2003 JDorama that was first manga about a ToDai grad with an awesome job as a journalist who is reaching 29 when her life takes this amazing and drastic turn.
She's seen as a tough bitch with balls, but the reality is she has inferiority issues and a somewhat unrealistic fear of being discovered as a fake.
Being shy, it's difficult for her to express her true feelings, though at the start of this 10 episode story, she hauled off and punched a superior in the nose after he suggested being able to stroke her fanny the same way he wants her to let their foreign clients get away with doing.
That move sends her packing for another department within the newspaper office, where she's met with more than just the scorn and jealous assumptions of her new co-workers.
The office betch who sucks helium and smiles all fake-like in order to snag a husband is on to Iwaya Sumire (Koyuki) right from the start, and when she finds out the tall, sexy woman with low self-esteem is the love interest of a man the entire building wants to see naked, she naturally sets out to steal said hot man from Sumire-san.
Tanabe Seiichi as Hasumi Shigehito is the hunky world reporter who has just returned from a stint in Rio de Janeiro and is overly glad to find his love in the same elevator as him.
He is Sumire-san's senpai, and she also had a huge crush on him while they attended Tokyo University - and right away, they begin their romance.
HOWEVER ~
Before that occurred, Sumire-san was struggling to get over a nasty break-up with another man from another area of the office - who was too weak to let her know he wasn't happy with their relationship or her, so he had an affair with another woman, got her pregnant, and when Sumire walked in on them, that was when he decided it was time to let her know he was marrying someone else.
When she arrives at her weirdly named apartment (Mom Paradis) one, rainy night, feeling dejected and alone, she finds a big box marked 'Hawaiian Bananas' at the entrance of the building, and when she peers inside the box, she finds a beaten unconscious, young man inside.
Matsumoto Jun as Goda Takeshi is a runaway, gifted dancer from a well-to-do home, (his best buddy is Eita, btw) and after shoving the heavy box into an elevator and sliding it inside her apartment, she gently tends to his wounds while wondering who he is and why he was inside the box.
She isn't over her latest heartbreak, but she did own a golden retriever when she was ten - a time in her life that she would rather forget except for the dog - so, when Takeshi begs to stay, she offers to oblige if he will become her pet and act like a dog, not a human.
Of course, he agrees to the weird offer and becomes 'momo' the human dog.
Her best (and only) friend is a pretty and laid-back woman with a baby girl, living in a great house thanks to a pilot husband who is never there, and Sumire-san relies on her for advice about what she's just done to herself and the life of a veritable stranger.
The whole point of this story was to show how humans relate to one another versus their relationships with animals.
The writer even tossed in an office psychologist who carried around an adorable Chihuahua as a way to drive home that point I suppose, but his role remained relatively imperative throughout the show since Sumire-san, and then her handsome lover, and eventually even Takeshi-kun ended up seeking his advice about their relationship troubles.
Am I the only one who didn't know that men see women who own a pet as unavailable or worse - unattractive - because they are using the animal as a replacement for the husband they don't have?
Sumire-san couldn't, under any circumstances, behave natural around Hasumi-san, and it was supposed to be because of the immense fear of her being rejected that made her act that way.
At home, though, and with Momo-chan, things were completely different.
Sumire-san could laugh, speak her mind, let down her hair, and even shed a few tears without that fear - which made ZERO sense to me, but then I may be the bad guy for not possessing that sort of a personality, who knows.
At the same time, though, I could totally understand where she was coming from: since I, on occasion, have felt that way and even acted that way around guys I thought were ten times better than I was, but resentment at feeling that way was what made ME walk away, and not the other way around.
I can't fake it, I guess.
Anyway, she wants to believe she truly loves Senpai, but even when he springs a pretty engagement ring on her, she remains tight-lipped and with that furrowed brow in his gentle and patient presence.
Momo-chan remained true to his own nature in a round-about kind of way; pretending to be a dog while also not ignoring the budding emotions that continue to grow for the sexy woman he is shacking up with, but to keep their relationship going, he avoids letting her know how he really feels until the sexual tension builds to the boiling point, he lets it out on her, she slaps him and tells him to leave ... and so he does.
This was another of those dramas that I bookmarked YEARS ago but let the synopsis keep me from watching for so long.
I've learned my lesson and will NEVER do anything that stupid again, I promise myself.
Especially when it comes to anything out of Japan.
I must remember that the twits who write the synopsis are a-holes with no brain and not jump to any, irrelevant conclusions until I've given at least the first episode a try.
I wasn't, too fond of the OST or theme song, but there was one, underlying tune (usually played during pregnant pauses in the show) that I just HAD to hear again, and this time I got lucky - finding the entire soundtrack online for free, and as I type, I have that tune on repeat via WinAmp.
I'm not saying this was the greatest thing Matsumoto Jun ever starred in, but I will admit it wasn't the worst, either.
He looked damn fine in this show, too, and he had an amazing head of hair I jealously watched our Sumire-san get to run her fingers through and even shampoo several times.
Some day I'll have my own place again, and when that day comes, the FIRST thing I intend to do is buy a pet dog or cat - but, it won't be because I don't want a man in my life.
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