The main cast of Good Morning Call.
Good Morning Call is a Netflix Original Romcom. A live-action adaptation of the 1997-2002 Ribon-published Shoujo manga of the same name created by Yue Takasuka, it runs on an even mixture of Rule of Funny and Rule of Drama and, oh, did we mention the Romance Tropes? 'Cause there's many.
High School girl Nao rents her own Tokyo apartment after her parents move away to the country so she can finish school in the city. Too late she realizes the apartment she now calls home has also been leased to her schoolmate Uehara, both of them having been tricked into signing the contract. Despite their initial horror they quickly must agree that due to a lack of funds they'll have to share - and no one can know about it either, as neither the school nor their families would allow the underage students to live together. Very soon, trouble arises when Nao's group of friends starts getting nosy, and Nao has to realize that there's suddenly a whole number of boys in her life vying for her attention ...
Here there be spoilers for the first season. The second season debuted on Netflix in late 2017.
Tropes featured in Good Morning Call:
- Accidental Kiss: At the end of the first episode, Nao tries to wake a sleeping Uehara - who pulls her down (still half asleep) and gives her a magical First Kiss, only to deny even remembering this once he's awake.
- Age Lift: The characters were originally junior high school students in the manga. In the live-action series, they're in high school.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Oh boy. This series loves this trope:
- Nao with Uehara for the first half of the series
- Uehara with Yuri (he gets over her for Nao)
- Daichi with Nao
- Issei with Nao
- Nanako with Uehara
- Abe with every girl
- Mami with Uehara
- Natsume with Nao
- Nanase with Daichi
- Saeko with Uehara
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Nao does this when describing Uehara's negative qualities, listing genuine flaws and always ending on how he eats too much.
- Betty and Veronica:
- For Uehara, Nao is the Betty and Yuri the Veronica. Rare for this trope: He settles for the Betty.
- For Nao, Daichi is the Betty and Uehara the Veronica. Later on in the series, the Betty role gets passed on to Issei (for the second half of season 1) and Natsume (for season 2).
- Canon Foreigner: Daichi was an original character created for the live-action series. Most of the new cast members in the second season are also original characters, as it was a sequel with an original story.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: The basic premise of the story. Uehara keeps saying he wishes for the unwanted living situation to be over and to live alone, and so does Nao, though she quickly grows out of it. Then, in the final episode, Uehara's wish comes true - but by now he's come clean about his feelings and doesn't want Nao to leave.
- Cool Old Lady: The Landlady allows the two Main Characters to live together when they explain their circumstance. Later, when the school discovers them, she arranges that they be moved into separate housing, as demanded by the school... However, as the school failed to specify details, she arranged the houses to be so close their doors are mere meters apart. She also arranges the original apartment they rented to be available in three years time so that they will have a home to come back to when they are married.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Nao is given a hard time by her friends and family about her lack of skill in the kitchen... until she steps it up in order to win over Uehara.
- For Your Own Good: Once Nao's father finds out about Nao's new circumstances, he wastes no time in canceling the rental agreement, reasoning that there's no doubt a male flatmate will sooner or later take advantage of her.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Uehara comes very close to one after seeing Nao having fun with Issei who has aked her to pretend to be his girlfriend for a day in ordner to get out of a pickle. Note that this is some time after Nao and Uehara officially get together, and the latter had apparently had no objections to Issei's unusual idea.
- Hands-Off Parenting: Nao's parents have given their consent to their 17-year-old living alone, and pretty much don't factor into the story until the last couple of episodes.
- Interrupted Intimacy: At the hot springs Nao and Uehara end up sharing a room together. Nao, worried about the implications of sleeping alone in the same room as Uehara, flinches whenever he so much as stretches so Uehara decides he'll sleep elsewhere. Nao runs after him and tells him she wants to be with him and the two embrace. Uehara notes how hot Nao is and she replies she feels dizzy... and then passes out - a consequence of standing around in the cold for so long earlier in the day.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Uehara behaves callously towards Nao, his family, and anyone else he finds annoying, although he's notably polite in his work environment. Beneath it all he's someone who has serious issues with forming relationships, which has something to do with growing up an orphan and experiencing a rather bad case of unrequited love at a young age.Though Uehara's admittedly very slow about showing it, by the last few episodes he can admit his feelings for Nao to himself and her and clearly appreciates being around people who care about him.
- Last-Name Basis: Notably, even after officially becoming a couple Uehara only calls Nao by her first name exactly once and she doesn't call him by his throughout the whole first season.
- Let Her Grow Up, Dear: This is the immediate reaction of Nao's mother, and she wins out in the end.
- Love Triangle: Poor Nao is in two. The first one is between her, Daichi and Uehara. The second one is between her, Uehara und Yuri.
- Odd Friendship: Of all people, Uehara strikes one up with Abe.
- Operation: Jealousy: Marina wants to finally get Uehara to admit his real feelings for Nao and this is how she plans to get there.
- Parental Obliviousness: For the longest time, Nao's parents have no idea about the fact that Nao's living together with a boy (and all the issues that go along with it).
- Just Friends: Played for drama. It seems like every every time a girl and boy spend enough time with each other, if they already don't have a crush, at least one ends up falling in love with the other. Saeko believes its inevitable while Nanase & Natsume tries to subvert this with Daichi and Nao respectiviely.
- Put on a Bus: Daichi disappears after two thirds of the season and only comes back for the finale.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Uehara, for a while, after Nao's friends have found out the truth about their scheme. Marina, for one, isn't fooled, as for her it's a case of Everyone Can See It.
- Shipper on Deck: Yuri is a huge supporter of Uehara/Nao, and Marina gets on board pretty quickly. Mitsuishi, on the other hand, ships Daichi/Nao. Ota also ships Uehara/Nao.
- Through His Stomach: Not only do Nao's cooking skills win Uehara over, it's generational, with her dad claiming he married her mom because of her croquettes.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Despite being so popular he has his own unwanted harem, Daichi is this for Nao.
