In the world of Japanese television, new drama shows air on a frequent basis. Every year four separate television seasons air, so there’s a whole different lineup of shows to look forward to every 3 months. With few exceptions, most of these shows are brand new original series and are intended to last for only a single season. Thus, you will see that the biggest stars in Japan have a long resume of TV work, sometimes starring in multiple TV shows every year. This differs from how things work in America, where the biggest celebrities strive to star in big-budget films, and only use television work as a stepping stone towards a cinematic career. Starring in a dozen different TV shows that last only one season is seen as a sign of failure here, whereas in Japan it’s a sign of your popularity and evidence of a long-lasting career. One such Japanese star is Matsushima Nanako (松嶋菜々子), star of many successful dramas and movies over the last 20 years, including Great Teacher Onizuka and the original Ringu. Her latest work, Kaseifu no Mita (家政婦のミタ), may be the most successful endeavor of her career thus far, with it’s finale episode garnering the highest ratings for a dorama in over 10 years.
Here, Mita-san casually sets the record for the fastest Rubik's cube solve ever.
Asuda Keiichi (Hasegawa Hiroki, 長谷川博己) is a newly widowed father of four. His family is understandably in shambles after his wife’s death, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that Keiichi had had an affair with a coworker. With their mother gone, no one is left to take care of household duties while the family is working or at school. Keiichi decides that it would be best to hire a housemaid to take care of these affairs. Enter Mita Akari (Matsushima Nanako), the mysterious new addition to the Asuda household. Mita is excellent at her job. Every task is completed quickly and to perfection. She knows everything. If you need something, she always has it in her purse. She even cooks exactly the same as the dearly departed matron of the family. Her supernatural housekeeping abilities alone are enough to arouse suspicion as to who Mita is, but she hold even more mysteries. She is cold and emotionless, never raising her voice, never smiling. She will do anything that she’s ordered to do, if it’s in the realm of possibility. And anything means anything. When the Asudas find this out, their actions and their interactions with Mita lead to an endless barrage of revelations and turmoil,threatening to tear the family apart.
Here, Mita-san proves that you don't have to be as tall as Nate Robinson to dunk a basketball.
As Mita, Matsushima Nanako is the most likeable character in this drama, even if she has to play a role that requires her to act like a robot. Throughout the series you’re led to believe that Mita is in fact not human. Whether it be her superhuman strength, her encyclopedic intelligence, or that she closes her eyes and “recharges” instead of sleeps, you would think that this was a Japanese remake of the largely forgotten 80′s American sitcom, Small Wonder. It seems to have been a very intentional choice to make Mita seem inhuman, as the Asuda family often treats her as if she were an object to be used for their own gain. Whenever this happens, it always leads to catastrophe, as things continually get worse as the series progresses. Much like the drama The Queen’s Classroom, which was also written by Yukawa Kazuhiko, Kaseifu no Mita really piles on the misery for most of the series until things start to get better. In The Queen’s Classroom, you sympathized with and rooted for the entire Classroom when things got bad. But in Kaseifu no Mita, the misery is piled onto the Asuda family, characters that are mostly unsympathetic. When the family starts to fall apart, and when they try to use Mita as a quick-fix to their problems, it feels like they deserve the negative consequences of their petty actions. Only when they stop treating Mita like dirt do their characters start to become more likeable.
Another likeable character on the show was Aibu Saki (相武紗季, Rebound) as Yuki Urara, the sister of the deceased mother of the Asuda family. Her character is there mostly to serve as the only comic relief on the show, but also to show a personality that is the mirror opposite of Mita’s. Unlike Mita, Urara always shows her emotions on her sleeve and she is always trying to help our the Asudas. She is also pretty terrible at everything she tries to do. Despite her efforts to help, the Asudas treat Urara like dirt much in the same way that they treat Mita. If you’re treated like crap by the crappy Asuda family, it’s safe to say you’re probably a likeable character. That is unless you’re the Asuda’s horrible neighbor, Minagawa Mariko (Sato Hitomi, 佐藤仁美), the only character on the show that deserved a comeuppance more than the Asudas.
America did the "superpowered emotionless domestic robot who will do anything you say" shtick first!
That’s not to say that this series was horrible. Once the Asuda family gets over their own problems they become pretty tolerable, and the show is able to focus more on the life of Mita. That’s when Kaseifu no Mita is at its best. With the immense popularity of the show, there will definitely be discussions about a second series or special episode being made, despite the insistence by the creators that they would only make one season. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but it would be interesting to see them try to successfully pull it off. If you enjoyed the far superior The Queen’s Classroom (my favorite drama ever), you will find some similarities here between the main characters. While I didn’t think it was the best show ever, I thought it was worth watching just for Matsushima Nanako. A few of the other characters aren’t the most sympathetic figures, but I think it’s still enjoyable.
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