Densha Otoko was a small internet phenomenon in Japan that last sometime in March of 2004 that occurred over a few months on 2ch. For maybe a year or so, the situation became a cultural sensation which morphed into a book, manga, TV drama and a movie. This blog post will focus on the TV drama as it was considered a hit and something that I became obsessed with in 2005 before eventually making a decision to return to Tokyo for work. Unlike the period where I was watching the drama, my current views have altered over time where I want to take a more objective look at the drama, how it aged and whether it manages to hold up. But I will not be doing an episode-by-episode review and examine the broader picture.
First, part of the reason I’m doing this review is that I recently started watching clips of the show and spent one night (and morning) binge watching a chunk of the episodes. It had been quite a while since I’ve seen it. While I do recall much of the TV drama, I will admit that it’s not exactly an easy show to watch. Beyond the language barrier issues, the show can range in emotion from downright annoying to utterly depressing with some uplifting moments. As I had divested myself from Japanese culture a while back, I figured it might be good to see how I really felt about the production of this show as well as one of the special follow up episodes.
In re-watching the series, the main thing I realized is that the TV drama ended up really stretching the original source material. We’re talking taking Tolkien by Peter Jackson and squeezing the plastic from the toothpaste tube, opening it up, scraping everything little drop and maybe even using a sharp edge to floss. There is a lot of fictionalized bits from what I can tell like the stalker, Densha Otoko being a fake surfer (or rather just an internet surfer), the crazy incident of the message board denizens doing a massive Akihabara campaign to force Densha Otoko to read the message board, etc.
Next, there are an incredible amount of extraneous characters added to the story that probably (or more than likely) never existed in the actual world. For instance, Sakurai-san, the brotherly friend of Saori, who out of the blue changes into this near Vaudeville style villain where he encounters almost nothing but mishaps for comic relief. Or the repugnant and utterly sadistic Jinkama-san, who enjoys torturing poor Densha Otoko and almost “rapes” the guy. Then we have the sheer volume of people representing the anonymous characters on the message board itself. Most of these people lack official names (because they’re anonymous figures) but are colorfully depicted sitting behind a computer in various garb or settings that we can immediately identify. In certain instances, these characters become horribly distracting to the point where they’re downright annoying (such as Yamada’s toxic two friends). But let me discuss a few of these characters and how they’re used.
I know the actress who plays Jinkama-san (Miho Shiraishi) received a reward for her portrayal of the Jinkama-san. I think she’s the type one would have a love-hate relationship; as a viewer, Jinkama-san is incredibly entertaining to watch from afar mostly when she transforms into this manipulative bitch with the signature Darth Vader music ominously playing. Even Yamada-san uses the Vader theme as a ringtone for when she calls him. However, she can be a bit too overbearing towards Yamada-san. In one instance, Yamada-san is “encouraged” to enhance his etiquette skills in preparation for meeting Saori’s family for dinner and takes a great deal of physical abuse from Jinkama-san. But the worst instance of her is when Yamada-san is having a bad day and has to go to her agency but is late. In delivering her paperwork which was thrown into a canal by some brat, Jinkama-san verbally abuses him unnecessarily. Of course, it is a turning point for her in a small way because of how she sees Yamada-san crying for having a bad day and not realizing that it also is his birthday. But it is one of those cases where I felt she went too far in her treatment of him.
Despite that, we do later find out that she uses men, knowing what she is. Some women might find this type of person justifiable especially in Japan. But this is a clear example of toxicity where she effectively ruins the lives of other men. While the character is meant to be fictionalized, I don’t think this type of person is uncommon over there (and I’ve known a few).
Next, there’s Saori’s two friends, Kaho and Yuko. I mentioned that Yamada’s friends are toxic in their own manner but Kaho and Yuko do have a certain sway over Saori. Both do change over time, especially Yuko who ends up dating one of Yamada’s friends (namely for money initially) where they realize that in the end, Saori is happy with Yamada-san. Kaho in particular apologizes to Saori because of how she wanted to protected Saori, knowing that Saori had past trauma from a bad relationship. That said, the types of friends Kaho and Yuko represent are those that I see with many Japanese women over there. It’s like this buddy system where you might go on a date with one girl and suddenly they bring some friends to evaluate you. It’s horribly patronizing where you feel self-conscious because you know afterwards they’re going to gossip behind your back.
In mentioning Kaho and Yuko, I need to immediately bring up Yamada’s two buddies (one guy’s name is Matsunaga but I’m not certain of the guy with the hat). Like Kaho and Yuko, I viewed both of these guys as being enablers for Yamada-san. But I don’t consider them to be real friends. Both are rather self serving and when the heat is on, they bail. Their primary role in the show is meant to serve as comedy (I’m guessing both guys were comedians) but I thought they were incredibly annoying to the point where I wanted to fast forward through their segments. Maybe the most telling aspect is when they peer pressured Yamada-san into going to the convention and helped landed him into hot water with Saori. Rather than trying to aid Yamada-san, they threw out some rotten jokes and jammed. I keep thinking how poor Yamada-san might’ve been less of a dweeb if he had better quality people in his life.
Aoi/Tsuneo Yamada (sister/father) – These two are quite useless too. Yamada’s father is almost worthless as an unsupportive figure while his sister seethes in anger most of the time towards her brother because of his otaku-ness. I think gradually Aoi becomes more receptive when Yamada-san changes his image and tries to help him out but for the most part she’s cold towards him and his friends.
Yamada-san’s boss – Most scenes involving this guy is highly reminiscent of a Japanese version of Bill Lumbergh from Office Space. Micromanaging, passive aggressive and someone who inherently detest Yamada. Of course, karma bites him in the ass in the end but this is some person you wouldn’t find uncommon out there. But his main purpose is to show another angle for how Yamada’s entire life is miserably setup.
Sakurai-san – This guy comes out of nowhere and changes course upon discovering the message board. He’s really Wile E Coyote where he’s got this semi-geniusness with these elaborate strategies in trying to enthrall Saori but he ends up falling on his face from sheer bad luck. At one point, you just end up feeling really bad for this guy, despite his conniving nature. Next to Jinkama-san, he might be my second favorite character in the show (well outside of Densha Otoko and Hermes) just because he’s tragically hilarious. The domino marriage proposal is actually one hell of a cool scene. But it’s a real shame he ended up becoming a one note joke by the end (where they even parody the love confession except using him and Jinkama-san where the whole thing ends up in disaster for this guy)
Saori’s family – I’m going to group them up together. The brother’s has a fair amount of on screen time and his main purpose initially is to create a red herring for Yamada-san in thinking he has no chance at Saori. Later, he overreacts in discovering the message board and thinking Saori’s privacy is being violated and punches Yamada-san in the mouth when Yamada-san goes to try and explain himself. In truth, I found the brother to be a turd although he manages to redeem himself once he reads the message board and realizes his mistake. The mother is a strange character along with the father where they introduce the divorce plot. But Yamada-san’s typical humility and showing his appreciation for family and Saori blunts the impact of the inevitable divorce. That incident does allow the mother to give her approval of him, despite initially showing no respect towards him but changing her mind in knowing how her daughter glows at his presence.
From there, I want to talk about some themes in the show. Probably, the biggest theme is the role reversal of masculinity. That probably is the biggest theme that comes out of the actual Densha Otoko story where the idea of an otaku/geek who is socially awkward has trouble admitting his feelings towards a woman he falls in love with. In the context of the J-drama world though, normally you would see the willowy, weak female trying to gain favor with some guy. Here, that situation swaps. One part this clearly happens is when Yamada-san is the one waiting in the rain and gets sick. He’s utterly loyal to a fault for Saori and doesn’t bring an umbrella but waits the entire time in the hope she arrives. Yamada-san crashes before handing his gift to her and is knocked out with Saori calling his name. Often, you might see in a J-drama a woman chasing after a guy, calling his name then tripping or injuring herself. Here, Yamada-san is literally stricken with love sickness and his common sense goes out the window in his methods. Saori even asks, “What are you doing?” because it’s sheer insanity.
Another theme in this show is the rise of otaku culture. The dot com industry and movies like The Social Network helped improve the general stigma in Western society of nerds being uncool. But otaku culture in Japan is a subculture frowned upon. These days with the aid of the internet and globalization, actual otaku culture (from Japan) have become more normalized. What Densha Otoko had done was shine the spotlight on a particular type of character, which was a lonely but good hearted person that had been buried by a negative stereotype. A comparable Western movie would by Revenge of the Nerds in that nerd culture was mostly considered lowly compared to jocks, etc. However, Revenge of the Nerds mostly changes the mechanisms of the people inside a frat from jock to geek but the underlying person mostly remains a shallow jerk type.
The otaku culture presented in Densha Otoko still is mostly portrayed as being disgusting and offbeat. However, the one scene that is absolutely heart breaking is when Yamada decides to reveal his real self to Saori (his own literal coming out of the closet scenario). There’s a very familiar backstory where he explains himself to Saori in talking about when and how he became an otaku. Part of that story though was developing the stigma of being an otaku. However, he’s earnest when he says he can’t help be what he is and that it’s clear he’s ashamed but doesn’t want to change himself entirely. It’s a huge step for him because he does not know how she might react and only wants to be honest with her as well as make up for the anime convention part (which was a huge misunderstanding by both people). Saori though never has seen him as an otaku but as the hero that saved her. So in seeing his room, she thinks it’s fantastic. He then gives Saori his Mina figure as his true birthday gift to her, which is more sincere as he’s highly valued that figure. But that whole scene is something I think anyone in the position of a Yamada can relate to where being different and ostracized to finding true love might be scared of losing everything.
We also have to discuss both Saori’s message board discovery (or actually her brother’s) and Densha’s confession. That scenario with Saori learning about the message board was obviously added to create dramatic tension and to put doubts (even though anyone with half a brain would know didn’t matter) into Yamada’s chances with her. I did think that her brother was a complete dickhead for punching Yamada-san and it’s something I got threatened by ages ago in jr high when a girl I liked found out that I had feelings for her. Some “friends” told me that she intended to get her older brother and boyfriend (who was in high school mind you) to beat me up. The year after she left the jr high never to be seen again. So in turn, seeing Keisuke being unreasonable just made me think of him as a putz.
Once Saori is encouraged to read the message board by her friends, it’s more of a situation where the producers continued to milk the show. There’s a LOT of flashbacks that get almost as annoying as WWE TV these days. But they do focus on the high points rather than every single moment while getting Misaki Itoh to react. Also, there’s a small moment of last minute doubt where Sakurai-san just happens to be around the area, creepily flying his drone against Saori’s window and decides to drive her towards the train station where somehow he managed to take an ad out and place a wedding bed inset into the ad.
But once Saori sees Yamada (who again was waiting on top of the secret meeting place initially) it’s clear that she has feelings for him because of the intense look she gives him. They return to the top of the secret meeting place but at this stage it’s really the climax of the actual Densha Otoko story where we get the payoff of Densha Otoko’s confession for his feelings towards Hermes. It’s a scene that has can be a mixture of things for me. I think in general it was well done with sincere emotion but at the same time it does feel over-the-top because of Atsushi Itoh’s constant crying. Maybe if he wasn’t crying all the time in the show, this moment would have been less aggrandizing to me especially after subsequent viewings. What helps this scene though is Misaki Itoh’s presence. I think because the pairing is such a huge contrast (Atsushi is small while Misaki is incredibly beautiful almost unearthly) the scene ends up working really well.
The thing though I came to realize here is that by this point, Saori already had made up her mind in how she mostly felt about Yamada-san. We never truly get to hear what she thinks about him until this moment, which is incredibly frustrating if you think about it (and very Japanese too). And I say that this really was more about having Yamada go from being passive to being active in this relationship because he needs a lot of nudging from almost everyone. And again I realize that the writers decided to prolong the story and artistically fill in way more than had existed but in a way the plot really dragged because you could see that Saori already liked him.
On the other hand, as someone who tried to date out there, I will say that it’s absolutely one of the most infuriating experiences in my life. There’s a lot of stupid rules that as a foreigner, as a Japanese American and as someone who doesn’t know this type of culture has to endure to go on a date. For instance, someone once told me about the three times rule where if you don’t confess your feelings by the 3rd date, you’re out (and yes this does happen BUT NOT FOR EVERY GIRL). Or how you must be aggressive and do more to hint at how you feel. But it’s just brutal so maybe for Yamada-san, his hesitance is highly warranted in a culture that has tons of rules and where he’s an oddity.
Moving on, the last bit of the main story is wrapping up his relationship with the message board. Yamada-san at one point reveals how Saori bought him a matching necklace and that seems to piss off the people on the board. Then he’s surprised at how there’s no support for the gift he’s received, which shows a hint of conceit at this sudden power he has over this board as well as this symbiotic relationship he grew over this period. Now that he’s got a person he treasures, the others discard him like common trash because he really doesn’t fit the profile of the board anymore. There is a huge farewell as the board nears the post limit before a depiction of the normally faceless characters and Saori/Yamada see one another in an imaginary/metaphoric setting. That one is pretty sad because it’s a way of Densha’s “graduation” and how he must grow up away from the message board with his new life.
There’s a little more wrap up with Jinkama’s story intersecting with Sakurai-san and how she eventually caused him injury. Then the coffee shop where various “victims” of Jinkama’s schemes show up (including Saori’s brother). Finally, Yamada and Saori leave for an onsen vacation and see the original drunk still complaining about gyudon bowls where both Yamada and Saori smile, knowing that the drunk was the reason for their relationship.
But the thing with these endings (and I pluralize that here) is similar to Peter Jackson’s ending for Return of the King where you had numerous points that were in themselves finales for the series. I suppose part of it was tidying up the loose ends like Saori and Kaho reconciling, the Jinkama victimization, etc. However, to me the real climax was when Saori kisses Yamada. For this story though, the writers put a lot of emphasis on the characters from the message board in giving them more life than their anonymous personalities suggest (because the message board did play a huge role acting as the 3rd person in helping Densha and Hermes hook up). So the visual representation of the train flying into space was a beautiful send off.
However, the story didn’t exactly end there. There were two other specials. One mostly to indicate that Yamada and Saori eventually got married but lacked the same emotional impact as the others. The 12 “episode” though focused on one of Yamada’s friends (Matsunaga-san) and the Hanshin Tiger super fan. There is some additional parts like Sakurai-san getting additional side scenes. For the most part, this was supposed to be about “Guitar Otoko” (i.e. Matsunaga-san) because Saori ask Yamada what he did before the message board. However, this episode to me was kinda wretched because it either was flashbacks to fill in time or really bad comedy like Yamada’s two idiot friends redoing the confession scene with odd expressions and voices. I’m sure there was some sort of demand by fans to see more but none of these shows really added anything. If anything they mostly were there to continue to milk the popularity of the series.
Now, I would like to compare the TV drama briefly to the movie (because I did see that). The movie is completely unmemorable. My biggest complaint was horrible casting. Takayuki Yamada simply has a bad hairdo and poor wardrobe but the minute he switches, he’s no longer some otaku. And Miki Nakatani doesn’t have the unearthly beauty qualities nor grace of Misaki Itoh. So it’s hard to really feel bad for Densha here because he’s not the same underdog character compared to Atsushi Ito, who has a fucking mountain to climb.
And I did save both Atsushi Ito and Misaki Itoh for last because they do deserve special attention. Unlike Takayuki Yamada, Atsushi Ito is small and unremarkable in appearance. So when you see him initially and even after his change, you can buy into him being this character. Some might say that Misaki Itoh is too pretty for this guy but I think she makes the role work mostly because the visual is a huge stretch. There’s numerous occasions where we see Yamada-san fantasize about Saori, sometimes in costume other times just an image on his phone. She is the ultimate guy fantasy and as a super model she works well in this casting. She certainly acts as the heart of the show because the rest of the cast are mostly assholes and bitches. Except for her flaw of hating lies and having a few ill advising friends, Saori is completely likeable and admirable. She’s really one of those too good to be true types, which makes this Olympian feat for Densha to overcome seem like a huge deal.
But let’s talk about the main elephant in the room: Atsushi Ito’s constant crying and stuttering. This is one aspect that aged really poorly for me. Even if his character is sincere, the way he’s crying consistently is overdone to the point where it’s almost off putting and hurts the character. There’s a few key moments where his crying was deserved such as his birthday “celebration” on the roof, Saori’s discovery of Yamada outside of the convention, his coming out as an otaku and, of course, the confession scene. But stuff like the surfing scene felt completely unnecessary. I get that the episode in particular was to introduce the idea of how Saori hated lies but he has to deal with this two more times.
Another thing that bothered me was certain liberties in coming up with extremely exaggerated scenarios whether imagined or like in the case of the SWAT team at the convenience store that caused Yamada to be unable to pick up a simple recharger. Some of it is played for laughs but I just found the situation to be embarrassing and annoying rather than character building. Like the weird ninja kidnapping scene of Saori and Yamada experiencing some mental breakdown did not help give him more sympathy from me.
In addition, I get a little bothered by how Yamada puts more emphasis on sexualizing Saori rather than talking about her qualities as a person. It’s like he completely misses the point and focuses on the wrong aspect with her especially in later viewings. We don’t get to learn more about why he likes her outside of her appearance or the fact that she bothers to talk to him at all. I think part of the problem there is that they don’t give Saori a lot of depth as a person. We see that she does all these “elegant” things like drinks Benoist tea or goes on a fancy flight with her friends. But there’s almost nothing said about her hobbies or what she’s interested in. It’s more about Yamada bringing Saori into his world rather than growing their relationship.
Then there’s the other major elephant in the room which is how the story does its own version of Pygmalion. This is very much a Japanese thing where the guy has to undergo this physical transformation before being accepted by a high class lady (I mean maybe that’s just a thing in general but it definitely is a thing you’d experience in Tokyo). I am very critical about this part because of the emphasis on materialism and shallowness here over the value of heart. I don’t know about the book as much but I do think at least once Yamada shows his true self some of this aspect is de-emphasized (which makes Saori look even better as a person). But I dislike the notion of how this guy needed to transform himself to appease a woman. That’s my critique of social structures and why this world is in trouble.
Yet one of the interesting things about the Densha Otoko story is the idea that no one is certain whether this actually happened. I read on Wikipedia how there’s been some contradictions in the story such as the age of this guy. Supposedly, the author met with the producers but no one has ever been able to verify any of this. Also, who’s to say that the writer was actually a guy but not a woman? Or maybe even the woman in the story?
One thing I maintain though is that at least for the drama, Saori to me is the actual heroine. Yamada is a sympathetic babyface type and we might see him as the hero, but in truth that part only exist when he saves Saori. The message board too is the other hero in supporting Yamada to gain enough confidence to confess his feelings for Saori. But again I argue that early on Saori already knew how she felt about Yamada and was there supporting him along the way. I mentioned that one major issue is that Saori never really admits how she feels about Yamada except in a few rare instances. She plays her cards very close to her chest in the show but I think once she reads the message board all her hidden feelings towards him are affirmed and all she wants is to be there to hear him say how he actually feels about her. Like when Yamada has trouble in the final steps of his quest, Saori reaches down to hold his hands to give him courage so he’s no longer afraid.
Nonetheless, the story remains one of heart and remains something relatable. I think that the humor was often distracting from the main plot but I can see it was interjected to prevent the story from becoming either too mushy or depressing. I do believe that the general story drags a lot because of the excessive parts to make up for the razor thin plot but the main points they manage to do a good job. This is certainly not a conventional drama either but one that feels mostly real because one can see it happening. And who knows? Maybe I am the Train Man…
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.