Title: ピン女のメリークリスマス Pinjo no Merī Kurisumasu (Merry Christmas)
English Title: A Lone Girl's Merry Christmas
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2012
Episode: 03
Cast:
- 貫地谷しほり Kanjiya Shihori
- 塚本高史 Tsukamoto Takashi
- 谷村美月 Tanimura Mitsuki
- 平岩紙 Hiraiwa Kami
- ムロツヨシ Muro Tsuyoshi
- 平山浩行 Hirayama Hiroyuki
- 中尾明慶 Nakao Akiyoshi
- 小島藤子 Kojima Fujiko
SYNOPSIS
Matsubara Kaede loves stationery. She has tons of journals, notebooks, papers, sticky notes, crayons, colored pens, colored pencils, sticker tapes, stamps, etc.
Kaede and her high school friends Irie Wataru and Yajima Rinko usually get together at Wataru's house where they eat his delicious cooking, and drink to their hearts' content. Rinko's colleague Hirosawa Akari often comes along and they all talk openly about their thoughts and concerns.
She works in the creative department of a stationery company, and she's having some problems with meeting her performance metrics at work. When she talked about her work issues with her friends, they analyzed that based on the sales of the products that she's handling, the declining sales occurred when Kaede doesn't have a love life to speak of.
In order to succeed at work, Kaede's friends help her find love again...
REVIEW
Pinjo no Merry Christmas is an interesting drama about a woman who wants to fall in love but thinks it is too troublesome. Or, rather, it is about a woman who is already in love with someone, and it seems as if she's not fully aware of it but is more likely that she's consciously ignoring it because she doesn't want to further complicate her life.
Matsubara Kaede is a fascinating character, and I think most women are like her to an extent. She tends to over-think the situation, and then she gets overwhelmed, and then she decides that it's too troublesome to do anything in particular.
Kaede always expects the worst, and she's somewhat satisfied when the worst case scenario actually happens. She's uneasy when that's not the case, and she waits for things to unfold the way she thinks it should.
Anyway, I can identify with Kaede's love for stationery. Although I'm not as obsessed with collecting everything, I can definitely spend hours in bookstores looking for colored pens, and nice notebooks, etc.
I like how the stationery is incorporated in all aspects of the drama, from the creative opening credits to the main character's hobby and profession. In particular, it's interesting how Kaede sees people as stationery, such as describing her friends as different colors and relating men to different stationery objects.
Matsubara Kaede: If I were to compare us to a 12-piece set of crayons... Irie Wataru would be green; not the first to be chosen, forever on the second or third place. Hirosawa Akari would be pink; not a favorite for everyone, but there is always someone bound to like her best. Yajima Rinko is gray; hard to handle so most people skip her over. And then, me... what color would I be?
-- E01
Matsubara Kaede: If I were to compare my ideal man to a stationery, he'd be an eraser. An eraser embraces all your failures and mistakes. It may seem plain, but it is a gentle and kind fellow. I'd like to meet such a person.
-- E02
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ピン女のメリークリスマス Pinjo no Merry Christmas
