Otome-san ep.1

Not knowing what to expect, I watched the drama Otome-san. To my surprise, it was a suspense drama.

It seems that only the first 4 episodes have been subbed. They can be watched on Dramacrazy.com. This is probably not going to be completely subbed (at least for now). If you are looking for a drama with english subs, I do not recommend to start watching this.
However, Japanese subs have been released here : http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_128502.htm

and now for the review..

Synopsis (from DramaWiki):

Otome-san vs. Kowai! Otome-san is a term for mother-in-law, while Kowai, which means scary in Japanese, stands for the daughter-in-law. Mizusawa Asako has been living under the constant nagging and criticism from her mother-in-law, up till the old woman's death two years ago. Just when she can start to relax and enjoy being the mistress of the house, her only son informs her that he is marrying a girl named Ririka. Both Asako and her husband, Hiroyuki, are against the marriage, but to no avail. Thinking of scaring Ririka, Asako tells her that they will accept her as their daughter-in-law, on the condition that the newlyweds move in with them. Ririka smilingly agrees to it, and thus they are married. Asako is determined to be a good mother-in-law, but feels apprehensive about it all.

On the first night the newlyweds return from their honeymoon, Asako finds herself alone with Ririka, with both her son and husband staying out late. They started drinking together, and soon Asako and Ririka are hitting it off! The next day, waking up with a hangover, Asako finds that the breakfast has been made, and the cleaning all done. Ririka seems like the perfect daughter-in-law. Or is she? Strange disappearances start happening in their neighborhood, and Asako starts to distrust Ririka more and more...

Cast:

• Kuroki Hitomi as Mizusawa Asako
• Aibu Saki as Mizusawa Ririka
• Ishida Junichi as Mizusawa Hiroyuki
• Kaku Tomohiro as Mizusawa Yuta
• Daichi Yasuo as Kuretake Jiro

 My impressions :

The poster of the drama really doesn't show what the drama is about. I had no idea what it would be like. Well, it was way more scary than what I expected. Let's say that I have no tolerance for scary drama. It wasn't even that scary really, it was a suspense drama, but those kind makes me extremely nervous.

Kuroki Hitomi is playing as Mizusawa Asako, a recent mother-in-law. Her son and her daughter-in-law (Aibu Saki) starts living with them. It cannot be that bad right? Mizusawa Asako is actually very anxious and wants to make sure that the wife chosen by her son is the right fit for him even thought she seems to be perfectly fine.

The first episode, we are introduced to the characters and Ririka seems to be a really good person. However, as the episode goes on, I started to have doubts and started to wonder if Ririka had evil intentions. I have no idea , it is only the first episode, and it ends by making you want to know more. It was a good start for a suspense drama. We cannot predict what could happen and this could take many directions. If you like those kind of suspense drama where you do not know what could happen, I recommend this.

Personally , this made me feel too anxious and I won't be watching the rest of the series. I also wonder if the main suspense "is Ririka evil or not?" can be interesting for 9 episodes. However, I do not know if that drama is only about that, there could be a surprise.