Asatte no Houkou

(“the way of the day after tomorrow”)
Genre: Drama
Score: Good

While the plot device of a child and a grown-up magically swapping places has been done many times before, this is quite a good version of it. Karada (11) is an orphan, who for the last few years has been raised by her brother. Shoko (early twenties) used to have a relationship with said brother. The two of them are each unsatisfied with their lives, but when their ages are swapped they find life gets a whole lot more difficult. In a world that won’t believe them, they have no choice but to stick together – with the newly grown up Karada having to walk into a bank and pretend to be Shoko in order to get money out, for example, while the newly young Shoko has to give up smoking.

Despite the silly-sounding premise, the series stays serious: it depicts quite accurately how people would react in the circumstances. Neither of the girls is stupid, but they are perhaps naive. A lot of the emotions move around the brother, and the various reasons why the two girls might have wished for this change.

It’s only a short series, but if you can cope with a bit of drama it’s quite fun. And the sight of Shoko with her adult-size glasses falling off is uber-cute.