Mop Girl

モップガール

Format -  Renzoku
Genre -  Mystery, fantasy, comedy
Episodes -  10
Viewer Rating -  10.2
Network -  TV Asahi
Broadcast -  2007, Oct to Dec

Cast

Synopsis

Kitagawa plays the part of the slow but hardworking Momoko, a low-ranking employee at a funeral services company who carries a mop as part of her job. However, Momoko happens to possess a strange ability. Whenever she comes across the corpse of someone who has left strong feelings behind, she travels back in time to save that person from his or her fate. --Tokyograph

Review

I just wish I had ignored everything when this first aired and watched it in its entirety.

Then I realized that even if I had wanted to do that, it wasn't possible because it took YEARS for every episode to upload online in order for me to watch them all.

Plus, when this first aired, the cover, the coverage, and the synopsis drove me away.

And I don't know why, because this turned out to be a hidden gem I was more than pleased to have watched and wished afterward that it would go on for another 10 episodes.

Momoko is 21 and making every effort to live her own life in her own way and not be influenced by her Head of a Hospital father or her Doctor brother.

She wants to run a Bridal Catering Business but fails in her first attempt because among other things, Momoko is kind of dumb and tends to make a lot of mistakes.

So, a temp agency sends her to work at a Funeral Planning place.

The Mop Girl reference enters the picture because her new job entails her having to clean up the various crime scenes the local police ask this Funeral Planning business to visit.

It is Momoko's job to mop up the blood.

Asami Reina plays Momoko's best friend, and Shosuke Tanihara is her overlord at the Funeral business.

He ends up having to help Momoko every time she's sent back to right wrongs.

When she was a little girl, Momoko ran out into traffic and nearly died when a wayward motorcycle came flying toward her, but a young woman pushed Momoko to safety.

That woman was seriously injured, and when little Momoko clasps her savior's hand, the woman tells her to carry on the business of helping those who need it most.

Now that Momoko is working with the dead, that prophecy comes into play, and when Momoko touches an object owned or worn by the deceased, she is taken back in time and made to re-write the death scenario.

A lot of Japanese humor is involved, and Momoko says and does some weird stuff along with making a lot of weird faces.

I didn't watch this for the humor, though.

I stopped enjoying Japanese humor about a decade ago.

Why I watched and enjoyed this one is because I like their ability to take an otherwise redundant subject and work magic again and again.

So what if each episode showed someone dying and then Momoko brings everything back around.

Each instance was new and with a new set of characters, so it had merit.

What I'm really anxious for from Japan is to start seeing real romance, real affection for one another, and more touchy-feely kinds of action in a well-written and all-star cast line-up.

I won't hold my breath, though.