Episode 1: Mom's Marriage Meeting

The story opens on a Sunday morning. The mother (Machiko, referred to by her last name as is Japanese custom) is trying to get her three daughters up. The oldest daughter is Yuka, who works in a department store. The middle daughter, Kana, is in high school, while the youngest daughter, Nao, is in middle school.

Right off we find out that Machiko is not quite the typical mother. When she can't get Kana up, she gets a watering can and acts like she's watering some plants outside but then drips water on her daughter. It ends up she pours almost the entire can of water on Yuka's head.

Machiko is getting ready to going to a marriage meeting, this being a meeting between a prospective wife and her prospective husband. It is sort of a "sounding out" of the two, a somewhat formal way of checking out marriage possibilities. We learn that the Machiko had been a model when she was younger. We also learn that the next-door neighbor, Yumiko (at times referred to as the "hag") is the one who has set up the meeting.

Yuka has a boyfriend who is a dentist and they meet over lunch and discuss her mother's marriage meeting. Yuka says she wants her mother to marry for love.

Machiko is then seen going by a ramen shop, an oft-used location in the series. The shop is run by the manager Koyanagi who has a major, major crush on Machiko, although she doesn't know it. She asks him to go with her to the marriage meeting since her daughters wouldn't but he just can't bring himself to do that. (Understandable, considering his feelings about Machiko).

The scene goes then to a swimming pool where Kana is talking to a guy about her mother's marriage meeting.

At the home, Nao, the youngest daughter, is studying with a boy from her same class. He has brought some groceries and as she goes through the bag she finds a girlie magazine.

At the pool we learn that a girl named Tenko is Kana's best friend. They are talking about men, a not-unusual activity among many high school girls.

Machiko, meanwhile, has gone to the meeting place and the prospective groom quite literally runs into her while neither is really watching where they are walking.

Yuka and her dentist boyfriend are out walking and we learn that their relationship is not doing too well as both are spending considerable amounts of time at their jobs. He offers to take her to a hotel which is probably a "love hotel", a type of hotel where rooms are rented by the hour for basic purpose of two people having sex, some hotels even having rooms with various themes.

We learn that Machiko is a sales representative for Satsuki Life Insurance company, although we never see her actually doing any work during the entire series. She had married her husband after knowing him for only three months (her husband had died five years earlier of cancer). The more we seeing of the prospective groom, the more we realize that the words "boring" and "rude" apply to him very well.

Kana, the middle daughter, is out walking when a guy on a motorcycle stops nearby, accidentally knocking a pebble against her leg. He stops to see if she is injured and we are thus introduced to another major character in the series, Tooru, who is in college and plays ice hockey.

The scene shifts to the restaurant where the marriage meeting has begun. The prospective husband reveals that this is his 23rd marriage meeting, something which is not at all surprising as we learn more about his character.

Then the scene shifts to the girl's home. Nao is there, studying with a friend of hers from the same class. Her friend is a boy and he has a crush on Nao. In one of the many sexual references in the series he asks Nao if her boobs have grown. (She's not upset at the question, though).

Tooru and Tenko are shown on his motorcycle driving along a road while Kana and a friend of Tooru's follow in a car close behind.

Back to the Raman shop. Koyangi is shown getting more and more upset over the idea of Machiko's marriage meeting.

Yuka is walking and meets a guy who is her direct supervisor at work. It's obvious she has a crush on him, causing the dentist boyfriend to become somewhat jealous.

Back to the home. Nao and her boy friend are sitting together on a couch. She asks if it is true that guys like to bury their faces between a girl's breasts and she offers to let him do that to her. As he approaches her chest slowly she hides her face with her hands. Before he can actually make contact, though, he develops a nosebleed. This is a staple of Japanese humor; sexual excitement leads to nosebleeds in males. He also ends up getting an erection and runs away to the bathroom. Nao seems to be a little upset that nothing actually ending up happening (other then her blouse getting blood on it).

Quick scene change to Kana still in the car with Tooru's friend.

At the restaurant the would-be groom reveals that he has four sons.

Back to Kana in the car. Tooru's friend ends up losing track of Tooru and his motorcycle and instead drives his car down a small road, apparently wanting to take Kana to a love hotel. She strongly objects and leaves the car and runs away.

At the ramen shop Koyangi leaves suddenly.

Nao accidentally meets Yuka, and the two daughters are soon joined by Kana. They know the hotel that her mother's meeting is being held in and they end up going there, only to find that her mother and the guy are arguing. Machiko is revealed to be 40 years old. She has gotten upset with him over things he's said, particularly when he criticizes her daughters without ever even meeting them. The result- the first of many food fights in the series. Things only get wilder when Yumiko, the "hag" who set up the meeting, and Koyangi also arrive. The would-be groom ends up punching Koyangi in the face.

Later on at the home Machiko is crying while the girls are all at the table. This is when we learn that she married her husband when he was an apprentice cook and that their marriage was opposed by (I assume) her family and friends. The mother and her daughters end up going to the ramen shop. We then have Machiko referring to her husband's final words. The daughters reply, something which is repeated from episode to episode but with different "final words" each time. In this episode it runs this way:

Machiko says her husband's last words were "a woman should be modest."

Then the daughters add lines about what that statement means. This includes:

"The consideration to defer to others"

"To bear no malice towards others"

"To always be demure and sweet."

After the actual episode ends, the actor playing Tooru and Yuki Uchida, who plays the middle daughter, sing the words to the song "Paula."