HOTMAN 2

Details

Episodes: 12
Broadcasted by: TBS
Broadcast period: 2004-10-21 to 2004-12-23
Theme Song: Hero - [Exile]

Cast & Credits

Miyama Karen as Mizusawa Ichigo

Synopsis

Review @ JFan

The HOTMAN is Back!

Have you seen the original "HOTMAN" drama? Probably most of you haven't, so I'll give you the gist of it now. Sorimachi Takashi plays a 'hot man' named Enzo. Unfortunately, the usual English slang meaning of "hot" as attractive/sexy is obviously not the intended meaning here. If you translate it to the Japanese equivalent of "atsui otoko", you get the real intended meaning of the drama, the nuance of which is a man who is extremely passionate about what he believes and is fast to act very vocally and physically to uphold it. This is exactly what Enzo is. (As usual, the Japanese writers chose to ignore potential nuances when making the English title.)

In the original series, Enzo lives with his siblings: Shima, Haiji, Ryuunosuke, Hinata and his young daughter Nanami. They all live together in the house that belonged to their deceased mother. Enzo, as the eldest, has taken it upon himself to raise his younger siblings in leu of their parents. He is very (and overly) protective of his family, and strictly enforces rules for them. Enzo used to be a recluse who associated with Yakuza and such, but now takes extreme measures to make up for his previous mistakes and vows to raise his family right. His daughter has an atrophy of the skin which he blames himself for, and in order to make up for this he now feeds the whole family health food which most of them hate. Enzo works at the school that the twins: Haiji and Ryuunosuke and Hinata go to, but the family has a lot of financial difficulties which become a large focus of the series. They are very passionately attached to their mother's house, which they vow to keep at all cost.

To make a long story short, everything works out okay for them in the end, and in a subsequent special, all the family members went their separate ways, leaving Shima alone in their mother's house. That was the original HOTMAN. Now let's talk about HOTMAN 2.

When the series begins, Enzo and Nanami are happily living in the countryside near the ocean. (Actually, their house is right on the beach! I wonder if that's safe.) They love all the other people who live in their town. Nanami has a little boyfriend she plays with every day and, overall, they seem much happier here than they did in Tokyo. Shima comes to visit them, and she looks like she has something very important to tell Enzo, but she ends up going back to Tokyo without telling him. When she suddenly leaves without notice and Enzo can't get a hold of her, Enzo becomes worried and makes a trip back to Tokyo.

There, he finds his mother's house condemned and Shima's new business establishment closed. He also goes to see Haiji and Ryuunosuke, but they haven't been in contact with Shima either. (Hinata is away at medical school.) When he goes back to his favorite bar (a recurring set in the first drama and apparently in this one too), he happens to meet his old girlfriend who is also Nanami's biological mother (if I remember the first series correctly). She knows where Shima is and tells Enzo. Enzo finds Shima working at a hostess bar and he learns how she lost her business and their mother's house. Enzo is furious of course, and he forbids Shima to work as a hostess any more. (Even though Shima is an adult, Enzo still regards himself as her guardian.) Shima agrees to quit her job, but she is unable to support herself financially.

Enzo goes back home and consults with Nanami, who says she loves living in their little town, but would be most happy living with the whole family together. Despite how happy the two of them seemed living in the country, they make the decision to move back to Tokyo and live with Shima.

They rent a little house which seems much worse than their mother's house, which is now gone. They go about finding a new job for Shima, and Enzo gets a job at the elementary school that Nanami goes to. There, Enzo is romantically paired with Nanami's teacher played by Shiraishi Miho. (It was a different teacher played by Yada Akiko in the first one, but nothing ever happened between those two anyway.) Enzo gets in arguments with her over Nanami's education. Nanami isn't doing as well as the other kids in her class. She makes 'friends' with a girl played by that girl who played Rin in "boku to kanojo to kanojo no ikiru michi". She was a perfect girl in "boku to kanojo...", but in this drama she seems to have vile intentions toward Nanami.

Nanami wants everyone to live happily together again, but Haiji, Ryuunosuke, and Hinata refuse to leave their current dwellings. Their various problems create a heated argument which reminded me very much of the first series. It looks like the problems for this family are far from over, and HOTMAN 2 is going to be very true to the original.

I was a bit disappointed. I liked the beginning when Enzo and Nanami were living in a different town and all the other characters were absent. I was thinking that the second was going to be very different from the original, but apparently not. This wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the original was annoying! I thought that I liked the original when I watched the first few episodes, but I very soon tired of the repeatedly overdone heated arguments by the characters. It's not just Sorimachi Takashi that I don't like, as I have enjoyed him somewhat in other dramas and the other actors in HOTMAN are almost equally irritating, but I think it may be the writing/direction that I really don't like. It's just too overdone. Anyone who got this loud and passionate about something in real life would probably be told to shut up immediately and that would be the end of it. Near the end of the first series, I was hardly paying attention any more, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even bother to watch the last episode or two. I wonder how long I will continue watching the second.

I didn't mention it earlier, but the actress for Shima has changed since the first series. Originally, she was played by Konishi Manami, but now she is Itou Misaki. Everyone will notice this change unless their memory of the original is especially hazy (which is possible since the original aired back in spring last year). It's very uncommon that casting changes are made in Japanese dramas, but there must have been a good reason that Konishi Manami couldn't be in this one. (I know she's not pregnant or anything since she does appear to be working according to her home page.) The two actresses don't look anything alike aside from the fact that they're both very beautiful. It's very hard for me to meld the two together as one character. When watching her played by Itou Misaki, I try to imagine the scene with Konishi Manami instead and it hardly works. She has become a very different character now, seemingly less mature than before (regardless of the fact that Itou Misaki is actually a year older). This is a loss for Konishi Manami fans, but a gain for Itou Misaki fans. I was already a fan of both, so I'm a bit torn but would rather see her played by the correct face. Of course this drama now also has Shiraishi Miho, so there is definitely little left to desire in the area of pretty actresses.

Another thing that I thought was really stupid since the first drama is the twins. Why is it that the one who wears glasses is the smart one and the one without glasses is the loud guy who's always getting in trouble? They should have made it the other way around. That would have taken us off guard and made things a little more interesting. Why must they stick to stereotypes?

As stated before, I ended up disliking the original HOTMAN in the end and it looks like this new addition will be no different, so you already know my recommendation. On the other hand, there must have been plenty who enjoyed the original. Otherwise they would have never made a second. It's up to you.

Source: JFan

Other Resources