Koi ga Shitai x3
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Contents
Details
- Title: 恋がしたい恋がしたい恋がしたい
- Title (romaji): Koi ga Shitai x3
- Also known as: Love Love Love / I Wanna Fall in Love / Where is Love?
- Genre: Romance, Drama
- Episodes: 11
- Viewership: 17.31
- Broadcast network: TBS
- Broadcast period: 2001-Jul-01 to 2001-Sep-16
- Air time: Sunday 21:00
- Theme song: Rainbow Connection by The Carpenters
Synopsis
Koi ga Shitai x3 ("Where is Love?" or "I Want to be in Love") is a character driven story that examines the relationships and bonds that six random people thrown together at one moment share with one another, and how that bond develops over the course of the series.
The seven main characters are named after the colors of the rainbow to correspond with the theme song, "Rainbow Connection" by the Carpenters. First, there is Akai Ryosuke (Red, Watabe Atsuro), a high school teacher that is having relationship problems with his fiancee a few days before the wedding; Second, there is Hada Ai (Indigo, Mizuno Miki), a woman who feels like she's drifting aimlessly through the world, latching on to different men so she feels less lonely; Third, there is Nagashima Mikan (Orange, Kanno Miho), a socially awkward hotel worker searching for love; Fourth, there is Shimura Ichiro (Purple, Oikawa Mitsuhiro), an author playboy that holds a secret that prevents him from getting close to others; Fifth, there is Midorikawa Bunpei (Green, Tokoro George), a down-on-his-luck gyuudon (beef-bowl) restaurant manager; Sixth, there is Aoshima Wataru (Blue, Yamada Takayuki), a busy high school student searching for a partner; and lastly, there is Kouda Orie (Yellow, Okae Kumiko), a housewife that is in a loveless marriage.
One fateful day, they all meet at Bunpei's gyuudon-ya and the bonds of fate begin to tighten, as we soon discover all of the characters are related in one way or another. As in the title, each of these characters are searching for love, but will they find it in the end?
User/Viewer Ratings
Cast
- Watabe Atsuro as Akai Ryosuke
- Mizuno Miki as Haneda Ai
- Kanno Miho as Nagashima Mikan
- Oikawa Mitsuhiro as Shimura Ichiro
- Tokoro George as Midorikawa Bunpei
- Yamada Takayuki as Aoshima Wataru
- Okae Kumiko as Kohda Orie
- Inomata Yuki
- Mimura Takayo
- Shimizu Megumi
- Yajima Kenichi
- Obayashi Takeshi as Kuroki Gentaro
Guests
- Koyuki as Kuroki Reiko (ep9)
Production Credits
- Screenwriter: Yukawa Kazuhiko
- Producer: Yagi Yasuo
- Director: Katayama Osamu, Yoshida Ken
Episode Ratings
- Ep 01: 21.9%
- Ep 02: 18.4%
- Ep 03: 16.3%
- Ep 04: 18.8%
- Ep 05: 15.7%
- Ep 06: 15.3%
- Ep 07: 16.4%
- Ep 08: 15.1%
- Ep 09: 15.4%
- Ep 10: 18.4%
- Ep 11: 18.7%
Review by thetenken
thetenken says: See it.
Featuring a strong cast, there is Atsuro from "Beautiful Life" and "Koibumi" along with frequent collaborator Miki, also from the same two series. They have wonderful chemistry together, with Miki showing off her very tender, lonely side as opposed to her stronger side in Koibumi. Joining these two is Kanno Miho, who has since worked with Atsuro on "Koufuku no Ouji", delivers a very sweet and cute performance as Mikan-chan. The three character's relationship is the crux of this drama, with Mitsuhiro and Bunpei's characters thrown in the chaos for more effect. Finally, a wonderfully understated performance by Takayuki, more along the lines of "Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu" than "Waterboys" helps paint the idea of loneliness in huge Tokyo even better than most dramas.
The voice-overs used in various parts of the series helps convey the emotions and thoughts of the characters, more in the larger "why are we here?" sense than is common in dramas. Most dramas focus on just the love relationship between the main characters, while this drama extrapolates the trials and tribulations to a larger sense of belonging and purpose in this world.
Ultimately, this isn't a typical love drama, but uses the rather universal theme of love-seeking to get at the emotions of attachment, lonliness, and belonging in terms of all relationships. This isn't a series about only romantic love, but love in a more general sense.
Theme Songs:
Opening: Rainbow Connection - The Carpenters
Secondary: Leave Yesterday Behind - The Carpenters
Music BGM:
The background music for the show was pretty good, the themes of "Rainbow Connection" and "Leave Yesterday Behind" went together well with the story. The director obviously had these songs in mind when creating the series. The variations on the themes, using piano and harmonica, are very good.
Cinematography/direction:
The cinematography and the scenes are very good. Although nothing avant garde, the scenes are well thought out and the angles, too. Flashbacks are neatly composited and work well with the voice-overs. The opening shot right before the titles are displayed show a Kanno Miho waiting at a pedestrian crossing, and pans wide out to show how one of the main characters is lost in a sea of people, so large that you can't tell who she is anymore. This shot meshes well with the theme of loneliness and lack of connection, even amidst a huge population.
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