A Quality Survival Show

Nizi Project 2 is the second half of the survival show that resulted in the creation of the Japanese girl group NiziU ("Needs(y) You"). In this series the selected trainees from part one go to Seoul to train at JYP Entertainment and some of the women are ultimately chosen to debut with the group.

Unlike other survival shows, Nizi Project 2 does not emphasize the eliminations at all, and, in fact, almost all of the women are in seriously consideration for the group until the final episode. Instead, the focus is on training, preparation and performance with four new slots for puzzle pieces added to each of the trainee's necklace to be granted when each trainee "levels up" their skills. Once again, the necklace does not matter much because JYP can grant puzzle pieces pretty much whenever he wishes. Of course, it's pretty hard for some of the better candidates to show improvement since they were already performing at fairly high level, but no one would expect JYP to leave those trainees out of the final group, and so there's little suspense for those few.

JYP presents five sets of missions which are covered in sets of two episodes each, and once again the focus of the show remains on the preparation and the performances. Unlike most survival shows there is roughly a month of preparation and training time before each performance which is much more in line with the comeback cycle of modern K-pop groups and the additional time means that the performances are arguably of a higher quality than most survival shows though it must be said that some of these Japanese trainees here have had far less training time in general than their counterparts in the South Korean system who typically appear on survival shows.

We do get to see the interactions of the women in their dorms and in training than in the previous series, and we do get a few additional background segments. But, as in the previous series, the show spends most of its time on the preparation and performances. Thankfully as in the previous series, there are few if any product placement segments. One of the missions is performed in front of a studio audience who are, strangely, allowed to vote once before and once after JYP makes his pronouncements from his lofty desk (I'm not sure that this variation of voting is all that great of an idea since the audience is choosing between two options and so the people who change their minds nullify their own vote and those who don't essentially get two votes. But in no sense does the audience vote matter much in this case because no one's survival on the show is on the line at that point.)

Some Japanese-speaking JYPE talents serve as hosts and commentators for a few of the episodes, but, once again, this is mostly JYP's show, and once again he is mostly insightful and helpful with the occasional critique which seem overly harsh for what appear to be perfectly fine performances.

All in all the show is a fairly delightful promotion for what promises to be interesting foray of a K-Pop-style girl group into the the Japanese market. Several of the women who make the final group are extremely easy to root for and of similar talent and charisma to those in TWICE and IZ*ONE (which were both formed via similar survival shows).

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This is an anthology special that suffers severely from a lack of any unifying through-line other than the fact that each segment features dogs. Most of the segments are intended to be comedic but the humor uniformly fails to land. The longest segment is a melodramatic story centered on early onset Alzheimer's which, if you're interested in a J-drama on that topic, go watch Beautiful Rain rather than this barely adequate short film. Ashida Mana does appear in the final story and has maybe three lines, including one which is meant to summarize the whole mess, but, sadly, even her usual delightful performance cannot salvage the film. Not even avid dog people will find much here of interest.

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You'd think that a show featuring a talking dog would center on the talking dog, but, no, this sweet family drama is, like the generally darker works of Sakamoto Yuji (author of Ashida Mana's previous series Mother), much more about how families can and do form beyond the norms of the nuclear model.

The central character here is Mamoru/Marumo who decides to take care of the twins of his late friend so that they won't be separated. He is woefully unprepared for being a parent, but learns quickly and soon comes to love his unexpected little family. Abe does a solid job of portraying his character's growth.

As usual, Ashida Mana will bring you to tears in the final episode with a prodigious amount of subtlety and complexity to her performance though, it must be said, Suzuki Fuku does manage some of the heavy lifting that final episode as well.

It's largely a comedic drama, but there is some exploration of meatier issues as well. The okite or rules that serve as a moral for each episode do make the show a bit didactic and tend to push the series into After School Special territory. However, they are also used as a key plot point in the resolution of the drama and so probably can be forgiven.

All in all, the show is well acted, mostly light fare with some emotional punch.

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Can a drama be Zen?

It would be hard to argue that nothing happens in this short Jdrama: there's a fist fight, a cleaver attack, a death and multiple people cheating on their relationships. But the tone of the series frames all of these events as rather small ripples in a pond.

The drama mostly centers on Shiro (Lily Franky) who is the middle-aged owner of a small pension or bed & breakfast, essentially. He's a bit prurient, but he's also open and accepting, and so he welcomes people into his life and home without judgment which provides space for them to find themselves.

The story is reminiscent of the Zen koan Is That So (https://ashidakim.com/zenkoans/3isthatso.html), and raises the question of whether a drama can or should be Zen since the acceptance of the world as it is and living in the moment is kind of antithetical to the dramatic tension that most people look for in a good drama.

Special mention should be made of Sairi Ito's performance as Shiro's daughter Haru. The climax of the series focusses almost exclusively on her reactions, and she nails it.

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Well Acted, Poorly Written

Based on a manga serialized in the fashion magazine "with" as a way to present the results of laughably awful relationship question surveys, Peanut Butter Sandwich tells the somewhat compelling stories of the love lives of four young women friends within a cringy "comedic" wrapper of a secret government agency which investigates why women in Japan are not getting married at the rates they used to by invasively surveilling the four women while also continuously eating the eponymous sandwiches. (You see, the abbreviation of the name of the bureau ... gah, no one cares, and the bit isn't funny.)

The stories of the four friends are reasonably well done, if nothing you haven't seen before. The script is somewhat overly reliant on voice-over to present what the characters are thinking - lots of telling rather than showing - but the primary characters all have reasonably good arcs and most provide the actresses with moments to shine. Takamoto Minori as Miharu gets the most interesting role with the greatest range and does well. Hotta Akane as Sayo makes the most of the least interesting arc by making some really out there choices for behaviors with a light, comedic touch. Kakei Miwako as continues to progress from her days on Terrace House and gets a couple of major emotional scenes which she handles well. This is Niwa Niki's first role in a J-Drama (after also being on Terrace House) and, well, she's a bit wooden, but seems to be hitting her marks and effectively learning her lines as Akane whose story-line might have been more interesting in more veteran hands.

The entire staff of the secret bureau consists of three people: the chief Gonda (Ito Shuko), her flunky Kobayashi (Ito Kentaro, an erstwhile host of Terrace House) and Tsubaki (Yohagi Honoka) who is the only person who does any of the work. (You see, it's a commentary on senpai/kohai relations in the the workplace ... gah, no one cares, and the bit isn't funny.) The wrapper is meant to be comedic and provide context for the stories of the four women, but brings the show to a didactic halt every episode by providing the results of a survey of a whopping 200 women. (You see, most women think their experiences are unique but the surveys show ... gah, no one cares, and the bit isn't funny.)

The one redeeming feature of the series is that it's blessedly short at eight 24-minute episodes, and so it is not much of an investment to check it out, But there are far better ensemble romantic comedies out there which have no need for a secret government agency to halt the actual plot by spewing survey results. Go watch the K-Drama Because This Is My First Life if you want a comedic sismance with a deft injection of real math - it includes a marriage proposal which invokes, I kid you not, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. Or if you must have a J-Drama, Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu, which partially inspired that K-drama.

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