TBS's new daily, 30-minute hiru-dora (afternoon drama) series premieres Monday at 1:30 p.m. "Kids War 3," which TBS is promoting as a "home comedy," is the third 45-episode series about the ups and downs of the Imais, a Brady Bunch-like family trying to make do in contemporary Japan. Haruko (Akiko Ikuina) and Daisuke (Taro Kawano) Imai each bring to their union two children from past marriages. Together they have produced a daughter, and Daisuke's mother completes the eight-member household.
Haruko's past is that of a "yankee mama," a term used to describe young uneducated women, usually from lower-middle-class backgrounds, who marry and have children at a very young age while maintaining the fast lifestyle of a delinquent teenager. Needless to say, those days are long gone, and Haruko, who is very fair and very, very outspoken, has her hands full raising five kids, especially since the oldest girl is at that volatile junior-high-school age.
"Kids War 3" addresses all the current social problems facing Japan, including teenage violence, educational reform and the difficulties of raising children is an uncertain economic environment. Don't forget, though, it's supposed to be a comedy.