Title: Beauty or Beast aka Bijou ka Yajuu
Genre: Drama
Director:
Format: 11 episodes
Dates: 9 Jan 2003 - 20 Mar 2003

Synopsis: Tamiya Makoto is a highly respected producer working at one of the “big three” news networks in the US when she is scouted to work for JBC Television in Japan. She is brought in with a huge salary and total creative freedom in order to save the struggling JBC Evening News program. With her “ratings are everything” attitude, she butts heads with a free-spirited man named Nagase Hiromi, who has just been transferred to work for Evening News… and who, years ago, was romantically involved with Tamiya. Together, Tamiya, Nagase, and the crew of Evening News work to keep the program afloat.

The Highlights
Concept: Not the most original out there.
Characters: Believable and memorable.
Romance: More in danger of sinking than JBC Evening News itself.
Overall: Uplifting and humorous.

Superficially, the concept behind this series isn’t the most original out there: self-confident and unique person (in this case, Nagase) comes to a problem-infested situation and manages to help everyone out. However, to think that is all there is to this show would be to judge it unfairly. For instance, in this series, the characters have more of a hand in their own destiny, meaning that Nagase is not the person who saves everyone all the time. It is refreshing to see that all of the side characters have the understanding and capacity to be able to step in and affect the situation just as much as the main characters. Because of this, all of the characters are just as important to saving the news program as Tamiya and Nagase.

Each episode is a standalone story that builds up to the uplifting conclusion; while this is a common trend for J-drama series, it works well here, with each character getting face time with his or her own inspiring story. Every actor is believable in their roles and the characters are very memorable as a result, with plenty of personality to make them unique parts of the whole rather than simple springboards for Nagase and Tamiya. Matsushima Nanako and Fukuyama Masaharu complete the cast with wonderful performances as Tamiya and Nagase respectively. In particular, Fukuyama’s turn as Nagase was very strong with a underlying comedic edge, but also a humane sympathy towards others as well.

However, one of the fatal flaws of this show is that there is no real chemistry between Nagase and Tamiya, despite their shared past. It’s not that Matsushima and Fukuyama lack the ability to portray the chemistry, but rather that the script itself hampered them. Tamiya’s character is shown to be so strong and so cold towards Nagase throughout the series that you never get the sense that there is any possibility for their romance to reblossom. For most of the episodes (except for a few tiny glimmers of feeling) Tamiya acts more or less like Nagase is a stranger every time she meets him, with a frigid kind of blank irritation.

On that note, however, the writers get credit for creating an ending that belatedly takes that flaw into account. Thankfully, the ending is at least a somewhat believable and reserved return to their prior relationship. It lacks the usual overblown romantic cure for the chill between them via passionate confessions of love or some other such soap opera nonsense, which is a good thing in this case. However, some viewers that want to see such an ending might feel unsatisfied with what we’ve got instead.

Overall, as a series meant to be a romantic comedy between the two main leads, Beauty or Beast fails. But I highly enjoyed watching this series to instead see each trial and tribulation overcome by the staff of the JBC Evening News program. The strong cast of unique characters made this show a pleasure to watch. If a dramatic whole-scale romance is what you’re looking for, you probably shouldn’t turn to this series. But if you want a great series about a news station and the amusing and touching people behind it, I recommend Beauty or Beast.

The Rating: 7

Reviewed by: dheu