I'll make this simple for any potential viewers: if you've ever watched a slice of life anime and you were bored by it or didn't like it, then The Terrible Couple isn't for you. It's based off of a manga by Kimio Yanagisawa, named Tonda Couple, with the same premise. Even the music is done by a composer who primarily worked on anime at the time. Interestingly, the manga was published as a shonen manga, meaning is was primarily targeted at young boys and I just don't see how this romantic-drama would really appeal to that sort of audience. There is a poster early into the film advertising Tomorrow's Joe (a boxing manga and anime, used by the boxing club for promotion), which was also a shonen manga that I think has a much wider appeal to that audience, but that's irrelevant to this movie...so moving on.
This is Shinji Somai's directorial debut, having been assistant director on 3 films prior. Speaking of assistant directors, Kiyoshi Kurosawa assistant directed The Terrible Couple under Somai as well as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun the following year. Somai already has a penchant for his signature dynamic long takes here and they were easily the part that most kept me drawn into the film. It seems his way of shooting has a way of bringing out the best in actors, and it clearly does so here. The leads, played by Hiroko Yakushimaru and Shingo Tsurumi, deliver fantastic performances. Side note, the characters are meant to be freshmen in high school which means they are 15-16 years old and the actors were actually that age at the time of filming, that shouldn't be noteworthy but it's always great to see high school kids actually played by age appropriate actors.
The story is pretty standard for a romantic-drama, emphasis on the drama, but again the acting and filmmaking elevates it to be more bearable than others of its kind. The relationships amongst the main characters are all very realistic, outside of perhaps being a bit too simplified and presumably cutdown for time. And even though The Terrible Couple clocks in at just over 2 hours, it feels as though we are missing the details that I imagine might have been present in the manga. Toshinori Omi's character seems the most affected by this issue, we get just enough of him so that it's clear that he feels undesirable and lonely, but he lacks the development to justify him informing the vice-principle of Kei and Yusuke's living arrangement or calling in a fake bomb threat just before that. And at the end, when they are playing human whack-a-mole, he breaks down and the others seem affected by this but it's unclear why; as if there was something missing from the plot development to tie it all together.
Again, if slice of life anime is something you enjoy, then you'll probably like The Terrible Couple; otherwise you may want to avoid this.
This is Shinji Somai's directorial debut, having been assistant director on 3 films prior. Speaking of assistant directors, Kiyoshi Kurosawa assistant directed The Terrible Couple under Somai as well as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun the following year. Somai already has a penchant for his signature dynamic long takes here and they were easily the part that most kept me drawn into the film. It seems his way of shooting has a way of bringing out the best in actors, and it clearly does so here. The leads, played by Hiroko Yakushimaru and Shingo Tsurumi, deliver fantastic performances. Side note, the characters are meant to be freshmen in high school which means they are 15-16 years old and the actors were actually that age at the time of filming, that shouldn't be noteworthy but it's always great to see high school kids actually played by age appropriate actors.
The story is pretty standard for a romantic-drama, emphasis on the drama, but again the acting and filmmaking elevates it to be more bearable than others of its kind. The relationships amongst the main characters are all very realistic, outside of perhaps being a bit too simplified and presumably cutdown for time. And even though The Terrible Couple clocks in at just over 2 hours, it feels as though we are missing the details that I imagine might have been present in the manga. Toshinori Omi's character seems the most affected by this issue, we get just enough of him so that it's clear that he feels undesirable and lonely, but he lacks the development to justify him informing the vice-principle of Kei and Yusuke's living arrangement or calling in a fake bomb threat just before that. And at the end, when they are playing human whack-a-mole, he breaks down and the others seem affected by this but it's unclear why; as if there was something missing from the plot development to tie it all together.
Again, if slice of life anime is something you enjoy, then you'll probably like The Terrible Couple; otherwise you may want to avoid this.