Yamada Tarou Monogatari Ep.1 Summary

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We’re first introduced to Yamada Tarou gazing at the cloud, imagining it as a huge korokke. Yes, he lives in a rundown house with his mother and 6 younger siblings. At the prestigious Ichinomiya High School, everyone is crowding around a notice board which has a list of students accepted in the 3rd Year Honours class. Just then, Yamada arrives at the entrance along with Mimura Takuya. Both of them are the top two students in the Honours class, and every girl in Ichinomiya admires them greatly. They’re both incredibly clever, athletic, good looking and rich. No one knows that Yamada is in fact poor. Also, Yamada is the only scholarship student with a 3 million yen deduction from his tuition fees.

Once they read the list, Yamada wishes Mimura good luck, but Mimura ignores him and walk off. Yamada is unfazed, though, because he smelled dried fish. It’s from Ikegami Takako’s bento. Takako is also in the Honours class, and happens to be from a ‘commoner’ family. Yamada smiles at her, and Takako, charmed by the smile, is convinced she has found her Prince Charming in Yamada!

At the school’s opening ceremony, Yamada and Mimura has to conduct the singing of the school song. With Mimura playing the piano, and Yamada conducting the orchestra, the girls stop singing and faint in delight (tashiichaan: Lolololol). Later on in class, Torii-sensei (Eri-chan from Bambino! Ohmigod she has worked with almost 2/3 of Arashi?! :O), decides to choose the class representatives. Sugiura Keiichi, who is cocky and jealous of Yamada and Mimura’s immense popularity, nominates himself. Yamada and Mimura are nominated as well, but they decide to pull out, hence Sugiura is the class representative, and Nakai Masami as the vice representative.

Mimura, who is sitting is front of Yamada, passes the day’s lesson paper to him, and notices that Yamada is using a used chocolate box as a pencil case. Not only that, he hears Yamada’s stomach growl! Mimura is surprised, and gets a little suspicious. When school ends, Mimura sees Yamada running off, so he tries to follow him. Halfway through the stalking, Yamada stops by a yakitori stall and smells it, and suddenly runs off, much to Mimura’s confusion. Yamada has run off so fast that Mimura lost him. So he goes home, puzzled by his interest in Yamada.

During dinner at home, Yamada teaches his family an eating technique, where he remembers the smell of yakitori and eats the plain rice imagining the smell. That way, they can save up on food. He also mentions that he has earned some money for his siblings’ new semester at school, however it is spent by their mother on a drawing which reminded her of her husband. The next day is Itsuko’s, one of Yamada’s sisters, birthday, and she wants a Yokozuna korokke. Yokozuna is a supermarket known to be an ugly battlefield of housewives when it comes to discounts, but Yamada promises Itsuko that korokke.

After his siblings’ fall asleep, Yamada goes to work at the night shift of a construction site. Due to lack of sleep, he falls asleep during class the next day. Torii-sensei isn’t happy, and tries to throw a chalk at him, but stops when she see his sleeping angelic face. Even she can’t resist Yamada! During lunch time, a group of girls ask Yamada to eat with them, but Yamada didn’t bring his lunch. A girl offers her bento, and immediately Yamada lights up and smiles at her. Totally charmed, the other girls offer to bring him bento the next day!

After school, Yamada rushes off as usual, but he is going to the Yokozuna supermarket. There is already a crowd outside, and among the crowd is Takako and her mother (Shibata Rie! :O). Takako refuses to help her mother and runs off, barely seeing Yamada running by her. Once the korokke sales begin, Yamada tries to get his hands on the last korokke packet, but someone else tries to grab for it, and it’s Takako’s scary-looking mother. Yamada ends up losing the packet, and he goes home to the disappointment of his family, especially Itsuko.

At the Ikegami residence, Takako is having a korokke dinner with her family when her mother tells her about the boy she saw in Yokozuna. Disgusted by her commoner family, Takako runs out of her house with determination to escape her commoner’s life. Across the street, is Yamada working at the construction site. Takako assumes that Yamada is working to appreciate the value of money, and admires him even more. But their conversation is interrupted by Yamada’s jealous (and gay) senior.

The next morning, Yamada overhears Itsuko murmuring “Korokke…” in her sleep, and feels dejected. At Ichinomiya, the principal is at the greenhouse when Nagahara comes to visit him. It’s revealed that Nagahara was once a scholarship student at Ichinomiya, the other only being Yamada. During lunchtime the same day, girls are piling up their bento on Yamada’s table for him. But Yamada smells korokke instead, and it’s coming from Takako’s bento of korokke leftovers. He begs Takako for the korokke, and Takako, who couldn’t resist his innocent eyes, offers him. Yamada is elated that he could finally give Itsuko the Yokozuna korokke he promised.

In the principal’s office, Nagahara is taunting Torii-sensei, who happens to be Nagahara’s junior in university. Torii-sensei is nervous and shaky, and escapes from of the principal’s office in intimidation. Elsewhere on campus, in a toilet, Yamada sees the pile of toilet paper. Remembering that his house has run out of toilet paper, he steals one roll out of desperation, but with a promise that he’ll return two rolls of toilet paper. He hides it in his blazer as he tries to sneak off, but outside, he bumps into Torii-sensei and falls, revealing the toilet paper. He manages to grab the it, but it rolls down the flight of stairs in front of everyone. Sugiura loudly accuses Yamada of stealing toilet paper from the school, but Mimura comes to rescue Yamada, claiming that Yamada wanted to get some tissue for his allergies.

Angry that his plan failed, Sugiura decides to steal from Yamada’s pile of bento. At the same time, Mimura asks Yamada why he stole the toilet paper, but he doesn’t get an answer. Yamada catches a glimpse Sugiura passing by with Takako’s bento, which has the korokke. He sprints after Sugiura and chases him all the way to the rooftop, and Sugiura asks him, “What’s so important about this bento?”. Yamada answered that Sugiura doesn’t understand the feelings put into that bento, and how precious it is to him. He is unaware that Takako is eavesdropping, and feels loved that her bento is precious to Yamada. Sugiura pretends to return the bento, but only to fling it into the air. Yamada jumps and dives to catch it, but the bento was caught by Mimura instead.

At home, Yamada hands the bento of korokke to Itsuko. Instead of eating, she smells it and tries the technique Yamada taught her and ate rice. She then gives the korokke to Yamada, telling him that he deserves the korokke. Yamada eats it in tears, which he quickly brushes away. Unbeknownst to them, Mimura has discovered Yamada’s house and his true colours. Just then Yamada’s mother returns home and inquires if Mimura is Yamada’s friend, to which he replied yes. She invites him into the house, but Mimura quickly declines and walks off.

Outside, Mimura stops midway and asks himself if Yamada really is his friend. He smiles and convinces himself Yamada is definitely an interesting person. Back at the Yamada residence, Yamada’s mother shows Itsuko the present she bought for her, which is a dress. Yamada is horrified, and wonders how much money was spent on the dress. He figures he’s going to need another part-time job.

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Tashiichaan’s thought -
Sho-chaan needs to learn the Domyouji smirk! xD I’m convinced that Nino really does ‘act with his eyes’ – he’s soo innocent and his eyes practically twinkles! Almost every scene in this episode cracked me up – especially Shibata Rie-san. It’s also amazing how Yamada has such a young and hawt dad. The settings and plot is almost similar to Hana Yori Dango, as well as the production of the drama… maybe that’s why I’m so attracted to it! I’m definitely going to love his J-dorama as much as I did with Hana Yori Dango and Hanzakari no Kimitachi e!