Yamada Taro Monogatari (山田太郎ものがたり -2007)

Starring:
Ninomiya Kazunari as Yamada Taro
Sakurai Sho as Mimura Takuya
Kikuchi Momoko as Yamada Ayako
Matsuoka Mitsuru as Yamada Kazuo
Oshinari Shugo as Sugiura Keichi
Fukiishi Kazue as Torii Kyoko
Otsuka Chihiro as Nakai Masami
Shibata Rie as Ikegami Maria
Musaka Naomasa as Ikegami Ryunosuke
Tabe Mikako as Ikegami Takako
Utsui Ken as Ichinomiya
Yoshizawa Hisashi as Ehara Makoto
Fukui Hiroaki as Osaki Shinosuke
Yamada Shintaro as Ando Masaki
Kojima Haruna as Usui Kotone
Takahashi Ryosuke as Okubo Shin
Ogata Sayaka as Kashiwagi Honoka
Yarita Akihiro (鎗田晟裕) as Yamada Jiro
Shimizu Naoya (清水尚弥) as Yamada Saburo
Muranaka Haruna (村中暖奈) as Yamada Yoshiko
Yoshida Riko as Yamada Itsuko
Shibuya Takeru as Yamada Mutsumi
Ayata Toshiki (綾田俊樹) as Isogai Shitsuji
Maro Akaji as Mimura Hijirichi
Nishida Naomi as Mimura Tsuyuko
Mizukawa Asami as Kotani
Yoshiyuki Kazuko as Ume
Ohno Satoshi (ep10)
Nekoze Tsubaki as House maid
Hankai Kazuaki (ep10)

Yamada Taro, a freshman on a scholarship at Ichinomiya Private Senior High School, is high-achieving, strikingly handsome, and truly athletic and seems perfect. But he is actually extremely poor. The story humorously portrays Taro, who tackles problems that occur because of his poverty, and his six younger brothers and sisters. --TBS

This was a cute drama. The first few episodes got me hooked. I loved the way it was set up to teach values that money isn't everything. Yeah, it's nice to have but it doesn't bring you all the happiness in the world.

Family. Yeah, that is where it is at.

But this was all fantasy. I can't think of any instance in real life that we would just give up a perfectly good mansion given freely. I understood the anxiety that Taro faced but I had gotten the impression that the smiles on the kids' faces was all that mattered.

I couldn't understand why his mother didn't work. Weak, they said. Whatever. She could work from home. Leaving all the hard work for Taro, a boy of 17-18, to deal with parental issues was unfair. That really bothered me. While the father traveled around the world, the mother didn't work, and Taro going to school, working, and maintaining the family. Something was wrong in this story.

I know they tried to make the family values, pride and morals come to life....and they did a good job of it.....but it was just hard to see any type of real issue.

Okay, I cried at the end. The kids were sooooo sweet and innocent and they tried to help out their big brother. I, for one, finally saw something that showed a human side in this family. The parents couldn't face up to it but the young kids saw the need to be equal in the household. Go Kids!!

I know I sound uncertain of this show. It had it's definite good points and bad points but I faced this show as a fantasy rather than reality and liked what I saw.

Oh, and did they beef up Ninomiya-kun later on because in the drama he seemed sort of dorkish but this same year he made Tokyo Tower with Jun-kun and he was looking rather hot! What gives?

And might I say that Sakurai Sho I think is my favorite Arashi member. He was just too cool for school.....hehe!

Sakurai Sho

Ummm? Hello baby!!!!