DORAMA WORLD

TOKYO LOVE STORY (Tokyo Rabu Sutori) _ *** _ Suzuki Honami, Oda Yuji _ It's more of a U.S. nighttime soap drama than a typical Japanese plot-driven dorama with wacky comic moments. The characters are befuddling and infuriating because they're extreme manifestations of different kinds of love _ from needy to generous to self-absorbed and obsessive-compulsive. The show (and source manga) at its best is a keen study of all the fucked-up 20-somethings that are out there, in Tokyo or otherwise.

The sole doramatic high point is Suzuki's Akana Rika, the only character that's well-adujusted and kind (to a fault), perky and likable, sort of like Izumi Inamori's Hana in Pretty Girls brought to a human level. She works at Heart Sports, an athletic gear company Oda's Nagao Kanji just joined, and became immediately smitten with him.

The rest of the cast in thise doramatic love pentagon needs a good smacking, especially the two male leads _ long-haired Eguchi Yonsuke's Mikami Kenichi needs a haircut and some serious counseling to undo his borderline-socialpath behavior. And indeed, as a fellow d-addict said, Oda is the Japanese Ben Affleck. As white trench coat-bearing Tokyo new arrival Kanji, he can only register painful angst, and slightly less painful angst. He also has a slight overbite.

As the schoolyard crush for both Mikami and Kanji, Sekiguchi Satomi (Arimori Narimi) is REALLY annoying at first _ this wishy-washy kindergarten teacher more than the others enjoys sitting alone in the dark, but straightens out later. Sendo Akiho, as Mikami's borderline bipolar medical school classmate Nagasaki Naoko, rounds out the gang.

Overall, it's sometimes a drag to watch, but a few of the twists and the final episode make up for rough parts. One thing _ did Rika ever return Kanji's watch?

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