His mystery and love is a Doll?

Mariko Goto( Yumi Wakatsuki) is 29 years old and dreams of marrying her ideal man by the age of 30. She finds her ideal man in Mitsuo Tomizawa. He works as a section chief at the same company where Mariko Goto works. Mitsuo Tomizawa is smart, handsome, and tall. He also does his job well. He seems like a perfect man, but he has a secret. His secret is that he loves his doll Michuko. This is the drama story based on the manga with the same name “There Is A Reason Why You Cannot Get Married”. The drama was released in 2021.

So, Ryuichi Honda is back to play the persona of Mitsuo who in the high point of a burn out syndrome, finds a doll in a store, which teaches him to appreciate life and to take life a little more easily.  If you know a little bit of Japanese work culture , you know they have a difficult time disconnecting from work. The life and work balance is easily turned upside down and the overwork begins. In Japan, the burnout syndrome is called Karoshi (過労死) before the pandemic it was known as one of the may causes of high rates suicides. 

However, a combined effort between companies and the Japanese government helped the suicide high rates decrease. Today, japan no longer stands on the Top 10 on the highest suicide rates. Now on top 10,  we have South Korea in the 4th place, Russia in 9th Place and South Africa in 10th place , the other ranking positions are occupied by small economic countries in the world like Lesotho, Guyana, Eswatini, Kiribati, Lithuania, Suriname, and the Federal States of Micronesia. 

The companies and the Japanese government created systems or automated ways to make the staff go home and do no extra hours. One of such automated ways was turning off the lights of the office to force them to go home. Other systems like Premium Friday Programme were designed to allow workers to leave earlier on Friday and enjoy life by increasing the weekend hours and free time to party. 

Another part that represents society today, it’s the weird relationships with non-human objects, like hologram-idols, robots or even the oddest objects.However, when this crazy objects of obsession come face to face with kids or real aspects of the real world interaction outside a house, the people that have the obsession do not know how to react, like in this drama. In a moment of distraction, a kid grabs Mitsuo’s doll, Michuko, and stretches her to the limits, even turning her upside down. Even torn up a bit of her leg. 

But the weird part, since there seems to be this mental health issue around Japan, There should be a sort of incentive for these people to seek help instead of expecting people to be extensions of their obsession, like this drama. In which he calls his new girlfriend on the phone, Michuko 2. 

Maybe there should be more representations about seeking help when you need it!