Title: 幸せになろうよ Shiawase ni Narō yo
English Title: Shiawase ni Narō yo
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2011
Episode: 11
Cast:
- 香取慎吾Katori Shingo
- 黒木メイサKuroki Meisa
- 藤木直人 Fujiki Naohito
- 仲里依紗 Naka Rīsa
- 国仲涼子 Kuninaka Ryoko
- 綾部祐二 Ayabe Yuji
- 大倉孝二 Ohkura Koji
- 玉森裕太 Tamamori Yuta
SYNOPSIS
Takakura Junpei playing a successful adviser at a marriage consultation agency that aims to bring together people looking for partners. He takes his work seriously in helping his clients find happiness.
Yanagisawa Haruna is a beautiful and young woman who applied as a client in Junpei's marriage consultation agency. Betrayed by her ex-boyfriend and jaded with love, she intends to find a rich husband who can provide her with a comfortable life.
Yashiro Hidehiko is a rich and handsome lawyer who is also a client of Junpei's company. His only criteria for his future wife is that she is beautiful. Hidehiko is also Haruna's ex-boyfriend who left her to marry another girl.
Junpei starts to develop feelings for Haruna but there's a rule at work that advisers cannot form romantic relationships with their clients. As a professional, he tries to set up Haruna and Hidehiko together.
REVIEW
I used to think that meeting one's partner through any kind of dating agency is not normal as opposed to meeting someone through friends or in school or at work. It seemed to me before that the whole process of meeting one's partner through a marriage consultation agency as unnatural and strange. However, when I think about it, it sort of makes sense to provide a way for people who are seriously thinking of getting married to meet other like-minded people and to get to know each other.
Takakura Junpei was really good at his job as a counselor because he is earnest in helping his clients meet the right potential partner and eventually get married. He's really serious about his work that when he had to choose whether to pursue his own happiness or to pursue what he thinks is his client's happiness, he chooses his client's happiness over his own. I don't think a lot of people would do the same for the sake of doing a good job.
Takakura Junpei: Don't forget the first time you met your partner. If you try to remember that time when you didn't know much about your partner, you will be grateful more than ever that the two of you have met and have gotten together.
It was used in the context of romantic relationships in Shiawase ni Narō yo, but I think it also applies to other kinds of fateful relationships such as friendships. People tend to take things and other people for granted so I think it's good to be reminded once in a while that meeting people and being able to develop close relationships with these people is a very special occurrence.
If Junpei was not meant to end up with his client Yanagisawa Haruna, I would have liked if he ended up with Sakuragi Marika, a junior at work. Marika is in love with Junpei but although she likes him, she acts as her usual sarcastic self with him and she doesn't pretend to be someone she's not. Although she does some underhanded ways to separate Junpei and Haruna, she always helps fix the lovers' troubles so it shows that she's truly a good person.
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幸せになろうよ Shiawase ni Narō yo
