Jimmy: The True Story of a True Idiot (2018) User Reviews

Hilarious, heart-felt, vulnerably raw awkwardness of human nature-based humor

[rawalien · 9/10 · 18 September 2019]

The story is well written based on the real life story of Jimmy Onishi and his mentor, the greatest comedian of the Western Japan, Sanma Akashiya. Wonderful character development and well executed acting job. Also a nice deep dive into a part of Showa period (70's-80s') and Japanese pop culture.

Fair warning though - this drama is not for people who don't understand how human vulnerability turns into comedy materials. Those who grew up in a culture where human raw nature and vulnerability is look down on, treated as something shameful, seen as a taboo therefore needs to be hidden, a lot of the scenes in this show will probably make one uncomfortable. However, for those who have been exposed to Asian cultures whose mind is broaden to appreciate the irony of life, including vulnerable, awkward actions of human - due to being human, due to human mental condition or nature, this is a true gem. There is no other show like this, that has both the heart-felt human drama, about true friendship, deeply moving and genuinely tear-inducing moments and something so raw, so hideous because humans can be too vulnerable which is the comedy of life. This show will show how much your true soul maturity is, because to enjoy the humor in this show, it would require a compassionate mind that has been polished and evolved over many lifetimes; a soul that has already accepted and forgiven the imperfections humans are made of, including oneself. If you have yet accepted that you have been someone like Jimmy or Sanma before, the vulnerable imperfect human, or the one spiritually evolved, you won't have the capacity to find him funny, but be frustrated and annoyed. Because you are still afraid and not okay to be human. It will be safe to say that this show will be appreciated only by the true connoisseurs of human nature and comedy.

A heartwarming but equally frustrating series

[danielatala8 · 5/10 · 29 November 2018]

I love Netflix's diverse content spanning over multiple countries... I'm especially particular about their Japanese tv shows as they are very entertaining and give something different than the western shows they put on (I wish they gave these more coverage too...)

So this is a series about a famous painter and comedian Jimmy Onishi who apparently is as the title says "a true idiot" the show never makes it clear if he has a mental condition... But the character played in this show is a total natural idiot, they don't shy away from the fact. And it's in some way about the relationship with famous comedian Sanma Akashiya. Every episode starts with the real life Jimmy and Sanma talking about the memories and such, I think it gives it a personal and narrative frame... however this show gives me many many many frustrations.

First of all it's how the character of Jimmy is portrayed, I know it's mainly for laughs but somehow he's just really really really annoying, I couldn't stand watching the last three episodes because I felt that they mostly made conflicts which Jimmy made up due to his illogical reasoning and this made me quite irritated.

However it's not all laughs, there are plenty of drama moments as well... but these fall very flat, sometimes you get an impact from them but due to the character of Jimmy and how he is portrayed it makes it really really hard to feel compassionate about him, except for the parts of his childhood and when he gets called out as stupid but most of the drama that he (Jimmy) makes up is plain annoying, and made me want to skip it.

But this show has great moments, given by the supporting characters which lift up the show, like the comedy group that supports Jimmy or the character of Sanma. Also the female characters are good.

All in all it's an interesting show that you should watch if you want to know about the life of an acclaimed artist and his mentor- I felt like I learned something new as well, I didn't know about any of these people before as I thought it was going to be a comedy show. However it can be annoying and sometimes the humour and drama falls flat.