Sapuri: episode 1 meta (Minami/Yuya-centric)
In late November of last year, I began rewatching Sapuri, Kamenashi's summer of 2006 jdrama. My opinions on the drama have changed quite dramatically since I first watched it in 2006 - while I adored Kame's Ishida Yuya (the drama is what truly made me a fan), I didn't adore the drama, and I definitely didn't love the leading lady. Now, with the benefit of time and a greater opportunity to examine the drama, I've come around on all counts, and I actually like Itoh Misaki's Fujii Minami quite a lot. I find myself in the happy position of saying that I think this is one of the best and sharpest-written jdramas I've had the privilege of watching over the last two years.
I wrote the following meta in early December of 2007, but I never got around to posting it. I'd like to finish writing new meta for the drama, and finish my rewatch (which I think stalled at the last hardsubbed episode (5).
(I received volume 2 of the manga (in English), which was released this past week, which is partly what reminded me to come back to this.)
--
I don't feel like I can truthfully call Sapuri an office romance, even though that is technically the genre it would fall under, right? Instead, this is really a drama about human development, about finding one's place in the world, about growing up and becoming a productive adult, not only in work but also in one's personal life. It's about finding balance and becoming a good person.
I realize this more and more as I rewatch the drama. It's not just Minami and Yuya who walk this path, but the secondary characters, particularly Ogiwara and Imaoka, also follow this trajectory.
Yuya: 'there's gotta be something else for me out there. Something more exciting. Or like something only I can do. Something more like...you know...happiness?'
Minami's life, such as it is, is very straightforward: she is almost 100% dedicated to her work as a commercial planner for a high profile advertising agency, and this costs her a boyfriend of four years. She is rarely at home, doesn't socialize much, and takes on more projects than any one person should handle (often pulling all-nighters). One of her greatest strengths is her single-mindedness and her positive attitude. But as she discovers, the severe lack of balance between her personal and professional life leaves her single and friendless at 28 years of age with nothing to show for herself except her work.
Yuya, on the other hand, is unbalanced in the exact opposite way: he has no professional life to speak of, works as a freeter, and has a sort of hedonistic attitude toward life. He doesn't plan for the future, is easily frustrated by work, and on any given day, he would most likely rather be surfing. For him, work is merely a means to an end: money, which means survival. Fatherless from the time he was fifteen, he's never had anyone to mentor him and help him find a passion in life or establish any kind of work ethic.
Yuya and Minami are like that lost puppy in the rain that they both stop in a crosswalk to watch on the jumbotron. Even after years, fifteen seconds of that puppy made such an impression on Minami that it guided the path of her career.
When Yuya begins to work as a part-timer for Creative Agency, he's thrilled to discover that he will be working alongside Minami, who found his cell phone on a train in the first few minutes of the episode. He says he's not so good with new people, and he believes it's a kind of destiny that has brought them together. I think that despite the age difference and the way that Minami lectured him on the phone, Yuya likes Minami almost immediately, although I don't think he realizes it at all - and it's this attraction to Minami that subconsciously motivates him through later episodes.
One thing that really stood out for me on the rewatch it how everyone treats Yuya initially - they call him "Baito" or "Baito-kun" (a slang word that refers to a part-timer) and they hardly look at him when they ask him to do work. There is a distinct lack of respect, and it definitely rankles with Yuya. When Minami goes to Imaoka that evening and demands that Yuya be fired for his bad attitude, Imaoka reminds her that "that part-timer" has a name: Ishida Yuya, and that even a part-timer like Yuya has pride. He doesn't want to be called "part-timer" - he wants to be called by his name. And Imaoka goes on to explain that Yuya says interesting things, and that there can be a place for such people, even if they don't seem like the right fit immediately. Passion for work is more important, Imaoka tells her, and at last, this is something Minami definitely understands.
Minami takes a chance on Yuya during a creative meeting as the team begins to brainstorm idea for the Walker Insurance 10th anniversary CM when she remembers that Yuya's mother sells insurance. Sure enough, Yuya does say something "interesting" about using reverse psychology to encourage people to buy insurance, which results in Imaoka telling Yuya to come up with an idea for the CM as well for their next meeting.
Later, Minami runs into Yuya in the library, and she's surprised to see him in there, obviously doing research to learn about how commercials are made, although he is embarrassed, so he pretends to be looking for manga in his free time. I love this scene because it's the first time that Minami really talks to Yuya like a human being. She shares something uncomfortable from her youth (being called "gachapin" because she had bad teeth and big eyes) and she goes on to explain why she went into advertising: that lost puppy commercial which comforted her in a bad moment and also made her realize that even 15 seconds had the power to build a tremendous connection with the viewer, and it even had the power to move and transform. She wishes him well in his future and ends by calling him Ishida.
I think this is so significant for Yuya - he's been looked down upon everywhere he's gone until this point, and he's been frustrated by a kind of hopelessness in his past work. While Imaoka hired him, Minami is the first person to take the time to ask his opinion and to talk to him like a colleague. When we consider that she had demanded that Imaoka fire Yuya, this is a good example of Minami's ability to learn and grow - she took what Imaoka told her about Yuya to heart and is making an early effort to nurture him professionally.
I love how gentle and kind Yuya is with Minami when he finds her asleep on the couch and he covers her up with her jacket. And he is so earnest in working on his idea for the CM that it breaks my heart that he has to overhear Ogiwara describe it dismissively to Minami ("just a scribble"). The poor kid is just gaining some confidence, so Ogiwara's ill-timed words crush Yuya's fragile hopes.
It's interesting that during Ogiwara's conversation with Minami we discover that she was his sempai (in the manga I think it's different because they are "same time employees" meaning that they were hired at the same time), and that he remembers her speaking very sternly to him during an orientation meeting (in reply to his question if she'd ever had any doubts about her career, basically she told him that there's no job that lets you do whatever you want to do so so find something worth doing and just work hard and do it). Upon running into her again as a CM planner, he tells her that he doesn't think she's changed.
And at the heart of it, this is true. This is the problem: she hasn't changed. Minami has built up a certain single-tracked way of life that has cut her off from anything outside achievement in her career and she still has this very black and white way of looking at things. That is partly why she found Yuya's attitude so frustrating and prevented her from looking beneath it to see him as a person.
His hopes dashed by Ogiwara's dismissive comments on his drawing, Yuya blows off work the next day to go surfing, and Minami is clearly disappointed both in Yuya for letting her down, and in herself for putting faith in him when he doesn't show up to the creative meeting.
Then comes a sort of turning point for Yuya: he receives a call informing him that because of his mistake - he didn't properly give Minami a very important message - changes weren't made to a commercial plan that Minami was responsible for, and the client is very upset. Yuya, motivated by what I can only imagine is his concern for Minami and his subconscious desire for her good opinion, dashes back to the agency and tries to apologize for causing her so much trouble only to find Minami calm and gracious and taking all the blame for the incident. I think it surprises him a lot to see her going to so much extra trouble for his mistake and taking the problem in stride efficiently, even though he can see how difficult it is for her.
That night, Imaoka has a revelation concerning the Walker Insurance CM so he hastily assembles his team, including Yuya, and they work through the night to come up with a new plan. Yuya finds Minami later after he's been sent to help her. What he says to her is significant.
It's touching how much Yuya wants her approval. He confesses to lying, simply because he can't be dishonest with her. It's almost like he wants her to be angry with him - he wants her to react and not be so calm. He wants her to react to him. He hates feeling like she's ignoring him, "erasing him." And he also can't hold back from telling her exactly what he thinks. He sees how she tries to do everything alone without anyone else's help and he accuses her of not loving work as much as she claims, but rather he thinks that she enjoys being alone.
At the end of the episode, Yuya comes across Minami working late again on another project and he asks her why she does it, why she pushes herself so hard when she's not earning any more money for her extra labors. For him, work is work, and fun is fun, and there's no point where the two meet. Minami explains to him how she began working, and what she went through to achieve the position she has reached, a place where her opinion and her hard work are valued, and she can actively contribute her own creativity to projects and see them attain success. It's a sad story, though, because the first person who took a chance on her was the man she fell in love with, and he's also the man who just broke up with her (although she doesn't tell Yuya that). She tells Yuya that working in this job has made her value the seconds because in advertising, every second counts.
"What are you doing," Yuya asks then as Minami moves away from him and begins to move with her arms twisting and her feet shifting and sliding. "Aikido," she says with a smile. "Using the other's strength, you throw it back. Isn't that similar to this job?" Yuya considers this, nodding a little.
The way the episode ends, with Minami and Yuya side by side, as he mimics her motions of Aikido, is one that I'll never forget. The look on his face, the serenity on hers...The scene sets the stage for the rest of the drama, of the relationship that grows between them, of how he tries so hard to learn, and how she tries to set a good example.
They begin like this, though, side by side. And yes, that is also how they end. :)
I wrote the following meta in early December of 2007, but I never got around to posting it. I'd like to finish writing new meta for the drama, and finish my rewatch (which I think stalled at the last hardsubbed episode (5).
(I received volume 2 of the manga (in English), which was released this past week, which is partly what reminded me to come back to this.)
--
I don't feel like I can truthfully call Sapuri an office romance, even though that is technically the genre it would fall under, right? Instead, this is really a drama about human development, about finding one's place in the world, about growing up and becoming a productive adult, not only in work but also in one's personal life. It's about finding balance and becoming a good person.
I realize this more and more as I rewatch the drama. It's not just Minami and Yuya who walk this path, but the secondary characters, particularly Ogiwara and Imaoka, also follow this trajectory.
Yuya: 'there's gotta be something else for me out there. Something more exciting. Or like something only I can do. Something more like...you know...happiness?'
Minami's life, such as it is, is very straightforward: she is almost 100% dedicated to her work as a commercial planner for a high profile advertising agency, and this costs her a boyfriend of four years. She is rarely at home, doesn't socialize much, and takes on more projects than any one person should handle (often pulling all-nighters). One of her greatest strengths is her single-mindedness and her positive attitude. But as she discovers, the severe lack of balance between her personal and professional life leaves her single and friendless at 28 years of age with nothing to show for herself except her work.
Yuya, on the other hand, is unbalanced in the exact opposite way: he has no professional life to speak of, works as a freeter, and has a sort of hedonistic attitude toward life. He doesn't plan for the future, is easily frustrated by work, and on any given day, he would most likely rather be surfing. For him, work is merely a means to an end: money, which means survival. Fatherless from the time he was fifteen, he's never had anyone to mentor him and help him find a passion in life or establish any kind of work ethic.
Yuya and Minami are like that lost puppy in the rain that they both stop in a crosswalk to watch on the jumbotron. Even after years, fifteen seconds of that puppy made such an impression on Minami that it guided the path of her career.
When Yuya begins to work as a part-timer for Creative Agency, he's thrilled to discover that he will be working alongside Minami, who found his cell phone on a train in the first few minutes of the episode. He says he's not so good with new people, and he believes it's a kind of destiny that has brought them together. I think that despite the age difference and the way that Minami lectured him on the phone, Yuya likes Minami almost immediately, although I don't think he realizes it at all - and it's this attraction to Minami that subconsciously motivates him through later episodes.
One thing that really stood out for me on the rewatch it how everyone treats Yuya initially - they call him "Baito" or "Baito-kun" (a slang word that refers to a part-timer) and they hardly look at him when they ask him to do work. There is a distinct lack of respect, and it definitely rankles with Yuya. When Minami goes to Imaoka that evening and demands that Yuya be fired for his bad attitude, Imaoka reminds her that "that part-timer" has a name: Ishida Yuya, and that even a part-timer like Yuya has pride. He doesn't want to be called "part-timer" - he wants to be called by his name. And Imaoka goes on to explain that Yuya says interesting things, and that there can be a place for such people, even if they don't seem like the right fit immediately. Passion for work is more important, Imaoka tells her, and at last, this is something Minami definitely understands.
Minami takes a chance on Yuya during a creative meeting as the team begins to brainstorm idea for the Walker Insurance 10th anniversary CM when she remembers that Yuya's mother sells insurance. Sure enough, Yuya does say something "interesting" about using reverse psychology to encourage people to buy insurance, which results in Imaoka telling Yuya to come up with an idea for the CM as well for their next meeting.
Later, Minami runs into Yuya in the library, and she's surprised to see him in there, obviously doing research to learn about how commercials are made, although he is embarrassed, so he pretends to be looking for manga in his free time. I love this scene because it's the first time that Minami really talks to Yuya like a human being. She shares something uncomfortable from her youth (being called "gachapin" because she had bad teeth and big eyes) and she goes on to explain why she went into advertising: that lost puppy commercial which comforted her in a bad moment and also made her realize that even 15 seconds had the power to build a tremendous connection with the viewer, and it even had the power to move and transform. She wishes him well in his future and ends by calling him Ishida.
I think this is so significant for Yuya - he's been looked down upon everywhere he's gone until this point, and he's been frustrated by a kind of hopelessness in his past work. While Imaoka hired him, Minami is the first person to take the time to ask his opinion and to talk to him like a colleague. When we consider that she had demanded that Imaoka fire Yuya, this is a good example of Minami's ability to learn and grow - she took what Imaoka told her about Yuya to heart and is making an early effort to nurture him professionally.
I love how gentle and kind Yuya is with Minami when he finds her asleep on the couch and he covers her up with her jacket. And he is so earnest in working on his idea for the CM that it breaks my heart that he has to overhear Ogiwara describe it dismissively to Minami ("just a scribble"). The poor kid is just gaining some confidence, so Ogiwara's ill-timed words crush Yuya's fragile hopes.
It's interesting that during Ogiwara's conversation with Minami we discover that she was his sempai (in the manga I think it's different because they are "same time employees" meaning that they were hired at the same time), and that he remembers her speaking very sternly to him during an orientation meeting (in reply to his question if she'd ever had any doubts about her career, basically she told him that there's no job that lets you do whatever you want to do so so find something worth doing and just work hard and do it). Upon running into her again as a CM planner, he tells her that he doesn't think she's changed.
And at the heart of it, this is true. This is the problem: she hasn't changed. Minami has built up a certain single-tracked way of life that has cut her off from anything outside achievement in her career and she still has this very black and white way of looking at things. That is partly why she found Yuya's attitude so frustrating and prevented her from looking beneath it to see him as a person.
His hopes dashed by Ogiwara's dismissive comments on his drawing, Yuya blows off work the next day to go surfing, and Minami is clearly disappointed both in Yuya for letting her down, and in herself for putting faith in him when he doesn't show up to the creative meeting.
Then comes a sort of turning point for Yuya: he receives a call informing him that because of his mistake - he didn't properly give Minami a very important message - changes weren't made to a commercial plan that Minami was responsible for, and the client is very upset. Yuya, motivated by what I can only imagine is his concern for Minami and his subconscious desire for her good opinion, dashes back to the agency and tries to apologize for causing her so much trouble only to find Minami calm and gracious and taking all the blame for the incident. I think it surprises him a lot to see her going to so much extra trouble for his mistake and taking the problem in stride efficiently, even though he can see how difficult it is for her.
That night, Imaoka has a revelation concerning the Walker Insurance CM so he hastily assembles his team, including Yuya, and they work through the night to come up with a new plan. Yuya finds Minami later after he's been sent to help her. What he says to her is significant.
It's touching how much Yuya wants her approval. He confesses to lying, simply because he can't be dishonest with her. It's almost like he wants her to be angry with him - he wants her to react and not be so calm. He wants her to react to him. He hates feeling like she's ignoring him, "erasing him." And he also can't hold back from telling her exactly what he thinks. He sees how she tries to do everything alone without anyone else's help and he accuses her of not loving work as much as she claims, but rather he thinks that she enjoys being alone.
At the end of the episode, Yuya comes across Minami working late again on another project and he asks her why she does it, why she pushes herself so hard when she's not earning any more money for her extra labors. For him, work is work, and fun is fun, and there's no point where the two meet. Minami explains to him how she began working, and what she went through to achieve the position she has reached, a place where her opinion and her hard work are valued, and she can actively contribute her own creativity to projects and see them attain success. It's a sad story, though, because the first person who took a chance on her was the man she fell in love with, and he's also the man who just broke up with her (although she doesn't tell Yuya that). She tells Yuya that working in this job has made her value the seconds because in advertising, every second counts.
"What are you doing," Yuya asks then as Minami moves away from him and begins to move with her arms twisting and her feet shifting and sliding. "Aikido," she says with a smile. "Using the other's strength, you throw it back. Isn't that similar to this job?" Yuya considers this, nodding a little.
The way the episode ends, with Minami and Yuya side by side, as he mimics her motions of Aikido, is one that I'll never forget. The look on his face, the serenity on hers...The scene sets the stage for the rest of the drama, of the relationship that grows between them, of how he tries so hard to learn, and how she tries to set a good example.
They begin like this, though, side by side. And yes, that is also how they end. :)