Title: Manhattan Love Story Broadcast dates: 10/9/03 - 12/18/03 Number of episodes: 11 Genre: Romantic Comedy Cast: Matsuoka Masahiro, Koizumi Kyoko, Oikawa Mitsuhiro, Morishita Aiko, Matsuo Suzuki, Sakai Wakana, Funakoshi Eiichiro, Tsukamoto Takashi Plot: A rag-tag group of customers that frequent a cafe called Manhattan fall in and out of love with each other. What is good: Matsuoka can be hysterical as Tencho, the owner of Manhattan. What is bad: The show doesn't really get good until about episode 4. Letter rating: C

This show both annoyed and amused me. Parts of it were absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, most of the beginning episodes are terrible. Also, the show could have ended at episode 7 with no problems. Instead, they dragged it on for another four episodes. The ending was still surprising and funny but it seemed tacked on. Would I watch it again? No. But I'm definitely going to try to track down more of Matsuoka's dramas!