Kanojo ga Shinjatta

[Excerpt. Wm. Penn, Daily Yomiuri, January 23, 2004]: "Kanojo ga Shinjatta" (Saturdays at 9 p.m. on the NTV network) debuted Jan. 17 and well, what can one say about a series that begins with Hajime Anzai (Tomoya Nagase) sitting on a boat picking his nose?

It's bad, it's mad and it just might become a cult classic in the style of Osorubeshi Otonashi Karen-san, the 1998 TV Asahi costume party-cum-series that was so bad one just had to keep watching to see how much more outrageous it could get.
This one has the same effect. One feels like tagging along for a ride for a few episodes although it is obvious they are headed nowhere you'd really want to go. But the sheer absurdity of their unconventional behavior becomes intriguing.

The main attraction is the talented Yoshino Kimura, who plays Yukari Ishii, but she is killed off in episode one and quickly replaced by her keitai. That is the other attraction of this silly little circus. It reflects how utterly dependent we have become on our early 21st-century, high-tech toys.

I have been wondering for a while now when a mobile phone would move from supporting actor to main star. Scriptwriter Nobuyuki Ishiki, who has been making a name for himself in film, manga and game software, gives the trusty keitai its big break.

The plot: After Hajime is done picking his nose, we see him in a love hotel lobby waiting for an empty room with his very drunk girlfriend. Across from him sits the goldfish-loving Yukari, with an equally drunk, middle-aged guy. When a room key does become available, Hajime and Yukari give the key to the two drunks, push them into an elevator, and head off for a giddy romp on his cruiser. (Hajime doesn't own the boat. He takes care of it for a rich but sleazy character played by Masahiko Nishimura.)

The next morning Hajime adds another toothbrush to his overloaded "toothbrush Christmas tree." Each brush represents a romantic conquest but Yukari is special. Her zaniness and sense of abandon are similar to his own and he is tempted to call her again but can't find her number in his keitai. So he quickly finds a new girl and is just attaching her toothbrush to the tree when Yukari's sister Reiko (Kyoko Fukada) shows up on deck with a bowl of goldfish. Right behind her is Yukari's alleged fiance, sushi bar employee Yoshikawa (Teruyuki Kagawa). It turns out the goldfish have been bequeathed to Hajime by the now dead Yukari. He can't believe she's gone but Reiko has a digital camera photo of her funeral ready to prove she has departed. The problem is no one knows why she jumped from her apartment building. Reiko and Yoshikawa have taken custody of her keitai and they intend to use its "memory" to track down all 196 people listed alphabetically on it and Anzai is first. They are confident this "keitai meguri" (a cell-phone pilgrimage), as they have dubbed it, will answer all their questions. Hajime decides to tag along. The next stop is a bar where photos of Yukari cavorting at last year's Christmas party hang on the wall and shock little sister Reiko. Then Reiko's "keitai" rings and she learns the police have arrested someone for Yukari's murder.

But remember, this tour around the Shonan coast and along the Enoden train line is not going to end that simply. The keitai has plenty more places to lead them. Yes, it's crazy but it is also hard to hang up on this call.

No stars but I'll probably give it another week or two before I put it on my "no call" list.

STARRING: Nagase Tomoya, Kimura Yoshino, Fukada Kyoko, Kagawa Teruyuki, Nishimura Masahiko.
NETWORK: NTV
THEME SONG:
DURATION: January-March 2004
REVIEWS:

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