BeetBits: Good Morning Call
Good Morning Call Cast
Taken from a famous manga, "Good Morning Call" is a Netflix Original Japanese drama starring Haruka Fukuhara, Shun'ya Shiraishi, Dôri Sakurada and produced by Mayuko Okamoto and Akimitsu Sasaki. The drama started airing on 2016 and currently has two full seasons following the main couple throughout both high school and university. Good Morning Call manga was written by Yue Takasuka and sold more than 5-million copies. Although the manga itself is popular, as a person who never read the manga before, my review will only consist of my opinion on the drama alone, without any comparisons to the manga.
On IMDB, the rate for this drama is 7.9, which is extremely high if you count the genre of the drama. Typical rom-com dramas are rarely actually given good rating cuz of the repetitive storyline and the level of acting. Personally, I have stayed away from a lot of the famous live adaptations of mangas that I love, because of how bad the cast was and how they overacted trying to make the TV series too much like a comic. Japanese live adaptations are famous for not being as good as the original to the audience, which is precisely why I started this drama with very low expectations.
Did my expectations get blown away? Yes, they did. I fell in LOVE !!!
Story-Wise
Let's start from the story; this Japanese drama follows a typical storyline where two people end up living together because of the circumstances and somehow fall in love. Everything is typical, a drama with a handsome boy and a typical heroine. The first season follows the main lead and the heroine in their everyday life in high school, Uehara Hisashi and Yoshikawa Nao. The second season follows their everyday life in university and their gradual emotional and physical growth. In terms of a unique storyline, the first season barely has any. However, the second season being a university sequel of sorts has quite a few interesting characters and conversations.
Character-Wise
Character-wise, the main hero, lacks a lot, his character does not show real development except very late, and his pretty-boy image is pretty stable throughout the drama. The main heroine also starts as a typical goody-goody girl. However, she does have memorable developments in both seasons. A famous scene I remember is her defending Uehara against the girls at school. Another view also showed her taking a stand against her parents when they wanted to separate them. The heroine is pretty childish but strong in a charming way, and I believe that is one of the charms of this drama. Sugino Yosuke, who plays Natsume Jun in season two, is a pretty refreshing character, and his scenes are hard to ignore or forget. His role is a mixture of emotions. Hesitance, sadness, laughter, misery, and self-confidence are a few of the things you see in this unique character. Probably out of all the second leads, his character leaves the biggest impression of all, and his acting is simply superb.
Acting-Wise
Speaking of acting, Haruka Fukuhara simply did a stunning job in this drama. The whole cast did a fantastic job. Probably the main reason this drama managed to get pretty successful is the acting. Haruka Fukuhara gave exactly the best feelings of a high schooler ever, a naïve girl who is lost in love. She gave the impression of a childish character who you can not hate throughout the drama, and it worked. Her role is hard to hate, and thus, you keep watching. Shun'ya Shiraishi also did a fantastic job, although I believe the character being so two-dimensional limited him. Dori Sakurada played a perfect popular gentle guy in love, and his smile was to die for (ehm, no fangirling back to the review). Finally, the best character and actor is Sugino Yosuke. Natsume is simply the mirror guy. I have never seen anyone going through so many emotions in one scene like him. His face shows everything, just like a mirror, you can simply shut the volume, and you will know what he feels without music, OST, dialogue, etc.
All in all, Good Morning Call is a straightforward Japanese drama, so it might not be suitable for uniqueness seekers. However, it is a drama that you can easily enjoy as long as you are searching for good acting. The Overall Rating for this drama, in my opinion, is 7.5/10.
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