Million Yen Women

Summer isn't over yet! Where did the time go?

The life of a failing writer is becomes very interesting when five women turn up on his doorstep, claiming to have 'been invited' to live in his apartment with him. In exchange, they each give him one million yen in rent each month. Six months later, they're still living like this, and the person who sent the invitations still hasn't made their motive clear. But things are about to get shaken up, and girls will drop like flies.

Effectively, Million Yen Women sits up your standard harem, with a dark twist. For those who haven't watched any Japanese harem anime, it's basically where a bland cardboard-cutout of a man is swamped by gorgeous and wildly different women who all love him for some reason.
  However, this definitely stands apart from the ordinary harem, mostly since the drama actually wants to have a story. Despite the massive hint about who the perpetrator is in the first episode, I thought the direction of the mystery was effective in elevating the suspense. It started with a fairly mundane treatment of the events occurring, but gradually became darker and darker - at the beginning of the drama, I didn't expect it to become so gloriously ruthless.
  Although, I have to say I was more affected by the directing. The majority of the show is shown through a miserable dark lens. I loved how a lot of the scenes worked with very little light, insinuating as to how dark the show would later go, and suggesting that very little of what we were seeing was completely true. The soundtrack was also good; especially the eerie ending song, which gave me goosebumps every time I heard it.
   I think that Million Yen Women's attempts to be sexy usually fell flat, probably because of Yojiro Noda - I don't know if his character was written to be so wooden, or if this is just a failing in the actor's portrayal. I could rarely see the emotion I expected to see in his face. The girls, on the other hand, were electrifying. Well, four out of five of them were, but I won't add any details.

In conclusion, Million Yen Women is a short and thought-provoking drama, one with surprises and revelations from beginning to end. There are now five more actresses I'll be looking out for.