Juui Dolittle (2010)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 9 episodes
Genre: veterinary, friendship
Cast: Oguri Shun, Narimiya Hiroki, Inoue Mao, Fujisawa Ema, Kasahara Hideyuki, Suda Masaki, Ishizaka Koji, Kunimura Jun, guests: Masuda Takahisa, Kuninaka Ryoko, Saotame Taichi, Kaho etc
Synopsis: Tottori Kenichi (Oguri Shun) is not the friendliest person, but he is the best veterinarian in Japan. He keeps saying that veterinary is business and makes people understand the true meaning of being pet's owner. After operating Tajima Asuka's (Inoue Mao) horse, she is made to help out at the clinic to pay back for surgery.  There is also a great friend, charismatic veterinarian Hanabishi Masaru (Narimiya Hiroki) who is unable to carry out an operation.
Rating: 3/5
 I was surprised by "Juui Dolittle" - I do not know why, but I thought that it will be totally different, so it is really great that it was able to overcome my expectations. It has been in my "watch-list" ever since it aired on TBS, which is almost 2,5 years, so it was about time to finally watch it. I even remember how I kept watching their updates on official page, because they had so cute animals on the set all the time. (I am a big animal lover - I actually grew up in a farm with many animals)

Oguri Shun was really cool in it, because I think that he suits into those "tsundere" character rolls with his big growth and suitable face. Tottori Kenichi is most of the time really cold and his fees are reaaaaaalllly high, but at the same time you can see his hidden love towards animals. I also felt that his coldness is caused by other people ignorance toward their pets, because there are so many people abandoning their pets or not taking good care of them. He also has many secrets, because he is a man of few words, but I also felt that they gave us too less information about him to understand him 100%.  

Tajima Asuka is a novice in veterinary. She is really cute character, because she is not annoying or useless and she gives her best to help animals at clinic. Of course there are mistakes, but it is understandable because she has never done anything like that before. They have put in some hints on love-line between her and Tottori, but the biggest impact goes on animals. As you might think already, then you can see more Asuka's emotions than Tottori's. Another thing I thought before watching it was that she will have some kind of love-line with Hanabishi, which would have caused much jealousy, but it did not happen.  But I was most surprised by the fact that Hanabishi Masaru and Tottori were friends.. :D

I do not know why I thought they are rivals - as you can see I do not read others reviews or all synopsis' before watching. I really liked Hanabishi because he was willing to do everything in order to save animals, even though he did not perform operations himself. He was really appealing and wanted the best, but for me it all made his over-priced car funnier. He has the biggest problems and difficulties in the drama, all due to the lie about operating. He is the only veterinarian who officially acknowledges Tottori's outstanding skills and because they were university buddies he is the one person who understands Tottori, which is really cute.

From other characters I really liked Domon Junpei at first, but Domon family is the most annoying part of the drama. No matter how they all make really selfish things and manipulate with others, so they just got on my nerves. I do not like veterinarians who are out for fame and money or do not bother to make extra researches to find out pet's illness. Of course there are some annoying ones more within "costumers" and their selfish thoughts. Another thing that I did not enjoy in this drama was those fake animal capes! Some of them were tooooo fake and that was not pretty. I understand that making a drama with animals is difficult and especially in those scenes it would have been inconceivable to use living animals, but they could have done a better job with capes.

If we leave out the annoying family and fake capes, then it is a really sweet drama that makes you treasure your pets, there could have been more constant action between three main characters, because, it is said that this drama should be about main characters friendship, which I got to know after I had searched for real synopsis after watching it. Do not know how much it was about friendship and how much it was about owner-pet relationships, but I will leave it up to you to decide.