Title:
- デート Dēto (Date)
- デート 2015夏 秘湯 Date 2015 Natsu Hitō
- デート 恋とはどんなものかしら Dēto (Date): Koi to wa Donna Mono Kashira
- Date
- Date: What's It Like to Be In Love?
Language: Japanese
Year: 2015
Episode: 1
Cast:
- 渡辺杏 Watanabe An (杏 Anne)
- 長谷川博己 Hasegawa Hiroki
- 中島裕翔 Nakajima Yuto
- 芦名星 Ashina Sei
- 松尾諭 Matsuo Satoru
- 松重豊 Matsushige Yutaka
- 風吹ジュン Fubuki Jun
- 和久井映見 Wakui Emi
SYNOPSIS
Yabushita Yoriko and Taniguchi Takumi met each other through a dating agency. On their first date, they both decide to formally date each other and to seriously consider each other as a marriage partner.
On their 35th date, they have finalized the terms of their marriage contract. Although they forgot to discuss about infidelity, they eventually decided that it is not necessary for them to do so.
Yoriko and Takumi announced to their family and friends that they have agreed to marry each other, and Yoriko even proudly showed everyone their thick marriage contract.
Washio Yutaka read through the marriage contract, and he questions Yoriko if she really wants to have a marriage without deep love and burning passion.
Yoriko suggests to Takumi that they should live together at her place before marriage. Because she has an extremely fastidious personality, she requires Takumi to adhere to her detailed schedule and to follow her strict rules.
REVIEW
Date is about two socially awkward individuals who decide to date each other despite not liking each other when they found out on their first date that they have similar views on love and marriage.
The drama is basically a continuation of デート Date, where Yabushita Yoriko and Taniguchi Takumi keep on dating each other and finally agree on all the terms of their jointly constructed marriage contract.
I didn't think Date would be fun, but it was surprisingly entertaining. I'm quite fascinated with Yoriko as a character because she's very meticulous and organized, to the point that she has a fixed menu on different days of the month. I imagine it would be quite difficult to relate to her inflexible personality on a regular basis though.
I don't like Takumi though as it's hard to sympathize with someone who actively wants to use other people to make his life easier. I don't understand him as a character, and I don't get why I should root for him to succeed in finding someone who could take over his mother's unenviable task of providing for him even though he's already a full grown adult with a solid educational background and without any physical disability.
I imagine many people would want to do as they please everyday, and many people would probably do so if they didn't need some sort of income in order to survive. And so, there are a lot of people who are compromising with finding a job as close to fulfilling a personal dream as possible, or even choosing a lucrative profession in order to get any necessary funding to support their desired lifestyle. I don't understand why Takumi couldn't do the same, such as finding a job where he enjoys most of the responsibilities or maybe even taking on part-time work so he can at least manage to take care of himself.
Takumi certainly makes some valid points on his justifications for his chosen way of life, but I can't help feeling that there's something fundamentally wrong with his views. I'm probably influenced by the personal morals and societal ethics that has been established by societies over time.
Anyway, I think it would have made for a more engaging story if a socially inept person like Yuriko gets together with the complete opposite, such as popular and charming Washio Yutaka. They would probably have more interesting conflicts, but that's just my personal opinion.
Related:
デート Date (2015)
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デート Date
