Last Cinderella VS Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu

Last Cinderella and the I Need Romance series stand out to me as the kinds of dramas you're very unlikely to see. Romantic-comedies which are frank about sex and modern relationships are more likely to be found in America, for example Sex and the City. Depending on what kind of person you are, the fantasy aspects of the perfect romances you normally see in drama could be right up your street, but here's something for the realists (and my fellow noona romance fans).

Last Cinderella is about Sakura, a woman who will soon be forty and hasn't dated in years. One morning, she wakes up in a hotel bed with Hiroto, a boy fifteen years younger than her, who convinces her to date him despite their differences. She's willing to believe against her better judgement that he's genuine.
  It wasn't until about episode five that I saw that the appeal of Last Cinderella is that its completely character-driven. The show takes some entirely believable heroines (let's just forget about Psycho Sister for a second) and places them in a scenario, which we eat up with relish and find dismally similar to our own lives. That alone was compelling, but the introduction of Hiroto and his slowly blossoming love made the drama irresistable for me. He is an incredibly twisted hero, molded entirely by bitterness and guilt, and showed in every action that he hated himself for it. He and Sakura didn't fit together at first, but they changed to resemble and complement each other in a beautiful way. I didn't like how Sakura hardly acted like herself around Hiroto, but it ultimately served purpose to the bigger story, and highlighted how awkwardness is a barrier in a relationship that most need to overcome to achieve intimacy, and very few drama work with this truth.When you got to the root of Sakura and the people around her, loneliness was a very common theme. Last Cinderella had the balls to say that real life can't be a fairy tale, and also that it most definitely can.


Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu stars Ayase Haruka as bordering-thirty Aoishi Hanae, who has no history of romance to speak of. She lives with her parents, works a decent job, and is satisfied with that. But some liquid courage turns it all round when Hanae sleeps with a co-worker on her birthday, a man nine years younger than her, a mistake that becomes love.
  I haven't finished this one, but I've seen enough to draw some clear comparisons with Last Cinderella. The differences between our heroines captures the different ways in which the age-barrier romance struggles are tackled - they have similar insecurities. Sakura has trouble embracing the unpleasant truths of aging now that she has a young boyfriend, and Hanae sees the age difference between her and Yuto as an unconquerable wall, something the people around her will disapprove of and see her differently for. Ultimately, these dramas are female-centric, but approach difference audiences. Last Cinderella is a cheeky rom-com with a love-is-the-solution storyline, perfect for an idealist who wants with thoroughly realistic heroines. Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu is more subtle in its delivery; it doesn't grab you by the shoulders, it teases you in by the finger. Whilst I'm disappointed by the lack of romantic chemistry (not to mention that Yuto was no where near as compelling a hero as Hiroto), it appears to be a pleasant show about simply loving yourself and embracing change, no matter how scary it is.

I clearly recommend Last Cinderella, but whether you can handle Sakura's loud, crude nature will directly correlate to how much you can enjoy the drama. Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu provides a significantly toned-down version, for easy watching.
  For another fake romance that became real along the way, how about Pride? I don't talk about Pride nearly enough. For another workplace romance, try Refresh Man or Falling for Innocence.