Rich Man Poor Woman Ep 10

Yay, the second to last episode!  The majority of this episode was so warm and sweet.  Of course, being the second to last, it had to end with some sort of sad conflict.  I'm so looking forward to the final episode.  

Summary:

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The episode begins with Asahina's arrest for insider trading.  We don't see the trial, but we do see him settled behind bars.  Hyuga tries to visit him repeatedly throughout the episode, but Asahina refuses to see him.  Asahina reflects from jail on how wonderful their time together at Next Innovation really was.

At the Wonder Wall office, Natsui is giving Hyuga etiquette lessons and critiquing his social skills.  She follows him to various client meetings and gives him a 1 to 100 score after each one.  He's frustrated with the low scores she keeps giving him, but by the last meeting, where he presents a crowd with new 3D scanning technology to allow customers to try on clothing from home, he scores a more-than-perfect 120, even getting some clients' names right.  

Natsui is flustered by how perfect and handsome Hyuga has become, but she's also disappointed.  Now that he's mastered basic social skills and etiquette, she feels she's no longer of any assistance to him.  Having exhausted her purpose, she feels the need to distance herself because she of her feelings for him.  She takes a part-time job at a lab and messages Hyuga that she'll be taking a break for a while.  

With Natsui gone and not accepting his calls, Hyuga sets off on a mission to find her.  He stalks her house and frequent haunts and eventually ends up trying her rural home town.  On the train out, he runs into Yoko, who travels with him for the remainder of the trip.  They stay at Natsui's family inn.  The family, not knowing who they are, gossip about their oldest daughter who declined a prestigious job to start a company with the man she loves.  At this point, Hyuga is clear and open with Yoko about his feelings for Natsui.

Before they leave town, Yoko convinces Hyuga to visit his mother's restaurant.  He doesn't reveal that he's her son, but the visit leaves him satisfied.  He's surprised that he's not hurt or angry.  Yoko suggests that he's no longer searching for his mother and is now yearning more for someone else.  

Back in the city, the Next Innovation accountant had been trying to get Hyuga to come back to Next Innovation.  The company is on the verge of being acquired by a large tech company and the accountant doesn't want to see true innovators trampled under corporate giants.  Hyuga initially refuses, but by the episode's end, we learn that he plans to return to the company.  He leaves Wonder Wall to the three-amigo-coders and also asks the guy he'd previously invested in to support the venture.

Hyuga eventually tracks Natsui down at the lab where she's working.  He approaches her at the bus stop and they both have something to say to each other.  Hyuga chickens out and tells her he came to tell her he's rejoining Next Innovation.  He also tells her that there's someone he's been searching for, but he doesn't say its her.  Instead, he lets her share her piece, which is to inform him that she's taking a job at the lab and needs to do something on her own.  She apologizes for breaking her promise to always stay at his side.  He lies that he hadn't taken the promise seriously.  

They part ways.  As they walk, each looks back, but their timing is bad and their eyes never meet. 

;___;

Scenes of Note:

• Natsui harshly lecturing Hyuga on etiquette and giving him low marks.
• Hyuga searching desperately for Natsui, calling her millions of times and peaking in the windows of her apartment.

Rich Man, Poor Woman Episode 9

*Flail* *Flail* *Flail*  My love for this series continues to grow.  I'm going to be so sad to see this series end.

They do a fantastic job almost-but-not touching in this episode.  It suits their evolving, not-quite-romantic relationship really well.  There's a lot more focus on romance, but I suspect from the ending that the next episode will veer back into the business-y side of things.  I actually appreciated the introduction of some typical cliches to advance and explore the characters' romantic feelings.  The romantic tension hit a level where a typical big misunderstanding felt almost necessary.  Overall, each of the cliches were well executed and didn't drag out unnecessarily.  In fact, I think each one was wrapped up within minutes of its introduction.  If only K-dramas knew how to do this...

Summary:
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In this episode, you find out that the majority of Hyuga's posessions were in Next Innovation's name, so he's lost them.  He'd also already rented a small office space, expecting the Three-Amigo-Programmers to follow him to start a new company, so that has left him well and truly broke (he has $1,500 to his name).  He shows up at Sawaki's doorstep with all his worldly possessions (which includes his precious Roomba, how cute) and asks to live with her.  I'm surprisingly fine with the way they handled that "poor-man-moves-in-and-romance-blossoms" cliche.  But of course, I'm even happier that they didn't follow through on it.  He comes to his senses and is presumably staying at the shrine or at the rented office--they don't really go into it.

Hyuga and Sawaki kill time at the rented office, not really having anything to do, while we see Asahina succumbing to pressure to lower implementation costs of the stolen Personal File project.  He agrees to change the interface, showcasing a wretched, government-website like design and thoroughly disappointing their important business-champion, Secretary Fujikawa.  Fujikawa stealthily takes her concerns and the data to Sawaki, offering Hyuga the opportunity to take another (cheaper) crack at the interface through a sub-contractor.

Before Sawaki has the opportunity to share this good news with Hyuga, she receives mysterious bonus money form Next Innovation.  She meets up with Asahina in order to return the money to him but Yoko (Asahina's sister and Sawaki's rival for Hyuga's attention) coordinates things so that Hyuga sees the two together and is hurt.  This is the first time that Yoko's jealousy really overpowers her sense of decency, but the misunderstanding isn't overdone and she is human enough to pretty quickly feel remorse.

The confrontation afterward leads to Hyuga and Sawaki parting ways, but before she leaves, Sawaki posts dozens of dorky memos on the walls with the details of the new interface project.  After discovering the notes, Hyuga's feelings clearly change and he sets to work on the project.  Once his interface is completed (within 3 days, magic) Sawaki and Hyuga reunite adorably.  The Three-Amigo-Programmers are also won over by the interface and the 5 happily set up shop together.  The episode ends on a cliff hanger with a news bulletin showing Asahina being arrested for the previous personal data leak and insider trading.

Scenes of Note:
It's such a shame this is too far in the series to clip for panels.  My favorites were the almost-kiss, Sawaki trying to link arms with Hyuga and being brushed off, and Hyuga cornering her in the storage room at the end of the episode.  I'm frankly disappointed there was no kiss scene to follow, but I have high expectations for the next two episodes.

Rich Man, Poor Woman Ep 8

It's been a while since a series has pumped me up like this one does.  It's a wonderful combination of romance and business drama.  It's refreshing to have intensity without wanting to climb the walls in frustration and rip out some characters hair...

The episodes keep getting better.  This episode shows the most clear mutual feelings between the hero and heroine so far. Even their physical closeness is stepped up a notch.

The dialogue in this episode was some of the most intense in any romantic drama I've seen. The characters started exposing their true colors, there was a lot of shouting--both angry and loving. I have so much love for this episode and this series.

Show Slightly More Detailed/Spoiler-y Summary

I love that Sawaki has grown a backbone--we saw evidence of it developing earlier series, but she really comes into her own in this episode.  She manages to talk back, stand up for herself, and come out with some biting remarks without losing her extremely well-educated politeness.  That said, I almost wanted her to make a scene when Hyuga was having his fit in front of the office.

The betrayal scenario was a bit over-done, I feel.  In the real world, I like to think that such an obvious usurper would face at least some backlash.  I also think it's unlikely that the hero would fall into such extreme and sudden poverty.  It would have been more believable if he were either entirely bankrupted or if he remained with at least a few thousand dollars to his name. Leaving him with $50 to his name is just a bit too conveniently close to broke.