Tokyo Tarareba Girls Review: When Girl Bonding Comes To Rescue Amid Tumultuous Romance

Tokyo Tarareba Girls is the story of three best friends who have hit their 30s and are looking for love in life. Each of the girls does find a partner for herself but not without complications to dampen her spirit.

I think it’s my lucky time to watch dramas firstly because OTT platforms are consistently updating their collection of Japanese dramas (yay!!) and secondly because I have been liking (almost loving) all the shows that I have been watching lately. Tokyo Tarareba Girls is yet another addition to the list of dramas I loved watching.

This drama will appeal to you especially if you are a girl in your late twenties or thirties and are single. If you are a girl in your early twenties or even in your teens then this drama will teach you some important life and love lessons.

Tokyo Tarareba Girls (Tokyo Tarareba Musume) (2017) (10 Episodes)

Rinko (Yuriko Yoshitaka) and her two besties Kaori (Nana Eikura) and Koyuki (Yoko Oshima) have hit their 30s and are still single. They get together almost every evening and lament over the decisions they made in their 20s because of which they are single in their 30s and still looking for love. Their pity party is noticed by Key (Kentaro Sakaguchi) and he remarks that women like them who are often cribbing about their life are nothing but ‘tarareba girls’ which means those who only have regrets in life and speak about ‘what ifs…’.

Faced with the harsh truth, the three girls now decide to actively look for love and settle for the best person they can find for themselves.    

Let’s find out more about this show and see what is so interesting about it.

   

I enjoyed watching ‘Tokyo Tarareba Girls’ because…

…the story and the characters were so relatable that I laughed and cried with them. The show opens with Rinko’s positive voiceover saying that she is the main character of her story and that if she works hard enough she can achieve success in love and career. Cut to, Rinko standing, with her two friends, in front of a shrine praying for success and love in life. It is because no matter how hard Rinko works, success still eludes her. This makes her regret the past decisions that led her to this lonely and desperate life in her 30s.

She and her friends often meet for a drink after a hard day at work and sit and sigh about how different their lives would have turned out ‘only if’ they had done things differently.

One day, Haruki Kagitani aka Key, a young boy with blond hair listens to them jointly complaining about their love-less lives and says that they are yet single because they are ‘tarareba girls’. In Japanese, ‘tarareba’ refers to saying ‘If I had done this…’ or ‘If things had been…’ and so on. It is basically a regret in life.

He also adds that they are no longer ‘girls’ to which they feel offended and start hating him for being rude to them. Thereafter, each time they sit to complain about their pathetic lives and start with ‘what if…’ or ‘if only…’ they are reminded of what the boy said to them and stop right away.

They know what he said was a bitter fact and so they decide to take measures to change things and take concrete steps to make some advancement in their love lives. Together they go to a singles meet hoping to find a suitable match. Sadly, the guys there show no interest in them as they are only interested in women who are in their 20s. The three girls then get drunk and laugh their pain away.

As the show progresses, each of the girls meets the love of their respective lives but nothing comes easily to them as every love situation is plagued by complexities that they need to overcome.

Now that’s the general premise of the show. What I liked best about it was how the lives of the three girls were close to reality.

Let’s start with Rinko who is a scriptwriter struggling to make ends meet. Her work is hardly appreciated and she finds it difficult to have a sustainable job. Tired she thinks of at least working on having a partner in life but the scene is bleak there too.

She works for her former colleague, Tetsuro Hayasaka who is a producer and helps her secure work. In the past, Rinko had rejected his proposal because he seemed too dull for her and she felt she could find someone better than him. However, in the present day, Tetsuro is a successful producer and has even changed over the years. From being a nervous young boy he has transformed into a confident man.

This change in him now appeals to Rinko who hopes to start a relationship with him so she does not have to worry about not having work or money. Sadly, even though he is clearly interested in her, things do not go as expected and Rinko is confronted by a rude surprise.

Rinko’s life descends further when she gets replaced by a talented and young screenwriter who is able to create fresh love scenarios that she could not manage to write. This further highlights the fact that Rinko lacks love in life.

Dejected, Rinko cries at her awful life and ends up sleeping with the blond guy named Key who called her a ‘tarareba girl’. She sees a spark of romance there but things happen and her love life gets derailed yet again.

I personally loved Rinko the most because I could totally relate to her. In the show, Rinko admits to being arrogant and picky in her 20s which is why she has been single for so long. Back then, she looked down on couples who would roam together with their kids in tow and click pictures at outings. But now, the time has changed and the things she once scoffed at are what she wishes for dearly in life.

Rinko fears settling for someone she doesn’t like. But the one she likes or the one who is her type seems out of reach for her. The handsome model Key is an impudent young boy who constantly criticizes Rinko and her friends. He is like an elusive dream for Rinko as she is on the verge of losing hopes of ever finding love.

Actress Yuriko Yoshitaka does a fine job as the diffident Rinko. Her natural cuteness rubs off on Rinko and you cannot help loving the character. She is adorable in scenes where she has to blush and is unabashedly fierce when she has to give someone a piece of her mind. I can’t believe she is the same suicidal girl from the partner-swap drama, Love Shuffle.      

 

Rinko’s love interest Key is an enigmatic personality who seems to be a little confused and lost in life. He has an acid tongue, which stems from a painful experience that he cannot get over.

He seems to be attracted to Rinko as she reminds him of someone he once knew. One night, Rinko is drunk and complains about having a pitiful life. Seeing her whine moves Key and he sleeps with her.

However, even if he feels something for Rinko, he does nothing to get close to her. He is curious about Rinko’s life and deliberately tries to hang out around her but when it comes to expressing his feelings then there is no effort from his side. It is only when we get deeper into the story that we understand what keeps Key from having a love life.

As a character, I found Key quite annoying. His harsh opinion about Rinko and her friends makes him extremely obnoxious. And he does it not once or twice but several times. He keeps expressing his disgust for the girls’ habit of huddling and whining together. It’s quite evident that something is hurting him from within and it comes out like this on the Rinko and her friends.

At first, Rinko is attracted to Key because of his handsome appearance but when she sees his vulnerable side, she truly falls for him. Together they make a very interesting pair if not an ideal love couple.

Actor Kentaro Sakaguchi was amazing as the hard-faced blond boy, Key. The hair suits him and helps add intrigue to his character. Key may be irritating because of his rude words but Kentaro looked best when making snide remarks on the three girls. His straight face when speaking some unkind words made him look super sexy. In a way, it justified Rinko’s feelings of attraction for him.

I personally love the way he says ‘tarareba’. It’s so sexy!!!

Next, is Rinko’s friend Koyuki, a nail art artist who runs her own nail salon. Her only wish is to marry a rich guy and settle for a comfortable life. In the past, she dated a young musician named Ryo but dumped him when she saw no hopes of him ever becoming rich and famous.

In the present day, she bumps into her ex Ryo when she happens to go to his concert as he is now a popular singer. Her heart stirs with a multitude of emotions when he holds her in a warm embrace on seeing her after a long time. But her excitement is short-lived when she meets Ryo’s girlfriend.

Ryo however, wants to keep seeing Koyuki as he still has feelings for her. In the hope of becoming his girlfriend and sole priority someday, Koyuki agrees to see Ryo in the absence of his girlfriend and becomes his backup girlfriend.

I don’t agree but I do understand why Koyuki is okay with being a backup for Ryo. She liked Ryo when they lived together as a couple. So, now that she is looking for love she does not mind going for the bond that she already shares with Ryo. She feels since her feelings are true and solid, Ryo too will eventually feel the same and ask her out officially.

This is what happens with women who date married men. They feel their feelings are true so the married man will leave his wife and come to her. Hmm… but how often does this gamble pay off?

Allow Rinko’s friend Kaori to tell you that. Kaori helps her father run a restaurant and falls for a married man who is separated from his wife. Please note that he is “separated” and not divorced. There is a huge difference between “separation” and legal divorce. This man is everything she ever wanted in a partner and falls hard for him. So hard that she does not mind him being married, and starts an affair right away.

But extra-marital affair is a whole new level of complicated and we see it through Kaori’s difficult love affair. As much as I try, I still fail to understand why any woman would want to be in a relationship with a man who is taken. Kaori’s decisions were beyond my understanding and her story was the least favorite of the three on the show.      

…the show is about girl bonding which is always enjoyable to watch. In one incident, we see that Rinko tells her friends that she slept with Key and now she is not sure of what to make of it. So, when Key comes to Kaori’s restaurant, Kaori and Koyuki ask him to be clear about what he feels for Rinko.

Key does not like their interference in his matters and reproves Rinko for not being discreet and sharing everything with her friends. Rinko feels hurt about it and blames her friends for ruining her chance with Key. The three girls then break up for a while before reuniting to celebrate their friendship.

We see how Rinko cherishes her deep and unbreakable bond with her two friends. She loves her besties so much that she chastises Key for criticizing their friendship. She openly admits that it is because of her two friends that her mundane life feels bearable.

It felt so good to see the three girls support each other unconditionally. They give each other advice and also the space to make decisions that seem best for them without judging one another. Girl bonding shows are so rare I love it when I occasionally come across a good one.

 

I did NOT LIKE ‘Tokyo Tarareba Girls’ because…

…nah….I loved every character and sub-plot in the show. I loved it so much that I felt bad when it ended. I wanted more of it so I watched its 2020 special movie where we see what happens to the characters three years later. The movie was disappointing because it could not match up to the level that this drama set for itself.

 

I give Tokyo Tarareba Girls 4 out of 5 rating. Three complicated love stories of three women in their 30s are a must-watch for some relatable fun and romance. 

 

Image Courtesy: NTV

 

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