Japanese society in a fascinating, but often almost grotesque way – men are still riding the horses, and it's women who are the horses because men ride them, especially if the woman is capable. Sexual harassment permeates the whole world of Japanese society, no matter what anyone says. And it's good that someone is trying to draw attention to it, although for the purposes of the series it's obviously a bit over the top. Still, Sakamoto Yuji conjured up a lot of different personalities, and I'm glad he was able to tame them to the very end without them falling out of character. Unfortunately, despite the well-drawn characters, what we have here is a shallow story that fails to enthuse, plus it helps itself to clichés I had hoped to avoid. Bottom line: a good series with social overtones, very good acting performances. Unfortunately, the main character wasn't very likable, and it took me a bit longer to finally become more entertained and interested. It would definitely be interesting if someone would break the series down from a gender studies perspective. (31/03/2015)