Drama Review: Kimi wa Petto (2017)

Kimi wa Petto or You're My Pet! (Japanese live-action drama series)

based on the manga of the same name

Year: 2017

Episodes: 16 episodes / 45 minutes each

Starring: Iriyama Noriko, Shison Jun, Takezai Terunosuke, Yanagi Yurina

29-year-old Iwaya Sumire (Iriyama Noriko) has had a bad day. Make that the worst of all bad days. She has been dumped by her boyfriend of 5 years when she was anticipating a marriage proposal (although she read the situation and dumped him before he could get the words out) and has been demoted from the foreign news department to a different department at the newspaper where she works because she punched her boss when he made drunken advances. Stumbling home, drunk and emotionally wrung out, Sumire remembers that a puppy had been set out for adoption in a box near her apartment building that morning. Hoping that the puppy is still there, she opens the box flaps only to find a young man with a lithe, graceful body, large, dark eyes, and a mop of shaggy dark hair staring back at her. 

In her drunken stupor, Sumire mistakes the young man, 20-year-old modern interpretive dancer Goda Takeshi (Shison Jun) as her favorite dog Momo from when she was a child. Goda Takeshi is practically homeless, and at the moment is slightly injured from having been beaten up and chased by an assailant when he climbed into the box to both hide and catch some sleep. Sumire clings to him, weeping. Compassionate to a fault, Takeshi's heart softens for this strange woman and he brings her safely to her home where she kisses him in the entryway, still crying. I think he was wrecked from that moment, honestly. So begins a bizarre and beautiful relationship where Sumire allows Takeshi to live with her, but solely in the capacity of a pet dog. She even calls him Momo. Every day, coming home, Sumire-chan (as Takeshi calls her) and "Momo" do life together in such a way that gradually develops into so much more.

Since nothing is simple in Japanese entertainment, throw in Sumire's ex-boyfriend Hasumi Shigehito (Takezai Terunosuke) from 9 years previously who returns to the scene and the manhunter receptionist Fukushima Shiori (Yanagi Yurina) who's after Hasumi.

I picked up the last couple volumes of the manga since I could check them out for free using Kindle Unlimited just to compare the manga series with the drama. I think it depends on what viewers want. I didn't much care for the manga, but that's just me.

This is my first introduction to actress Iriyama Noriko and boy can this woman cry. I felt so much empathy with the character because of the way the actress approached her. Iriyama-san really brought out the fragility of Sumire in a way that made me love her. I empathized with Sumire so much, and I cried for and with her a couple of times, and that is thanks to the actress. Great job!

Jun Shison blew me away with his performance as Goda Takeshi or "Momo." I have never felt so much radiance from a male lead before with such a controlled rawness in his acting skill. His dancing took my breath away too, although I wish we could have seen more of it. I feel like they used the scope of Shison-san's dancing skills to the limits of what he could do. Takeshi has so many facets to his personality and Shison-san managed to bring all of them to vibrant life.

The secondary casting which includes actors Takezai Terunosuke and Yanagi Yurina were highly adequate performers, regardless of my opinions on the characters themselves which I will get into in the story section below. I especially adore the actress who plays Sumire's best friend, Yuri, and her little daughter, Ran.

This story will make some folks uncomfortable. I was also uncomfortable with the idea of this series. But once I started, I couldn't stop because I knew right from the beginning that the whole master/pet thing was simply a facade until they could grow into love. Sumire and Takeshi are both lonely, broken people who have had their dreams and hopes crushed by the people in their lives who were supposed to protect them. They have a common understanding, and Takeshi himself admitted that he needs to be needed, which is why he stays with Sumire. She desperately needs him. What's beautiful is when he realizes how much he needs her too. And in all that time, 16 episodes worth, not once do Sumire and Takeshi sleep together.

Another thing that may trouble some viewers is the ten-year age gap between Sumire and Takeshi. But he's twenty when they meet so I have nothing to say about it. Age gap romances are common in Asian entertainment, and I see nothing wrong with them if both parties are adults, meaning at least twenty.

The other set of stories was unnecessary in the ways that only an Asian drama can manage. At least we didn't have an angry set of parents descending on the scene, just an angry older sister to Sumire who thinks it's high time her little sister get married. Believe me, interfering family members are absolutely a must for any Asian romance drama and that trope can get old so I was grateful I wasn't majorly subjected to it here. The romantic relationship between Sumire and her ex-boyfriend was dull. I won't go into my feelings about the receptionist. So we're left with a drama rated a 3 that probably would have gotten a 4 for me on a scale of 1 to 5 if the ex-boyfriend and the receptionist hadn't existed. Oh well, nothing's perfect.

The episode screenplays were pretty decent. I do feel that some of the scenes would have been better if we'd seen them start to finish rather than them ending randomly. So it felt a little choppy in places. But on the whole, I found the series to be extremely clever. It's a fun drama overall with some intense seriousness thrown in for emphasis that people usually hide the hurt they feel. Takeshi is a prime example of this. There's one scene about 10 or 11 episodes in when we realize just how deeply wounded Takeshi is and how desperately he wants to feel safe and wanted. It's the first time that Sumire sees him cry and it starts to really change the dynamic between Sumire and Takeshi in a good way. It's a moving scene, not just for the acting, for all of the moments and dialogue leading up to that moment.

I would rate this as PG13. For the topic, the content could have been so much more graphic which means I wouldn't have watched it. I've dropped a couple of dramas because the suggestive content just went way too far. I feel like Kimi wa Petto draws a really good line with what they show and what they don't.

There are readings of tarot cards by Sumire's friend Yuri, several instances of adults getting drunk, a character has a few scenes that I can only describe as intense depression that might be triggering to some viewers, several scenes of male chauvinism from the secondary male lead and another minor male character, three or so scenes of attempted forced sexual intimacy (including one between Takeshi and Sumire, the only time that's he actually scary, keep in mind that there are extenuating circumstances), one scene of what I call rape because a secondary female character drugs a secondary male character just enough to make him pliable and suggestible (WRONG on so many levels), several mild/moderate (no actual nudity, no real movement) sex scenes, intense and genuine kissing scenes (Japanese dramas don't often go into actual, real kisses), a couple of scenes of women in bras that are very suggestive, Takeshi as Sumire's pet takes baths and she washes his hair the way she would bathe a pet dog, several scenes of Takeshi and Sumire sharing a bed as a means of comfort (nothing happens), Takeshi is sexually experienced and has lived with older women off and on for years as a means of support so that's what he initially thinks Sumire wants from him so he comes onto her pretty strong at the beginning and is rebuffed (Sumire does become his One and Only), and of course the concept of an actual person being someone else's pet (because this happens with two separate sets of people and the second set just makes it so much ickier than Sumire and Takeshi).

Honestly, just skip all of the Sumire/Hasumi and Hasumi/Shiori scenes (final 4 episodes) and you'll be absolutely fine.

If I forgot anything, please forgive me.

I didn't expect to enjoy Kimi wa Petto. I expected to hate it within the first episode. But that didn't happen. Instead, I ended up adoring 70% of this amazing drama and simply fast-forwarding through the rest. The world is full of broken people and I can relate to Takeshi and Sumire on that level. They complete each other in ways that are seldom seen. I have never been so happy to start a drama and so sad to finish it. I know it probably seems like there's a lot of content, but really, there isn't that much in terms of what is seen or not seen. The series handles suggestive topics delicately, and for those viewers who might have been waffling on the fence about Kimi wa Petto, I hope you take the plunge and try it.

Kim wa Petto's opening credits are perfect, in my opinion, and just capture the relationship between Sumire and Takeshi so well, a comparison between what they're like apart vs. what they're like together. The song is called Rainbow Rain which is why the raindrops burst into confetti, a transition from sorrow to joy.

Where can I watch Kimi wa Petto?

If you want to watch it with pretty brilliant English subtitles then watch it on THIS PAGE at Viki. I have a paid membership in the hopes that they'll start adding more Japanese content. The website has high-quality volunteer-provided subtitles and I was super impressed with the subbing I saw. There are some ads on the free accounts, but meh, nothing bad. Probably local ads for your region which is what I saw before I switched to a paid account.