Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo (2008)

Every now and then, Japan offers us a production that leaves you in awe for, like, 90% of its duration, only to suddenly (and awfully!) fail in the final part.
It's been for example the case of movies like "Metro ni Notte" or "Blindly in Love" - while watching them, I seriously thought I was gonna give both a "perfect 10"....until they tried hard to ruin everything in the finale.
It is unfortunately also the case of this "Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo": until the very last episode, it was a crazily funny run, filled with tremendously original and brilliant ideas...but then the last episode was a complete U-turn, silly, uninspired, annoyingly boring, Now, the problem with stuff like this is it's hard to grade them; were I to consider everything but the last episode, I would seriously give this a 10; if, on the other had, I only considered the last episode, of course it'd be a 1 (and only 'cause we can't give less than that). I'll try to pretend the last episode didn't happen and grade this series as a pretty decent 8.

p.s.
I had some weird fun imagining a possible explanation of how that abominable last episode came to be:

"It was originally supposed to be only 12 episodes, as the last week of the season [Japanese TV annual schedule consisting of four seasons of 13 weeks each] was supposed to be reserved for a SP episode of a different drama. Due to a number of unforeseeable circumstances [a scandal involving the cast? technical problems? whatever...], the SP got canceld within but a few days from airing time. At that point, it was decided to produce a 13th episode of this drama, but by then, as it happens, it was Golden Week so 99% of the staff was not at work; the script was done by an aquaintance's cousin's son who said he could write it, and got greenlighted by the studio's janitor [the closest thing to a person of authority that could be found on such short notice], a foreign national who had actually lied on his being able to read kanji in order to get the job. And the rest is history..."

p.p.s.
If you happen to be a fan of Maeda Atsuko, this is a must watch, as she's absolutely A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E in here! ^___-

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