Zenkai Girl: First Impressions

First Impressions are honestly at the back of my mind. I prefer full reviews, but sometimes you reach the end of a drama having forgotten everything you felt right at the beginning, and I guess first impressions are useful in that sense. Despite Zenkai Girl being your typical romantic comedy starring actors I like, I wasn't interested in watching it up until now. Having watched the first two episodes, in short I can say that I wish I'd started this sooner.

Zenkai Girl, or Full-Throttle Girl, is about Ayukawa Wakaba, who passed the bar exam with flying colours and suddenly finds herself without a job when the company that hired her goes under. In desperation, she takes a job from the head of a law firm, babysitting her young daughter under the impression that this temporary job may lead to a permanent one. All Wakaba wants from life is money, glory and a rich husband to treat her to everything wants, is that too much to ask? She grew up poor, and she is determined to better her future. Unfortunately, being a babysitter means that she is constantly knocking heads with sweet single-father Yamada Sota, a man who massively below her sky-high standards, and she soon discovers being a babysitter may be the hardest challenge she's ever faced. 

  As of the end of episode two, Wakaba has remembered a drunken mistake which has jeopardised any chance of preventing further involvement with Sota.

I saw Aragaki Yui for the first time in goofball action-comedy My Boss My Hero, but despite having a technical status as a main character, our adorable hero was the one who took up the majority of the screen time. I absolutely loved her in last year's Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu, so I've been keen to check out more of her drama. Her character in Zenkai Girl is a breath of fresh air - jaded, calculating, and too blunt to hide her big ambitions under harmless pretences. She's not afraid to be nasty, and I kind of love it, but the funnier part is that I know all of her uppity ideals will crumble once she starts falling for Sota. I'm excited to see whether or not she'll be able to handle pushing away the fantasy she's been holding since she was a dirt-poor child.

  I also love her attitude to her new reality - she's a whip-smart lawyer forced to take care of children. She could have thrived in an office environment, but this job is a challenge - one she isn't going to shy away from. Sometimes it's difficult to make a horrible character lovable, which Introverted Boss proved earlier this year, but making Wakaba someone who will accept and complete any task she is given no matter how horrible it might be was a very good move and I already love her. Unlike in Introverted Boss, I can already understand why our hero is going to fall for her.

  Speaking of Sota, I find him so ridiculously adorable. I liked Nishikado Ryo in 1 Litre of Tears, and he was the only thing I liked about Attention Please!!, not to mention he has a great rapport with Aragaki Yui already. It's funny how his personality couldn't be more different from hers, and yet he mirrors her - he used to have a big elaborate dream like her, but gave it up to raise a son that isn't his in a tiny restaurant no-one has heard of; despite that, he's warm and happy. Wakaba needs that warmth, and maybe his presence in her life will help her understand what her dream is lacking. 

I will undoubtedly keep watching Zenkai Girl, it's nothing particularly new but it has the makings of being a very satisfying romantic-comedy. I love how fun and upbeat it is whilst dealing with the trials that come from being a single parent or being exposed to children so often. Children have a way of making you open your heart up, and what I want from this show is for Wakaba to do just that and realise that vulnerability and love are two sides of the same coin.