"Kaseifu no Mita" final ep. 11

OMG.  I think I used up half a Kleenex box on this episode.  I feel a bit manipulated, but hey, the show did a good job of it.  Mita gets the children to want and accept Urara as a guardian figure.  Mita also convinces Urara of her own worth.  There is a scene where Mita slaps Urara around to get her to quit being nicey-nice which was a bit disturbing.  Props to the makeup team who showed the red hand prints on Urara's face in a subsequent scene.   Mita's farewell dinner is when the waterworks started for me.   Mita smiling at all the family members was a heartbreaking scene.  The final topper was Kii's tearful farewell to Mita.  Whoa.  Everyone is happier due to Mita's interventions and Mita is a bit happier (and less self-abusive) due to the love of the children.  It's funny how she can detect wrong thinking in everyone else but herself.  Great show, and great acting by all the kids and Matsushima Nanako, who plays Mita. 

"Kaseifu no Mita" ep. 10

Mita's interactions with the Asuda family are causing her to think more often about her dead husband and son.   Kaito has to write an essay about how he appreciates his mother.  This brings up the issue of the family's anger toward their mother for abandoning them.  Mita reassures them that their mother really did love them and probably wanted to back out of the suicide and be with her family, but couldn't at the last moment save herself.  When Kaito reads aloud his esssay about how he wishes he said "thank you" to his mother while she was alive, it's tear-inducing.  Kii has an accident after deciding to let Kii help in the kitchen.  It reinforces Mita's fear that she brings trouble to her loved ones whenever she acts on her own free will.  She escapes to the amusement park and has her usual self-destructive imaginary lunch with her dead husband and son.  The kids follow her and beg her to stop punishing herself, even swearing to always eat the food laid out for her dead husband and son.  Mita actually cries and yells at them to stop being so nice to her.  Sob.  The kids assure her that nothing bad will happen to them if Mita loves them.  Sob.  Meanwhile, Urara continues to evade her feelings for her brother-in-law by pursuing an arranged marriage.

"Kaseifu no Mita" ep. 9

It's another, wonderful, tear-jerking episode.  Mita has left the household, only to become the housekeeper for the nosy and mean neighbor next door.  The kids and father Keiichi unsuccessfully try to get Mita to come back.  Yui knows that Mita does dangerous things hoping to hurt herself and that working for the neighbor will lead to trouble.  The neighbor orders Mita to kill her husband, herself, and their child in a fire (ironically).  When the neighbor sees Mita actually following through, the neighbor tells Mita to kill herself, which is just what Mita was waiting for.  She pours kerosene on herself and holds a candle...but the kids rush in and stop her.  Mita explains she became a robotic housekeeper so that she would have as little free will as possible since every time she acted on her own, something terrible happened.  They tell her they want to protect her and it seems to get through.  Mita shows some emotion for once, anger and tears.  She comes back to the household, but experiences a daydream/vision/haunting of her husband and little boy.  I sense a catharsis coming for Mita very soon.  Urara notices Mita is back and looks a bit jealous.  In fact, she confides to Mita that she likes her brother-in-law Keiichi.  I wonder what Mita will do with this info. 

"Kaseifu no Mita" ep. 7 and ep. 8

Episode 7 was a multiple-hanky episode in which Keiichi, the dad, finally asserts his desire to love his kids.  Keiichi has to hit rock bottom first, though.  He gets fired from his job.  He loses Kii's symbolic "dad" rock.  He is busted for Mita calling in a bomb threat to Kii's school.  He has zero confidence as a father.  His kids see his pain as he tries to throw himself into the river.  But they stop him by saying he needs to see Kii's play.  So they reenact it at home in an incredibly cute way.  He breaks down and apologizes for not loving their mother enough and asks for their forgiveness.  And they accept him.  It is nice to see Mita supporting Keiichi in her own weird way.  Then the kids get even more curious about Mita's past...

In episode 8, the kids try to wheedle Mita's story out of her in some funny scenes as they challenge her in some games. But Mita is apparently a rock, paper, scissors/Rubiks' cube/basketball genius.  (Props to Matsushima Nanako for her no cut, real time cube solving scene.)  After that, the show gets serious as Grandpa ends up in the hospital.  Of course, Mita ends up doing something totally outrageous again.  Which leads to Grandpa admitting that he is afraid that everyone he loves will end up dead or unhappy.  Mita sets Grandpa straight in her straightforward way.  Several Kleenexes later,  Grandpa makes up with his family.  In a show of their feelings for Mita, the family invites her to dinner.  Only after some heartfelt requests, Mita sits down with them.  And proceeds to tell the saddest story ever about her past.  More tissues are needed.  I had to check DramaWiki to make sure there were more episodes since the show ends with sort of final-feeling scene.  I was happy to find out there are 3 more episodes coming.

"Kaseifu no Mita" ep. 6

I liked this Yui-centered episode.  Yui becomes suicidal from her family situation and from being betrayed by her boyfriend.  The bumbling aunt finally does something right and saves Yui from jumping off a bridge.  In a weirdly horrific scene, Mita tries to kill Yui under Yui's orders with scissors, then a kitchen knife.  The best part is when Mita finally shares what she is thinking which helps to talk Yui down from the metaphorical ledge.  The dad finally does something fatherly by telling Yui she was really wanted when she was born.  At the end, the kids want their dad back.  But will he go for his ex-girlfriend over his kids?  Can't tell with this guy.  It's funny how Mita will literally do almost anything she is ordered to do.  Her willingness to go to the extreme to follow an order points out how foolish that order was in the first place.

"Kaseifu no Mita"

Just watched the first episode of this currently airing show.  It's mysterious, dramatic, and funny all at the same time.  Mita is the new housekeeper hired to help a family who is coping with the recent death of the mother.  Despite her robotic and macabre demeanor she somehow manages to help the family cope with their emotional problems.  Mita is played by Matsushima Nanako.  The father is played by Hasegawa Hiroki.   He is also in another series I'm watching called "Suzuki Sensei."  The eldest daughter is played by Kutsuna Shiori, who played the character Ran from the recent "Detective Conan" drama.  I was surprised to see Aibu Saki (from "Absolute Boyfriend," "Rebound," and "Buzzer Beat") playing the well-intentioned, but bumbling sister of the deceased.  I'm looking forward to future episodes.