Dandan (2008)

"Song of Life"

"Dandan" is my eighth asadora thus far. I chose it because of the twin angle as well as Mikura Mana appearing in "Natsuzora," which I'm planning to watch soon. "Dandan" has a harsh score of 6.7 on MDL. To be fair, it's only been rated by eleven people but it doesn't feel very balanced. "Dandan" isn't bad; it's just not the best asadora anyone has every seen.

The premise for this asadora is basically "The Parent Trap" so it's a bit derivative. However, I enjoyed this sort of "reimagining" of the premise and it was initially what hooked me into watching it. Two girls, Megumi (Mikura Mana) and Nozomi (Mikura Kana), meet by chance as if fate is pulling them towards one another. Megumi is an ordinary high school student living in Matsue, while Nozomi is a maiko (apprentice geisha) living in Kyoto. I think both girls have interesting, realistic reactions to finding out that their twins. Some of their family members reactions may seem harsh, but I also think it's realistic from the point-of-view of Japanese culture.

Megumi initially wants to become a professional singer, but then lands on deciding to be a caretaker [i.e. looking after the elderly at retirement homes]. She moves to Kyoto to go to college and starts living with Nozomi and their mother (Ishida Hikari). Ironically, this not only knocks Nozomi off her life's course, but also the story. After a lot of badgering from Ishibashi (Yamaguchi Shogo), the girls become twin singers in the same vein as The Peanuts (if you've seen Mothra, you know them). Strangely, their time as actual singers is very short compared to the build-up. Megumi almost immediately disbands the duo as soon as it grows in the wrong direction. Nozomi tries for a while on her own, but eventually goes back to being a maiko. As such, this whole middle section of the drama ends up feeling pointless.

The last section of the drama was what they should've been doing with the whole dram in my opinion. Megumi decides to become a nurse on top of a caregiver. Her love interest, Ishibashi, also leaves music and decides to become a doctor. Nozomi goes from being a maiko to a geisha. Her love interest is her former bandmate and manager, Kota (Kuboyama Tomohiro). His earnest admiration of her and willingness to watch to support her from afar is just sweet. I would've rather watch more of this even if it had the twins being in separate cities for most of the time.

Honestly, even the singing career path had its potential. What I'm frustrated with is the noncommitment to either storyline. "Hanbun, Aoi" comes to mind since it had a similar problem, but it was able to stick the landing better in my opinion thanks to the supporting cast. "Dandan" has some lovely side characters, but two of the male characters are particularly frustrating. Additionally, while I did cry, it wasn't able to hit all of those emotional notes I love so much in the last week.

Now that I'm done complaining. I will talk about its good points. Mana and Kana are wonderful as the heroines, though I preferred Kana's Nozomi to Mana's Megumi. Both heroines are played beautifully nuanced and I loved how their facial expressions perfectly encompassed their characters feelings at any given time. The female side characters were almost all amazing. I loved them all. I particularly found the girls' grandmother (Mitsubayashi Kyoko) to be poignant at this time for me. The girls' mother (Ishida Hikari) and Megumi's mother (Suzuki Sawa) were also stand-outs. And finally, the best point of the asadora is the music. It was all so good from the theme song to all of the songs that the girls sing throughout. "Ue o Muite Aruko," "Akai Sweet Pea," "M," etc.

So, in conclusion, I would argue that "Dandan" is worth watching, especially if you're an asadora enthusiast. I probably wouldn't recommend it to a beginner because it won't hook them in immediately. I enjoyed my time with this asadora and I will be singing the music it introduced me to for a long time.

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