What’s worse than the sound of a dentist drilling a hole in your cavity? It’s the sound of Jin-sensei’s hammer, pounding a hole in Koide Keisuke’s skull. JIN is the japanese drama you want to pick up this fall. It’s a little bit on the slow side during the first 15 minutes, but wait until formalin-kun shows up and from that point onwards, it’s gonna be a breathtaking, gritty ride.
Pardon my outburst last week. I stand corrected. Mr. Brain is the only spring drama I am fond of watching. I-can’t-wait-for-the-next-episode-kind-of-drama.
Kimutaku’s dramas are almost always guaranteed watchable. He is probably the only actor who can pull in big name guest stars for each episode. I mean Gackt and Nakama Yukie???
Nakama Yukie is so far the most impressive criminal that came upon Mr. Brain’s scrutiny. It was intense and totally creepy. Man oh man. YOU will need your Gokusen discs to erase this vision in your mind:
I want my Yankumi back! Gosh.
You might also need your Pride or Love Generation discs to erase the vision of Kimutaku’s new hairdo from your mind.
Ah, this drama is a BREATH of FRESH AIR. I can just inhale….exhale…. and not see a single male born later than 1980 parading on my screen. I’ll say “johnny boy” but Inagaki Goro of SMAP is a Johnny, after all. And this is excluding the children in the flashbacks.
There are moments when I reach my boiling point of all the kiddie dramas, albeit packed with eyecandies. Okay, who am I kidding with? We all like our eyecandies. If they have Ito Atsushi here instead of Eguchi Yosuke, I won’t be gushing as much. On the contrary, Mizushima Hiro might not be enough to sit through the entire episode of Mei-chan no Shitsuji. I might come back and finish the 1st episode to see if I can squeeze something intelligible out of it, but that is wishful thinking.
Now, Triangle, on a first episode-basis is awesome beyond words. Episode 2 may not have brought the same impact as the debut episode, but let’s pretend I haven’t seen episode 2 yet. The soundtrack and direction style of this drama made me realize how most kdramas pale in comparison with jdramas (based on such criteria). I mean, no matter how enjoyable and grand (props-wise) BOF is, you just have to admit, Hana Yori Dango is superior in terms of camera work and music direction. Oopps, I’m getting sidetracked again.
As requested here is a detailed spoilerish summary of the movie. This isn’t really like me, giving away spoilers. But when one bashes, one needs material. Bash? that’s what I intend to do.
Just to warn you, this post is overly nitpicking on details that were enjoyable to most. It was not that bad for a kiddie movie. It was cheesy as it was supposed to be, but I still can’t help but complain. Because that’s what I’m good at. Therefore, I highly discourage you from reading this post unless you’re a hater and you want some company on your side.
Truth be told, I was not impress when I saw the cast list for this drama three months ago. Kudo Kankuro was my only hope. For others, it’s probably Higashino Keigo. Higashino Keigo wrote the drama-thriller Byakuyakou, the cheesy- mystery Galileo, and the movie Tegami. Actually, those are the only three shows of him I’m familiar with, but of course, if you ask me of Kudo Kankuro – I could just go on and on and on. Kudo Kankuro usually works with the older Johnny members so I was surprised when I saw Ryo and Nino casted as two of the three siblings in the story. But what really devastated me was learning that Toda Erika will be completing the triumvirate. How could a weak actress work with Kudo-san, I thought. Fastforward to today, I still think that Toda Erika is more suited for a backstage role but if you put her with Ryo and Nino – they are one unstoppable trio. If I only get to watch one drama this season…Ryuusei no Kizuna will be it.
Let’s play some drama trivia, ready?
The Sensei
If you put a piano on the beach-side and start playing Chopin…well if you wanna be anal about it, you can put on a white suit and rent out a matching white piano as well, now tell me, in which popular drama does this scene appear?
One, two, three…time’s up!
I am still in the middle of going through this season’s dramas, but one thing I noticed, there’s definitely an influx of chibi actors and chibi love teams in most of the shows. Probably, the most mature pairing I have seen so far (excluding the childish acting by Kanno Miho) are the leads from the medical drama, Tomorrow.
20-23 year old doctors/interns in Code Blue: To watch these kids do an amputation, flock around the ER, and not to mention the Grey’s Anatomy-esque competition had placed this drama behind my watch list…but who am I to complain when the catchphrase itself is so “engrish” – Doctor Heli? Ha. Ha. Cute!
Gakko ja Oshierarenai: Talk about chibi love teams times five! Let’s not forget the eternal immature Fukada Kyoko who gives a whole new meaning to the word, “airhead.” But this drama is a guilty pleasure to watch! I have to find time and write something about it, because it is surprisingly great.
Maou: I guess, the Maou actors fit more in to their roles, age-wise. But Kobayashi Ryoko ruins it! For some reason, I cannot stand her face on screen. I’ve mentioned this already and I’ll probably repeat it again in the future when I do my Maou review, but geez, she looks like 10 frickin’ years old. A tarot reader…A librarian…Pffft!
I’ll skip our chibi love teams in Seigi no Mikata and Yasuko to Kenji as I have blabbed about those two from my previous entries, so I’ll jump right ahead into my main subject…
Of course, when it comes to chibiness, we can’t just leave out the ultimate babyface of jdoramas: Kokei Teppei.
Similar to Seigi no Mikata, Yasuko to Kenji is another drama that is based on a manga about a story of two siblings who love each other dearly. Deep down, they really do, alright? 10 years ago, little Yasuko (played by Bara no nai Hanaya’s Shizuku – Yagi Yuki) and biker gang boss Kenji (TOKIO’s Matsuoka Masahiro) lost their parents in an accident. To support his sister, Kenji quit his gang and began writing shoujo manga under the pen name, Reiko-sama. The sweet kid who idolizes her tall onii-chan, with the big hands and the big feet, grew up into the tama-no-koshi-gal of Yamada Taro Monogatari, Tabe Mikako. Be prepare to get another version of the silly chick who daydreams about boys and nothing else. The pigtails..the twinkling stars…the bone-eyed stare…yup, we’re in for another ride of this girl’s antiques. One thing I’m definitely not looking forward to.
But who cares about this couple when we have Shida Mirai and Hongo Kanata of Seigi no Mikata to root for?
Continue reading ‘Yasuko to Kenji: Another pair that can’t get along’
I might have misled my co-otaku readers from the title of my last post, if so, I apologize. It might be a slow season for accountants but definitely not for d-addicts! I can’t say the same for every drama this summer, but from what I’ve seen of Seigi no Mikata, this is going to be a good season. Seigi no Mikata is from a genre and format that usually hits it or not. If it doesn’t, fine. I’m not going to be crying because I haven’t piled any of my eggs in its basket. But when it does hit it, the unexpectedness of finding a good drama amplifies the interest and reception.
Code Blue and Maou, powered by Johnny’s Entertainment and now, along with a very mild Edison-Chen-scandal for the Maou anti-hero, had sadly didn’t do it for me. If a medical drama wants to get my attention, a bland and stoic YamaP will not suffice. IRYU has risen the bars for the medical genre. Yutaka Takenouchi’s Tomorrow might be a little more promising; I’m a little icked out with Shin Mina’s character counterpart in Maou (what is she, 9 years old?), but I’ll stop right here because I intend to push it through the fourth episode for these dramas before I place any faults in them.
Since the only drama that has gotten me to that point, voluntarily, is Seigi no Mikata, why don’t we start on that? But where do I start? This drama is so awesome I don’t know where to begin!
Continue reading ‘Definitely not a slow season for drama addicts’
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