At Home Dad

[Excerpt Daily Yomiuri 2/28/04, Wm. Penn]: The success of Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as a single dad in Boku to Kanojo to Kanojo no Ikiru Michi (Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on the Fuji network) has spurred several "involved dad" scenarios for spring. At Home Dad, starting April 13 at 10 p.m. on Fuji, will feature Hiroshi Abe as an elite businessman who decides to take over the home front and let his wife go out to work.

[FUJI TV Synopsis]: Kazuyuki Yamamura works at a major advertising agency, and is the breadwinner of his family, which consists of himself, wife Miki, and daughter Rie. He purchases a house, and is proud of being at the pinnacle of his career. Kazuyuki's neighbor, Yusuke Sugio, however, leads a completely different life.

The breadwinner of his family is his wife Shoko, who runs her own company. Yusuke is a so-called "at-home dad," and because of this, Kazuyuki considers him miserable and helpless. Suddenly one day, Kazuyuki is forced to quit his company. At the same time, his wife receives a call from her former employer saying he wants her to come back to work. Consequently, Kazuyuki has no other choice but to stay at home while Miki works. Kazuyuki reluctantly starts his new life as a household husband?

The last thing he wanted to do. Kazuyuki's new "career" starts out as a big failure, because he can't seem to do anything right. This consequently causes his pride as an elite businessman to go right down the drain. But thanks to his hard-working personality, he is determined to get the ball rolling?nd soon after, finds himself enjoying life as an at-home dad. From this point on, Kazuyuki begins looking up to Yusuke as his mentor.

[From Japan Times, Channel Surf, April 25, 2004]: The new Fuji TV series, "At-home Dad" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), takes the usual housewife drama and reverses the genders to comic effect. Kazuyuki (Hiroshi Abe), a 37-year-old account executive at a leading advertising firm, is a victim of downsizing, thus forcing his wife to go out and work full-time. Kazuyuki is now the homemaker, and, predictably, a rather clumsy one. His first day on the job was a disaster, despite the fact that his wife, Miki (Ryoko Shinohara), left him detailed instructions.

In this week's episode, Kazuyuki, who was very careful about his appearance when he was a salaryman, has turned slobbish. His neighbor, Yusuke, who has been a house-husband for some time, warns him he better pull himself together or his wife will stray. Kazuyuki acts as if he doesn't care. That night, however, Miki works late and is driven home by a male colleague. Her late arrival is observed by the busybody neighbor, who starts spreading rumors.

[Excerpt from Daily Yomiuri, Televiews by Wm. Penn, April 22, 2004]: Plenty of child actors are also employed in the cast of At Home Dad (Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on Fuji). Naomi Kawashima, with a terrible new hairstyle, stars as the sweet-talking but nasty neighborhood bully ready to set her sites on At Home Dad's family.

This one quickly began looking far too much like a star-studded version of an afternoon soap opera so I set off to Hodo Station to monitor the latest horrors on the evening news. Ichiro Furutachi is settling into the Hodo Station job although he still needs to relax and tone down just a decibel or two. But with the news of late, who can relax?

STARRING: Abe Hiroshi, Miyasako Hiroyuki, Shinohara Ryoko, Takizawa Saori, Kawashima Naomi, Nakamura Shigeyuki, Nagai Masaru and more.
DURATION: April through June 2004
NETWORK: FUJI TV
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