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.
Gibo to Musume no Blues
(義母と娘のブルース / Gibo to Musume no Buruusu / Stepmother and Daughter’s Blues)
MyDramaList rating: 7.0/10
It seems like I’m starting the new year off with a couple of Japanese dramas, which is nice. I remember putting this show on my list after seeing an ad of it in a different drama. Besides being a big fan of Ayase Haruka, I thought it looked interesting and I was in the mood for a light yet wholesome show. Honestly, watching this series made me realize what I like about Japanese dramas and I was able to clarify for myself what this drama did that I missed in for example Yuugure ni, Te wo Tsunagu. It managed to surprise me on different levels and I’m excited to share my thoughts on it, so let’s get started.
Gibo to Musume no Blues is a TBS Japanese drama with ten episodes of about one hour each. It’s based on a manga series of the same name, created by Sakurazawa Suzu. Besides the main series, which came out in 2018, there are three specials that were released in 2020, 2022 and 2024, respectively. I was able to watch the drama itself on this Bilibili channel, but the specials were a bit harder to find – I actually had to download them from a torrent website, which I’ll link here (mind you, these are without English subtitles).
The story focusses on the stepmother-daughter bond between Iwaki Akiko (Ayase Haruka) and Miyamoto Miyuki (as a child played by Yokomizo Naho). After losing her mother at a very young age, Miyuki was raised by her single father Miyamoto Ryoichi (Takenouchi Yutaka), believing it would be the two of them together forever. However, when Miyuki is eight years old, her father suddenly introduces her to ‘her new mother’, an incredibly rigid career woman named Iwaki Akiko. Miyuki immediately refuses to accept her, and it’s up to Akiko to work her way into her new stepdaughter’s heart. Throughout the story, we follow both Miyuki and Akiko in their journey of getting used to their new family dynamic, with the easygoing Ryoichi as the glue that binds them – that is, until the sad truth about his sudden re-marriage to Akiko is revealed.
Before I start on my review, I just want to give a quick update on my personal circumstances during the time I watched this drama, and the reason it took me so long to finish it despite its short length. I started watching this show right after finishing my review for Yuugure, but because of an unexpectedly stressful subtitling job that came in-between, I only got to finish and review this a whole month later. Although I am gladly done with this job now, it took quite a toll on my (mental) energy, and therefore I decided to keep things as concise as possible with this review, starting with the intro and summary. I usually tend to go on all sorts of tangents and go into a lot of details in my reviews, and while I do have plenty to discuss about this show, I will try to keep it succinct, also to save my own energy.
Fun side note: when I started watching this, I was just finishing up a book translation that included a chapter on a stepmother-daughter relationship that was very similar to how the one depicted in this drama starts out. It was a nice coincidence that helped me relate to the premise of the story and made it a very accessible watch from the get-go. I personally really liked the small yet consistent cast and the depiction of the day-to-day challenges that Akiko and Miyuki went through whilst familiarizing themselves with each other. I thought the dynamic of a stepmother and daughter was very original, and it brought as many heartwarming and wholesome moments as sad and emotional ones.
The story of the main series is divided into two parts. The first five episodes build up to Akiko gradually establishing her relationship with little Miyuki while Ryoichi’s health slowly deteriorates, and the second half jumps to ten years later, with Akiko as a single mother trying to help Miyuki, now a teenager (played by Kamishiraishi Moka), navigate through matters such as future ambitions and college choices. In the specials, this stretches further to matters of job hunting and even marriage.
My initial expectation was that the entire series would focus on the gradual development between child Miyuki and Akiko, and that it would end with Akiko and Ryoichi becoming a loving couple and Miyuki ultimately calling Akiko “mom” in the final episode. However, this development was basically already concluded in the first five episodes. As I was initially not aware that there would be a time jump halfway through, the way some things were wrapped up in the first half of the series came as a very unexpected surprise to me, although it does make sense now, of course. I will elaborate on my exact feelings regarding this after first analyzing the main characters and their dynamics.
I’d like to start off by analyzing Miyuki, Akiko and Ryoichi. After that I’ll give my thoughts on the first part of the series as a whole and then do the same thing for part two and the new characters that are introduced there.
Let’s start with Miyuki. After losing her mother Ai (Okuyama Yoshie) to an illness early on, Miyuki has never wanted for more than a life with her loving single father. She doesn’t even care that she’s bullied at school and doesn’t have friends – it’s her and her dad against the rest of the world. When Ryoichi first introduces Akiko to her, Miyuki starts acting almost like a wife to her father: she welcomes him home and offers to either make dinner or draw a bath for him. This was something that strongly reminded me of the beforementioned book I was translating at the time. In that book, the daughter had also lost her mother (who was ironically called Miyuki) and she basically took over the household until her father recovered from grieving. She was prepared to take on her mother’s chores and live her life while supporting her dad forever, even if that meant losing the time to be a kid herself. When a stepmother arrived, she started rebelling against her because she felt like the work she’d put in to support her father was taken away from her; being told “you don’t need to fill in the spot your mom left behind” actually upset her. I felt like this was also what happened with Miyuki in this series. She started taking on more household chores in an attempt to prove to her dad that they didn’t need anyone else, and that they could make things work with just the two of them. The continued display of Ai’s picture also seemed to symbolize how Miyuki wasn’t able to accept a new mother figure. To her, it must have felt as if her biological mother would be replaced, and she just wasn’t ready for that. From an adult’s perspective it’s clear to understand that it’s not about ‘taking someone’s place’ or ‘betraying someone’s memory’, but to a child this feeling is inevitable.
I honestly really loved Miyuki. She was such a spunky yet fragile little girl, and I thought the way she was written was incredibly realistic. Even though she initially put up a wall with Akiko, it was clear to see that she was very pure-hearted and just wanted to have a normal life where she could have fun with friends and come home to loving parents. Despite being only eight years old, she was already so mature for her age. At some point, Ryoichi purposefully doesn’t pick Miyuki up from daycare in an attempt to make her realize she needs a new mother figure in her life. Miyuki immediately sees through his plan and takes it upon herself to call Mrs. Shimoyama to pick her up instead. Kazuko Shimoyama (played by Aso Yumi) is the owner of a local real estate company that lives close to the Miyamotos and often steps in to take care of Miyuki when Ryoichi has to work late. She’s like a neighborhood auntie that Miyuki feels very safe and comfortable with. She appears as a regular character throughout the series and the specials.
Of course, it was very sad seeing Miyuki having to grow up so fast. When Ryoichi passes away, she initially doesn’t even cry, she just says: “I’m used to it”, which is a heartbreaking thing to hear from a girl who just lost a second parent. I found it very touching to see the surprisingly deep layers behind her young age, and the way she gradually opened herself up to Akiko more and more was very natural. I also really liked her budding friendship with Hiroki Kuroda (as a child played by Daichi), who started out bullying her, but who turned out to actually be looking out for her. I think they built up her character a lot even in just the first five episodes, and I genuinely found myself caring about her, so that’s definitely a sign of good writing.
Since we meet Akiko at the same time as Miyuki does, we are initially led to go along with the feeling that she is a really strange creature. Her typical appearance and metronomical way of walking are only complemented by her extremely formal and business-like behavior and way of speaking. She addresses everything and everyone as if in a corporal setting – she even introduces herself to Miyuki with her business card. We only get more insight into her past and upbringing later on in the series and the specials, but in the beginning Akiko is basically depicted as an anime-esque character; her way of dealing with things and people is almost comically unrealistic, as if she’s doing a bit where she treats everything like it’s a business plan.
Needless to say, she’s extremely competent at her work. At the start of the story, she is a very successful company manager who is constantly headhunted by other companies because of her stellar professional reputation. For someone like her, who has spent her life studying and working, taking on the responsibility of a mother is completely unchartered territory, one that no one expected her to ever take on. However, she seems to be determined to make it work and starts putting in a lot of effort to grow closer to Miyuki.
To be completely honest, at the beginning of the series I was expecting Akiko to be very cold with Miyuki, to the point where she didn’t even know how to treat her or if she even wanted to deal with her. As such, it came as a surprise to see her immediately be so determined to win her over and learn how to be a real mother to her. It surprised me every time a warm and empathizing side came out of her, because it was just so unexpected. It’s later revealed that she basically buried her heart under years and years of studying, working and climbing the corporal ladder, which made the fact that Ryoichi and Miyuki were able to bring out her warmth again even more special. I loved how, despite having probably the clearest character development out of everyone, Akiko never completely lost her unique mannerisms. Even when she became more able to smile and express her emotions to the people around her, her pokerface and metronomic way of walking and speaking never fully went away, and that was great. I wouldn’t have wanted her to lose that side to her completely, as it made her such an interesting character. It was nice to see how they gradually started loosening her up bit by bit. Again, a great example of good character writing.
As opposed to his new wife, Ryoichi seemed to be the complete opposite. Despite the fact that he is also a devoted company employee, he is bright and easygoing and has the habit of spotting ‘miracles’ wherever he goes. To quote Akiko’s later description of him: he is like a ray of sunshine, always smiling and seeing the good and special in his surroundings. I really loved how his habit of spotting ‘miracles’ was passed onto Miyuki and even Akiko in the end, and how it remained an ongoing theme throughout the story. Despite the difference in their personalities, Ryoichi is always able to laugh about and appreciate Akiko’s eccentric behavior, and he keeps urging Miyuki to acknowledge her efforts and give her a chance.
I really loved Ryoichi. I thought his dynamic with Akiko was one of the most interesting and heartfelt ones I’ve seen in a drama so far. He was so loving, cheerful and open-minded towards everyone and everything around him, I couldn’t help but love him. The fact that he’d been raising Miyuki as a single father whilst maintaining a full-time job and still maintaining such a loving and warm home and livelihood for the both of them was incredible. He was probably one of my favorite characters in the show, even if he didn’t make it past episode five.
Despite the fact that there are no scenes of Ryoichi and Ai together, not even flashbacks, I could just imagine what a happy and loving couple they must have been. It was clear that he never stopped loving his first wife, and he really cared about giving Miyuki a happy future, even if he wouldn’t be able to see it for himself. Imagining how he and Ai were as Miyuki’s parents, it seemed even more strange that he would suddenly fall for someone like Akiko, who did not even seem the slightest bit interested in matters of the heart. So how on earth did Ryoichi and Akiko, of all pairings, decide to get married?
Admittedly, I didn’t really question their reason for getting married at first. I just accepted that they had somehow met, and that maybe they had some unrevealed history together that caused them to notice the other’s qualities and made them develop an interest in one another. But as time went by, I couldn’t help but notice that there didn’t actually seem to be any romantic tension between them. It seemed like they kept things purely professional and agreed to a registered partnership for some practical reason.
Just when Akiko and Miyuki finally start warming up to each other and everything seems to be working out, Ryoichi is shown getting ‘lightheaded’ and fainting at work, which immediately made all the alarm bells go off in my drama-brain. Not much later, it’s revealed that there’s indeed something very wrong with him: he has advanced stomach cancer. Despite his doctor’s urging to try chemo-therapy, Ryoichi refuses to spend his last moments as a patient, also because Miyuki had developed a dislike for hospitals after what happened to her mother. Instead, he decided to find someone to look after Miyuki after he’d pass, in order to give his daughter a happy and stable future. I believe he encountered Akiko during a work event – was it a joint event of their companies or something? – and seeing her at work convinced him of the fact that she was a very capable and trustworthy woman. I have to admit I don’t exactly remember Akiko’s reasoning for going along with his proposal, but she was able to empathize with his situation and willingly took on the responsibility of becoming a stepmother: the one job she’d never imagine herself doing.
As I mentioned before, I really loved the dynamic between Ryoichi and Akiko. Considering the fact that they were complete strangers who didn’t owe each other anything, it was heartwarming to see how they genuinely empathized with one another. Even though there may not have been romantic feelings between them, they were determined to make Miyuki believe that their relationship was real. It even seemed like actual feelings started blooming between them towards the end. The fact that they were such an unusual pairing only made me appreciate them more. I loved how, even ten years later, Akiko was never fully able to move on from Ryoichi, and she’d always look back on him with such a loving smile on her face. I’d like to think he was her first and only true love, even if she never got the chance to convey that. For me, the scene where they slept next to Miyuki confirmed that there was something special between them and that they were willing to fully commit to their new relationship, even if it started off without romantic feelings.
In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that they had to wrap up Ryoichi’s death and Miyuki’s full acceptance within the first five episodes to enable the time jump to part two. However, since I wasn’t aware that there would be a time jump, Ryoichi’s death came as a complete surprise to me and I can’t deny that I’m still dissatisfied with how they dealt with it. Plotwise, it was of course devastating that he died after finally deciding that he was going to undergo treatment and try to get better, and just when he and Akiko started to show feelings for each other. The sequence where Miyuki, Akiko and Ryoichi all put in work to contribute to the situation in their own way (Akiko as the breadwinner, Ryoichi in his treatment and Miyuki in putting together a book filled with ‘miracles’ to encourage her dad) was very wholesome and touching. Ryoichi even seemed to recover a bit at some point, which made it even more painful when he relapsed.
Apart from that, I was really displeased with how his death literally happened off-screen and in-between episodes. Episode four ends with him watching Akiko set off to fit a wedding dress for their planned family picture, and episode five starts with Miyuki being informed at school that something bad happened to her father. In the next scene, Akiko and Miyuki are shown sitting beside Ryoichi’s laid out body in their apartment. Even at that point, it still didn’t click with me that he was dead: I figured he just passed out and was recovering at home. But then they suddenly switched to the funeral hall and I was like: “Wait what?! He’s ACTUALLY dead?! Just like that?!” It just felt to rushed and even random to me. I’d been really enjoying the series so far, but that was the first time I actually went: “what the fuck? I don’t like that?” What’s more, right after dropping the bomb that he suddenly died and was getting buried, they just went on casually joking about whether or not you could wear loafers inside the funeral hall. It was too soon for jokes! I still wasn’t able to grasp the fact that Ryoichi had actually just died and was gone for real. The transition felt really unnatural and rushed, and that was something I genuinely disliked. Because of this, I wasn’t able to take in the full impact of that whole funeral episode, even to the point where Miyuki finally called Akiko “mom” for the first time, which was supposed to be the pinnacle moment of the first half. Even now, I feel like they could’ve dealt with his death better than this. They shouldn’t have let him die off-screen in-between episodes like that. We didn’t even get to see Akiko’s reaction in the actual moment. They kind of reenacted the scene in the second special, but then turned that into a dream, so I’m not sure if that’s what actually happened (the scene of her fitting a dress and being informed that her husband had ‘fallen asleep’ in the lobby). So yeah, I didn’t appreciate that Ryoichi was just killed off like that. His picture is put next to Ai’s and both Akiko and Miyuki keep seeking comfort and answers from him through that. He is frequently reminisced about and even reappears in the specials as a narrator and spirit talking through his picture, but it just wasn’t the same. As I said earlier, I really expected (and wanted) the story to be about their little family of three, building on the relationships between both Akiko and Miyuki and Akiko and Ryoichi.
I definitely don’t want to diminish the second part of the series, as I still enjoyed the story as a whole, but I can’t deny that the first half was definitely my favorite. I really enjoyed the period in which Akiko and Miyuki were gradually warming up to each other. One of my favorite episodes was the one where Akiko had to deal with that group of childish mothers. Honestly, if there was ever a case where adults acted more like children than their kids, it was this one. Basically, just when Miyuki finally makes some friends in her class, those friends are prohibited from playing with her by their mothers because they are butthurt after a confrontation with Akiko during a parent meeting. It was so satisfying to see Akiko (who seemingly had very little social awareness) realize what those mothers were playing at and the way she stood up for Miyuki was so incredibly wholesome. She actually went as far as to organize the entire Sport’s Day by herself to go against these mothers. I’m glad their pettiness only lasted for one episode and they actually became friends after that, but seeing the level of effort that Akiko was willing to put in to ensure that Miyuki could have a good time with friends at school was so powerful. There were a lot of situations in the first half that were so heartfelt and significant to the blooming bond between them, like when Miyuki gave Akiko that flower, or how they made a game of trying to find the ingredients for Ai’s famous hamburger steak in the supermarket. Part one definitely had all of my favorite moments.
Before I move on with my discussion of part two and the specials, I just want to elaborate on what I already briefly mentioned in my intro, namely that this series alerted me to something I missed in my previous watch.
I’ve come to the realization that shows that are presented from the start as deep and meaningful often fail to impress me as much as shows that start out light but then reveal an unexpected emotional depth to them. While I was watching this show, I was reminded of dramas like Juuhan Shuttai! and Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo, series that incorporate a lot of lightness and humor in their stories and characters whilst still conveying very important and heartfelt messages. The graduality in which Akiko grew into a loving and caring mother despite never losing her riduculous quirks made a much bigger impact on me than for example Soramame in Yuugure, who despite her quirks remained stuck in her insecurities and didn’t actually have that much character development at all. Sometimes the most meaningful stories lie in the most unexpected corners. This kind of ties in with my often-made point about how I find characters that take themselves seriously more funny than characters that purely exist to be funny. I’m devoting an entire passage to Ayase Haruka in the cast comments, because she absolutely NAILED Akiko in that aspect. I guess what I’m trying to say is just that something that introduces itself as being deep and mature often impresses me less than something that starts off light and comical but then gradually reveals its depth and maturity in unexpected ways. Gibo to Musume no Blues is definitely a show that I will remember for surprising me with its subtle emotional depth without ever losing its quirky charm. I love it when a show makes me tear up and yell: “I didn’t know this show was going to be sad?!”😭😭😭
Having said that, I’ll now move on to my lesser favorite parts of the show: part two and the specials. Again, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy them at all, but the way the story continued after the time jump just hit me less hard than the first half.
After Ryoichi passes away and Miyuki finally fully embraces Akiko as her new mother, part two picks up ten years later. Miyuki is now a high school student and she and Akiko have become thick as thieves. Miyuki has even started picking up some of her habits. Rather than being embarrassed of her, as she used to be, she now takes pride in the incredible force of nature that Akiko is and occasionally even feels pressured by the thought that she might not live up to her expectations. Akiko, who has long since forsaken the corporal workforce, can’t help but find herself yearning for the thing she used to excel at, and she decides to take on a new project: improving a doomed-to-fail bakery, Bakery Mugita. This new plan is also meant to instill some ambition into Miyuki, who seems to be completely oblivious to what she wants to make of her life.
To be completely honest, I found the change in Miyuki’s character as a teenager a bit odd. They did explain it to some extent, but I found it kind of hard to understand how someone like her, who was so mature as a kid and who should’ve been taught not to take things for granted, turned out to be so carefree and lax when it came to thinking about her future. Considering the fact that her father brought Akiko into her life to ensure her a solid upbringing and future, I couldn’t help but find it a bit weird how Miyuki somehow came to take Akiko’s efforts as a single mother for granted like that. Sure, some people aren’t made for studying and climbing the corporal ladder – I did feel like Akiko sometimes wished her daughter would take a similar path as her. But Miyuki’s casual attitude was definitely different than what she’d been like as a kid. Because of this sudden transition from eight to eighteen year old Miyuki, this was something I had to get used to at first. Nevertheless, I liked how teenage Miyuki evidently became a mix of Ryoichi and Akiko. While picking up some of her stepmother’s habits like occasionally speaking in keigo and apologizing on her knees, she also became very much like her father in her light and cheerful demeanor and the ongoing search for miracles in her everyday life. She had no trouble making friends anymore and was even open to the possibility of her stepmother finding new love, for example. Despite the fact that Miyuki has now grown up more and the bond between her and Akiko has already become unshakeable, I did like to see how there were still things for them to conquer and talk about. They definitely didn’t run out of things to bring up between them, from assumed new relationships to career aspirations. One of the most memorable heart-to-hearts for me was the scene at the end of the final episode, when Miyuki gave up her chance to study to allow Akiko to pursue a new job opportunity in Osaka, and Akiko ended up telling Miyuki her entire life story. As much as we’d already seen of the bond between these two, these types of scenes always made the show for me because in my opinion, their relationship was what it was all about. Be that as it may, the entirety of part two didn’t feel the same to me as it used to when Miyuki was little and they were still getting used to each other: in part two they were just a typical mother and daughter having arguments about the future, and the focus wasn’t even really on the stepfamily aspect anymore, which to me felt like the main point of the show (I mean, it’s in the title).
Luckily, Miyuki manages to find her own path eventually, even if it doesn’t lead to her going to college. She is reunited with her childhood friend Hiroki (now played by Inowaki Kai) and while romantic feelings bloom between them, Hiroki also inspires and supports Miyuki to follow her heart.
The main stage for the second half of the series is the bakery that Akiko decides to help improve. Bakery Mugita is run by Mugita Akira (played by Sato Takeru) the good-for-nothing son of the original owner Mugita Makoto (Ukaji Takashi). While Makoto used to run a very successful business, Akira is cutting corners wherever he goes, completely dismissing the real work that goes into maintaining and running a bakery.
As a matter of fact, Akira has appeared on several occasions throughout the first half of the series as well, although we never learned his name before. In-between the events of the main storyline, we keep seeing him take on different part-time jobs that continuously bring him close to the main characters, but never close enough. As a courier, he’s gotten involved with Akiko’s company, as a florist he’s sold flowers to Ryoichi, and as a funeral chauffeur he’s seen Akiko and Miyuki mourn for Ryoichi, although of course he didn’t know them at the time. In the second half, he has taken over his father’s bakery, even though he’s completely ruined the business’ reputation with his lack of effort in keeping it afloat. As Akiko starts helping him, he finds the ambition to work hard at being a baker, and he also develops a crush on her, which in itself becomes kind of a running gag throughout the show; he keeps mishearing things and misreading signs that only strengthen him in being hopeful for a relationship with Akiko.
I honestly had mixed feelings about Akira. While there’s nothing wrong with a bit of humor, it ultimately did feel as if his main contribution to the story was comic relief, and I couldn’t help but find myself getting a bit annoyed with him at times. I’d hoped that his proposal to Akiko and the discovery that he and the Miyamotos had actually crossed paths several times before would give him some more depth and maturity; I really liked how they wrote off his prior appearances as being another ‘miracle’. Still, I think he was the only character that stayed the same, even though he did become more serious in his work as a baker. The only running gag that remained funny to me until the end was how he and Akiko kept messing up their high fives. Other than that, I thought his constant mixing up of words, getting excited about misunderstandings and butting in to make things about him and his desired relationship with Akiko got a bit tiring at some point.
Overall, the inclusion of many more ‘running gags’ in the second half kind of brought the level of the series down for me, as I personally felt that it was trying too hard to be funny. I really liked the balance between humor and depth in the first half, but since the main goal of the series (Akiko and Miyuki’s bond) was already wrapped up in episode five, it felt like all that was left was just dragging out more potential misunderstandings and jokes, which didn’t really do much for me. Of course, some things worked really well, like the mismatched high fives, but there were also a couple of things that felt like they were purely included to be funny, even in moments where it wasn’t really necessary. One more example of this was the fact that Mrs. Shimoyama kept pleading with Miyuki to call her ‘Kazu-chan’ instead of ‘oba-chan’ (‘auntie’). There was a scene in which she hit her head really hard on a door and Miyuki cried out: ‘Oba-chan!!’ in alarm, and Mrs. Shimoyama went: ‘It’s Kazu-chan😭’. Of course, it’s not like it was a serious injury, but she literally said it EVERY time Miyuki called her ‘oba-chan’, so at some point it got a bit pointless to me, especially since Miyuki never actually ended up calling her ‘Kazu-chan’. It’s things like these that made me feel like they were just out to get more laughs from the second half, rather than coming up with more serious dilemmas and issues to cover between the titular stepmother and daughter.
I want to address a couple more characters in more detail before moving on to the specials and final general remarks. First of all, Hiroki. I’ve mentioned him briefly before as Miyuki’s childhood friend and new boyfriend, but I want to talk about him a bit more because I really appreciated him. Even as a kid, I thought Hiroki was a very well-established character. It was clear that he bullied Miyuki because he actually liked her (‘meisjes plagen kusjes vragen’), but I still thought the way he kept approaching her and trying to find ways to help her, even as a child, was really sweet. I also thought it was cute how, despite the fact that he was chubby and maybe not the most typical boy in class to be popular, one of Miyuki’s friends started developing an interest in him for being so considerate and helpful. It was nice to see how the kids actually judged each other on those kinds of characteristics instead of appearance; again, they occasionally seemed more mature than their parents.
When Hiroki makes his comeback in the second half, he’s lost his babyfat and is now a good-looking young man. As soon as he spots Miyuki, he starts helping her out without her even noticing and once she does, he immediately makes his long-cherished feelings for her crystal clear. Despite the fact that he has his own life in which he aspires to become a scientist and studies for that, he’s always there to support Miyuki and help her out with her plans. I thought he was the ultimate green flag and I loved how they built up his and Miyuki’s relationship from childhood to adulthood. They start officially dating (although this isn’t really made clear) throughout the specials, and in the last one they decide to get married. I really liked Hiroki and what he contributed to the story. I think he was the best friend-turned-lover that Miyuki could’ve wished for.
Finally, I want to give a special shoutout to two characters that also appearead throughout the series and were continuously brought back in funny and wholesome ways. First of all, Taguchi Tomomasa (Asari Yosuke). In the first half of the show, he is Akiko’s closest subordinate who’s even revealed to have romantic feelings for her. Even after Akiko quits being a manager, he helps her out on several occasions, like with the Sport’s Day. Later, he meets her again at the bakery, after getting married himself. I liked the scene where he and Akira coincidentally met at a bar and both started talking about their (former) feelings for Akiko, without knowing they were talking about the same person. I liked that kept bringing Taguchi back and allowed him to contribute to the story in different ways, even in the specials when he wasn’t tied to Akiko anymore in any way. I guess you could say that he would always stay loyal to her, and that was a nice characteristic of him.
Secondly, although he may be a bit underrated, I also really appreciated Mr. Kasahara (Asano Kazuyuki), Ryoichi’s former boss. When Ryoichi was still alive and working, Mr. Kasahara was a really cheerful and playful boss, who always called him ‘Miyamo-chan’ and genuinely empathized with his situation. Besides one occasion where Akiko stepped in for Ryoichi at his company, Mr. Kasahara kept making comebacks and was even present at Miyuki and Hiroki’s wedding, which was really wholesome. I think this show just did a really good job at making you feel familiar with its core characters. To me, it felt like I became part of this little family, and even when Taguchi or Mr. Kasahara showed up again, I was like: “Oh hey, it’s them!😃” When they showed the pictures of everyone’s future during the outro at the end of the final special, I actually got sad when they showed Mr. Kasahara’s picture in black and white at some point to signify that he’d passed away. I even got to care for the most minor side characters, which says a lot. It was solid supporting characters like him, Taguchi and Mrs. Shimoyama that really enabled that sense of familiarity and community for me, which I really liked.
Finally, let’s talk a bit about the specials. As I mentioned before, there are three specials, the 2020, 2022 and 2024 specials (even though the 2024 special also takes place in 2022🤔). I kind of wonder why they didn’t just make these three specials into a second season instead, because they pick up exactly after the end of the main series. While it was nice to get a continuation of the story and the characters, I have to admit that in hindsight, I don’t really see the additional value of the specials. While of course everything was in some way intrinsically linked to the core relationship between Akiko and Miyuki, it wasn’t always very clear to me what exactly the specials contributed to their bond. At some point, it started to feel like they were milking things out a bit without adding a lot of new and significant information, which was a pity. As much as I loved getting to see more content about the characters I’d gotten attached to, I don’t feel like I would’ve missed a lot if I hadn’t watched them, which is not a great thing seeing they specifically made three specials to add to the main story.
The first special takes place one year after the final episode of the main series, in which Akiko decides to go to Osaka to pursue another corporal job opportunity after helping Bakery Mugita thrive again. Miyuki has given up on studying and is now working at the bakery, where she can freely express her talent for drawing and coming up with new and exciting marketing solutions.
At some point, Akiko gets fired from her job in Osaka and comes back home to find Akira there with a baby in his arms. After clearing up the misunderstanding that Miyuki and Akira had a child together in Akiko’s absence, it turns out that this baby was found outside the bakery. Akiko develops an attachment to the baby: she dotingly calls him ‘Managing Director’ and even breastfeeds him at some point. Whilst they are figuring out who the parents may be – Akira even goes so far to take a DNA test to check if it’s his – the real father appears and shares his story of being a desperate and financially unstable single father before he takes back responsibility to take care of his child (whose real name remains unmentioned, so ‘Managing Director’ it is).
Don’t get me wrong, the story about the single father was really touching, but I just didn’t really see how this was in any way relevant to the main story of Akiko and Miyuki. Sure, it instilled a new type of motherly feeling in Akiko, but what did that really matter in the end? Even after this, she never wished to give birth to a child of her own, so I wonder what the additional value of that storyline was.
In the second special, which picks up right where the first one concludes, we meet the new owner of Akiko’s former job in Osaka, Iwaki Ryoji, who is the spitting image of Ryoichi (and also played by the same actor, Takenouchi Yutaka). Akiko, completely baffled by the similarity in both his name and appearance, keeps finding herself more attracted to this lookalike, even though he clearly has the opposite personality of her deceased husband. As a matter of fact, this doppelganger has very shady plans with both the company and Bakery Mugita and doesn’t shy away from pretending to get on his enemy’s good side.
I’m not gonna lie, I found this special really weird. Besides the fact that they had to make it someone who looked exactly like Ryoichi, the whole thing where he pretended to be a widow who lost his wife and unborn child to soften up Akiko and Miyuki, even going so far as to lie about wanting to meet up with them more often like a family was really twisted. The fact that they asked him to stand in for Ryoichi to still take that family picture together was also kind of icky to me. I don’t know, some people might have found it a nice story to give more closure regarding Ryoichi, but to me it actually felt like they needlessly brought up his death again after ten whole years. They didn’t even try to relativize it by making Ryoji Ryoichi’s twin or something, he was actually a completely different and unrelated person. I didn’t really get the point of this story.
The third and final special takes place another year after the previous special, and mainly focusses on how Miyuki decides to go with Hiroki to his new job opportunity in Paris. The main storyline is about how Hiroki’s mother Hiromi (Matsushita Yuki) refuses to let them marry because she senses a curse around the Miyamotos, although Akiko manages to pierce through the lie and deducts that she’s actually worried for Miyuki that Hiroki’s prior illness might come back. I appreciate that they came up with a new story that built further on Miyuki’s future which ended with her and Hiroki getting married and starting a family together. The whole in-between thing of Akiko allegedly being sick and ending up in the in-between where Ryoichi was now working as a ferryman to row deceased people to the afterlife, thought? Like, why did they suddenly start adding fictional elements to it? It would’ve been a wholesome enough episode if it was just about Miyuki getting married, without the additional misunderstanding of whether or not Akiko was going to die. I also could’ve done without that very last after-credits scene of Akiko and Akira with old people make-up and him still waiting for her to get back to his dating request – enough with the silly humor already.
All in all, even though the specials could basically be seen as a direct extension of the main story, as far as I’m concerned the series in itself would’ve been enough. Despite the touching topics and conversations that were had in the specials, I just didn’t feel like they provided anything new to the story. As I mentioned before, for me it was purely about the bond between Akiko and Miyuki and this was finalized halfway through the main series. Everything around that, all the old and new relationships that were maintained and formed, and the way Ryoichi’s memory would always bind them together was a nice bonus. The additional storylines that were added in the specials, as wholesome as they all turned out to be in their own way, just didn’t really add anything to what I thought was the most crucial to this story.
Having said that, I do want to emphasize several things that I really appreciated, series and specials combined. I enjoyed the show as a whole and despite the fact that I felt like it started to drag on a bit at some point, I got attached to the characters and really liked the sense of being a part of the extended Miyamoto family for as long as I could.
Something that I found very satisfying throughout was the consistency of things. Not just in the way that every special followed up the previous one with little to no in-between time, but also in that they kept making references to previous events. This created a continuancy that I really appreciated. I loved the attention to detail from start to finish, even in how they showed the passing of time through the growing length of Miyuki’s hair.
One thing that jumped out to me which I thought was really clever was when they ended up doing a PreCure marketing promotion for Bakery Mugita. In the first half of the series, when Miyuki is still a child, she’s a big fan of this magical girl anime show called something-something PreCure (clearly derived from the popular Pretty Cure-franchise, if not the same thing). One time, Akiko joins her to watch an episode together and ends up ranting about the great marketable qualities of the show. Then, in part two, they actually end up using PreCure as a marketing strategy to promote the bakery, with Miyuki and two other friends cosplaying as the main characters to bring in more school kids. I thought that was such a clever yet subtle reference to part one. I think this show did a really great job at using little details and references to bind the whole story together from start to finish.
It’s time for the cast comments! I’ve been looking forward to this section, because all in all I really loved the cast and I think everyone did a really good job at creating this wholesome story together.
First of all, the GOAT, Ayase Haruka. I got to know her from Hotaru no Hikari and then also saw her in Watashi wo Hanasanaide and the movie Umimachi Diary. Although I haven’t even see that much of her, she managed to impress me in every role, and Gibo to Musume no Blues definitely takes the crown in that. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her portray such an eccentric character. I thought her character in Hotaru no Hikari was already peak, but seeing her in this only elevated her in my ranking of favorite Japanese actresses. The way she managed to keep a straight face and continued to be effortlessly funny in her speech and movements was immaculate. I loved everything about her performance and I think she did an amazing job at slowly but surely revealing a more caring and warm side of Akiko without every losing her business quirks. I loved that, even after growing to love her as she was, we still got more information about her upbringing that made us love her and relate to her and how she became like this even more. There wasn’t a second when I got fed up with her character, she was the one character that remained interesting and precious throughout the entire thing. I really, really loved seeing her in this.
I never actually saw Takenouchi Yutaka in anything before, but he looks really familiar. I guess he just has one of those faces. As I mentioned in my review, Ryoichi was probably one of my favorite characters. I just loved his disposition and quirky habits. The way he accepted and respected Akiko for exactly who she was and never even made a comment about how she was different from other people said enough about the kind of guy he was. I really loved his interactions with child Miyuki, as well. He was such a natural and loving father to her. I still don’t like that he had to die, and the way in which they killed him off. I will keep saying it: on my part, I would’ve loved to see the entire main series center on what was wrapped up in just the first five episodes. I was so excited to see the growing affection between him and Akiko, as well. At least they kept bringing him back, also as a narrator. I didn’t care much for that Iwaki Ryoji character, although I guess it was nice to just see the actor back on screen, and even his appearance as a ferryman wasn’t really the same but still, I was happy whenever he got to make another appearance.
I really liked the energy that the actor put into the role, he really did make Ryoichi like a ray of sunshine, and it was really touching that Akiko never even considered marrying someone else after him. That’s just the kind of person he was to her, and I lived for their unusual pairing. It was really nice getting to know this actor through this series, I hope I’ll get to see more of him!
I was absolutely blown away by the performance of Yokomizo Naho as young Miyuki. Apparently she also appeared in Shinigami-kun, Nobunaga Concerto and Watashi Kekkon Dekinainjanakute Shinain Desu, but it’s been too long for me to remember her from those. Here, she definitely made a lingering impression on me. She was ten years old when this show aired and is still doing dramas as a teenager at present, so it’d be really cool to see her in something where she’s older. I’m used to child actors being impressive, but her performance was actually amazing. I loved how mature she seemed in her expressions, no matter how much of a child she still was. She did a great job in portraying the layers of an eight year old going through the loss of one parent and then the introduction of a new one. Her chemistry with Ayase Haruka was really good, as well. She was so good!
I knew Kamishiraishi Moka from 3-nen A-gumi and as the younger sister of Kamishiraishi Mone. I couldn’t help but giggle during her scenes with Sato Takeru, considering he played her sister’s love interest in Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo. Anyways, despite my beforementioned confusion about the change in Miyuki’s personality (then again, a lot can change in ten years), I really liked her portrayal of teen and adult Miyuki. I loved how she actually became Akiko’s daughter, even in some of her mannerisms. Seeing her go from being embarrassed of her stepmother to embracing all of her quirks was really touching and I also thought her chemistry with Ayase Haruka was really good. I didn’t know she was going to be in this show – again, I didn’t know there was going to be a time jump since the poster also just features the main characters of the first half – but I was pleasantly surprised by her appearance. I hope I’ll get to see more dramas with her and her sister, because they are definitely a golden duo.
It’s not a lie that I love Sato Takeru, from Mei-chan no Shitsuji, Koi ha Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo, First Love: Hatsukoi and the movies Kanojo wa Uso wo Aishisugiteiru and Nanimono, and I really can’t wait to get to the other dramas with him that are still on my watchlist. When I saw his name in the opening credits for this show, I got excited immediately, and I was intrigued by how his character kept getting teased in the beginning. Maybe it’s partially because I wasn’t used to seeing him in a comic relief role and that caused an initial cringe, but as I said I was a bit disappointed that that was ultimately all there was to his character. I’m not saying he did a poor job, I still loved him enough as an actor to sit through it, but I just wished there’d been a bit more depth to him. I was half expecting him to actually become Akiko’s new love interest, but with the way he kept acting I couldn’t really argue with the fact that Akiko never developed that kind of feeling towards him. Although I did like his consistent habit of mixing up words and the way he initially discovered a new ambition for baking, it just felt like he descended more and more into the typical comic relief character mold once his own bakery arc was finished, which was a shame. Still, it was really nice to see him in this and at least I got to see a new side of his acting!
I’ve seen Aso Yumi before in Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge, Watashi wo Hanasanaide, Orphan Black: Nanatsu no Idenshi (which I wrote my MA thesis about), Perfect World and the movie Koizora. I really liked her performance as Mrs. Shimoyama. She brought a very nice and familiar energy to the character that immediately made me sympathize with her. Since I mostly remember her for quite stern characters, it was very refreshing to see her be a bit more goofy and playful in this. She just has this very natural ‘auntie’ feel about her, which made her perfect for this role. I loved how she was just naturally taken with the Miyamotos and never hesitated to take care of Miyuki. She was even hesitant to accept Akiko at first, as well, but never in the sense that she feared her own position would be taken away. It was purely because she cared about what kind of person would be best for Ryoichi and Miyuki, which made her a really sympathetic person. It was nice that she got to stick around for the entirety of the story. I liked seeing her as a familiar face in this show.
For some reason I can’t find any source that states child actor Daichi’s full name, so I’ll just stick to Daichi. I saw that he also appeared in Hayako-sensei, Kekkon Surutte Honto Desuka? According to MDL he hasn’t done anything new since 2020, though. Anyways, just like with Yokomizo Naho, I really loved his performance of young Hiroki. He was such a natural kid, he didn’t even seem to be acting. He actually looked like the type of boy who’d bully you but then act all tsundere to cover up his actual feelings. I thought he brought a really refreshing energy as young Hiroki, and his chemistry with young Miyuki was really cute.
Just like with Takenouchi Yutaka, Inowaki Kai looks SO familiar to me, yet I haven’t actually seen him in anything before. I did see there was one more show with him on my watchlist, so that’s good. I thought he made such a lovely older Hiroki. He just exuded green flag energy, from his smile to his actions. I really liked his chemistry with Kamishiraishi Moka. I thought Hiroki was the best partner she could’ve wished for, and it was cool how they built up their relationship from childhood. He had such a chill and mature air about him, and I also appreciated that the third special dove into his family relations a bit more. You could see how serious he was about Miyuki from the start, almost as if he’d already accepted that they were meant to be, but never in an intrusive way. I really liked his character and the way he played him.
I’m going to leave it there for the cast comments! All in all, I thought the cast was very well put-together and the actors managed to create a sense of familiarity with each other really well. It actually made me feel like I was part of a small family while I was watching it, which is what you want to achieve with shows like this. Of course, the theme of ‘family’, whether actually blood-related or not, was key in this show and I think the writers managed to convey that very well, through the acting, the filming and even the music, which constantly had me bobbing my head.
All in all, I thought this was a very wholesome series and I’m glad that I got to watch it in an otherwise quite stressful period. Japanese dramas tend to have this kind of soothing and healing feel to them, which really came at the perfect timing. I wonder how many more I’ll get to watch this year.
Despite my comments about the story being dragged on and the plot kind of being lost on me throughout the second half and the specials, I still want to emphasize that I thought this show was very good. It managed to touch me emotionally in unexpected ways and I loved that they managed to make something so wholesome out of something that started out so typical. Ayase Haruka definitely nailed the role of Akiko for me, I loved the development of her character and how effortlessly funny she was without ever making it feel like ‘too much’. The specific concept of the relationship between a stepmother and daughter, and how this bond could even exceed one between blood-related relatives, was very original. Even though it didn’t come as a surprise to me that it was based on a manga series, it still didn’t feel too animated, it was just the right balance between comical and realistically heartfelt. I had a really good time watching this and getting kicked in the feels when I least expected it. I hope to encounter more Japanese shows like this in the near future!
For now, I’m excited to see what’s in store for me next. Excuse me as I make my way towards the next item on my watchlist.
Until then!
Bye-bee! x
