山田くんと7人の魔女 (Yamada and the Seven Witches) is a single-cour live-action television series that ran on Fuji Television in mid-2013. Adapted from a popular manga by Yoshikawa Miki (吉河 美希), serialised in Kodansha’s Weekly Shounen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン), the live series forms a complete story (in contrast to many manga-adaptions, which often do not form a complete story).
The episodes are a little shorter than standard live-action television fare, at just 36 minutes, comprising a total of roughly 4 and three-quarter for the whole 8-episode series.
山田くんと7人の魔女 features comedy, drama, romance, mystery, some great physical comic performances, and oodles of attractive people kissing.
The setting
The story takes place in a fictional private academy, Suzaku High-School. Suzaku is a prestigious (and somewhat snobby) academy where standards are maintained by an overbearing student council, and students who are not on track for college are expelled to maintain the school’s academic standards.
While not explicitly stated, the school appears to be located in Tokyo in the present-day.
The story
(some episode one spoilers)
Yamada Ryuu (山田 竜) [played by Yamamoto Yusuke (山本裕典)] has transferred to the academy in his second year, but chafes under the school’s high standards and stiff culture. Despite considerable natural talent, Yamada becomes late, sloppy, inattentive, prone to angry outbursts, and is on the verge of failing in his grades. A delinquent whom most other students avoid.
By contrast his classmate, Shiraishi Urara (白石 うらら) [played by Nishiuchi Mariya (西内まりや)], is studious, sober, diligent, and always scores highest in tests and exams. Shiraishi, however, (unknown to Yamada) has no friends, no social life and is constantly bullied by lower-achieving girls.
In a joint tumble down the stairs, the two accidentally kiss, and when they wake up they discover that they have swapped bodies. Shiraishi initially takes the change in stride, being more concerned about missing class than in taking the time to immediately resolve the situation, while Yamada gets an unpleasant taste of Shiraishi’s school-life and takes steps to try to solve some of her problems.
Yamada and Shiraishi soon discover that the kiss, not the fall, was the key to their body-swap, and both make a little progress on their respective difficulties. Their secret does not last, however, and soon they discover that Shiraishi is just one of seven witches at the school, each with a unique ability. Something special is supposed to take place when all of the witches are discovered and brought together, but what?
Whatever it is, it is going to take a whole lot of kissing to get to the bottom of it.
Notes and Observations
There’s a lot of kissing. If watching attractive young people kissing bothers you, then you should stay away. If you don’t like seeing girls kissing girls, or boys kissing boys, you should also stay away.
The comedy elements shift across a broad spectrum, ranging from high-brow, to low-brow to just plain slapstick. Physical performances are excellent, with actors Nishiuchi and Yamamoto doing a fine job of acting out each-other’s characters during the body-swaps (though Yamamoto’s start out just slightly less than pitch-perfect, but improve rapidly).
There are some scattered elements in the telling that don’t quite make sense at times, probably the most notable of which is the locked room.
Observe that the doors open inwards and are not locked, so the chains and padlocks are pretty superfluous. In that room is something in an unlocked safe in the middle of the room. This is apparently called “The Forbidden Room.”
This is not what you’d call particularly secure against anything but perhaps the least-imaginative people on the planet.
Some of the spoken Japanese is a little unclear at times (perhaps much of it because of Yamada slurring), but still there’s nothing too complicated.
At the time of writing, an anime adaption of the manga has just started airing (commenced 14 March 2015), however, my initial impression is that the live-action version seems to be the better adaption.
Recommendation
Romance, drama, mystery and some lively comedy, with a bit of tear-jerking included, and an abundance of people kissing (with varying levels of enthusiasm). What isn’t to like?
Well, the slapstick comedic elements might turn some people off, and the scheming of the Student Council is just a bit on the moustache-twirling side, but overall it is a fun little romp.