Brother Beat

This is a tale of three brothers and their single mother. They lost their father when they were all still young, and now they are 24, 22, and 20 years old. They are very close; and are the kind of family that looks out for each other. The mother, Harue, acts much younger than her actual age – so much that she doesn’t seem much older than her sons. The sons often don’t treat her like a mother, and call her by her first name.

The eldest, Tatsuya works as a salaryman at some sort of big company. He doesn’t have much time for socializing with those of the opposite sex. He feels more of a responsibility to take care of his family. The middle son, Riku, works as a swimming instructor and loves going to “go-kon” dinner dates every night. He’s a player, and can’t stay with the same woman for very long. The youngest, Junpei, is training in the medical field and does most of the housework. The mother works at a grocery store.

As I said, they’re all very close, but they tend to get into fights with each other a lot – especially Tatsuya and Riku. Somehow, they seem like a somewhat unusual family, and each episode shows some problem or happening in their lives and how they get through it. This drama is very episodic – meaning that it’s one of those dramas that doesn’t have much of a continuous story line and things seem to end up back how they started by the end of each episode.

So, what can I tell you in terms of plot? The first episode deals with Tatsuya and his love life when he goes through an “omiai” – arranged meeting for marriage. By the end of the episode, there is another girl played by Kuninaka Ryouko who works at the same super market that the mother does and has a crush on Tatsuya. (This will probably be one of the few continuing plotlines.) Also, a long-time friend and classmate of Harue’s is the store manager, and he likes Harue, but she thinks of him as a friend and laughs at his attempts to ask her out. From the preview, the second episode looks like it will be about Riku becoming a “host” at a night club.

I wish I could tell you more, but that’s all I know. It seems they’ve put together a fun and interesting cast and characters for this drama and I hope they go through some entertaining episodes. Episodic dramas like this one can be less exciting because they don’t have that “I can’t wait to see what happens next week” feeling to them, but if the episodes are entertaining it should keep me tuning in every week. If you are a fan of any of the cast members, or just think that the above outline sounds like a good idea for a drama, then you might want to check out BROTHER BEAT .

(taken from J-fan drama.com)