Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Juuhan Shuttai!
(重版出来! / Second Edition Occurance!)
MyDramaList rating: 7.5/10

Hello hello hello! Welcome to a new year of drama reviews! Same as with 2024, I will keep using my Wheel of Fortune app to pick out my dramas for me in 2025, and I’m glad to say it immediately picked out a wonderful gem as my first watch. Despite the fact that the show is a bit older, I will say from the bat that this is probably one of the most impactful Japanese dramas that I’ve ever watched, and I’m really excited to share my thoughts on it. Many people might know it from the more recent Korean remake Today’s Webtoon (which is also on my list), but I’m really glad I got to watch the original Japanese version first. I absolutely loved it. From the energy to the message to the acting to the devotion that was put into this drama, I applaud everything. I can’t wait to get started and elaborate on my enthusiasm in more detail. Now, without further ado, let’s dive into it!

Juuhan Shuttai! is a Japanese TBS drama with ten episodes of about 54 minutes each. I had some trouble finding it online, but they have the whole thing on Viki with very good subtitles in which they even explain wordpuns and expressions, so that was really nice. The story follows a young woman named Kurosawa Kokoro (played by Kuroki Haru), a former judo athlete who has had to give up her sports career after sustaining an injury. However, encouraged by the people around her, she’s able to keep going and makes the decision to dive into something completely new: manga publishing. She manages to make an impactful impression during her job interview and is admitted to the editing department of the monthly manga magazine Vibes, where she starts learning the ropes under the guidance of Iokibe Kei (played by Odagiri Joe). Despite the fact that she starts with a clean slate, knowing nothing about the world of manga editing, her drive and passion to learn and become a part of this new world manage to inspire everyone around her, even more experienced employees who have started to lose motivation for their work. Following Kokoro as she slowly becomes more experienced and is ultimately put in charge of her own manga artists, we as viewers are not only introduced to the world of manga editing and all that entails, but we are also given insight in the psyches of all sorts of people, from manga artists to editors to salespeople to bookshop employees, as they are all crucial to creating and promoting new publications.

As this is a so-called “occupational drama”, the story really focusses on the efforts and passions of people who practice different jobs within the world of manga publishing, from creation to promotion. It doesn’t focus on Kokoro’s personal life, there are no romantic storylines, and the only drama that unfolds is related to complications between departments and the professional relationships between editors and their assigned manga artists. In a way, it reminded me a bit of Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu and Jimi ni Sugoi!, which both also focus on people’s different work management styles and navigating through a new and unfamiliar work field.
Juuhan Shuttai managed to touch me in ways I never expected. I literally found myself crying over people rediscovering their passions. The fact that they managed to portray such humane emotions, purely through depicting people that rediscovered their spark was incredible. I also really loved how all the stories started intertwining at some point. Like, how a person Kokoro met during a specific arc then came back later in another manga artist’s arc and managed to inspire them in an unexpected way. Every single character contributed something valuable to not only Kokoro’s journey, but to the entire show, and I thought that type of writing was very powerful. The way the writers created all sorts of mini stories and still managed to tie them all together in the end was genius.
I am aware that this story was adapted from a manga (very meta) by Matsuda Naoko, and although I haven’t read the manga series I am very impressed with this adaptation, because it really drew me into its world and characters. I always love being introduced to a field of work that I’m not familiar with in dramas, but this was immersive on a different level. I can’t stop emphasizing how much this drama managed to touch me, in so many ways.

Let’s first take a look at the main characters of this drama and go through them one by one.
First of all, Kokoro herself. There are a few aspects to her character that I wish to highlight. First of all, her unwavering determination. Kokoro was an extremely talented judo athlete who was literally on her way to represent Japan at the Olympics. She sustained an injury that cost her her entire athletic career, and still she managed to stay strong. She embraced the words of support and encouragement from the people around her and managed to keep going. As a matter of fact, she made peace with it fairly easily and even reached the point of being able to express relief regarding the fact that she never had to go through intensive training ever again. Apart from that, she managed to retain the passion she once had for judo and pour it into something completely new and different. I thought it was cool how her newly discovered interest in manga was still tied to her love for judo – she was initially drawn to the sport because of a manga. Despite not knowing anything about the work in advance, she never let herself become insecure or discouraged by the more experienced people around her. As a matter of fact, she even manages to inspire her weathered seniors with her fresh outlook and unwavering motivation. It doesn’t take long before she’s given the nickname “Bear Cub” by her team, referring to her youthful and brash attitude. Honestly, at the beginning of the series I wondered if there would be an arc where she would somehow lose faith in herself because of a certain conflict, but that never happens. Even in conflicts with her clients and co-workers, and even when facing disagreeable people, she never lets herself get discouraged, ever. She never lets losses get to her and always remains determined to solve the issue while remaining respectful and understanding towards all the involved parties. Rather than getting personal with difficult people, she always manages to acknowledge people’s strengths as well as their flaws and strives to improve herself in order to deal with different scenarios and people. Even when going through hardships she continuously finds out-of-the-box ways to create solutions that everyone benefits from and to improve both herself and the artist’s work without ever dismissing everything they’ve done to get there. Looking at her made me want to improve my own ways, and I thought that was a very impactful aspect of her character. Her passion was incredibly addictive to watch.
Secondly, there’s her sincerity and sense of commitment. Despite being a rookie in the world of manga editing, it doesn’t take long for Kokoro to develop a very good eye for potential new gems. She’s surprisingly good at critically assessing a work and identifying both its strong and lacking parts. Even when a work is lacking, as long as she sees potential in it, she keeps pushing for it to gain the acknowledgement it deserves and she keeps encouraging the artist to reach the next level by pointing out possible improvements, all the while remaining as respectful and constructive as possible. Turns out, she makes a very good editor when it comes to guiding her assigned artists. I thought it was really heartwarming to see her excitement when welcoming new aspiring artists and how she strived to guide them to the best of her abilities. I could understand the feelings of those rookie artists very well when they met her, because, as I mentioned before, Kokoro had an eye for works that other editors wouldn’t even look at more than once. She saw talent in people that would’ve been easily dismissed by others with a less out-of-the-box mindset. Not only did she welcome new artists with open arms, but she was also super committed to the people she was put in charge of, she was always concerned about their mental and physical health and tried to accommodate them as well as she could.
Honestly, the way she dealt with these newcomers hit quite close to home for me. I’m personally just starting out as a literary translator and I’m still only on the doorstep of working with different publishers. I’ve been extremely lucky that the first publisher I worked for and just finished my first translation with was incredibly helpful. They literally gave me the chance to translate an entire book when I had nothing to my name yet. My contact person was one of these rare people that strived to give newcomers more chances to make a start. Another publisher wouldn’t have put their trust in me so easily. As such, I can understand very well why it’s so important to have people like Kokoro working in these kinds of industries, that usually make it so hard for newcomers to make an entrance. I guess that’s why this show and Kokoro’s way of working touched me so much, as I’ve also received the trust of a publisher/editor and that really helped me settle into the work and gain more confidence in what I was doing.
Finally, her guts. Because we can’t overlook the fact that it takes an incredible amount of courage to dive into a business that’s been running for decades as a rookie with no prior knowledge of the ins and outs. To give another personal anecdote: I was able to get a job at a super fancy hotel just because I was able to speak Japanese. They literally gave me a chance to work there despite the fact that I had ZERO hotel work experience. In my case, my own lack of prior experience and confidence got to me and I wasn’t able to even stand behind the front desk with a confident expression on my face. Having gone through this, it shook me even more that Kokoro was able to step into a completely new workfield yet never let her lack of experience influence her confidence. In a way, it seemed like feelings such as insecurity didn’t even exist in her book, she just took the work seriously and acknowledged without any additional shame that she had lots and lots to learn. When someone criticized her for not knowing something or doing something wrong, instead of sulking, she just went, “I see!” and made a note of it. Setting a goal for herself to become better and slowly working towards that at her own pace was all she needed to grow, and I thought that was incredibly inspiring. Also, she was literally the only female employee in her team. Even through glimpses of other departments, the majority of the company seemed to be dominated by men, which would make it even more challenging for a woman, let alone a complete beginner, to be taken seriously and get equal treatment. The fact that Kokoro was able to face so many trials with pure determination and a strong will to improve herself was really powerful. Her character will definitely linger in my memory as one of the most interesting and impactful female lead characters I’ve ever seen in a Japanese drama.

I guess Kokoro’s persistent positivity and enthusiasm could work on some people’s nerves and the fact that her personality remained the same throughout the story might suggest a lack of character development. I personally thought it was really cool that besides the story being adapted from a manga and the fact that it focussed on the manga industry, the characters also felt very animated like actual manga characters, but still without becoming too other-worldly. I honestly really enjoyed Kokoro as the lead character in this show. If there was ever a selfless person who didn’t let her judgement get clouded by distracting emotions and who handled purely from a place of devotion and compassion, both towards her work and the people involved in it, it’s Kurosawa Kokoro. Her energy and dazzling smile pulled me in from the start and I actually really liked the consistency of her personality. In terms of character development, I think she grew a lot in her journey as an editor, and I’d say that counts as character development just as much as a character that mainly grows in terms of (emotional) maturity.

In contrast to Kokoro, her supervisor Iokibe is a very relaxed and laid-back person. I initially feared that he might become a super strict mentor to which Kokoro would have to prove her worth, but despite the fact that their personalities were so different, Iokibe accepted Kokoro for the way she was from the start. He always remained calm, collected and serious in his feedback to her, but it always came from a genuine place of support – he really encouraged her to grow and improve her skills. Whenever she brought in a new idea, he was the first one to go, “Why not give it a try?”. He was strict when he needed to be, and there were times when he’d ask her to edit things over and over, but it was clear that it always came from a constructive place, and not because he wanted to make things difficult for her.
I thought it was really interesting to see how Iokibe’s character was established throughout the show. He seemed like such a cool and successful person on the outside, but until the last episode they kept creating situations that forced him to reflect on himself as well. He was a very good example of someone who seemed flawless to others, but who was very aware of his own flaws on the inside. The way that he always remained calm, even if he was flipping out inside, really contributed to my sympathy towards him. I loved that they gave him the trait of being an avid manga reader himself, and how they gave him such an original way of expressing his passion for the work he did. I really liked the contrast in personality between him and Kokoro, and how they still got along well due to the mutual respect with which they treated one another. Iokibe never criticized Kokoro for her eccentric ways, he was able to see through her goofy exterior and acknowledge her potential as an editor without any kind of prejudice.
I also liked the part where he explained that his habit of doing good deeds and helping people out on the street came from copying the behavior of Vibes’ President. As in, the emphasis on the fact that Iokibe also learned from other people and used them as an example to better himself as a person was very constructive for his character. Besides the cool exterior we still see him get panicky when running into a client meeting a competitor, which also attributed versatility to his personality. All in all, I really liked Iokibe and the energy he brought, he was a really nice character.

Before I move on to the rest of Kokoro’s team, I want to talk about Koizumi for a bit. Koizumi Jun (played by Sakaguchi Kentaro) is one of the first people Kokoro meets and manages to inspire. He works at the sales department of Vibes and is initially a very gloomy and soft-spoken person, to the extent of earning the nickname “The Ghost”, in reference to his invisibility. When we first meet him he doesn’t seem to have that much motivation left in his job, and I believe he even expressed that he actually wanted to get into the editing department but got stuck in sales. He just can’t bring himself to produce good results or make an effort to think of new sales strategies. That is, until he meets Kokoro and her out-of-the-box way of thinking. After working together on the “Dandelion Railroad” project, Koizumi regains his motivation to work hard, also for all the other people involved in the process, and he ends up collaborating with Kokoro and helping her out several times. It’s even subtly suggested that he’s taken with her in another way, but that potentially romantic development isn’t explored since it’s not the focus of the story.
I thought Koizumi was an absolute cutie pie. The way in which he transformed from a grey mouse unable to even get a bookstore employee’s attention to a much more energetic and devoted salesperson was really touching. I also loved how he started matching Kokoro’s energy and even ended up doing the “juuhan shuttai” celebratory dance with her without shame, haha.
I liked that the show introduced different perspectives from people outside of the editing department, because that really helped me to get a more complete view of the separate procedures for the different departments. It was cool how they showed the dynamic and cooperation between the editing and sales departments, how they started out as two separate, almost rivalling departments, and ended as one well-oiled machine. It was really interesting to see how their work correlated.
There was such a stark contrast between how Koizumi entered the editing department at first, lingering in the background as a ghost, unable to call out to anyone, and how at the end he would come running in, yelling happily about the good results. I really loved his character development and his friendship with Kokoro, it was so wholesome to see them hang out and have meals together while always trying to help each other out with their respective troubles.

Moving on to the members of Vibes’ editing department, there’s Wada Yasuki (played by Matsushige Yutaka), the Chief Editor and Kokoro’s direct boss. Despite his usual easygoing and lenient personality, his moods rely heavily on the results of his favorite baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. I loved this running gag, how when Wada was grumpy the team would immediately check the latest baseball results, lol. I thought his character tended to be more like Iokibe, in the sense that he had a lot of funny characteristics and moments but was innately a serious and strict person. The way he accepted Kokoro into the team and immediately started rooting for her was really nice. He didn’t make it easy for her when the first manga artist he assigned her to was a fickle one, but you just knew he didn’t just do that to throw her in the deep – he actually believed that she could do it. His dynamic with the team and mostly Kokoro became kind of a tsukkomi at some point, it was really entertaining to watch the team members interact with each other. Just like with Iokibe and the other characters, I really liked that they gave Wada a reflective arc, and show a more sentimental side of him. They used the aspect of him having worked in the business for so long as a tool to build his character and support his morale, and I thought that made him a very well-written character.
Besides his dynamic with the editing team, I also really liked his dynamic with the sales chief, Oka Eiji (played by Namase Katsuhisa). They really cracked me up, from when they were arguing about discontinuations in the beginning to when they joined forces to fight for “Peeve” in the end. These two old guards made for a very entertaining duo without even trying to be funny, they were mostly just being grumpy together, lol. I loved the part where Wada lost control during the chiefs’ meeting and Oka kept yelling at him from the sideline that he was using some terms in his tirade wrong, haha. I really liked these two guys, their bond brought a very funny energy to the daily antics within Vibes.

Mibu Heita (played by Arakawa Yoshiyoshi) sits next to Kokoro in the office. He’s the token “chubby guy who likes to eat” and he also always wears T-shirts with images of food on them. I really appreciate how this series gave depth to characters that would commonly just be used for comic relief purposes. Yes, Mibu was objectively a funny guy, but he also faced hardships and I really liked getting the background story of how manga saved him as a child. It was interesting to see him come eye to eye with his own shortcomings and realize what went wrong between him and his assigned manga artist. I’m glad we also got to see his emotional side come out during the “Twilight Bombay” arc. On the other hand, his dynamic and continuous back-and-forth banter scenes with Kokoro really cracked me up, I thought he was a really effortlessly funny and also very endearing character, like a clumsy teddybear 😆.

I’d have to say that for me, Yasui was the most controversial character in this show. Like, I really didn’t like him at first, and although his arc did redeem him a little bit, he still seemed like kind of a nasty person. Yasui Noboru (played by Yasuda Ken) is one of Vibes’ veteran editors, and mostly in charge of scouting new artists online. However, he was the only one in the team who really didn’t seem to care about the artists as people, and just treated them like money machines. It’s revealed through his backstory that he used to be like the other editors, super passionate and not too different from Kokoro in terms of enthusiasm, but that he learned a tough lesson when a previous magazine they worked on got discontinued and he ended up damaging the relationship with his most prominent manga artist. However, although I can understand that going through that opened his eyes and made him deduct that it wasn’t good to get too attached to your artists, I still found his way of working quite unfriendly. Like, going through his own experience, I still don’t get why that would make him actively break rookie artists’ spirits? The way he treated Agarie was straight-on painful to watch and I just couldn’t understand why he would do that. Like, yes, I get that it’s a business and money is important and I understand that going into it with only dreams in your mind can result in a nasty wake-up call, but what was he thinking literally crushing their joy for drawing? He did get better after he deleted his initial slandery Twitter account, but I still didn’t find him a particularly pleasant person. Still, that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t an interesting character, because he also brought a very unique energy to the team and sometimes you also need some antagonistic and sarcastic presence to balance out all the positivity. It was funny seeing him being such a grump at work while being cringily sweet to his baby daughter, though 😆.

I’d have to say that, even though he was the first of the team members to get an official arc with his assigned manga artist, Kikuchi actually made the least strong impression on me because he remained in the background for the majority of the series and didn’t have a personality that was as animated or outspoken as the other team members’. Kikuchi Fuminori (played by Nagaoka Tasuku) was probably the closest to Kokoro in age. He already had a manga artist assigned to him, and this artist’s series leads to the first “juuhan shuttai” in the series. Honestly, this arc touched me a lot, especially the way in which the bookstores went through so much work to create such a beautiful display for “Dandelion Railroad” that it made both the artist and Kikuchi cry. I think this was the first arc featuring an editor and manga artist collaboration that really set the tone for the rest of the show. Because of the mutual trust they put in each other and their shared affection for the work, it was heartwarming to see them watch their beloved project rise to such lengths through the help of Kokoro’s new idea for the promotion. This was the ultimate example of perfect teamwork, a manga artist and editor who consistently leaned on each other and always kept encouraging and thanking each other for their respective hard work. I can actually remember it bringing a tear to my eye when Hattan-sensei saw the display on the video call and just went “🥹🥹”. It’s kind of a pity that, while this was a really good starting arc, after getting his “juuhan shuttai”, Kikuchi kind of became a bystander to the other characters’ arcs and stories. I wished he could’ve remained a bit more actively involved with everything.

In terms of the Vibes team, I want to devote one last paragraph to the President of Vibes. I was actually kind of sad that Kuji Masaru (played by Takada Junji) pretty much disappeared after his background story had been established, because that only made me more interested in his character! He was mostly active in the first couple of episodes. I thought he made a nice first impression by pretending to be a janitor to get a glimpse of the new applicants at the job interviews, lol. He seemed like a very eccentric and fun President, seeing how he was immediately taken with Kokoro and decided to give her a chance. At some point, we get a very insightful look into his youth and how he managed to make it as the President of a manga editing company. That backstory was pretty wild, not gonna lie, but I really liked it. I remember mentioning during my review of My Demon that at some point, I kind of got fed up with all the added backstories because not everyone needed one and they were all unnecessarily dramatic, but in this case, the length and pace of the drama allowed more elaboration on the characters and their backstories, and I actually liked seeing Mr. Kuji’s journey and what inspired him to “save up his luck”, ultimately even inspiring Iokibe to copy this attitude. I also liked how his arc was concluded with him literally winning the lottery (doing honor to his last name “kuji”) by accident, like this guy really built up his luck! I thought he was a really interesting character and I was bummed out that he didn’t show up again at the end ☹️.

Now that I’ve discussed all the Vibes employees, I’d like to go over the most important recurring side characters and their contribution to the story, starting with the most prominent manga artists.
The first manga artist that we are introduced to in the show is Mikurayama Ryu-sensei (played by Kohinata Fumiyo). He’s an elderly man with a long-running manga series called “Dragon Rapids”, and Vibes has to make sure his series remains popular. I thought Mikurayama-sensei’s arc was a very good entrance into getting acquainted with how manga artists work, specifically in cooperation with their assistants. Mikurayama-sensei has four assistants in the beginning, and throughout the show he also takes on some of the new rookie artists Kokoro manages to recruit as his assistants, so he is a recurring character even after the arc about his own manga series ends. I thought Mikurayama-sensei was a really nice man. Despite facing harsh criticisms about his work being outdated, with a little encouragement from his editors and past assistants, he kept going strong, even acknowledging that his series was viewed as “outdated content” by many people. I really loved how he was the one who got the award at the end, and how he used the opportunity to announce that he was even going to create a new series. He really went, “you thought this old man had nothing original up his sleeve anymore? Watch me!”, haha, that was cool. He kept challenging himself despite his posture worsening and age progressing, and I thought it was really touching to see how he kept himself motivated. I also really liked how he interacted with his assistants. Even when one of them would get frustrated about not being able to make their own debut or throwing a tantrum, he was always really understanding and genuinely cared about each and every one of them. Mikurayama-sensei was the GOAT, truly.
In contrast to this sweet elderly man, Kokoro’s first assigned manga artist, Takahata Issun (played by Takito Kenichi) was of an entirely different caliber. He was bad-tempered, foul-mouthed and always walked around in a sloppy training suit and beanie. While his manga series “The Horned Princess” was an undeniably consistent hit, he would repeatedly stress his editors out right before deadlines – or should I say, his girlfriend would. Takahata-sensei had a younger girlfriend called Rinne (played by Mogami Moga) who frequently got bored of being left on her own when her boyfriend was working to meet deadlines, and she’d always choose that exact moment to bail on him, leaving him distraught and in a very bad mood just as he had to submit a manuscript. It becomes Kokoro’s habit to locate Rinne and bring her back home, which at some point became kind of a running gag.
I thought it was an interesting twist to create the final arc where Takahata-sensei was scouted by Vibes’ main competitor, Emperor, and that ultimately he and Rinne went their separate ways because she could never get accustomed to him always neglecting her when he approached a deadline. Like, it was fun to keep it in as a running gag, but I kind of liked that they chose a more realistic twist to have them break up. We see throughout the show, also through Mikurayama-sensei and Ushiroda-sensei, what kind of effect a manga artist’s success and career has on their spouses. I loved that they even included the perspective of the artist’s families, because that fleshed everyone out even more and made the story even more humane and realistic. In any case, Takahata-sensei does decide to stay with Vibes, honoring their long-standing relationship.
Narita Meronnu-sensei (played by Kaname Jun) is the manga artist assigned to Mibu, and he’s a very unique character as well. The contrast of him being an ikemen manga artist while the series he worked on, “Twilight Bombay”, seemed to be such a niche genre of comedy was really funny to me. It was nice that at least his editor shared his sense of humor, but I think his arc was a really good example of the fact that just blindingly encouraging someone to go on without truly acknowledging the plummeting results could also be counter-productive.
Mibu and Narita-sensei seemed like such an ill-matched duo, but that made their collaborative efforts even more interesting to watch. The fact that Mibu cared so much about Narita-sensei’s continued success that it made him cry was really heartwarming to see.
All in all, I really liked all the different editor-artist duos, and especially how they all managed to work together successfully despite being so different from each other. Every single arc managed to touch me in some way, even if it didn’t always end in “yokatta ne🥹” and “it’s all thanks to your support🥹”. The fact that, within such a short series, they created such a wide variety of characters and even managed to flesh out every single one of them to the extent that you even start feeling for someone who only appears in one episode, was amazing. The writing of the characters and their backstories and development was awesome. Every story was equally important, and every person, even if they took a dark turn, was established so well that I always understood where they were coming from and that they weren’t an innately bad person. I tend to think that highlighting both a person’s good and flawed sides contribute to the realism of a character, and this series did a marvelous job at that.

Speaking of which, if I had to give an example of a character that managed to touch me throughout the show in this regard, it was Numata. Numata Wataru (played by Muro Tsuyoshi) was one of Mikurayama-sensei’s assistants. Despite having been stuck as a drawing assistant for ten years and consistently having his own manuscripts rejected, he never expressed any dissatisfaction or disdain – on the outside. I thought the buildup in Numata’s growing frustration was incredibly powerful. You just knew he was a good person, and he wouldn’t throw a tantrum like other people would, but the way in which he came face-to-face with his own dark side, and how Mikurayama-sensei ended up telling him that he also needed to acknowledge the darkness inside of him to become a better artist, actually gave me chills. Numata may have been only a side character, but he was written so well that even when he ended up venting his stress on the rookie assistant who immediately booked success after just starting out, I couldn’t blame him for it. His feelings were so relatable I just found myself empathizing with him all the way. He was a really powerful character in my opinion.

Let’s move on to the rookie artists that are recruited by Kokoro halfway through the show. First of all there’s Otsuka Shuto (played by Nakagawa Taishi), a very bright and optimistic guy who’s working on a soccer-genre series called “KICKS”. I don’t remember if he was assigned to Iokibe or Kikuchi, but at least he makes a quite smooth debut compared to the two other rookies.
Agarie Kinu (played by Takatsuki Sara) has a really beautiful and refined drawing style and finally decides to show some of her work to an editor at a convention after being repeatedly encouraged by her friends to try and go professional with her drawings. Kokoro immediately acknowledges her talent, but as soon as she gets criticism, she seems to lose her confidence. At some point she gets involved in another project under Yasui, but ends up losing her joy in drawing and neglecting her health because of Yasui’s merciless demands. Ultimately she decides to first focus on getting more personal work experience before she tries going pro again, and asks Kokoro if she will look at her manuscript again once she comes back.
Again, I’d like to emphasize that this show did such a good job at combining storylines and balancing everything out so efficiently. Despite only appearing in a couple of episodes, Agarie also gets fleshed out to the extent that I started feeling concerned about her. Her storyline and character development was, again, very different from the other characters, but still made her story and character very wholesome and powerful. By showing at least one rookie that ends up less lucky by getting involved in a project that brutally wakes her up from her manga drawing dreams, the show really managed to create a versatile and realistic multi-sided view of how the industry works and that it doesn’t go as smoothly for everyone.
I’m just glad Agarie mustered up the courage to tell Yasui that she wanted to quit and managed to work out what she needed to do in order to improve herself first before trying again, that was really mature of her.
Last but not least, we have Nakata. Nakata Haku (played by Nagayama Kento) was undoubtedly the black sheep of Vibes’ rookie artists. I don’t even know how to begin explaining what made him such an interesting character, but I’ll try. What set Nakata apart from the other rookie artists was that, despite having a very deep and interesting story, he was lacking a lot in terms of drawing skills. Kokoro was the only one who was able to pierce through the drawing style and focus on the potential of the story, but she also often met with criticism and jokes from her colleagues, who called Nakata names for being so bad at drawing. I think having Kokoro as his editor was the best thing that could’ve happened to Nakata, and he actually ended up referring to her as “the Goddess” that was willing to take a chance on him.
The thing is, Nakata’s background is revealed to be pretty dark. It’s even revealed at some point that his parents used to chain him up inside a room when he was young, so he has some very heavy baggage. That fear and loneliness is what he puts into his story, “Peeve”, and that’s what gives it such an intriguing edge. Still, Nakata is very difficult to work with. He’s very insensitive to others, prefers to be left alone and flips out whenever he gets the sense that someone is “trying to control him”, even when in reality that person is just trying to help him and care for him. He also has difficulty understanding people’s emotions, which becomes another major obstacle when fleshing out his characters. Even though Nakata’s arc mainly builds up towards the end of the series, it still had me in a chokehold because of how impactful it was. A guy from such a tragic and poor background who couldn’t even draw properly, actually manages to get serialized in a popular manga magazine because he happened to meet an editor who was willing to take a chance on him and who made an effort to understand his world. The way I actually started bawling when he got the call that his series would be serialized and he literally collapsed and cried out: “I’m so glad I’m alive, I’m so glad I was born” 😭😭 That hurt me right in the heart, man. My goodness. It was so wholesome to see him grow and mature throughout the whole process, to see how he actively started working on gaining better understanding of human emotions and consistently working so hard at improving his drawing skills. To think that he wasn’t even able to draw a proper circle in the beginning! I don’t think I’ve ever sympathized this much with such a heavy character, and I honestly think that many other shows would’ve probably just kept him as the token depressing guy, but what they did with his character in this show was really touching. He made a very big impression on me.

There are two more side characters that I want to discuss before moving on to some practical comments.
During the Ushiroda-sensei arc, we are introduced to his teenage daughter Ayu (played by Makita Aju). Her mother passed away not too long ago and after that she always blamed her father, or at least his manga, for it since his success took a toll on her mom. The story about father and daughter finally reconnecting was another very wholesome one. I just loved it whenever Kokoro managed to thaw the cold hearts of people who had been hurt in the past, and the way Ayu gradually warmed up to her was really touching. I also loved how she ultimately became Nakata’s inspiration for his female lead character, that was a really nice example of “when worlds collide”.
I just thought it was amazing how, in just ten episodes, every single character, from the editing team to an occasionally recurring side character, was able to make some sort of emotional development. I really can’t get over how well these characters and the show in its entirety was written.
Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to Kawa-san. Kawa Maiko (played by Hamada Mari) was one of the recurring bookstore employees who was always willing to go the extra mile to promote Vibes’ new manga series. I loved how she brushed off that Emperor-guy when she got wind of the fact that he was flipping all the Emperor-manga so they’d be the most visible. Like, when he told Koizumi all smug, “I’m just helping out the employees a little💁🏻‍♂️” I remember thinking “did they actually ask you to do that, tho?”, so it was really satisfying to see how Kawa-san straight up told him, “ah, so you’re the guy who has unsollicitedly been flipping every single manga on our shelves, can you please leave?”😂🙏🏻. She straight up went, we promote Vibes in this house, shoo! 👌🏻👌🏻
I already mentioned at the start of this review that bookstore employees were also included in the “involved parties”, but I specifically liked Kawa-san. She was always so helpful and understanding and really went out of her way to create the most beautiful displays to promote Vibes’ new manga works. I also really loved the part where Koizumi sent Kawa-san’s heartfelt message to her favorite manga artist behind her back and the artist actually came to visit her in person at the store, that was such a beautiful moment. Just like with Kokoro, I think it’s very important to have dedicated people like Kawa-san working in this kind of industry, she made such a big difference, no matter how humble her contributions were.

Honestly, I feel like there’s something to say about every single character in this show, but then this review would be endless so I picked out a bunch that made the biggest impression on me. I think I’ve already made it clear, but I really, REALLY appreciated the character-building as a whole. Every person played such an important and significant part in the overall story, and every single character was written and fleshed out so successfully that I literally ended up caring about everyone, and that’s not something that happens often. I enjoyed every single arc. I’m not even lying when I say that this might actually become my new comfort show. I could actually picture myself watching this more than once, which also rarely happens. Honestly, a big virtual standing ovation from me. This was some truly amazing writing for both the story and its characters.

Now that I’ve concluded my character analysis section, I’d like to make a comment on the title. The original Japanese title “Juuhan Shuttai!” refers to the ultimate goal that Kokoro sets for herself when she starts her new career at Vibes: to have a series under her supervision to get a second print. The translation for “juuhan shuttai” is quite literally “the occurrence of a second print”. Japanese has these convenient four-character-unit terms that they can just shout out, while we have to create entire sentences in order to convey them in English. Interestingly, the English title, and the one that you can find this series under on Viki, is “Sleepeeer Hit!”. As far as I know, and I looked it up to support my argument, a “sleeper hit” is a work that, despite initially being unpromising and having little promotion, eventually manages to reach an unexpected level of success. Also, the term is more commonly used in film and visual media than in book/magazine publishing. As such, in my opinion, a “sleeper hit” is not exactly the same as a “juuhan shuttai”, which in literary terms really just refers to getting a second print. Admittedly, in the two instances of a “juuhan shuttai” in the drama, the two series in question initially weren’t that popular, and gained most of their popularity through the way they were promoted. So yeah, it’s not that this drama didn’t deal with sleeper hits – you could say that Mikuriyama’s work was the ultimate sleeper hit because it ran for such a long time while gaining popularity and eventually even won an award. But in the case of Hattan-sensei’s and Nakata’s works, which were the two main “juuhan shuttai” products in the show, the extensive promotion did contribute heavily to their popularity, and they weren’t as much sleeper hits as works that unexpectedly became very successful within a short period of time. So yeah, I don’t know if “sleeper hit” is such an accurate translation, but maybe they chose it because it was a comparable term that came closest in meaning to the original title.
Also, since we’re looking at details, the name of the pub where the Vibes employees often got a meal and/or drink after work was also “Juuhan Shuttai”, which I found VERY coincidental 😆. Like, am I the only one who thinks that it didn’t really make sense to name a pub after a book publishing term?😅 I would’ve actually liked to get some clarification on why they chose that name for the pub, because this seemed to be very on-the-nose, haha.

Something else I really appreciated about this show was the perfect balance between seriousness, heartfeltness, and humor. Japanese dramas always have a very specific style, and dramatic development often leads to overly angsty actions and emotions, but in my opinion this drama did a fantastic job at balancing all the different layers of the story in just the right way to make it one big enjoyable watching experience. Honestly, the humoristic timing was one of my favorite things about it. They managed to even make disagreements between coworkers funny because both parties were so stubbornly eccentric in their own ways. As I said, even though I initially didn’t like Yasui that much, I couldn’t help but find him an entertaining character because there was something weirdly comical about him, the way he talked and his facial expressions that took the edge of from how nasty he could be. I thought it was a very good move to use humor for the purpose of balancing out the dramatic and the negative, to make sure the conflicts all remained professional rather than personal, and not for the purpose of just creating funny characters and situations.

In terms of comments unrelated to the story and characters, I just want to say that I am still BAFFLED by the detail and devotion that went into this show. While watching it, I kept finding myself wondering where they got all this manga content from, if they were existing series from unknown artists that this series helped to promote or something like that. Turns out, they actually got real manga artists to draw the images of the series depicted specifically for this drama! They were even featured in real manga magazines, including booklets on their production processes and all. Now that’s another level of devotion to world-building. Everything, from the messy editing department office to the artists’ workplaces and the bookstores seemed to reflect real life, and that only contributed even more to the realism of this show. It really mirrored real life work, and the fact that they went through all that effort just to create a background and provide actual material for the actors to work with is mind-boggling to me. Like, I can’t even imagine the effort, money, time and human labor that must have gone into those cutouts for the promotional displays at the bookstores and the endless shelves of manga and magazines at the office. The attention to detail in the environments contributed so much to the all-in-all feel of the story, I thought that was amazing.

Let’s move on to the cast comments! There are so many people that I’d like to credit, but again, I don’t want this review to become endless so I’m going to stick to the characters that I’ve discussed most elaborately in my review.

I’ve never seen anything with Kuroki Haru before, but she stole my heart as soon as she entered the screen. She had such an incredible screen presence, it literally became addictive to watch her mannerisms. From the first scene on, she portrayed Kokoro with such energy and vigor that I just immediately fell in love with her. I loved how she just gave in to the character and all her eccentricity. This is something that I always point out and I feel like the actors in this series did an amazing job at, but every single actor portrayed their character in such earnesty that the humor just rolled out naturally without anyone trying to do too much to invoke laughter. Kokoro was hilarious because she took herself and her work so seriously. I really loved Kuroki Haru’s performance and this has made me even more curious and excited to see more of her acting. There’s one other drama of her on my watch list, so I’m already looking forward to that!

This is very coincidental, but I recently watched a Japanese movie called Yu wo Wakasu Hodo no Atsui Ai (Eng.: Her Love Boils Bathwater – beautiful movie, warmly recommended) and Odagiri Joe starred in that, but while watching this show it didn’t even register with me that I’d seen him before! Like, he looked somewhat familiar, but I didn’t actually recognize him even though it hasn’t been long since I watched the movie. I still went, “Wait, that was him??” when I found out 🙉. So yeah, that already proves to me that he is a versatile actor, haha. I really liked the energy he brought in his portrayal of Iokibe. He excuded such a calm and comfortable vibe within the team and I liked his chemistry with the other team members a lot. Despite the fact that his character was meant to be quite sober and serious, I still liked how he also subtly managed to add a touch of humor in there. He did a really good job at making Iokibe such a sympathetic mentor for Kokoro, I’ll be keeping an eye out for this actor from now on!

If I already loved Sakaguchi Kentaro, my love for him was also strengthened through his performance in this show. He was such a cutie pie. I don’t think I’ve actually seen him as a low-status character before. I remember him from Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naiteshimau, Tokyo Tarareba Musume and the movie Our Little Sister, but I think this is the first time his performance made such a big impact on me. It was really nice to see him in a role where he got to show such an endearing side to him, where he got to laugh a lot and act goofy. He balanced out the awkward and more lively aspects of his character really well. I loved seeing him in this. Can’t wait to see more of him!

Matsushige Yutaka is such a familiar veteran actor, I’ve seen him appear in many different shows and he always manages to bring a fun energy to his characters. I’ve seen him in Shinigami-kun, Kizoku Tantei, Unnatural and Perfect World. I really liked him as Wada. I loved how the way in which he combined his stern pokerface with his effortless comical acting and timing. I think so far I’ve only really seen him act out more rigid character with a dry sense of humor, but the energy and joy in which he performed Wada really jumped off the screen and I enjoyed it a lot.
I specifically really liked seeing him act together with fellow veteran actor Namase Katsuhisa, another familiar face that seems to appear in almost every single Japanese drama. I’ve seen him in a bunch of shows, like the Gokusen series, Nobunaga Concerto, Gakkou no Kaidan, Ishitachi no Renai Jijou, Kizoku Tantei, Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi, Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu and Dying Eye. In my experience he’s typically casted as a school principal or other authoritative figure, lol. Because I saw him in so many almost slapsticky roles before, like in Gokusen and Kizoku Tantei, it was kind of refreshing to see him in a much more toned-down role as Oka, especially because his performance in this show only proved to me that he could actually be funny without all the comical antics. It was really cool to see Matsushige and Namase act in this together, they made a really fun duo and it’s always nice to see them appear in dramas.

Besides being an actor, I could totally imagine Arakawa Yoshiyoshi as a tarento or TV-personality. He just exudes something that makes him fun to watch. I see that he appeared in Chef: Mitsuboshi no Kyuushoku, but I don’t remember him from there because it’s been too long since I watched that. In any case, he definitely made an impact here. It was nice how Mibu really just did his own thing and minded his own business, and still was such an irreplaceable part of the team. I loved his humoristic timing and the way he too took himself so seriously that it made him effortlessly entertaining to watch. As I mentioned in my character discussion of him, I really liked that he wasn’t just the token funny chubby guy but he was actually fleshed out and got to show different sides to his personality, like his sentimental attachment to his assigned manga artist. The reason I grew to like Mibu so much can all be attributed to Arakawa’s sincere portrayal of him, so I have to give him a lot of credits for his performance, he was great.

I’ve seen Yasuda Ken before in Hotaru no Hikari, Shinigami-kun and Itsuko Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naiteshimau, but he made the biggest impression on me in Mondai no Aru Resutoran, he was amazing in that. I don’t think I’ve actually seen him portray such a salty character as Yasui before, so it was cool to see a different side of his acting. I already mentioned that his character was the only one that I couldn’t fully bring myself to “like”, per se, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t make an impact. I found his way of portraying Yasui’s mannerisms very interesting, with the snappy tone and weird facial expressions. It made him both entertaining and intimidating, lol. In any case, it was cool seeing him in this show, and his performance here has made me even more curious to see what else he has to offer.

I see that Muro Tsuyoshi appeared in a lot of dramas starting from 2006 and while there are a couple that I’ve watched (The Quiz Show and Tokyo DOGS), it’s been way too long ago for me to remember him from there. In any case, as I mentioned before I really appreciated Numata’s character. Muro managed to portray him as such an incredibly humane person, and the way he kept balancing on that fine line between feigned patience and boiling frustration was very impactful. Because the series as a whole has such a motivational energy, it was really nice to get some more pessimistic or less fortunate perspectives as well, like from people who had been working hard for years but never seemed to get anywhere. I thought Numata was an incredibly realistic and humane character and his storyline really got to me. Muro did a great job at depicting him in such a genuine way, he has my compliments! I see that he appears on some movies that are still on my list, so I look forward to watching those!

Not me getting my mind blown when realizing that the actor playing Nakata also played the cousin from Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi 💀💀. Like, talk about complete character opposites! I kept wondering where I knew Nagayama Kento from, but I would’ve never made this connection, lol. I’ve also seen him in Koizora (which is also too long ago for me to remember) and the movie Love Like the Falling Petals. In any case, I think he did an amazing job at portraying Nakata. The way he managed to convey his awkwardness in social interactions and the way he struggled throughout was really good. His performance in this show made a really big impact on me. It was great how he managed to play a character with such a dark and tragic backstory without making him over-pathetic or pitiful. He was really doing his best at living in a world that wasn’t designed for people like him, and that was really touching. I’m aware that the actor got arrested for alleged possession of marijuana and that this might signal the end of his acting career since this type of thing is a very big taboo in Japanese society, but I can’t help but find that a pity because he clearly is a very talented actor. I hope he gets another chance one day, but for now I’ll just say, he did a fantastic job at portraying Nakata, he really managed to touch me with his performance.

I thought Makita Aju looked familiar, but it took a moment for me to realize she was Ryoko from The Makanai! Her character in that show (also very warmly recommended) had a similar energy to Ayu, so I was able to make the connection more quickly. She was only fourteen when this drama aired, and yet managed to contribute such a great performance. I really liked the addition of Ayu to the cast and how she, inspired by Kokoro, managed to grow into a much more energetic and bright person. I hope I’ll get to see her grow and develop her acting skills throughout more shows to come!

I’m going to leave it here for the cast comments. As I’ve already said, I think the overall acting was amazing, everyone did an incredible job. I still find it hard to believe how they managed to gather such a great cast of actors who all gave such a sincere performance. Everyone took their characters seriously, which enabled to humor to become much more natural than when pasted-on, and the passion that exuded from every single character can only be attributed to the passion with which every single actor devoted themselves to their roles. It was very enjoyable to watch. I think that in all cases, even for the actors that I already knew, their roles in this show became my new favorites. From now on, whenever I encounter an actor from this series, I’ll always be comparing them to their role from Juuhan Shuttai!, lol.

It’s taken me some time to finish this review, but it’s okay. It actually gave me much peace of mind to relax and write this review piece by piece rather than rush it into a one-day entry. I’ve exhausted all of my compliments already, but I just want to make one final summary of my appreciation of this series. From the story to the writing to the acting to the setting, I liked everything about it. I really loved how they retained the link to the original manga by creating such an animated story and characters, and still managed to make such a humane piece of art from it. I still can’t get over how they managed to put in so many side characters and storylines without neglecting anyone or rushing anything. It kept an impeccable balance between all the right genres. Besides the fact that it obviously promotes the manga publishing industry and sets it in a very motivational light, I also appreciated that they put in some less ideal aspects, such as the amount of time and effort it will cost to reach the right level for publication, and how some people just end up getting stuck at an assistant forever. It included a lot of different perspectives and featured a lot of different involved parties, not just the editing. I liked that, even though we initially followed Kokoro on her journey, once she settled in and became more comfortable in her position, we also got to know storylines that Kokoro was only indirectly involved in. The way in which we as the viewers are guided to navigate between the different departments and people, just like Kokoro, was very clever and well-established. I’d say the writing was definitely one of the best things about this show.
Having said that, I think it’s about time to conclude this review. I would definitely warmly recommend this one. This series proved to me that, even without personal drama or romantic storylines, a drama can be genuinely good and interesting. I’m definitely going to remember this one. I’ve heard mixed comments about the Korean remake, so we’ll see about that when we get there, but for now, I’m just happy I got to discover a new favorite Japanese drama.

I will move on to my second watch of the year now, and I will be back with another review in due time.

Until then! Bye-bee! x