hamanosilence

Over Time (jdrama) Review

2009-12-15T17:08:28Z

Since I am obvously not fully used up by the right now airing doramas (waring sarcasm) I got me a nice older dorama named Over Time :)

I got myself interested in this one when I somehow listened to the insert song of this dorama. I dunno how I ended up seeing it at youtube but Yamaguchi Yuko did a really nice song there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOtnuEwxXDM&feature=related
(Added the Pv version so it won't spoil you about the end like the other videos you'll find on youtube :P, although with scenes of the dorama the song works even better)

This dorama is from 1999 and just to know how good the cast was I recomend looking them up in jdrama wiki to see that most of them are still working in the jdrama industry nowadays.
The story evolves around a group of 3 women of which one has a younger brother who is the main guy in this one. The brother is best know imho for beeing GTO-sensei (who doesn't know this series and or the movie .. go watch it :P)

Right at the start the main couple of interest is set up by a fateful meeting.
Souichiro (GTO) stays in the same hotel for a silvester party as the 3 girls do (Esumi Makiko as Kasahara Natsuki, Ishida Yuriko as Tsurumachi Fuyumi and Nishida Naomi as Kaede Haruko).
Natsuki is a bit curious about how the silvester special meal looks like that she crawls over to another door to spy it out:

Too much curiousity :P

Of course the door shuts behind her and now she is outside in not appropriate clothing :P
Lucky for her is that Soichiro is living next door. When he tries to follow his pal because he forgot the car keys he witnesses her. Of course they get into a fun argument and in the end his door shuts too and they end up both outside:

Soichiro: Where's the maiden :P

Of course they have to get spare keys from the lobby .. but there is the silvesterparty going on :P Natsuki begs him for his bathrobe ... in the end she gets it, but instead of her Soichiro runs half naked to the counter to get the keys :P

And as we know, this wouldn't be their last meeting. Soichiro is working for a newspaper in Hookaido, and there he covers a wounded young woman after some accident and therefore the photographers don't get the "good" pics of her. Soichiro is therefore sent back to the main office in Tokyo.

In the meantime we see that Natsuki is living with 2 other women of similar age together:

A very funny WG

One is Soichiros sister haruko and the other is the full fledged affair with husbands girl Fuyumi :P The two talk Natsumi into going to an omiai :P But the partner for this miai is late and he sends his junior at work to tell the girls that it takes longer :P Of course the young guy is Soichiro :P

And then he did run half naked ... Fuyumi listens carefully :P

The two have always those nice quarrels in the beginning which makes one of the major sources of charme in this show. Something like this:

Lucky for him that natsumi is also blunt and can handle such things

Of course the miai is going badly, as the miai partner is more focused on Fuyumi. When Natsuki get's sick of it she just runs away ... Soichiro follows her and takes her to a flight with a small airplane :P They will nearly crash too ... a big bag of fun :P

And to make everything perfect, Soichiro moves in with his sister too and now the two quarrelheas are united in one house:

Now it's the complete madness :P

But everyone that thinks now that the story is fully setup up is wrong.
The girl Soichiro covered is actually a student in Tokyo that hands him the jacked back and the two start dating right away:

Totally cute :)

And Natsuki meets her ex teacher from her learning days ^^ .. Kuga-sensei and starts dating him.

You can call him the lucky guy ^^

So the straight way for Natsumi and Soichiros happieness together is blocked by either lovers.
Of course the side characters do not keep any privacy like sidelistening to phone calls:

Nowadays this joke would not work anymore (sadly)

And so the relationship of Soichiro with Nazuna is kinda hard to maintain "secret". And with Soichiro growing closer to Natsumi and she to him, Nazuna is overly worried about her relationship with him. The main problem is that Soichiro and Natsumi share their thoughts so openly that at least for the first 75% of the dorama everyone is less informed than those 2.

And I have to say those talk scenes are a big plus of this show:

Watch the cute panda

But there is always this lingering question:

I won't spoil this, even though everyone knows the answer to this question ^^

I could go through the episodes to tell all the story parts, the side story arcs and so on, but I feel everyone should see it for themselfes. It is quite a long time I had an this much enjoyable slow paced romance dorama. I think it makes 2 now with "Slow Dance" even though I'd say Over Time is slightly better in the first 11 eps with a sader ending and Slow Dance had a full fledged happy ending. I sometimes even thought that the latter was somehow inspired by Over Time.

The cast is really good, and I'd say much better than the average cast you see today. Which might be because most actors were already a tad older than nowadays. Esumi Makiko shines especially forming this cute but blunt straigthforward woman and her interaction with GTO they build a believeable friendship. (Oh and did I say this dorama had probably the highest hug rate of every dorama I saw so far?).

They even can add such a cute actress like Tanaka Rena in a minor side role for a extra twist in the story :) And wow she was brattiely cute back then ^^ ...

Awww~~~~~

So overall I'd rate this as high as possible .. even though for a 10/10 the ending shoudl have been different. Not that the ending is bad or unbelievable ... it just felt different from what maybe 99% had expected ... sometimes that is good .. sometimes not.

And I think the girls should get some tissues to the dorama :P

I seldomly recomend a dorama that much, like this one .. but Over Time deserves to be watched ... more than once ... sadly the picture quality lacks in the version I have ... but good stories shine through anything :)

Toukyou Dogs Ep2-8 Review

2009-12-12T16:41:46Z

Another one up to the last third :)
So what happened to Yuki and her two police bodyguards.

Toukyou Dog tries to be 3 this in one, first it tries to be a comedy, a slight romance dorama and police dorama too. At least the first is done nicely .. the romance part is kinda reduced to a few scenes and well the police work is sometimes really unbelieveable :P

At least protecting Yuki ends up in maruo and Sou into one flat:

Yuki is more concerned about beeing harassed by Maruo then beeing safe :P

Everyone has a seperate room and they try to come along like this.
Sou will always play the "you do not really try to remember"-part while Maruo will be the "caring" one later.
But before this there is more comedy ... Maruos Kouhai from his biker days invites him to a goukon :P

A gang member goukon :P

Maruo isn't pleased by this though :P

On the more brighter side the police found Yukis older sister to visit her. It appears they had some fight and bad blood between them when Yuki left but right now they come alon well. her sister is one of the often seen side characters in many doramas.

She should get bigger roles too

Even though Sou is always that cold towards others he is especially pampered by all (older) women too. He even get's help in a short time sale :P

Isn't that against the rules :P

Yuki hasn't remembered much until then. So one evening she goes drinking with her part time job coworker (who is actually a evil guy as the viewer knows already). It is though unknown why he did not use the opportunity to grab Yuki away.
Yohsitaka Yuriko shines especially in the few scenes where she can be more bratty than her character in this show usually is alowed to. Ans for beeing a drunk that tries to sneak up on Sous back she gets this:

Good throw :P

Another runnign gag in about every episode (sometimes) twice is the phone call of Sous mommy in the most inapropriate times ... imagine this .. undercover as evil Yakuza guys:

Souchan Mama desukedo ....

Finally the main plot gains some speed in episode 8. Yuki remembers not only that her lover was shoot right before her eyes, no it apears to be the guy that Sou was hunting all the way.
So all setteled?
Not really, because the coworker now figures the time is right to kidnap Yuki:

And he was always sooo nice to her

It seems that he did not kill ehr because he is trying to ransom the boss of the gang by kidnapping Yuki. Which also means that Sous nemesis is still alive (somehow).
So the next episode will be filled with the big last hunt for him.

This beeing said I have to say that the sidestory cop action in this show were merely a drag between the comedic parts and Yukis memory problems. Overall still enjoyable though.
Okay Sou would have been suspended and thrown into jail several times already .. but well it seems so much cooler when he just shoots around himself on possible evildoers .. that lucky for him are real hannins :P

So I am anexiously waiting on how the show might improove in the next episode for the unwrapping of all the little secrets ^^ .. Maruo is too:

Sou looked too :p

And on top we might see more of his family beeing involved in the case:

And I thought I know all the younger sister actresses recently :P

Ohitorisama Ep2-7 review

2009-12-06T18:41:19Z

Next up is Ohitorisama :)
I am already done with ep7 so time for more info.

In the beginning episodes we have Matsushima Nao trying to get Kamisaka-senseis attention, she although ahve to fend of the one shoolgirl that tries the same :P
But she is really good in disturbing her plot. On day she finally seems to have time to lure the Sensei into going out with her:

Owww why does this coupling look more appropriate than the other matchups in this show?

But Nao is really sneaky too, she somehow knows when to pop up to "rescue" Kamisaka Sensei :P

Fear the allmighty Nao :)

The main storypart this episode is of course into the "I have to believe my students"-direction we know from Gokusen. The teachers hunt down some guy that secretly makes pictures of the shoolgirls outside :P The more interesting part is how the teacher are hunting down the shoolgirls too to send them back home :P
After all is cleared there is only the stalker following Mizuki Arisa :P
The "stalker" however is noone other than a private detective espionaging on Arisa as the wife of the second in charge of the shool think she is his husbands aijin :P

Of course not :P

Episode 3 follows the same plotline, although some people get suspicious since Kamisaka Sensei leaves little hints along the line:

Erm uhm well ...

Of course there is another round in the "trying to sneak up on Kamisaka-sensei":

If glances could kill :p

But with time Nao figures that he isn't interested in her. She gets him to buy her a new camera and goes to a park with him but he seems distracted. But the other female teachers figure out her plot :P A pretty nice explaination is given here:

Lure them in and then ....

(By this time we also know that Nao is obviously a rich ojousama or at least nearly so)
But we all know that Kamisaka-kun will end up with Arisa :P
Finally Nao will get upset with him for setting up a date with his friend (and not telling her so). But really ... do you think this coupling works?

I think not .. she can even carry him home too, and Nao is not as strong as Arisa :P

But at least there is still his buddy who is still trying to impress her. But she isn't really paying attention to him. There might be some reason to belive that Nao is in fact kinda similar to that shoolgirl in the way that she usually get's what she wants :P
And obviously not a part timer:

The other two want him though :)

Finally in episode 7 we get some real progress in the main couple. Arisas Mom visits and is of course totally impressed by the nice sweet guy her daughter lives with. Even though he is a bit young she'd totally wave him in if this would be the case. Of course Arisa is in full denial.

But after hearing the sad story how he lost his mother (or better was "dumped" by her) she at least cries and hugs him at some karaoke place. (Btw his mother is the shool head as we learn too :P). And in the end Kamisaka-kun confesses to Arisa .. well at least he tries :P

So upcoming for the next episodes .. the necessary dorama. How do the two get along and how will the shool react upon this coupling. For me I wonder wth the shool has to say in this .. but well there are always the three trying to rank up in hirarchie :P

Overall the dorama is pretty okay. If you like some standard situational comedy and romance it is worth a glance. especially if you like either Nao or Arisa ^^. ... well okay or the guy :P

JIN Eps 3-8 :)

2009-12-03T12:23:15Z

Time for some midway reviews of the current doramas :)

So episode 3 ends the Cholera arc in the show, which will include JIN beeing saved by Saki.
To increase the amount of people saved JIN let the EDO peopel produce intravenous drips for him. Ogata-sensei is a big help at this point.
Saki however even sets her home on the line to help him. Of course there are things she is not used too ... well something like this:

The second time she looks more curious :P

With the technique she learned there she saves JIN at the end.

Episode 4 then introduces the courtesan Nokaze that Sakamoto Ryoma likes .. but for JIN it is more the fact how she looks:

Miki in a different outfit ^^

Jin gets the trust of Nokaze as he figures out that she has some health problems buy just looking shortly on her eyes. Due to this she asks him to help another person.
It is her "sister" that has a late stage syphillis.
In episode 5 Jin contemplates about a way to make Penicillin, in the end he figures out how to do it because he remembers the details of a paperwork Miki did in the future about a natural way to gather penicillin, differently from the way Alexander Feming did.
So another time he needs help from the western medical office:

He always helps

In the end he can't save the sister this way but the medicine prooves to be very effective against it and so the fame of Jin rises, and this will increase the number of problems for him later on.
Episode 6+7 are about those problems. Two of the western medical office plot against Jin and Ogata sensei to get rid of them and in the end they burn down the penicillin factory.
But luckiely for Jin Ogata sensei asked already someone to help him make the medicine elsewhere:

His noodles are still sold nowadays

Sadly Ogata sensei will die at the end of episode 7 leaving Jin in a bad position.
Especially when in episode 8 the beloved courtesan of Sakis brother falls ill due to blood poisioning due to a baby abortion.
The old penicillin isn't effective against it and the new way he thought of would need a huge sum of money. They even go as far as to ask some famous actor that was a big customer of her:

Actors seem to be always the same, rich and kinda strange :P

With the help of Sakamoto Ryoma he can gather the necessary money from the doc who did the abortion. But he scrammed the two by lending them the money only for 7 days instead of 7 years like he said :P Now the property of the medicine is on the line ... Sakis brother is able to convince the actor to lend them the money by humiliating himself on the streets for the actor.
In the end all is good again ... really?
Somehow the picture of Miki turns out to have changed into something really bad ....

Now the big time travel riddle comes into play again ^^.... and we will find out who the strange guy way that was brought into the hospital at episode 1 ... and I think I know who it is :P

If you missed the show so far .. go and watch it .. it's quality and story tellig are more like a long movie and one wants to know how it ends ... go for it!

Update ^^

2009-11-27T15:54:56Z

Just a reminder for me what shows I am on and where I am :P
With some info on how it is going .... will do some more detailed posts later (hopefully).

This season:

Bouchou Mania 09:
At episode 5. So far entertaining although it might get boring if you are not all about watching the 3 get crazy over the lawsuits and/or watching Akina dressing all cutely ^^.

JIN:
At episode 7, so far the best dorama this season. Each epiosde is getting ebtter and better. They even add the necessary drama beside the setup things, like the usual time travel problems.

Jouyou Virgin:
At ep3 or so. Pushed this one back for the better doramas so far. But it is still fanservicy enough to not skip ^^.

LIAR GAME 2:
At episode 3, a good sequel so far with much less time cheating scenes, and so far 2 nice games :)
Toda Erika looks gorgeous again as the good natured Nao ... which apparently grew some Brain in the break between season 1 and 2 :)

Ohitorisama:
At episode 6, fun show, which lies more in the situational comedy as on the coupling of Alisa and the Kantajani guy :P Too bad, Matsushima Nao will be the one to loose the love battle again in this show :P

ROMES:
Still at ep3, since my time was/is limited I am not further than before ... still have to watch if it get's better and Ryoko has more screentime :)

Samurai Highshool:
At ep5: comedy in highshool always works .. kinda. Although pretty cheesy the dorama is good for some laughs. And Anne does a good job as the main love interest girl :)

Shokojou Seira:
At ep6: So far pretty much medicore. Shida Mirai does a good job as the usual bullied girl. But as said in the intro the whole treatment she get's is so misplaced in our times that one has a hard time believing that the shool wasn't closed and the head teacher not in jail a long time ago. Beside this you get a good dorama that even has some fun scenes as due to all the problems, Seira is still kinda needed. (Now that she finally left the shool they have to get her back for the money :P) (The girl that played the mysterious girl in Mei-chan is also a highlight in the few scenes she gets :)

Toukyou DOGS:
At ep6: Can't complain with the whole police story, but I have a better time when they are having normal interactions. Seeing Hiro trying to get along with Yukari and the other guy getting calls from Mom all the time makes the show a good comedy too :P

Untouchable:
At ep2 (still): Even though it has Nakama Yukie, so far the show didn't capture me ... will watch it later though :) Maybe it will get better later.

"Leftovers" from pervious season(s):

Ghost friends ... about midway ... have to finish ... I did get through Maid Deka so this will do too :)
Hyouryu Net Cafe ... hmn maybe later
Ikemen Sobaya Tantei Dan ... halfway too :P
Love GAME: about episode 3, have to watch which other weird stories come up :P
Yukemuri Sniper: Midnight dorama .. about episode 7 .. wanna know how it ends ^^
Dandy Daddy: Somehow it got boring in the midst .. I think only 3 eps left.
MR. Brain: Even though it was so highly praised, I kinda did not connect with Kimutaku in this one ... but for Ayases sake I have to watch it :P (She was so misplaced here .. watch JIN)
Hatachi no Koibito .. from kinda long ago, but Masamichan is worth a watch and it even has Sanma :P (now that all eps are subbed :P)
Gakko ja oshierarenai: Also somewhat in the middle .. wasn't that bad :)
Abarenbo Mama: Same as Hatachi no koibito, only with Aya Ueto .. too few shows with her lately :P

LIAR GAME 2 (Introduction)

2009-11-17T15:00:30Z

Ahhh finally also the last dorama started. It's the second season of LIAR GAME.

As in the last season Nao get's kinda tricked into participating and Akiyama can't help to egt lured in by the female staff member ^^. In addition we get Mr. Mushroom to join too.
To the surprise of all this time it is a 3 on 3 match and the three mentioned above are one team :)

Our shure winning team :)

On the other side are 3 other not know ppl that will probably loose to our "heros". (The female seems to be the producer from Medol :P)

The probably shure loosers :P

Each team will have a one on one against another teams player. The first game is between Mushroom-san and the one guy from team 2.
The game they play is a 24shoot russian roulette.
Of course they do a introductionary round ^^ ..and guess who has to play the bait:

Nao ganbatteeee

The rules are fairly simple. Each player has 150M Yen given as 150 chips. If you happen to "blow" your head the other guy get's 50 of those. If you "pass" one turn you have to pay one chip. If there are concurrent passes you ahve to double your pass penalty. The one that shoots then will get the chips or will loose the chips + 50M.
If there are 5 consecutive passes the dealer will grab all the chips (31 to be exact) and will take the shoot for them.

Akiyama and Mushroomy are having a good strategy set up for them to win:

What a bit gravity can do ^^

With the help of gravity and the 3 consecutive bullet setup they forge a row of free shots at the start which Mushroom-san uses for a big advantage.
At the end of episode 1 the team1 looks liek the shure winner ... but something strange happens .. Nao figures out something on ehr own for the first time in the whole series:

A Mistake in Akiyamas holy strategy?

Well I dunno the mistake but I have a slight idea what the problem is.
I was pretty much puzzeled that this time the LIAR GAME setup people would give out 150M to each and collect only 100M each ... I think this is the key to the mistake.
Up to now the money in the game was constant. So in the end all could go out without loss.
But this time there is a money drain.
Since they all set up 3 consecutive shoots, they won't shoot at least 4 times in the game, since when the first bullet popps you know the next 2 will too.
To avoid this you have to pass out until the dealer does the turn. So at minimum 4x31 chips will go to waste. Maybe even more. So the sum in the end will be at least 124 chips less than before. To be even out it would need 200 chips out of the 300. But 300-124 < 200 right?
Since in the end all losses will covered by the whole team, I suspect the whole games to be that sort that the teams are to loose regardless of who plays how.

Can't wait for the next episode .. wow shoudl ahve aired today ... can't wait ...

Hitomi (Asadora) Review :) Part 2

2009-11-11T21:14:12Z

Okay here comes the second batch .. let's see if I can finish the other 13 weeks today :)

Week14: 母、あらわれる: Mother appears (or better reappears)

It seems that only Yuria is a full orphan in Katsutaros household. Akira was left by his dad and Shota was abadonned by his mother.
All of a sudden she calls the foster parent center to gain contact to Shota.
Of course that stirs a lot of action there and after consideration that she is now happiely in a couple that wants to marry and so on the center people think it is okay to have Shota meet her again:

母だよ。

In the meantime we have Hitomi and the 3 girls beeing happiely together and decide to stay as the group aiming for next years Dance Beat.

Week15: 涙のタオルケット　(The blanket of tears) (Shotas towel piece he has from his mom is meant)

The week starts off happiely as Shota will now also gain contact to the fiancee of his mother and they play happiely in the park. Yurianeechan however is sad that Shota doesn't tell ehr about the meetings and therefore "steals" his game console he got from his mother.
(Another scene where someone needed a big hug in this series .. but somehow it has to do without). But not much later the dorama sets in.
It seems that the fiancee didn't tell his mother about hsi new girlfriend and not about her having a child. And as he is from a rich family and the only son it such a nono!
Hearing this will seperate the happy couple and mom will take a step back in saying she won't take Shota back in ...
Of course Hitomi is furious and wants to talk to the mother but the center people won't let her.
In this time she learns that some of the store clercs know the evil guy ... and so the whole neighbourhood goes on a "hunt" :P :

Now you are at the mercy of Hitomi!

Sadly he can't be turned into the loving husband, but at least he tells Hitomi the whereabouts of Shotas mom.
Hitomi runs over to her and tells her how Shota is feeling it is all his fault and his mother hates him and that's why she did not show up lately.
In the end she will convince her mother that she should take Shota in.

Week 16: さよなら、将太 (Goodbye Shota)

This week will (nearly) end the long stint of Shota in the Ippongi family.
As Hitomi conviced his mother the contact is reestablished and Shota wants to live with her.
Katsutaro and Hitomi are sad and happy at the same time.
On top the Mother establishes contact to her father that somehow disappeared when her mother divorced. They make up and so they will now move all together into his hometown.

Mother and Grandpa

Of course there is a nice farewell parts for Shota and afterwards Hitomi conteplates about her time with Shota in this home:

Good cap of the (nearly complete) cast

Week 17: ダンズ・イス・ライフ。 (Dance is life)

This week focusess again on Hitomis dancing ambition. Now that most of the family problems are resolved it is time for some problems in Hitomis life :P Or more precisely in the lifes of Yuka and Junko. Both will face sudden changes. Yukas dad went bankrupt and Junkos mom had a car accident. So both will think about quitting Rosemary .. right before the application for the Dance Beat is due. Hitomi is badly remembered on the last year where her friends dumped her the day before the showdown.
But with soem help from Ken (wise speeches from him now morte frequently) and Hitomi fighting for her friends they will in the end regroup and hand in the already torn apart application in the end:

Hitomi glues it again :)

The drawback is, that Junko promised her brother to stop dancing when they do not go to the Dance Beat finals and Yuka wants to help her dad and mom with the money problems.
So the happieness of the 4 might be in danger:

Sadly this group won't stay until the end :cry:

Week 18: 恋の季節 (Season of Love/Romance)

As expected it is all about couples and so on. The store helpers of the fish handler beg Hitomi to become the new head of the family by marrying the owners son :P But she of course declines this half made joke :P All only because the guy dreamed about Hitomi in a wedding dress:

Awwww~~~~

And why? Because Ken works now as part timer in the shop (or better will be) and therefore sees Hitomi and he is kinda jealous.
In the end Hitomi can get everyone to believe she is fine right now and needs no boyfriend.
While the neighbour guy is getting Ken into some serious thinking about his life:

Nothing better to change your mind is a drunk guy that has something to tell ya :P

This way Ken will finally do something to ease the pain of his former members sisters pain. Ken and Ray will go into the Dance Beat tournament too (from this point on I was shure Rosemary would not win ...but more about this later).

Week19: 勝負の時　(Day of the tournament)

Finally the long awaited Dance Beat of the new year has started. And this time it will be a final stage for the group Rosemary. If they won't get a price they will disband.
And in this critical situation Hitomi hurts her foot the day before the tournament. (well chasing someone (Akira) up the stairs is dangerous.)
So at the day of the tournament she will stumble at the rehersal and all are worried about Hitomi:

Awwww

But with the help of the Osaka girl dance group leader Hitomi will be taped so that she can dance. All groups do a good performance .. the three Salaryman group is funny ^^.
Rosemary puts up a good show too, although I'd prefered the Summer contest clothes (see there).
Sadly but true the group won't get any price:

This is the death sentence for Rosemary

Week 20: つぎの一歩　(The next (first) step) (or: a new start)

With the lost tournament the group is dissembled and Hitomi pretty sad about it. Especially as she will part with Yuka and Junko for the rest of the series (well except week 26).
Ken starts this week as part timer at the fish shop. And at the end of episode 1 this week there is a sudden ray of light in the future of Rosemary. Moe visits Hitomi at Rose bar and tells them that they were scouted at the tournament.
Rose and Hitomi are frenetically about it so that Moe can't get the details out at first ... only Junko and Yuka are scouted ... they declined if they can't be with Hitomi.
But of course Hitomi urges them to follow their dream of a debut (and since Yuka and Junko live together now like several months they are big buddies now too).

Buddies forever :)

as side story we see the fabulous return of the famous mayugeneko, this tiem with Ray and Ken as dancers with Moe and Hitomi. And Yuzo (fish shop owners son .. I should have looked up his name earlier :P) takes small steps towards getting together with Keiko. And Hitomi also does a 1 week baito at her mothers company. Slowly the grandpa starts to accept his daughter more and more (well this goes on for several weeks now, since the hospital weeks)

Oh and if that isn't a good CM for a bath:

Week21: 心のままに。　(heart's desire)

Finally the big break for Yuzo and Keiko this week. But all in the right order...
Yuria wants to make a dance club at the shool. Usually first graders are not allowed to form one, but as she asks nicely and convinces Hitomi to teach them she is allowed to open it.
Especially fond about this is that her new friend Nao is also entering (a very calm and shy but knowledgeable girl of her class).

Spot Nao :)

She has a hard time getting used to it, as she is usually very reserved. And we will find out that her grandpa is strongly against this HipHop dancing. However her mother and Yurias teacher a very happy for Nao as she is now more outgoing and makes friends that way.
On the love way we have Yuzo getting again a funny dream about Ken stealing his beloved girl (this time Keiko). And on top the monjayaki brother Makoto organizes a omiai for Keiko. As everyone talks Keiko into it she finally agrees to meet the guy.
But as the omiai is happening Yuzu storms over to confess his love for her:

A bit late but just in time

Of course he is scolded by everyone but in the end Keiko will make up her midn that he might indeed be the man she looks for :).

Week 22: スタト－ライン　(Start line :P)

This week sees the start fo Yuzo and Keikos real relationship and more important Hitomis transition to a dance teacher. The elder club (the genki club) is seeking Hitomi to teach them HipHop too :P In the end they will train with the kids in the shool too. Apparently the elderly are pretty happy about that.
Well except for Naos grandpa that will visit Hitomi to tell her that his granddaughter won't do that bad dancing anymore. Of course Hitomi is angry but what can she do.
Later on she can convince the grandpa to watch a dance of the groups at least to decide if it is worth.

Wow it's grandpa from Tsubasa!

At some shool festival the so new formed groups will dance the famous mayuge neko dance and everyone will be totally happy and cheerfull.
Of course this will also melt grandpas heart and nao can now dance in full happieness:

I wondered why this didn't change his mind at first

Week 23: 父と娘。　(Father and Daughter)

For a long time we had Katsutaro and Momoko always fighting, especially about the past and so on. Finally, after we got the two at peace, the reason for the fighting reappears. It's Hitomis dad! She sees him accidentely at the nearby temple. He has a small CM company and prepared posters for the annual matsuri festival.

Dad on the right

She contemplates about seeing him or not. But as she hides the next time he is supposed to be there she is accidentely spotted by them and so she can't avoid a talk with him ... well okay she runs from him but as he stumbles and falls she helps him gather his stuff and they talk.
It seems that he has changed his way of life and wants to reconcile with everyone.
Hitomi is still upset and her talk with grandpa and her mother are ending with their advice to just forget about it.

In the meantime she is opening a dance shool in roses bar and starts earning a little bit of money. With some handouts of her dads company she aquires only few people though.
In the end she will start beside the elderly and the child course also a "beauty" course for working women and a "working men" class too. The later stars Makoto that tries to impress Ray who he is fond of. It is not completely clear if Ray considers him too.

To spice up the family life, a little girl will make a short (week long) stay at the Ippongi household.

they are all so over her :p

Week 24: 家族とは。。。　(Together with the family)

This weeks first half focuses on the little gril and how the warmth of the Ippongi household influences her to the good. Especially her beeing able to get closer to males is a big effort as she ignored Katsutaro in the beginning.

A cake can melt everyone :p

The second half is reserved for the introduction of the last big battle in this dorama. The final frontiers ... how to make dad a part of the family again.
First it is Hitomi that drags her mom (mentally) to meet up with her dad again:

13 years have passed since the last meeting

And finally she washes her parents heads so that they think about how to reestablish a family bond (also with grandpa).

Week 25: けじめの夏。 (Summer of destinction)

First step to do so is to talk Hitomi into the planned meeting of ex husband and grandpa:

Family united

Hitomi decides that it is her turn to talk to grandpa into meeting him. But he is still stubborn and says that there is no need in seeing him. Only his old buddy from the neighbouring house can help now. Hitomi begs him to interfere and so the final meeting is setteled.

Surprisingly the meeting goes rather smooth with tears shedding and so on.
Katsutaro didn't expect that too. And finally he asks his son in law to carry the matsuri shrine thingi through town for him too as this festival is very important for grandpa.
As he accepts they are nearly reconceiled.

More crying than fighting

Week 26 (Final): 祭りの町で　(In the Matsuri town .... or better in the town at the matsuri)

The final week is all about the Matsuri festival. very educational for all that are not knowing what happens there and so on. Hitomis dad is trained very hard to endure the carrying duty. Akira is also asked to help carrying by the grandpa. Somehow this is a big thing for him (maybe someone with more native background can explain that).

Besides we will see appearances from nearly all characters that were in the show. The neighbour that left 1 year ago makes a reappearance. Of course Yuka and Junko will coem along. Ume's son will show up with the now fully reformed family and so on. All is nice and the matsuri goes well.

Finally the family is restored and they even fight about who get's the next beer bottle ^^:

Now all are happy

Hitomi has although another event coming up. She makes a festival for her dancing shool. She can even get Ray and ken to visit even though they both will go back to NY very soon.
In the end the three will dance together too.

Finally some side chars that I did not show before:

The guy in red is Mobo :P .. the girls you now already .. all show up for the last stage of the dorama

Mobo is the announcer and helper in Rays dancing club and somehow the "organizer" of the tournaments and stuff like this. 8And source for valuable information too)

That's Ken ... I wonder why I did not find the time to put up a pic before this last occasion ^^

And this is basically the cast shot of the dorama:

I think only Ume and her Son+ family are missing in this one. For them you see some minor side chars too :)

And so the 156 episodes are over and end with a calm and nice ending, where we see how well Hitomi is now involved in the town and the people and she shurely will do great there :)

Bye,Bye Hitomi :)

Summary

As you might assume by the shear amount of Review-power I used for this you might already guess that I liked this show. This was my first asadora I started and since I watched Tsubasa in between, the second I finished. So I can only compare those two.
And Hitomi imho wins in nearly all aspects. (Sorry Tabe Mikako).
The story is more ground to earth, has no overburdened wacky comedy like Tsubasa had.
One learns more about the town and the way of living (and if I ever need to adopt children in Japan I know now in principle how it works too).
Hitomi is also a likeable character as she is growing into the role of the foster mother with the dream of dancing. Eikura Nana gained a lot of points with this dorama and beside I watched her in the doramas before I will look out for more from her nowone.
I was not very happy that they "destroyed" her dancing career and dissolved the dancing group she had worked so hard for, but in the end it turns out just right for everyone :)
The other cast members are working good together and as the main part are not some random picked jhonnies they can act. Yuka and Junko give a good odd couple that Hitomi and Moe have to glue together all the time. Ray and Ken will grow from the teacher and distant senpais to the friend sthat will give hints and wise words to Hitomi. And the neighbours including the grandpa will grow to like the strange girl they know as Katsutaros grandchild that does such a strange dance ^^ :P

If you have a chance and time to watch it, I recomend it. Sadly there are no subs and probably never will. But the 15min lenghty per episode makes it watchable.

Ps: The opening melody is also better than the one in Tsubasa (Sorry Angela Aki). I instantly liked it from episode 1 and was not bored after hearing it 156 times :) (The opening for Tsubasa is nice too, but I needed about 50 eps to let it grow to me :P)

Another 3h later I am finished ... you can proofread and wonder about the typing mistakes .. but I am now X_X ...

Hitomi (Asadora) Review :)

2009-11-10T21:19:27Z

As I finished Tsubasa I figured that I didn't fully watch the asadora Hitomi (one year earlier broadcast) (Full title would be: 連続テレビ小説　瞳). To be honest I watched maybe the first 6 or 7 weeks back then.
Subs were only out for 3 episodes and after week 7 there were only low ress files supplied ... not that this matters for me ^^.

So I kinda marathoned this asadora the last weeks and here is what it is about ... well a small introduction can be found here: http://hamanosilence.livejournal.com/45869.html#cutid1

So following up is the review for the first 13 weeks (yes I could not finish reviewing all at once .. sry :P

1st Week: (月島へ） (To Tsukishima)
basically covered in the short intro post above. Hitomis Grandma dies and she mets her grandpa after about 13 years or so for the first time. He is the foster parent for 3 kids and this is one of the basic story parts of the show.

Main event of this episode is (beside the funeral and the quarreling of Hitomis mother with the grandpa) Shota (one of the kids) missing one evening and Hitomi will find him:

Wanna have a hug too!

2nd Week: 二十歳の里親　(20 year old foster parent)

As the title implies, the second week deals with the struggle of the grandpa how to find someone to be the second foster parent for his 3 kids as the bureau for foster children requires 2 adults (above 20) to care for the kids.
In the end Hitomi (just gotten 20) will agree to help her grandpa by becoming the second foster parent.
Additionally Hitomi finds a dance shool for HipHop in the neighbourhood and applies there.
The additional notable side character that is newly introduced is Keiko a former foster child of grandpa:

Another cutie the neighbour guy can hunt :P

And Hitomis dance teacher Ray:

She will be important later too

3rd Week: オトナへの一歩　(A first step to adulthood)

In week 3, Hitomi continues on the path to be the foster parent, although she isn't that good in the beginning. Akira (the second male child) is also trying the adult working world for the first tiem for a while. And if one needs a neat trick to cripple someone on a table you can learn from Yuria (the girl in the house).
Teh pics for this week are one from Hitomi speaking with the forster agency people:

And one of the foods you will see like every second week at least ... more like every week twice:

Beside the deer rice cracker this is the second thing I have to taste when I ever go to japan :P (monjayaki)

4th Week: 勇気を出して　(be brave)

This weeks main topic is how Yuria will confess her feelings to some guy in her shool that will leave the town with his dad due to his business closes.
It is mainly Hitomi that encourages her to do that and in the end all is good (and on top she will get a letter of this guy again in week 26 :P)

Btw the cake looks yummy

Another scenery one sees often is the 2 neighbours (grandpa and the fish salesman) drinking together at the shop Matsuri, and the owner will be the love interest of the fish guy later on too:

If they aren't home you'll find them there

Week 5: ダンスと花見　(Dance and the Hanami (flower viewing festival))

After some side character centered episodes we get a more Hitomi following week.
Hitomi is now in the dance shool and still has to manage her time and so on.
Katsutaro (the grandpa) is not very amused that Hitomi breaks promises to him by mostly forgetting the time when beeing with her dance friends or so.
The big fight will emburse when Hitomi finally misses the Hanami with the neighbourhood and the family. And finally she will have a big fight with the grandpa and leaves the hosue for a while:

Three important side characters are also introduced this week:

Beside Hitomi is Moechan who will later on be kinda the groups manager and in front is Yuka a rich family ojousama

And:

Junko a daughter of a gyoza restaurant owner. Wait for all the gyoza eating later in the show...

Getting those two into a group with her will be a big part of the following weeks...
And of course Hitomi returns to the grandpa at the end due to a nice phone call with her mother.

Week 6: がんばりすぎました　(I tried hard (or so))

As Hitomi returns she tries hard to fulfill everyones needs. Especially she tries to hard on beeing perfect. She will come down with a exhausement caused feever and collapses at home.
Therefore she also sees a Doc:

He only has liek 3 or 4 small visits but he is the main doc for the neighbourhood.

Hitomi wonders if she can continue her dance lessons as she is overwhelmed by the workload. But in the end the family makes a plan who will do what and therefore Hitomi can do her dancing and the family too.

Surprisingly this plan works realy well

Week 7: 仲間になるよ。　(Becoming friends /comrades!)

This week focuses on how Hitomi tries to get Junko and Yuka to form a dancing group with her. It's becaue those two are the loners in the dancing lesson and everyone else is already grouped.
It is not an easy way and does not work at the first try but in the long run they will become good buddies .. well not this week though :P Main goal is to get a spot as back dancers in some guys PV. In the end Junko dances with Hitomi but they do not win (like Yuka too). But Ken (oh the former dance buddy of Ray) tells Hitomi that they have the most important thing already (fun):

Fun it is :)

Week 8: ふたつの愛　(two loves)

Week 8 holds some nice surprise as Akira seems to have a girlfriend now. And it is noone else than Ohgo Suzuka :) Sadly she won't get more time in the dorama except this week :(
She thinks about his relationship with his dad and therefore brings Akira into serious thinking too.

Kawaiiii

The other love in this week is the fish seller is after the matsuri owner ^^.
Oh and Hitomi is making Yuka and Junko going to do a dancing part time job ... well but that isn't what they expected:

The world famour mayuge neko :P

This dance will follow those 3 for a while and Hitomi for almost all the time too.

Week9: 結婚します。　(getting married / going to get married)

Week9 follows Keiko with her plan to egt married to her boyfriend .. she has him since like half a year. She can't tell the grandpa right away as Momoko (his daughter) suddenly moves to Tokyou dues to her company opening a part there. And as she visits home they quarrel and Keiko can't get the happy message through.
On top the marriage partner is probably someone that resembles the divorced man of his daughter .. so Keiko needs help from Hitomi:

Hitomi always gets a big grin with such happy stories

In the end we get Katsutaro to give in to the pledge and the two can marry .. but wait .. why does Hitomi see the soon to be husband with another girl at an Onsen? .. see next week:

Week10: 急ぎすぎた幸。 (Hurried Happieness) (or something like this)

This week covers the continuation of Keikos wedding plans. When Hitomi tells Keiko and the grandpa about what she saw they all are in disbelieve and tell her to forget that.
Only her mother is believing her and so the two stalk him down and see him entering his flat with another women. Of course they drag Keiko there (and with her follows half of the neighbourhood). With their support they have a cleaning talk and it appears the guy is back together with his old gf who he never forgot and just took Keiko as comforting "tool".
The only good thing is that the neighbour guy can now hope again :)

the wheeping willow will be her next boyfriend btw :P

Week11: じいちゃんのいない夏。　(Summer without grandpa)

In week11 Katsutaro stumbles down the stair in his shop and breaks his leg (or so). Therefore he has to go to the hospital and stay there for and operation and rehabili too.

A hospital stay does wonders on dad to children conection

Beside the fact that someone has to do all the stuff at home, also grandpas shop has to stay open. The whole neighbourhood helps Hitomi in that task and the next weeks will be an adventure for all of the cast members.

Week12: 祭りにいけない。　(Can't go to the matsuri (festival)).

Grandpa is still in teh hospital and therefore will miss his very loved summer festival.
On the brighter note we have Hitomi get together with Yuka and Junko as dance partners with the goal to win some summer dance tournament.
The neighbouring elderly Ume will also face some summer cold (like Shota had last week) and a visit of her son.

Hey gaming at the dinner isn't nice!

Her son seems to have married a rich town girl and she is spoiling their kid to infinity. And therefore Ume isn't happy, and on top she disagrees on living with them. Luckiely due to the neighbours intervention they come to terms later on as the son will have some intense talk with his family about the matters.

Oh and of course I won't miss the pretty Kimono pic:

眩しい　

Week13: ロ-ズマリ－誕生 (Rosemary's birth)

No Hitomi doesn't get a child, she forms the dance group Rosemary with Yuka and Junko with Moe as manager. The goal will be the summer championship in some local tournament.
Hitomi is finally happy getting Yuka and Junko to be her comrades:

I bet Akira is also happy

A day later they will egt in a fight with some dance group from Osaka which seem to be lead by the younger sister of Ken and Rays former dance partner. She has some grudge against those two as she says they killed her beloved brother.
Of course they try to win over Rosemary at the tournament:

Looking fierce won't win this time

But Hitomi and her group will win the sumemr contest and the 500000Yen price money ... well those outfits alone are total winwin:

Rosemary go!

And I have to say that if they would have used those outfits on the next Dance Beat in the spring they would have gotten a better place and the story would have mooved in a different direction .... well but that is for later.

Okay it's now 2,5h from the start and I thing making a second post for it tomorrow is a better choice ... so stay tuned for more :)

ROMES Introduction

2009-11-05T19:07:09Z

Did I say "this is maybe the last oen I have to introduce" already? Well prolly I did and of course I am wrong ... hopefully this time it is right ^^:P

The premise of this dorama is the airport security at the Toukyou bay airport.
In this story soem genius guy programmed the security System ROMES a kind of autonomous checking system that especially can track people it has scanned before due to strangely accurate face and figure detection (all researchers would love that software as face recognition is still kind of a big problem).
This guy lives in London for some reason, but one day he receives a mail from his security program showing some old guy on the airport. He has some connection with this guy and so he decides to return to japan. (Of course he can work at the airport security again ... well or more like do whatever he pleases there).

In Utahime he was okay .. but in this show he is very much annoying

To sum up his character: he is a big slob annoying and too much relying on his system...

Of course there are more people in this security station. Everyone get's introduced.
Best introduction has Kuninaka Ryoko that is the fighting girl in that show :)
At the first problem we see the security police fails to grab some guy .. instead he grabs some female airport worker:

Right now he thinks he wins

But a second later (with a bit help of the annoying main character) Ryoko jumps down a stairway and kicks the guys butt .. epic win :)

Yes get him Ryoko :)

The others are merely side companions, although the kidnapped worker and one of the station eployees will end up beeing a couple soonish :)

The system itself is some software keeping track of nearly anyone "suspicious" on the airport via tons of cameras:

Here we have the bad girls in disguise

Interestingly it seems that the whole airport security personal is only running and doing stuff when this system beeps :P

In the first 2 eps the story evolves around soem pricy sort of Art made of gold and stuff, beeing shown in some part of the airport. And of course the girls will grab it.
Interestingly we have the security system beeing easiely avoided. (Well what use has it to have cameras over the place when you do not cover the inspection and backside routes too?)
In the end we have the 2 girls run with the gold:

Haha they got her again :P

The solving of the case is quite okay , as one can guess how it works out.
Although our mighty "hero" with his all seeing security system is basically having a TON of luck. There are several ways behind the scenes the culprits can take and if the real hannin would have done how the boss said they would have gone away with the treasure.
(funny enough that in the end we have a dog find the one with the gold :P)

Overall it was a pretty medicore start of this series. The "hero" is unconvincing with his "beeing so superiour clever and his allmighty security system" and it is nearly unbelieveable that the system runs all the security .. just sending the ppl around :P
Ignoring the main character reveals although many good side chars that one would like to see more of :)

(now all the fangirls can start to hate me for dissing the johnny :P ... but really he is annoying in this one .. and the all cool but sloppy genius guy was done much better before ... and not only once .. even the genius guy in Q.E.D. was more believeable ...)

I'd say there are better doramas to watch this season .. and if it wasn't for Kuninaka Ryoko and the other sidecast memeber I'd run from this one .. instantly ...

Bocho Mania 09 (Introduction)

2009-11-03T18:41:41Z

Another short and late night dorama this season is Bocho Mania.
It's about a group of people that enjoy watching trials at the court.

The story starts up slow showing the not trial otaku going for a part time job something.
There he mets some guy that tries to talk him into going to the court watch trials:

That does not really interests him

But he does not really want to go there. (Btw the guy was one of the 5 Silblings in Atashinchi no Danshi, the other one is a comedian afaik).
There is although one thing that drags him in:

That is a solid reason to go into the court ^^

But as he walks away he sees Akina entering the courthouse .. and that raises his interest.
He ends in his first trial about a guy that drove over another on the road:

You can't see the skull of his back

There we see the first time how the show will work. The thoughts of the main guy will not only change what we see, they also do those open discussions while all other participants are standing still, like in time freeze mode.

After the trials they meet Akina in a bar and it appears she is a law student and knows the trial otaku too.

That's how you form a group of trial goers ^^

There are actually 2 trials the first episode, which also shows more of the late night slot it is in. There is this trial about a married guy that somehow forced a shoolgirl into a love hotel and so on.
In the end the three will do a nice time freeze talk:

Akina does not aproove the guys view ^^

Episode 2 has more fun trials and char interaction. This show is worth watching as it also shows that there is something like the public view chance in trials to watch over how the justice works.
(Oh and did I say Akina is worth all the time too?)

A worthwhile nightly dorama, if you need a shorter dorama to watch, this might be it :)

Samurai Highshool Ep1 Introduction

2009-10-28T22:01:48Z

I think I am nearly done introducing the doramas of the new season ... hmn I miss Boccho mania and this hostess club thingi .. that shoudl be it.

But this one is Samurai Highshool.

"Hero" or this show is a highshooler named Kotaro (Miura Haruma) who is merely a clown from the start. His best friends in class are obviously his childhood friend Ai (Anne) her friend Yurika (Kobayashi Ryoko) and later on the overly shy Tsuyoshi (Shirota Yu).

We see them all in the term opening ceremony:

Right beside him the childhood friend

Of course Ai has a major crush on him but as he is such a clown she is pretty frustrated with him. Especially since he is easiely talked into doing stuff he does not want to do and does not protect his friends from the evil girls:

Nakabeppu Aoi was more mature in Walkign Butterfly :P

Those 3 are kinda a fanclub for the most famous guy on the shool that is in fact an evildoer but everyone thinks he is superduper, especially because his parents are rich (one will see this in episode 2).

One evening the 3 girls drag out Tsuyoshi to steal a pricy watch for them. They are stopped by Ai, but she can't fight against those 3 girls. Kotaro arrives there too but backs off fast too.
In a quarrel with Ai he accidentely falls over and thubles down the stairs and hits his head. Right afterwards he get's a nice henshin animation and wakes up as an old samurai spirited Kotaro (well he is inside wondering what he is doing :P).

In this state he behaves like a samurai and fights off the girls. Ai is totally impressed by this action and tries to compliment him. He of course does not recognize her but as she does cling to him he makes a move on her:

His inside Kotaro should have waited a bit longer

But he is inside going on rampage and so the newly samurai spirited Kotaro collapses and so the kiss is not finished.

But you ask, "Where did he get this spirit from?" ... well .. since he slept in a class he was ordered to write a lengthy report on japanese History and therefore goes to a library, where a strange girl hands him and old book:

It took me a while, but yes this is Mimura

Inside this book waits the story of a Samurai with his name and same age. And as he reads on the spirit moves into him :P Pretty standard way imho. Later we lern that probably this kidn of thing happened at least to Kotaros grandpa too.

Next day at shool the news about Kotaros big acting and nearly kiss has reached Ai's friend that officially gives her blessing to the two:

If this would be so easy ....

Ofcourse this is episode 1 and so he can't go all cool raburabu over her ... no he behaves like his normal clownish self and so Ai get's upset with him and growling at him the next times.

Since Kotaro also hidnered the evil girls the second time on their watch steal program they drag him and Tsuyoshi somewhere to get mangeled ... or pay money. Well they decline and in the fight he turns into the Samurai again:

Behold the powerfull Mop!

He then goes home and inside Kotaro hopes to awake after the old Kotaro slept .. but nooo .. he will go like this to shool ... but this is for episode 2 :P

So far I am not shure if this show is just medicore or really funny. On the one hand we have all standard ingredients for a highshool dorama and with this Samurai twist we have also the best way to have a back and forth wavering love story here.
I am pretty annoyed with the normal Kotaro character at the beginning, and so the times when he changes are better, especially since he behaves so differently.
It's astonishing how a bit makeup and haridoo + change in gesture make him look very different.
The girls are cute and the childhood friend reminds me of this one girl in Hachimitsu no Clover that was deadly in love with one of the guys.

Oh and there is another .. even though small highlight in the show:

Ohgo Suzuka

It's Ohgo Suzuka in another role after Shibatora. Sadly or more natural she isn't fired up with makeup in this show. She plays the hard studying sister of Kotaro all of us would prolly hate because of her constant picking on us for beeing not as smart as her ... if she wasn't so cute :P

So far a quite funny highshool dorama with not an outstanding plot but enjoyable :)

Shokojou Seira Ep1 (Introduction)

2009-10-27T12:29:15Z

I was looking forward to this one as it features Shida Mirai in an adaption of The Little Princess story. Let's see if it is as good as expected:

As it is in this story we need the princesslike young girl that is send to a private shool and will there get penniless and treated as servant from there on ... but first the Princess:

Small cottage but okay :P

Following the book, we have her living in India at the beginning as the daughter of a very rich diamon mine owner. But the timeset is different .. it's not victorian time but nowadays. This will bring in the most disturbing fact into play .. I'll come to that later.

Interestingly the whole household of India people speak fluently perfect japanese, even the kids ^^. The first 20min are reserved for showing us the wealthy life and how nice Seira is.
Then she finally is send off to her shool in (yes not London) Japan.

Nice dress .. the classmates are astonished too

The setup of the shool and the interieur is kinda a mixture of last century, 50's and nowadays.
And also the clothing the shoolgirls wear are kinda oldstyle.

Like the book we have the head of the shool dislike Seira from the start, here because she has some resentiments towards her (deceased) mother. But she sees the $$$$-benefit of having her there. And of course we have her sister beeing the second in charge of the shool who has to follow her orders all the time:

The two sisters, one is the pure evil ^^

And the classmates are also basically following the book:

Classroom in here and now O_O? Very luxurious shool !

Spot the girl with the pink ribbon, this is the evil antagonist. The one with the 2 braids is the clumsy girl that will be Seiras best friend in the future.
The others play only a minor role so far.

The staff of the house is the couple doing the cooking stuff:

The two fit the Book characters really well

And they exchanged the poor helper girl with the future love interest guy:

Poor guy that has to hide his books

The first days are pretty much nothing more that showing us how perfect Seira is. Especially she excels in all classes, much to the diasappointment of the former class queen.
She even tries to make Seira fail as she says that the class join trial is to make the breakfast all buy herself for the class.
But this plan fails as Seira makes the breakfast that good, that afterwards the cook is told how good he made the breakfast today.
At least it makes the cooking couple a fierce enemy of Seira too, as they get in a huge fight after they found out who prepared it that day:

I remember the couple fighting in the anime too :P

At her 16th birthday the head of the shool learns that Seiras dad has died in an accident and looses no time to cancel the running birthday party and degrading Seira into a not wanted person. In the end she is "offered" the position of a maid helper in the shool to repay her debts, as the company of her dad is bankrupt too.

Poor Seira :(

From there on all are "nicely" picking on her and especially the cook and his wife are burdening her with all the work they do not want to do. God damnit give the girl at least an good potato peeler and not a knife .. why are all people on earth using knifes for this ...

In this sense episode 1 covers the transition from the weathy girl into the housemaid, and we will now see how they will make her suffer.

My biggest problem with this show is that they set up the show into modern times. This way many things are looking displaced and unbelieveable from the start.
That start by the way the shool works. Goes on to the fact that it is not reasonable that Seira would be pennieless from one day to another. And of course the shoolbill would have been paid beforehand too. Secondly "let" her work as a maid and especially in such a circumstance would have been a deep problem in moder japan (I hope).
On top we get this victorian flair sneaking up from all sides on how they staff and the girls speak and behave, but on the other hand most things won't work that way today ...

Most of the time I can shift this away and just enjoy the show, but at the critical points , especially how the shool head gains total power over the girl and tosses her around like this is reasonable for victorian times .. today she might end up in jail in notime.
The imho should have kept the money for the India scenes and should have invested into letting it play in the right time frame instead.

Nevertheless it is a nice show and I hope they will make it a good watch further on too.
And we all know that Shida Mirai excells in roles where she has to suffer ....

Challenged ep1 Introduction

2009-10-25T18:23:55Z

One of the maybe List, as it is an interesting story and so a bit different from usualy highshool doramas.

The show centers around Keiichiro (Sasaki Kuranosuke) who is a teacher. One day his eyesight seems to get worse all of a sudden, so he sees something like this:

Pretty scary

In the hospital he is diagnosed with a uncureable illness and it is shure that in not a long time he will turn blind. He continues to live his normal life until the day comes he is fully unable to see anything anymore. Now he has to go into rehab and is therefore seperated for a while from his wife and young son:

Reading seems to be the most difficult

After he finally managed the basics he decides to try to work again and such, and therefore he get's a dog to his aid:

Shows with kids and animals always work

Later he decides to try teachign again, but no shool wants to hire him.
Lucky for him is that his wife knows some shool head that might hire him:

The typical head of a shool :P

From this part on it is more about the troubles of the surrounding than his illness trouble.
Basically all teachers are against hiring him, and especially some young female teacher is upset because she did not get the homeroom position he will get.
So they all are only to "convince" when the shool head says he will take responsibility if something happens (Similar to Ohitorisama I really get the impression that there is only one thing that matters in japanese shools ... who is responsible).

So he starts his first day and quickly get's lost in the building and starts to teach in an empty room because he missed the right way ^^.
But the next time he get's the way to the class:

More a realistic class compared to some other shows :P

There is one spot open, because a girl is absent.
She is "spotted" by the teacher shortly after:

It's Sailor Luna !

It is nobody else than Koike Rina that acted as Luna in PGSM ... time flies as you can see since she grew up quite a bit since then :)
To add to the cuteness she has kidn of a panik problem and is so the cute girl that has to be safed for the episodes to come.
Well as she get's "dragged" by the teacher inside she collapses due to an panic attack.
Of course all blame the new teacher. Maybe someone should have told him! But noooo he is at fault and the other teachers already pressure the head teacher to reconsider .... damn.. he is blind... be more considerate!

What follows is the often seen, teacher camps outside the poor girls house to apologize, get's into a rainfall and the girl comes out to give an umbrella to the dog :P
They have a brief talk and so the girl decides to try again.
She get's especially courage seeing the teacher as he (finally) decided to ask for help from the other teachers ...

Maybe the only considerate one so far

So she "copies" his behaviour in front of the class and all kids agree to help her out :) awwww~~~

One special thing about this show is that they obviously tell the story based on real facts as they ended episode 1 with a brief report about one blind teacher and how he works at his shool.
It seems this will be always after one episode, and imho giving the show an additional bonus.

If you want some deeper story with probably less overdone cheesieness you can try this quite different story.

Toukyou Dogs Ep1 Introduction

2009-10-23T19:36:20Z

Someone told me this was going to be good so I couldn#t resist to watch at least one episode ^^.
Damn again a dorama to follow ...

This Police dorama evolves around Ogori Shun, Mizushima Hiro and Yoshitaka Yuriko. The first two will be partners in some japanese police department after they met once at some US+Japanese Police cooperation case in NY.
Well this case is so lame and stereotypical that it is already funny.
1st a drug + money exchange scene with white guys bringing the money and the drug dealers are all black :P Secondly there is only a slight idea why japanese police shoudl be there, and Hrio and his former partner are more whining about evil US than other stuff :P
In the end they have to be saved by Ogori Shun:

Typical end of a introduction fight

The fun starts after this scene. Shun has no interest in arresting them as he figures that the main guy isn't the one he wanted. But there is some eyecandy coming along.
Very very strangely in the midst of NY at a drug exchange scene with exploded car and so on, there is a japanese Girl coming along just to collapse in front of the police guys:

At least one girl to be rescued ^^

It turns out that she lost her memory, but she is taken under protection by the police (back in japan :P) because she might knwo something about the case in NY.
And of course Hiro and Shun are there to protect her :P

Beside the serious story there is enough space for comedy as well.
One is that Hiro is basically hitting on any girl in the show and beeing the nice guy:

At least she won't die like in Boku no Imouto here ^^

Shun however is the cold cool (but prolly inside nice) guy that is totally focused on finding his dads murderer. But back to the comedy ^^.

Shun and Hiro are pretty mismatched as partners and therefore always having funny wordfights.
In addition we have Shuns mom caling always in bad times. And their calls go like:
"Hi Mom, what is" ... "You knwo we do xxx or yyy today will you come too?" ... "Gimme 10min and I call back ..." ... "You always say that ..." ... 3minutes later she calls again giving him headaches like "Mom I still ahve 7 minutes" :P

Of course Yuriko won't be too happy beeing confined in a small apartment and so she can bring Shun to allow a shopping tour. But the 3 guys will make the trip like hell :P
Well okay .. the three had their fun:

Well it is not like it seems though :P

In the end we get the reason why Yuriko has to be protected as she is kidnapped with Hiros ex partner and Shun has to do the Rambo-solo-going in mode to rescue her :P

And one warning ... if this is what you see .. don't open the door :P

Unbelievable, the Trick with the Gas-company-repairman still works :P

Beside the police background, this show was really fun .. having Shun and Hiro fight and Yuriko can be cutely upset nothing can destroy the fun. Okay there is this mystery about Yurikos past, but this can wait :P

Ohitorisama Ep1 Introduction

2009-10-22T15:38:33Z

Another one :) This time a light comedic shool dorama ^^... can't go wrong with this, ne?

This dorama starts Mizuki Arisa and Koike Teppei in a comedic romance shool dorama. Besically it is another version of the nowadays quite popular older woman get's young guy story ... so it seems.

In the beginning we can see Arisa living alone and enjoying herself:

Cute Bunny ^^ :) you decide what I mean :P

It looks like a mixture of Hotaru no Hikari in the Around 40 setting.
At work she is the full refined teacher lady at an all girls shool:

As said .. like Hotaru no Hikari

Little does she know that her life will be stired up pretty soon.
But first I introduce the staff of the shool:

That is such typical behaviour

The head of the shool is Maya Miki, having the older guy as next lower member and the other guy is third in rank.
The Teacher staff of this all girl shool is mainly women:

Spot the male teachers :P

As one of the teachers is getting married and retiring therefore (I wonder if this is still a critique on the marriage-> retire policy in japan or already a sign that one can choose ^^).
And so the head teacher employs a new one:

Right from part time jobber into teacher job

Koike Teppei is acting that part. He is not only pretty short and lookign young, he also is paired up with the strong willed Arisa. Of course all the females in the teacher room (except Arisa) will all go insane about the cute new teacher) and so are the shoolgirls too:

I wonder if this is more of a "porker in lions den" or "heaven" place for him :P
Probably both. At least the girls are all over him and we have at least one teacher beeing all raburabu about him ^^.

The usual drinking welcome party ends with the head guys to get drunk and have to be brought home with a Taxi. Teppei has to sneak away from the female teachers and stumbles into a street ramen shop... just to meet Arisa there:

What a mismatched pair ^^

After some short conversation we see Arisa get too drunk and sleep right there. Teppei carries her home and stays there over night too... much to the displeasement of Arisa who figures that this would be a big rumor in the shool ^^ :P

She is not so much wrong in this, because those three are already planning their personal advancement in the shool if the new one makes trouble and Maya Miki has to step down as head of the shool:

The evil trio ^^

Oh and well .... at the end of episode one we will egt the carrying home in the opposite placement. Which will end up Teppei beeing again at her home:

Seeing this, I really wonder how he could possibly carry her home :P

So far I laughed pretty hard at episode 1, especially at the obvious reactions of all the employes to the new teacher. It also helps that the teacher staff is casted with several good actresses that fill all those side roles very well.
Namely Matsushita Nao who is all fallen over him at first sight :) And of course we have the shoolgirls that will prolly make him suffer pretty soon :P

If you need some funny dorama this might be it in this season :)

Untouchable Introduction

2009-10-20T18:54:33Z

The first one from my watchlist this season (well to be honest I watched Ohitorisama earlier than this one :P)

The dorama Stars Nakama Yukie as a reporter that has to work for a thrid rate journal and therefore has to find shocking news for the magazine to sell.

But the first minutes are reserved to build up the story about the so safe Japan that isn't so safe at all :P ... and of course Yukie running to her job because she is late and getting distracted by a white whale/delphin something in the river .. and of course the first word from her is:

Kawaiiiiiiii

So much for this ... the reporter crew of this magazine is pretty much liek in every dorama with a main hero ... well they do not have to do much this first episode ... Ashina Sei is for instance just sitting around showing off her long legs ....

Only that you believe me about the above statement :P

Yukie is set upon some famous announcer woman that somehow is lately reporting about accidents happening with stuff some construction firm build.... Oh btw. remember the bridge from the first picture:

That happens when someone loosens some screws

But the magazine has apicture of the announcer with some suspicious guy and so Yukie has to investigate .. or observe:

Kawaiii again ... erm no .. full concentrated observation

In the end it turns into a bit TRICK like when they involve some strange "church":

The way Yukie reveals the truth is although not really spectacular and her brother the police officer has to rescue her from beeing killed ....

So far I am a bit mixed about this series. On the pro we have Nakama Yukie playing a dorky women again (who obviously borrowed the black skirt form Mimura from Call Center no Koibito) and the interaction with her spy partner is good. On the downside we have a not really interesting "mystery" case and it is only to hope that the secret guy that gave her the right hints is giving the story some interesting plot too.

If you like Yukie Nakama you have to watch this dorama, but I have to say that I saw several doramas with her where I was more driven to watch it than this one .... well maybe it get'S better

JIN Introduction :) (Ep1+2)

2009-10-20T18:32:37Z

This dorama was on my maybe list, but as it started so early and I heard good things about it I gave it a chance (already increasing my watchlist :P)

JIN is about a brain surgeon (his name is Jin :P) who is drawn back in time into the year 1862.
But we shoudl start at the beginning.

Jin works in some Toukyou hospital where he performs surgeries. He although seem to avoid surgeries as much as possible. One learns that this is an result of a failed surgery on his girlfriend he undertook to safe her life due to a brain tumor.

One fatefull day he has although to safe a guy with a brain tumor again. The do not know who he is and where he came from .. but the most interesting thing is the tumor itself:

E~~~wwww~~~~

It appears to be a little embryo that will screw up his life from now on.
Beginning with the surgery he has headaches combined with views of this embryo.
Later on he checks on it in the labor where he even get's the impression the embryo can open his eyes :P
Before he can investigate it further, the fresh operated patient is on the run and has the embryo with him. Due to a fight with him Jin stubles down some metal stairs and falls into a black hole following the little embryo :P

So far to the weird weird way getting him into the past.
From here on the story get's much better.
He wakes up at soem unknown spot (later we will figure out that this is exact the place where in the future the hospital will be build). Since he does not know where he is he runs towards some voices in the dark, just to find some Samurai fighting with each other.
One tries to safe JIN but is wounded at the head by a sword.

Lucky for both that tis isn't the end of him

Some arriving men safe Jin and the wounded guy. Jin still thinks he can just bring him into a hospital and let the others carry the samurai home.
There he already figures that this is a pretty realistic dream.
When he arrives at the Samurais home, he presses that time is scare and he needs to operate him.
But he mostly puzzles the people. Especially Haruka Ayase as the sister of the samurai is puzzeled all the time:

And even more carpenting tools too ^^

Lucky for him he has some medical equipment that fell with him through time and with the help of the sister and the mother he can safe the life of the samurai.

But the mother is very distrusting him as they believe he is a dutch medicmen and her husband died on cholera 5 years ago even though those medic men tried to help him.
So Jin runs away trying to figure out where he is.
There he will meet the guy he operated in the future again. And the rest of episode 1 he tries to figure out who he is.

Of course he has to safe another person in a 90min long episode 1. And there we get Saki (Haruka Ayase) to change into something like his first helping nurse:

Doesn't she look gorgeous all the time?

Oh and the guy on the right is Sakamoto Ryoma ... for all who dunno him I recomend watching Atsu-hime or much better the next years taiga dorama :)

Besides this occasion he figures that most of the people he knows from the future have some ancestors living in Edo back in this time ... there is one woman he does not know yet:

She is a high ranked courtesan and looks exactly like his girlfriend in the future ^^.

Episode 2 (and also 3) will deal with a new cholera breakout and how JIN will help the people ... Well at first he don't want as he figures out that his deeds change the future ...

So far I was surprised how well entertained I was by this series and I will of course watch it :) Especially Haruka Ayase is always good too see. The interaction of JIN with the rest of the cast is sometimes really hilarious as they do not spare the Edo people with JINs nowadays talk and behaviour :P

If you can survive some bloody scenes you can fully enjoy this one :) I only hope they won't use the strange go back in time story to mess up the nice historic setting :)

Random music post :P

2009-10-20T11:00:36Z

I have some minutes here I want to share some finding(s) :)
Since like a while ago I several times wanted to link people 2 particular ELT songs but didn
't find them on youtube :P
Yesterday however I was lucky enough to find :P

Back in this post http://hamanosilence.livejournal.com/31753.html I was still undecided which one of the 2 songs I like more :P ... and I am still thinking..

Someone was nice enough to upload the original version of "Here and Everywhere":

The other candiate is still "Looking back on your love":

Since both songs have no PV, there is no distraction in that one (Okay "Here and Everywhere" should have one, although I do not have it ^^).

So which one do you like more ^^?

Tsubasa (Asadora) Review

2009-10-14T19:50:52Z

I really did it .. I finished this 26weeks long 156episode á 15min morning dorama.
Maybe I can now find the courage to finish Hitomi too (same length).

But this one is called Tsuaba, like the name of the main Heroine.
Tsubasa is acted by the cute Tabe Mikako (Shikaotoko , Yasuko to Kenji). She is a 20 year old girl living in the house together with her grandma , her dad and her younger brother.
We will learn that her mother left the family about 10 years ago and since then she is the mom in the household. She even calls herself hatachi no okan (20 year old mom).

Awww~~~ want some too

Tsubasa takes pride in filling this place and is on the road to be the sucessor to the shop after her grandma. Ah the shop... it is a "japanese sweets" shop called atamadamado (hopefully I got that right). The owner and leader of the shop is the grandma:

Nice to customers but prety stern to the family

She leads with a strong hand and usually everything goes her way. But we will also learn that she is a nice person inside too.

The main sweet maker is Tsubasas dad (who married the grandmas daughter):

Cooking beans looks more interesting in this show

As he is already 10 years alone he even get's omiai offers from his friends/family.
But he is still waiting for his wife. The omiai suspect is Asako (Inoue Waka) who is the owner of a sake drinking place in the neighbourhood:

Even with respect to his feelings, he shoudl have gone for her instead ^^

But as he probably thought about Asako, we see the mother return into the hometown to stear everything up:

Vote for Asako or her .. you decide ...

You can expect that this issue will come up every now and then in the dorama. Especially in the first weeks this is an issue.
On top she has a long relationship (friendship) with a manager guy named Saitou:

Since he is a guy that likes Samba and Brasilia we see now and then a bunch of Samaba dancers in the show.

Oh there is still the younger brother:

His voice creeps me out .. he has an higher pitch than his sister!

And of course the love interest guy is introduced (a guy she saw last time 10 years ago ^^):

Somehow this guy is like the dream of all the mothers :P

And on top we get the best friend (Yoshida Keiko, so far no records at d-wiki) of Tsubasa that will fall in love with that said guy too for some trouble at the start:

Sadly she has far to few scenes

With this setup we start in the first 3 weeks. In short, each week is set up to be a mini dorama episode with a problem arising and beeing solved in the weeks last episode.
The first weeks evolve around more issues than later on. We have Tsubasa beeing in love with Shota and Mari too. Tsubasas mother coming home and makes trouble. And the Shop beeing in debt and due to the mothers meddling it get's all worse and they have to move out of their house in a much smaller shop (right beside Maris house).
On top we have Tsubasa "forced" to help the manager Saitou to get some guy called Manase to pay money back to him.
It turns out that he lives with 2 other people in an old cinema building. Tsubasa has to bring him to work again ... and somehow Manase wants to make a radiostation there.
You can imagine that this will work out after problems and they even form a little radio group:

The colourfull radiogroup

There we have Jiro (Kuma from Gokusen) a laid off comedian, Nobuko (Matsumoto Akiko, a actress and singer) who is a laid off sales woman, Namioka-san (the blonde guy, ROLLY is his stage name, he has the hots for tsubasa too) and Manase as the manager.
Around this Radio station the following weeks will evolve up to the very end.

My thoughts about the story itself are mixed. On the one hand we have a nice pretty slowishg dorama, but sometimes this story feels pretty hard constructed too. Well thinking about the airtime and the probable viewership I think this story fits well too. If you miss 1-2 eps you won't die here.
The cast works pretty good together and especially the many sidecharacters (like the neighbours:

The three :P

you get a nice funny time too. I was especially surprised on how good the cast was able to sing. (especially the side cast) .. Best voice goes to Nobuko for her nice "Anata" cover in episode 72 ^^:)

Overall I can say that everyone that wants a slice of life dorama in small portions showing a bit around in japans life you can try this dorama. Everyone that get's bored easiely if they have to watch more than 3-4 eps before something important happens shoudl avoid it ^^.

Did I say that the new Asadora began already and has a cute main girl again ........

Haken no Oscar Review

2009-10-11T20:38:00Z

Since it was only 6 episodes, Haken no oscar is finished already :)

In only 6 episodes we will get a full dorama story, so it is all a bit cramped and accelerated. It sometimes feel that there was cut off all the typical lengthy time consuming part. There is jumping from betrayal to cooperation several times.
It covers the typical types of companie employes, the ones that "suckup" to the faction that has the advantages and those who dont't.

And in between we have Rena fighing for the things she things are right.
She discovers most of the bad things going on and the background. For instance why this young guy is in the company...

I whish applications would work out this way :P

It seems he is the presidents son that kinda is unwillingly here but tries to help the company to survive.

Besides, he always has funny word fights with Rena but will soon feel attracted to her ... well who could resist in this outfit:

awww~~~~

Of course there are several Rose of Versailes scenes, although they are mostly reruns of only a few. But the Anime speech and the support music bring some anime feeling to the show.

And as every good show we will have 2 big twists in the end. One is the betrayal and near collapse of the company and the other one is that the presidents son wants to marry a rich guys ojousan to rescue the company:

Not a bad omiai choice .. but she has 2 kids already :P

In the end he will of course choose the hard path and will prolly end up with Rena in the future. Oh yes she of course saves the day too and even cite the Manga in full form and is so the laughing stock for the whole firm :P

Kawaiii~~~~ Rena has freckles when she blushes :P

In short: This show is really funny. Not the best out there but watching is fun. Seeing her go to wreck down the evil forces by speech empowered by Oscars might is enjoyable.
Also those short daydream scenes add much to this.
With only 6 episodes one might feel the dorama is too short... on the other hand it does not miss anything important ... and on top .. we need more Rena dorama.

As I always say .. Tanaka Rena and Tanaka Reina as Sister or mother/daughter duo in a dorama whould be my whish for next time ^^.

And sicne this prolly won't happen and one does not know how many dorama Rena will do in the future you should not miss this one!

Buzzer Beat 7-End Review

2009-10-04T18:10:59Z

Okay next one in the row :)
Buzzer beat was enjoyable in the first half, so how about the second half?

Episode 7 sets up basically all dorama for the rest of the series.
On the one hand we have Rikos friend trying to get Utsunomiya-kun to fall for her but it doesn't really go well:

It doesn't really help that the two find 3 of the ARCS members beeing on a Goukon with the sister of Naoki and 2 other girls ^^.. well but who could resist her asking for it, right?

I couldn't

Riko herself gets two major hits .. one is about her violin play. As she is in a bad mood because Naoki was an ass again :P she get's quite a harsh critique from a customer in the restaurant:

Ewwww~~~

On the other hand se will get Naoki to be her boyfriend in the end of this episode.

Good timing after she just got an engagement ring from his boss. :P

They try to cover this relationship but of course this won't do for long.
On top we have Natsuki still trying to get Naoki back. She even "befriends" herself with Riko to undermine her trust in Naoki:

The relationship of Naoki and Riko is a total up and down those episodes. And as big turning point we get Naoki needing a surgery on his leg and he of course isn't telling Riko, but Natsuki. Riko get's an offer for a spot in an orchestra ... from the guy that made her cry in episode 7 ^^.
At leats we get to see more of model like Keiko that way:

Gorgeous :)

Was Natsuki the dress queen in the first episodes this changes much in 10/11 as Keiko gets a really nice hardo and is more dressed up. But the spot in the orchestra has a sad point too, she won't have time to see Naoki so much and he decides that she should still go that raod .. so the two split up for this (typical plotvehicle for the last episode).

So we have Natsuki helping Naoki in the rehabilitation and Riko is far away training the violin. In the end Natsuki won't get Naoki back, and with Yoyogi ending up with Ayakayaka (one of the cheerleaders) she is now left alone. But well ... if you watched closely you know since like episode 3/4 that Utsunomiya has the hots for Natsuki, and so they will start dating too:

Rikos left alone roomsharers however also form a couple.. a pretty common jdrama couple though .. young guy older woman. I bet first couple of this sort was in "Slow Dance"?

The grande finale shows some basketball again (or should I say at last?) where the ARCS are playing for the championship.
Riko decides to leave practice for this day to run to the game (after she had a short english convo with her concert dirigent ... it was very clichee though but she spoke clearly :)) And she redos the "baka! shoot good" speech in a filled station :P :

I don't want to be her if he misses that shot after such a threat :P

Of course they will win with a Buzzer beat in the end and everyone is happy .. even Natsuki has a big smile again:

Happy end :)

So overall the show was better than expected. The medical hobbit (Yamapi) didn't suck as much as in other shows and was again pulled up by the main heroie(s) (like in Proposal Daisakusen). Keiko and Saki were good, even though I am more impressed with Aibu Saki playing such a "bitch" ^^ :P. I hope that this will bring her more roles, but please don't put her into that role all the time. Keiko will shurely do good from here on too.
The sidecast was also nice, which includes Maya Miki who is nowadays set for those "cool" mother roles.

After like 5 episodes I even started to enjoy the opening song, even though i still dislike the ballad version :P it sounds squished :P

So for all fans of either of the actors/ actresses this show is good to watch .. even though it get's sometimes a bit anoying how they make the Riko + Naoki relationship so up and down.

Watchlist Fall 2009

2009-09-28T20:46:07Z

It's already time for a new season .. so I'll better make plans ^^:

Mo 9pm is Tokyo Dogs a police dorama staring Oguri Shun, Mizushima Hiro and Yoshitaka Yuriko for instance. It doesn't sound too appealing but since I like Yurikos acting I might take a look. Depends all ont he production.

Tue 9pm is the second season of LIAR GAME. Staring all the main cast of last time so it is something I will try. Sadly they leave the final for some movie so this might be a letdown ...

Tue 10pm is Real Clothes... a dorama taking place in a womens cloth department store. Didn't see the first season so I might as well avoid season 2. Although it has many actresses involved
as Karina and Minami Akina ^^.

Wed at 9pm is Meitantei: Asami Mitsuhiko a mystery detective dorama with the lead for Sawamura Ikki. Interestingly he will work again with Hara Sachie like in "You are under arrest" ^^. Probably the more interesting detective story compared to Tokyo Dogs?

In the same timeslot is airing the 8th season of Aibou .... well I didn't see 1-7 so unless someone tells me how great it is I'll avoid it ^^.

Wed 10pm has Gyne ... yes a dorama taking place in a gynecologist station in a hospital. Star is Fujiwara Noriko having to deal with difficult operations and stuff and later a lawsuit against her. At first glance this sounds rather uninteresting. But looking at the sidecast you find that this is a pretty balanced setup. And it has the "dead" mother from Bara nai no hanaya for instance .. so maybe?

Thu 8pm is ROMES .. a airport security dorama ... O_O Dunno what to expect from it. It does not sound very appealing and having 2 jhonnies as lead "actors" is not really asking for a great performance. On the other hand we have Kuninaka Ryoko who is really good ... ahhh why does she have to be in such an un interesting dorama ...

Thu 8+9 too are 2 doramas which are either 2nd or 3rd season (Sono Otoko, Fuku-Shocho 3 and Koshonin 2) .. didn't see the first do not watch the others ...

Thu at 10pm will air Fumo Chitai a dorama about some guy that was staff officer in some siberian war camp and later a trading company guy ... it seems to be a redo of a dorama in 1979 ... not really appealing .. but if I have time I might take a glance.

Thu at midnight will air Bocho Mania 09. This sounds rather intruging. A story about people liking to watch pulic trials and make it a hobby. It has Minami Akkina so I might take a look as it also sounds like and interesting story .. and we all know that those midnight doramas are usually also entertaining :)

Fr at 9 we finally come to a must see dorama. Untouchable staring Nakama Yukie ... here I could stop describing :P It is about a clumsy reporter girl cracking cases. It's described as a mystery comedy ... and everyone knowing TRICK ... it can possibly get awesome. Only drawback is that Kaname Jun is at a pretty high cast place ... anyway .. have to watch this.

NHKs 10pm dorama 行列の48時間 has no short description so far so I'll check the details later.

The other one Fr at 10 is Ohitorisama. A story about a couple of an "older" woman and a young guy. Mizuki Aria (Saitou San/ OL Nippon) will be teamed up with Koike Teppei (Shibatora). It is set up as romantic comedy and has also a good support cast with Matsushita Nao and Maya Miki for instance ^^. Will watch it ^^.

Fr at 11:15pm we have My Girl. Somehow the story sounds familar. Guy learns several years after break up with a girlfriend he has a child with her and she is dead and decides to live with the kid. Not so surprising, ne? If I have time ...

Fiday Midnight is Jyouou Virgin, a dorama about a girl trying to be the number 1 kyabakura girl. Well what do you expect? I bet good looking girls in dresses doing catfights .. might be interesting :P

Another must watch is Saturday at 9pm. Shida Mirai beeing the lead for the jdrama adaption of "The little Princess (Sara)". Since we all know she can act and is also good at beeing the bullied kid (Seigi no Mikata) it will be probably a good show. I really hope they will life up to the great story that it is. Enough said .. will watch it.

Another one Saturday at 9 is Samurai High. A high shool dorama about a nice well mannered guy that will gain the powers of his samurai ancestors when in trouble .... somehow it doesn't sounds so new too. The only thing that might make me watch it would be that Ohgo Suzuka is in it.

Challenged and gaiji Keisatsu sound both not really interesting .. especially the whole anti terror unit thing from the second one.

The end of November starting Saka no Ue no Kumo will be basically the "filler" after the taiga dorama Tenchijin and sounds intereting. Historical stuff is good. And Corinee it has Sano Shiro ^^ (somewhere in the cast).

Sun 9pm is Jin.. about a brain surgeon time slipped back into the Bakumatsu era. It will deal around how he can use his knowledge to help people in that time. it sounds like an interesting plot and has Kohinata Fumiyo in the cast too. Oh did I mention Nakatani Miki and Ayase Haruka?

So what is the sum now?
Untouchable and The Princess Sara as well as LIAR GAME, Ohitorisama , Boccha Mania 09 beeing set. For entertainment maybe the midnight dorama in the hostess club :P

Maybe should be then: Tokyo Dogs,Gyne,ROMES,Samurai High,Saka no Ue no Kumo and JIN.

So 5 set and 6 maybes .. sounds like a lot to watch. Although I find it astonishing how many doramas do not appeal me this time ....

Ninkyou Helper Ep7-End Review

2009-09-24T20:59:44Z

Since the season is over, I am of course finished with several series already :P
Here comes the big batch for Ninkyou Helper ^^.

Episode 7 is basically the last episode where the whole story is about the helping the elderly. For the next ones on it will be more about the Heartfull Bird Manager and the Yakuza helpers. The last elderly care problem is how hard home care by a single person is:

The old lady seems to be pretty picky and relies only on her daughter who is of course tired out already. She works too and has a hard day. And when this one day she leaves home for a shool reunition her mother complains afterwards.
On the other ahnd we have the media targetting the heartfull bird manager woman for abadoning her dement mother back when she was young.
The helpers try to hide the rumors from the kid as usual:

just drag him out

And finally the little boy learns that his mother is starting to get dement as he reads her notebook where she writes down everything in great detail:

But wait.. what about the mother + daughter dilemma? Well, the now empathic yakuza runs to help when the daughter is at the point where she wants to kill ehrself and the mother. And stabs him .. well his hand:

ouch

But now more about the story twist. Since the whole yakuza as helper problems isn't coming along so far. The rivaling group sends the boss into this elderly care:

Of course the others aren't pleased to see him there. One learns that this is a nice plan of one of the second rulers of the clan. He will steer up a battle with the others to let him getting killed to be the next boss.
In the time between, we see the boss getting along with a guy he shares the room with, who will have a rather tragic end later in the series.. but see for yourself.
In the end of this epsisode we get Riko trying to assasinate the rivaling boss:

At least the grim reaper looks gorgeous this time

She is stopped by this one helper guy that was behaving stangely from the beginning. He is a yakuza of their group who is there since a long time.

Episode 9 has then the most action so far. The Hearfull bird manager woman retires from the business due to her health (or better because she was shunned out of the job)...

In the meanwhile we have Riko and one of those little kid yakuzas trying to raid the rival group HQ and of course getting captured:

He even tries to unclothe Riko, but then we get the cavallery coming.. or better the helpers :P In the end we have a happy ending as the 2 bosses reconciled and grab the underling who tried to pull this stunt.
The harsh punishement for the helpers is .... Riko has to do 2 weeks of cooking duty :P

Aniki goes in a amusement park with ryota and his mom. Just to have her loose her memory of Ryota at this time :P

Uhmmm lemme guess?

The following day the mother tries to suicide .. but of course she is rescued by Aniki:

You have to cut upwards and not sidewards

But the main problem is that the cute helper girl gets a letter showing the helpers in her usual attire fighting.. so their cover blows.
Strangely the yakuza stay but all the other helpers leave. .. With this lack on helpers the center goes crazy and one night an elderly women sets the place on fire :

With this turnig of events we see the facility near its closure. Even though the elderly want to stay there. But they wont leave the building without a fight. So we have another fight, this time police against barricaded yakuza. When they have already pretty much lost we get another cavallery sighting:

Good idea but weak execution

Well, the result is still the same. So the facility is closed, Aniki prolly in jail for a short while. One yakuza will be the boyfriend of the cute helper girl and learning elderly care then. The "banker" yakuza will be the new leader of the elderly care ^^. And Riko finally is appointed as the new boss ^^.

Oh and for you romantic fans, yes there is at least one kiss between Aniki and Riko ^^:

And after this he lets her go ....

But he seems to return to the kids side instead ...

Well happy end so to say ...
Summing up we have a nice dorama with a interesting setup treating a very difficult but important theme. The elderly care. The yakuza learning the care is basically a vehicle to show us what elderly care is and where the problems are.
I am although a bit disappointed that the relationships between the helpers weren't shown that much. At least Riko & Aniki should have gotten more time for the couple and or help the kid + mother twist. And come on, at least half the guys labeled as Yakuza are way to weak in appearance for it imho.

Overall I can recomend the dorama. I had a good tiem watching and I should really check out for more Kuroki Meisa doramas.

so long :)

Maid Deka Ep2-6 Review

2009-09-13T12:42:34Z

Maid Deka is pretty episodic and one can easiely jump in at any episode.
Only episode 2 shows a bit of the background of Aoi and her police guy.

Each episode has it's own setting where Aoi has to discover the truth behind some problems. In episode 2 she helps in a household of a hospital chief to discover the evildoer. Of course they can't avoid letting Aoi go around in other costumes:

Awwww Nurse Aoi :P

Beside the police we get Aoi's kohai to help her out. She goes around in her gang clothes most of the time ^^:

Episode 3 is about the protection of a actress. And because this episode is not clichee enough we get the typical gay guy added in:

It turns out that one of the plot devices is to have Aoi battle the probable evil guy in mid too... with anything at hand:

beware of the evil spoon :P

Episode 4 sends Aoi into Geisha training :P Yeah you get the pattern .. each cliche setting is to be found in that dorama ^^:

One highlight was episode 5 about the return of the false brother ^^.
Iwasa Mayuko acts as the sister that can't believe that ehr brother returned after 3 years after his accidentely death ^^:

One reason to watch the next season asadora ^^

In the end we get to know why she is so shure the guy pretending is not her brother:

Yeah with this secure hint, we can all be shure ^^

Episode 6 is ... come on who want to guess?
Yes a episode with Aoi helping out in a Yakuza family :P

This time we also get the one cop sidekick to investigate in a hostess club .. sadly no more scenes :P

Really underused character in thsi show ^^

I have already checked into ep 7 and 8 .... and well a Maid cafee and a horror story ... I wonder what is left for 9+10 or so :P

Haken no Oscar Introduction

2009-09-04T12:32:30Z

One dorama I looked forward to in this season is a late starter. Haken no oscar starts Tanaka Rena and as she was really good in Ryokiteki na Kanojou I have to watch this.
The story sounds a bit wacky to begin with but I think this will rise the chances for comedy ^^.

Rena acts the temp staff worker Katsuko that will be involved in her companies restructuring due to cost cut. She is a big fan of "Rose of Versailles" (Lady Oscar for the ones that live in wester countries for instance). And she is also trying to get a job in the manga industry too.

Don't call me when I am busy reading my beloved manga!

She has (as most of those comedic characters) two basic moods she can be in. One is a quirky otaku mode when she is in her dreamworld, and the bold Saito-san like mood when pointing things out that are wrong.

Her room at home is also styled in an appropriate fashion:

There she will also communicate with a female mangaka that is scolded by her chief for not doing good stories. The two will shurely start a strange connection throughout the story. Right now they are just fighting:

Don't write such stuff!

But the main story is the cost cutter guy trying to lower the overall money cost by 25%.
And of course he will collide with Rena all the time.
First time he tries to steal her bike place:

Later on she will scold him to put away the trash properly and so on ^^. (Of course there will be some relationship evolving imho.)
There is also some focus on how hard the temp workers work and are not recognized properly. She even get's one idea stolen by a woman in her office.
And later they will fire her friend and fellow temp worker too. Then she get's really angry and rises to the Oscar fighting spirit and will confront the company chiefs in their lunchbreak :P

Beware for Rena going into fight mode ^^

So far I can tell that the show will be at least good average. It will depend on how the story will be cramped into the 6 episode they have until the season ends.
Tanaka Rena is always good to watch anyway. But I also say that they should make a dorama with her and Tanaka Reina :P (Wildest Sister or mother / daughter couple around :P).