TV Series Review: Million Yen Women & Re:Mind (Japan - Netflix)

Well this was a blast. Watch it in two days 12 episodes!
True to be told I am at home because I underwent a surgery and now I am recovering....
I watch 88 shows since saturday :D That's a record no?

Well finish this one, trying to finish some animes of Winter and trying to end Sword Art Online (1 season); Star Trek (The original second season), High School DxD New. All of these gonna end probably tomorrow.

This TV Series I just finish watching is not great. But also it's not crap. If I had to compare it to Remind, which I finish watching Saturday, I would have to say I prefer Million Yen Women.

Midori, Hitomi, Yuki, Michima (Neko), Nanaka & Minami

So lets compare the two?

Both are Japanese, both have 12 episodes with 25m (Re:mind had one bonus episode) and both are mystery genre. Oh and both are from Netflix.

This one we follow Shin Michima and five other girls who live with him. (Gonna write only their first name); Minami a nudist that almost tries to be a Tsundere and loves coffee, Hitomi a yoga person who loves black tea, Yuki a silent woman with nothing in particular loves green tea, Midori a 17 year old high school girl who loves juice & Nanaka a very smiling person who loves milk... (there is no reason to put their drinking habits but meh...)

Basically these 5 girls receive an invitation that told them they will be living with Michimi and nothing more was told to us - oh and they had to pay one million yen per month. In the first 5/6 episodes we learn about their past never developing the reason they are there. We learn that Minami has a dark past and runs a luxury call girl service, Hitomi is the daughter of one of the most famous writers in Japan, Yuki is married with a 60 year old guy who is very powerful, Midori won a lottery of 1 billion and Nanaka is a child actress semi-retired. We also learn that Michima is the son of a murderer who is death row and he is in a stump in terms of writing.

As the TV Series progress we get to know that it's more dark show that we initial think. There is also a criticism in the show (a sub-plot almost) about the world behind publishers and writers. Who and what makes a writer great? A award? Critics? The number of books sold? It's very interesting... and this comes to the conclusion (spoilers ahead).

It turns out that all of these was a joke Yuki put up to see how a writer who fears death could cope with death all around him. Nicely played by her. She has Nanaka killed because she said that soemthing was wrong with Yuki. She had Minami killed because she says she knew who sent the invitations but couldn't do anything. But after those two deaths the rest of the gang dispersed. In a crude way Michima learns who the killer was and throughout one episode we learn about her motivations and such and that her experiment was over.

The Last episode we learn that Midori learn who the killer was through Minami and with the help of her assistant (more like an assassin or so) she kills Yuki and made her disappear. In the last episode it turns into a romance story about Hitomi and her love and respect by Michima. She wanted to be with him but he was too scared to get attached because of his fear of dying. MORE SPOILERS - They get together!

An very good story on paper but at times I was bored with Michima acting. Nanaka, Hitomi and Minami were the ones who drove this series forward.

7/10


Re:Mind is also a tale of mystery and interesting their actress are all from a j-pop group called Keyakizaka 46. And it was crap in terms of acting. So these girls (11 girls are sitting on a table shackled to the floor. She soon discovers that everything is related with another collegue from school who they bullied.


We also learn that they all belong to a group of young teens who supposedly fought for The Greater Good and punish people  whom they thought were doing not the correct thing - never thing about consequences.

As each episode progress and each remember doing something to Miho (the girl they bullied) someone would disappear. At times with was an interesting thing but others were just filling the episodes with stuff.  Several things are discovered like she had a boyfriend who killed her best friend and its was cheating with another of the girls or things like punishing someone like their teacher calling him pedophile because he touched too much.

I say it was boring, I watch the first 4 or 5 episodes in three weeks but then I wanted to finish because I hate leaving stuff in the middle. I am glad I finish but it's not one I would recommend to anyone because there are a lot of plot-holes in the story and it leaves an OPEN but very open ending like where are the girls? We know who made the stuff but with help of whom? Miho is dead? But also because the dialogue is almost childish and poorly written and I don't think the fault is in the translation. 

The last episode (a bonus episode and prequel of the series) are way better than the rest of the show! First we learn more about their relationship with Miho. We also learn about each girl interaction with one another.

Apart from Kyoko Saito everyone else is quite boring... But true be said I will watch a second season....  

4/10

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