ZENKAI GIRL (全開ガール)

Summer 2011

Zenkai Girl stars Aragaki Yui as Ayukawa Wakaba and Nishikido Ryo as Yamada Shota. Wakaba grew up in poverty and resented her father for being harassed by debt collectors. She vowed to learn the ways of the law and to become smarter and stronger, never having to look back at her poor past again. She dreams of making it big one day and according to her plan she is offered a job at a famous law firm, but strangely her main job is to babysit Hinata, the firm director's daughter. To get to the top, she accepts the position. One day she meets Yamada Shota at the same nursery where she dropped off Hinata, but is disgusted by his weakness and lack of future outlook. Hinata on the other hand becomes good friends with Shota's son, Pitaro which complicates things between Wakaba and Shota. Although both Wakaba and Shota have different mind sets on what is important in life, their lives constantly intertwine and Wakaba begins to see more in Shota than meets the eye.

Recommendation: Being Gakky's first major role in a drama, I was curious to see this series. I am a fan of her work, getting to see her in Code Blue and some comedy shows. Before watching it though, I had a bad feeling about the male leading role played by Nishikido Ryo. I think he is a descent actor, but I am not a big fan of his. Anyway, after watching the first few episodes I knew how this one was going to end. It was filled with cliches and lacked any kind of impressive acting. Gakky wasn't that great, but I put more blame on the directing and screenplay as well. It just wasn't exciting and I didn't feel a strong connection between Gakky and Nishikido at all. The two kids who played Hinata and Pitaro were much more engrossing and it was actually funny at times to see them giving advice to their adult counterparts. I was waiting for more drama between Wakaba and Shota which never developed and their love for each other just seemed to come out of nowhere. I kept telling myself, "how can a woman like Wakaba ever fall in love with such a pill bug like Shota?" He's a good, kind man who cares a lot for his kid, but that's it, he was really a lifeless character. I was like, "come on Shota, do something crazy, take a risk!" but it never really happened until the very last episode which was just too late for me. Having invested hours watching all the episodes, I wanted more from this series, but it never really blossomed. In the end, I remember the relationship the two kids had more than the relationship that the main characters tried to create. No need to waste your precious time on this one unless you are a die hard Gakky fan. If I could send a present to the director, it would be a pill bug!

STORY: 0.5
ACTING: 0.5
DIRECTING: 0.5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 0.5
EMOTIONAL FACTOR: 0.5

2.5 Out Of 5.0 Crowns