#ボク、運命の人です。final ep

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Appearing before the Dramacourt: Boku Unmei no Hito desu Ep 10

***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

Issues:

Whether the ending fell flat

Whether it was necessary for Ichiro to show up

Whether the idea of fate was well-portrayed

The Rule(s):

Yes!

Ugh, really debatable. The last episode really messed things up.

Yes if it’s based on the narration and the previous episodes.

Analysis:

Jubiemon J: I have such mixed feelings about this episode. I think overall, this drama had a lot of potential in the beginning, fell flat in the middle, bounced back, and now fell flat again. I was expecting some emotional moment/parting for this episode, yet Makoto forgot about everything and will never remember Ichiro. Only Mitsukuni will remember Ichiro. Okay . . .  Let’s just dive to the analysis because I think I’m going to rant a lot. Be prepared.

Issue 1: Whether the ending fell flat

Jubiemon J: Although I like the happy endings like Mitsukuni and Mitsue are going to get married and Haruko and Makoto too will get married, I still can’t accept how Makoto seems completely fine without Ichiro.  Okay, I also like the little narration we have from Haruko and Makoto about their thoughts on fate.  Let me just jump back to Makoto being okay without Ichiro.

Sure, Makoto gets into a string of bad luck scenarios where he isn’t able to catch this balloon for this little girl who happens to be the sales associate’s daughter, someone spills tea over his ring receipt, someone decides not to buy fountains from him and more.

Excessive symbol 1 – painting separating the two

Mishap 2: Makoto upset that he couldn’t go to Osaka b/c the flight got cancelled

Mishap 3: Missing toppings from a bento he bought

How to resolve it then? Makoto goes to the “root of the problem” which he identifies as not getting the girl’s balloon. The girl specifically cares about the pink balloon because it was distributed by this mascot which she likes.

It’s later hinted that the guy who distributes balloons is very likely Ichiro. That may suggest that Makoto still needs Ichiro, but honestly . . . I just don’t feel like I get much of a deep heartfelt moment from knowing that Ichiro is the probably the one who handed Makoto the pink balloon (i.e. like always, Icihiro saves the day).

I will be very excited to see your performance 30 years later – message from Ichiro

Throughout this whole episode, we have other people telling Makoto how he did this and that back then and Makoto is completely oblivious. It’s like some car hit him and his memory of Ichiro disappears. We all know that Ichiro zapped away Makoto’s memory of him. Ichiro should have also zapped away Mitsukuni’s memory of him. I don’t get why Makoto’s memory has to disappear, yet Mitsukuni’s is allowed to stay.

Makoto not remembering about the carrots x boss thing.

Sure, people should likely not know about the future, but I was hoping for Makoto to have had more of a reaction to Ichiro’s disappearance. Like something or rather, someone, is missing in his life. He doesn’t know what, but he just feels empty. Nope. Makoto just keeps saying he doesn’t recall this and that happening. At most, he says I think . . . there may be God and he’s kind of arrogant. Seriously . . . that’s not enough when Ichiro is his son.

Though I did enjoy Ichiro bonding with Mitsukuni at the end, what also bugs me is how Mitsukuni just accepts that he’ll see Ichiro 30 years later. Okay . . . usually when people leave to work, they don’t say . . . let’s see each other 30 years later. Mitsukuni should have asked why?

Saying hi to Mitch! Lol at his t-shirt!

Happy Mitch!

Ichiro: Let’s play kick the can! I’ve never played that before.

Mitch: Okay. That’s fine.

Mitch promising not to mention Ichiro in front of Makoto

Promise continued – see you 30 years later says Ichiro!

And there are so many unresolved thing with Ichiro and Makoto. Why does Ichiro say he never got the chance to play kick the can when he was a kid? Why was Ichiro so keen on being friends with Makoto? Was Makoto a strict dad? Did Makoto die earlier? Why did it seem like Ichiro and Makoto had a cold relationship in the future? So many questions . . . no answers.

We just have Makoto with amnesia. Great. Why’d we go through all that bromance to have this? Ugh. Rolls eyes!

And this message at the end?!?!?

Translation of message: Congrats on the wedding! Can’t believe you did it Makoto!

Issue 2: Whether it was necessary for Ichiro to show up

Jubiemon J: It really depends. Sure, Ichiro was there to speed Makoto and Haruko’s relationship up, but was he THAT instrumental? Nope. Ichiro mentioned before that regardless of what happened, Makoto and Haruko would end up together. We see that Makoto is completely okay with Ichiro being gone. His proposal is a success. Like I mentioned before, sure that balloon guy likely is Ichiro passing the balloon to Makoto, but having a sad kid who loses her balloon ruin Makoto’s chances of marrying Haruko is just silly. Some of you might think that this is symbolic. I agree that the “balloon” is probably meant to be symbolic, but is this symbol effective in this case?

Nope and here’s why. In this episode, we have an overload of symbols. Nearly every other scene contains a symbol. Perhaps the director wanted to jog our memory about what happened before and show us again that this is fate, but I really think the director did too much. Too much of something is not wonderful; it’s just as terrible as someone wearing all the extravagant accessories he/she has on his/her body. So when we have all these symbols grouped one after another, the pink balloon seems insignificant. I’m also trying to be profound and think of something that the balloon could symbolize. Makoto losing grasp of his fated love? Yes, I guess that may be.

Even if that were the case, I don’t think the whole “must go to the root of the problem” solution works. To make sure that Makoto is able to grasp his fated love, he has to give another pink balloon to the little girl. After doing that, he gets rewarded by the girl’s mother with some tickets to that concert, which is where Makoto and Haruko met accidentally. The root of the problem . . . honestly seems too superficial, in my opinion. I don’t get laughter from it or a touching feeling from it either. If you compare this revelation with the small twist Ichiro played for last episode, this episode’s twist is just . . . pointless.

Did we really need Ichiro here to pass that balloon to Makoto to save the day? Ugh . . . no. Another guy in a costume could have done that. Lol. Did we really need Ichiro to even come to Makoto’s time? I don’t think so. There’s no answer from Ichiro saying that the world is saved or that he found a solution. Was it also necessary for Ichiro to come back to develop a friendship with Makoto,? Nope. Makoto forgot about him. Makoto just thinks there’s fate. Hooray for forgetting father-son bonds. -0-‘

Issue 3: Whether the idea of fate was well-portrayed

Jubiemon J: I’m going to end with a positive note. Generally speaking, the idea of fate was well-portrayed in this drama. There are many coincidences that play out and the two leads share many encounters. As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed the narrations by the two leads. They share their thoughts about fate.

Makoto says on one of his saddest days, Haruko randomly talks to him and encourages him. Then Haruko thinks back to the day when she was super sad and Makoto spontaneously speaks to her. Makoto admits that at first, he thought fate was useless, but then he tried to believe in it. Haruko confesses that at first, the idea of fate made her disgusted, but she was afraid to believe in fate. Makoto says that after believing in fate, a series of unexpected events happened. For Haruko, the unexpected events made her slowly open her heart. Makoto concludes that “fate” is for those that will never give up on hope and continue to believe in it and as a result, occasionally reaps some rewards from all the hard work a person has put into it. On the other hand, Haruko believes that “fate” is a hidden treasure that arises from something that you believe is a coincidence and don’t think too deeply about it. The two both admit that they never used to think there was fate.

Just here b/c it’s a nice photo.

I think these two different, yet also similar beliefs about fate are interesting to think about and explore as viewers. We often associate fate with a series of coincidences. For Makoto, these coincidences come from hard work and determination. Sure, the first part of them being able to be together is that they are fated to meet. They met when they were kids and they met again during high school and later. However, even though there are these fated encounters, Makoto chooses to put in the effort to make his “fated love” happen. You can keep meeting someone or passing by someone, but if you don’t put in the additional effort and just expect everything to happen, nothing will arise. Conversely, we see Haruko riding the waves of fate. If you think about it, she hasn’t put in that much effort compared to Makoto to start this relationship. Haruko has always been on the receiving end and so it’s reasonable for her to see fate as something that comes out of these coincidences that you don’t initially think much about. I think the lesson here is someone has to make the effort for that “fated love” to happen. You need some balance from the two views about fate to be able to have this “fated love”.

Conclusion: Appeal Dismissed.

Rating: 2 = Yell At The Cast (Sorry I just hate how the bromance b/t Makoto and Ichiro disappeared and the huge overplay of symbols. Ugh. It’s like someone vomited symbols in 45 minutes. No.)

  File No: Boku-Unmei-no-Hito-Desu-Ep-10 Appearing before the Dramacourt: Boku Unmei no Hito desu Ep 10 ***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***