Quarterly Drama Review ~ First Quarter of 2012
I decided to make a QUARTERLY review of 2012 drama and be warned that this is going to be a very LONG post to read. Rare, huh? Well, that’s because suddenly there’re just so many things to watch this year and I find it’s getting more and more difficult to remember what I’ve watched and what I’ve haven’t watched. I see the 2009 pattern is repeating again because OMG there’re just so many detective themed dramas this season and more will keep on coming. Not that I’m complaining because I like detective themed drama especially when they’re offering different type of story line, and definitely not just a certain elite is ‘dumped’ to some ‘special unit’ and solving certain unsolved, weird whatever cases. Thankfully so far I don’t see this type of plot, but regardless, I still see some color in this season too. Spring season is already starting, so I better clear my inventory list (yeah, 2012 list is getting longer, especially on the movie part, they’re just keep coming and it’s getting hard to keep up).
So, let’s start J J
One disclaimer though, you’ll realized that almost 100% the dramas that I watched for this season has either 1 or 2 or 3 Johnny’s boys in it. Yeah, I like dramas with eye candy BUT, there are just too many Johnny’s boys everywhere in this season, you just can’t escape from their claws, really. Even when I thought Strawberry Night is free from Johnny’s… my face fell when I saw Maru (Kanjani8) in it haha… So, it’s not that I purposely choose to watch the drama because of Johnny’s but it just happened that the dramas that I watched for this season has Johnny’s in it.
Strawberry Night ~ ストロベリーナイト
What I’m going to say for this drama will be all praises and raves because this one is my favorite drama for this season. For those who haven’t watched the SP (aired in 2010), please do so before you watch this one because the drama sort of continuing from the SP with the additional new characters. In short, Himekawa team has an additional team member, Nori, and the team continued being assigned to joined task force teams with the other team of detectives. Being the only female in the room, the sexual harassment and discrimination treatments are blatantly aimed towards HImekawa, however, that doesn’t seem to bother Himekawa’s determination to solve the cases, though her subordinates often beg to differ. Competition and office politics are also playing a good role in the plot sequences as the team leads don’t really get along with each other and each of them are also aiming for glory of being the one getting the credit. They do somehow respect towards each other but most of the time, they’ll try to bite and bark at each other.
The cases presented this time are quite interesting as well, from the body split into 2, the death of a yakuza assassin, serial cases of death from illegal drugs and towards the end we have the mystery of whose left hand is that case which is spread out to 3 episodes. Even the filler (yeah, I called it a filler because Himekawa worked on the case when she’s not assigned on a task force or whatever) is interesting and very sad towards the end.
What I like in this drama besides Takeuchi Yuko taking a role totally different from her previous ones, is that each characters of her team member are not fillers. They’re given personalities and situation, eg. Nori has the past of witnessing his tutor stabbed to death during his junior school time or Ishikawa is a father and often gives the parental view in looking into some topics related to the case. I have slight doubt though on the role that they give to Maru but thankfully it’s not that noticeable because he doesn’t have lots of screen time anyway.
There are tons of scenes that I like from this drama. One particular scene that I like is on the heated competition to score credit when Himekawa purposely told Kikuta to hold on information and only reveal it at some point leading Kikuta scoring point in the task force meeting. The satisfied smirk that Himekawa flaunted at that moment marks her win at that moment. Lots of good scenes are from bantering between Himekawa and Gan Tetsu (I only remember the nickname), the slimy team lead that often use dirty tricks to get what he wants including tempering w/ evidence. Himekawa emotional struggles also continue to haunt her and it escalates when her mom is hospitalized and we get to see more of Himekawa’s relationship with her parents here. One touching hospital scene is when the mom thinking that Himekawa is Daddy dearest conviding how she carried the guilt of the past event. It’s a very simple scene with just shadows and Himekawa and the mom but it carries lots of emotion with it and… sobs sobs, me was searching for tissues.
You get to cry and laugh sometimes with this drama as well because the production manage to at least induce some little humors in this already heavy drama. I do curious about the relationship that Himekawa has with Kikuta, especially at the end… what was that? Should I expect to see anything more than just colleague relationship in the movie? From the beginning you’ll see Kikuta undying loyalty to Himekawa (literally like a guard dog) but you do wonder at the way he looks at her, and at the end of the drama Himekawa sort of saying not to do that in the office… what? LOL… Oh, so looking forward to it.
Side note, watching this drama makes me for once wanting a Hermes bag, a red one off course, and also having a flawless straight hair like Himekawa’s. And off course it makes it even cooler that you have a team of ikemen following you around in every case LOL….
And lastly, off course I like the OST by Greeeen, Misenai Namida wa, Kitto Itsuka. Great drama always comes with great OST, this one is no exception.
Lucky Seven ~ ラッキーセブン
I won’t write so long about this because I already write the whole review here. This drama belongs to the category of either you love it or you hate it. I joined the negative side this time, though I finish the drama because of Matsujun and I still think it’s a messy drama. The highlight of this drama is strictly the fighting scene and all the eye candies. And off course the shiny rainbow sparkly and glittery OST, Wild at Heart by Arashi. Oh wait, they’re going to make a movie for this too… I hope the production team using their brain and make it work like what they did for Gantz.
Hungry! ~ ハングリー!
Also wrote the long review about this one here. This drama is basically a French cuisine porn, so if you’re watching it, you better have some snack around because sooner or later you’ll get hungry. This is not the first food porn drama with lots of ikemen that we have in J-drama land, but off course this is the first drama that has food and Mukai. So, in line with the principle of cash cow system, they also released the cooking book that looks more like Mukai’s looking good cooking photobook than a cooking book, and I’m going to buy it (yeah, I fall into Mukai’s trap too). A bit disappointing with the ending though because I’m hoping that Eisuke will ditch Maria and get Chie, OR Chie keeping Taku is also not a bad ending. But after all those indulgences of looking at all those pretty food, I can’t complain much as this one is a very light, no brainer drama. I do hope Mukai taking a more serious role next time J.
Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi ~ 早海さんと呼ばれる日
Another type of drama that I love is family drama, not the heavy ones when there are family members dying or whatever (yeah, still traumatized from Under the same roof) though. Not particularly like Matsushita Nao except in Gegege no Nyobo, so having Johnny’s boys in drama actually works because it’s one of the pulling factor for me to watch this one. The story is about Hayami household. The family consists of mom, dad and 4 boys (you already know from here that this family smells trouble haha). The first son, Kyoichi is married to Yuriko, his colleague who turned to housewife after marriage. Not long after that, mom left the house which led to the household turned to chaos. Why did the mom leave the house? What ticked her? You immediately see why on the first episode. Kyoichi even said that he didn’t even know when his mom ate her dinner (goodness). In order to return the household into order, Yuriko decided to stay in the Hayami house and help out the family. But this is not the drama all about, there are more to come. Problems…
3rd son has problem finding job (current reality to most of university graduates nowadays). So many people can totally relate to his dilemmas, frustrations, worries and the stress to meet his family’s expectation. I like the way this drama project this topic by spreading it out to few episodes. The 2nd son is working but his only working under contract, hence he’s not going anywhere nor that he’s trying to do more also, hmmm… why is that. The youngest son is in the height of puberty age and when mom left just like that, he’s left confused not knowing who to talk to about his problems. Not enough drama? Let’s add the always drunken dad who only knows how to make havoc and yell at people but not bringing money to the household. So who’s been running the shop all this while? Gee, who else… But don’t think first son is free from problem. He has an almost perfect wife, pretty, smart, not really a nadeshiko in house chore, but she survived, and most importantly the wife was good at what she’s doing at work before she married him… ohhh… inferiority complex.
The drama basically shows the typical MCP of Asian male species and their expectation of what the female in the house must do. Having Yuriko there is actually good for mental health because Yuriko make changes to the household full of lazy bums, well the dad doesn’t really change much but at least changes are shown for the younger generation, else I’ll stop watching the show already, no matter how adorable Yuriko and Kyoichi together. I like how they close the drama with the climax focusing on the main couple and how they pull back together and reaffirm of why they’re marrying each other in the first place. And the good thing is that they don’t make the mom go back to the house, so the drama felt more real, as the reasons mom leaving is not just because of petty reasons.
Did I mention Johnny’s boy in this? Yeah, Innochi from V6 and Nakamaru from Kat-tun are in it. Nowadays Johnny’s trying to push for 2-3 boys in the same drama, which is why this season is quite overwhelming. Sorry for the side track, back to the drama, I love the OST by Funky Monkey Babys, Kono Sekai ni Umareta Wake.
Risou no Musuko ~ 理想の息子
Another family drama but it’s not a so typical family drama because the theme here is mommy’s boys. Initially I’m quite reluctant to watch this drama because TOO MANY JOHNNY’S in this drama. Having Yamada Ryosuke (HSJ) alone is not enough, the show just have to add on Nakajima Yuto (another HSJ) and Fujigaya (Kisumai). So I thought it’s going to be another ridiculous drama… NOT. Yes, in some aspect, the drama is ridiculous in the way how blindly mommy’s boy with major mother complex syndrome love his mom. But, the drama brings a good balance in some heavy topics that actually make you to take a step back and ponder. I started watching this drama after reading other blogs and found out that the script writer is the one who wrote Love Shuffle, and I love Love Shuffle so yeah, it’s a must watch.
The story is about Daichi, number one mommy’s boy. He’ll easily dump his girlfriend when the girl make him choose her or his mom (DUH!). He’ll happily wear the pink color full of heart pattern sweater because it’s from his mom. Off course, he’ll study hard as well to be on top in his school to please his mom, and his goal is to buy house for his mom. What a perfect son, you say? That’s Umi’s (the mom) goal the moment she’s pregnant with Daichi. Hence, since early, Umi’s been raising Daichi with care and love (off course she worked hard to raise money for Daichi’s school etc etc) but they’re not for free as Umi wanted his son to buy her the house and this had been brandished in Daichi’s head since young.
The interesting point not to mention funny in this drama is the pattern of mom suddenly panicking after discussion with the fellow aunties colleagues in the cafeteria where she works eg. Worries that his son could be gay (LOL) or domestic violence etc etc, and she’ll do some weird things at home under the premises of those worries. The son on the other hand will happily comply and just put his best smile and happily entertain her whims which make her even more panicking that her worries will actually come through. Off course, this drama is also full of to deceive and be deceived from both the mom and son’s point of view. Mom has been deceiving her son to ensure the son thinks that he’s been loved above all, for example, buying the cheap gloves and claiming that they’re hand made.
Then come the funny part, Daichi who went to the school full of delinquents just to ‘protect’ his mom faced challenges by each episode because everybody seem to think that he’s good at fighting for no apparent reasons. We have 1 delinquent per episode with the animal nickname eg. Crocodile, Elephant, you name it, by final episode, you’ll have the whole zoo in this series and Daichi will defeat them with his mommy’s boy Koala punch. Yes, you get to see the blue angry Koala in every episode, without fail. LOL. It’s ridiculously funny and well done by Yamada (I still don’t particularly like this kid, but I think he should be in more drama and act more aka he has potential, and he’s getting more and more look like Koichi from Kinki Kids). Another funny part will be those cosplays that the judo club senpai is making Daichi to wear under the premise to encourage his currently on the wheel chair sister to walk again. And Daichi being the good hearted boy in the end comply with the request and start wearing those cute dresses. Yamada is seriously a pretty boy that those cross dressing gags actually come out very cute and he can beat average girls easily in terms of looking pretty and cute and off course if you don’t know him, you’ll think it’s a girl!
OST is Super Delicate done by non other than HSJ, for once I listen to HSJ and it’s because of this drama. LOL.
Do give this drama a chance if you like your brain to be poked every now and then while you’re laughing your butt off.
Bunshin ~ 分身
This one is a short 5 episode drama not from the major TV channel, but it has Nagasawa Masami. Not watching it because of her though, but the synopsis doesn’t tell me anything so I’m just watching this drama for filler between the rest of the drama.
The drama starts off with Mariko, who leaves in Hokkaido and on the verge of graduating as a social worker handling child welfare cases. She grew up thinking her mom hated her to the point of committing family suicide though Mariko and her dad survived the fire 9 years ago. Having these doubt all this time and coincidently find out a picture of her dad with another woman whose face blacked out along with some other suspicious items in her late mom’s belonging and moreover, the sudden offer from her dad to study abroad, Mariko started to dig the past. On the other side of Japan, in Tokyo, we have Futaba, also a college student but with the passion of singing in a band and hoping to make it big someday. The band had the chance to appear on TV which lead to her mom sternly warned her not to do that again, ever. This totally confused Futaba which all while has been encouraged by her mom to pursue her dream. Why the sudden change?
Confusing? Off course, especially when Mariko and Futaba both acted by Nagasawa. So what are the possibilities here? Twins separated at birth? Daddy had an affair? Surrogate mother? Cloning? Which one do you think it is?
I like the way this drama flows, you get to see how Mariko went back to her parents’ memory lane, while Futaba is in search of what had changed her life, and those chain of events will keep you on the edge of the seat by each episode, when will the drama have Mariko and Futaba meet? And the good thing is that it’s just a 5 episodes drama so you don’t get a merry go round.
Saikou no Jinsei no Owarikata ~ Ending Planner ~ 最高の人生の終り方～エンディングプランナー～
This drama will be full of my rants as you can see here, it’s on the verge of going to my meh bucket as I haven’t even finished it yet. Having Sorimachi back on the later episodes also not really doing the drama any good as the story is just… not really developing that fast and it’s just… slow… oh well, I haven’t deleted this drama yet, so maybe I’ll be revisiting this one, though I doubt it.
On top of this, there are some other dramas that I don’t touch because they’re just too dark, eg. Shokuzai, Kaitakusatachi, or not really interested in eg. Renai Neet, 13-say Hello Work, Dirty Mama!
OK, now it’s the SP turns.
I feel like I’m watching lots of SPs in the past view months, regardless it’s Arashi’s or not.
Mou Yuukai nante Shinai ~ もう誘拐なんてしない
This one is Ohno’s SP. Still have mixed feeling about this drama (longer review is in here). It’s not a really fantastic SP, though it’s fun to watch. I consider this as a light mystery drama because they’re quite a number of humour in here despite we have a murder here as well. Off course, we have lots of familiar faces too in here, especially with Sho-chan and Matsujun split seconds appearances to promote their dramas.
SPEC Shou ~ SPEC 翔
By now, we should get used to the trend that when a drama is turned to a movie, we should expect that we’ll have an SP prior to the movie released to warm up the hype for it. I love SPEC drama because of the plot and how well it’s played out, not to mention the cool spec abilities that we’ve seen so far. So what’s this SP is about? Well, it’s just another case of SPEC but we do get the answer as to how Touma been able to survive that last battle scene. Sort of guess that she has SPEC too but didn’t have a slightest clue as to what kind of SPEC she has. And is Ninomae still alive? This SP will affirm that.
Like the drama, this SP is also full of plotting and for me not to think so much when watching it, it full of surprises, and again, I like Toda Erika in SPEC best compare to her other works. Though I like Liar’s Game, I do think that her character there is annoying, but not in here.
If you haven’t watched the drama before, do watch it first before touching this SP because you’ll be confused if you just make a jump here. Lots of characters from the drama appear again in here, so yeah, watch the drama first J.
Nazotoki wa Dinner No Ato De SP ~ 謎解きはディナーのあとで
Nazotoki is one of those drama that you absolutely have to have sub so that you can properly watch it because most of the part of this piece is just dialogue between Reiko and Kageyama and with limited Japanese, it’s difficult to follow. They don’t change the style how the drama flow, just that in this SP, the scale of the case is slightly different because they’re merging 2 cases that initially have nothing to do each other together and lots of assumptions and guessing involves here, so yeah, that’s why I totally need subs. Why the hype of this SP, you’d say? Well, first, it’s Arashi drama and when it comes to Arashi, FujiTV done its promotion properly aka over promotion as usual. I did finished the drama as it’s getting more interesting towards the end despite the totally boring first 2 episodes but I find there’s not much more special in this SP other than well, the shooting location is more grand aka production team is splurging on this, but that’s about it.
OK that’s all what I watched for Winter 2012, my current list for Spring 2012, which is most likely the same as everybody else, is:
So, what are you going to watch this season?
So, let’s start J J
One disclaimer though, you’ll realized that almost 100% the dramas that I watched for this season has either 1 or 2 or 3 Johnny’s boys in it. Yeah, I like dramas with eye candy BUT, there are just too many Johnny’s boys everywhere in this season, you just can’t escape from their claws, really. Even when I thought Strawberry Night is free from Johnny’s… my face fell when I saw Maru (Kanjani8) in it haha… So, it’s not that I purposely choose to watch the drama because of Johnny’s but it just happened that the dramas that I watched for this season has Johnny’s in it.
Strawberry Night ~ ストロベリーナイト
What I’m going to say for this drama will be all praises and raves because this one is my favorite drama for this season. For those who haven’t watched the SP (aired in 2010), please do so before you watch this one because the drama sort of continuing from the SP with the additional new characters. In short, Himekawa team has an additional team member, Nori, and the team continued being assigned to joined task force teams with the other team of detectives. Being the only female in the room, the sexual harassment and discrimination treatments are blatantly aimed towards HImekawa, however, that doesn’t seem to bother Himekawa’s determination to solve the cases, though her subordinates often beg to differ. Competition and office politics are also playing a good role in the plot sequences as the team leads don’t really get along with each other and each of them are also aiming for glory of being the one getting the credit. They do somehow respect towards each other but most of the time, they’ll try to bite and bark at each other.
The cases presented this time are quite interesting as well, from the body split into 2, the death of a yakuza assassin, serial cases of death from illegal drugs and towards the end we have the mystery of whose left hand is that case which is spread out to 3 episodes. Even the filler (yeah, I called it a filler because Himekawa worked on the case when she’s not assigned on a task force or whatever) is interesting and very sad towards the end.
What I like in this drama besides Takeuchi Yuko taking a role totally different from her previous ones, is that each characters of her team member are not fillers. They’re given personalities and situation, eg. Nori has the past of witnessing his tutor stabbed to death during his junior school time or Ishikawa is a father and often gives the parental view in looking into some topics related to the case. I have slight doubt though on the role that they give to Maru but thankfully it’s not that noticeable because he doesn’t have lots of screen time anyway.
There are tons of scenes that I like from this drama. One particular scene that I like is on the heated competition to score credit when Himekawa purposely told Kikuta to hold on information and only reveal it at some point leading Kikuta scoring point in the task force meeting. The satisfied smirk that Himekawa flaunted at that moment marks her win at that moment. Lots of good scenes are from bantering between Himekawa and Gan Tetsu (I only remember the nickname), the slimy team lead that often use dirty tricks to get what he wants including tempering w/ evidence. Himekawa emotional struggles also continue to haunt her and it escalates when her mom is hospitalized and we get to see more of Himekawa’s relationship with her parents here. One touching hospital scene is when the mom thinking that Himekawa is Daddy dearest conviding how she carried the guilt of the past event. It’s a very simple scene with just shadows and Himekawa and the mom but it carries lots of emotion with it and… sobs sobs, me was searching for tissues.
You get to cry and laugh sometimes with this drama as well because the production manage to at least induce some little humors in this already heavy drama. I do curious about the relationship that Himekawa has with Kikuta, especially at the end… what was that? Should I expect to see anything more than just colleague relationship in the movie? From the beginning you’ll see Kikuta undying loyalty to Himekawa (literally like a guard dog) but you do wonder at the way he looks at her, and at the end of the drama Himekawa sort of saying not to do that in the office… what? LOL… Oh, so looking forward to it.
Side note, watching this drama makes me for once wanting a Hermes bag, a red one off course, and also having a flawless straight hair like Himekawa’s. And off course it makes it even cooler that you have a team of ikemen following you around in every case LOL….
And lastly, off course I like the OST by Greeeen, Misenai Namida wa, Kitto Itsuka. Great drama always comes with great OST, this one is no exception.
Lucky Seven ~ ラッキーセブン
I won’t write so long about this because I already write the whole review here. This drama belongs to the category of either you love it or you hate it. I joined the negative side this time, though I finish the drama because of Matsujun and I still think it’s a messy drama. The highlight of this drama is strictly the fighting scene and all the eye candies. And off course the shiny rainbow sparkly and glittery OST, Wild at Heart by Arashi. Oh wait, they’re going to make a movie for this too… I hope the production team using their brain and make it work like what they did for Gantz.
Hungry! ~ ハングリー!
Also wrote the long review about this one here. This drama is basically a French cuisine porn, so if you’re watching it, you better have some snack around because sooner or later you’ll get hungry. This is not the first food porn drama with lots of ikemen that we have in J-drama land, but off course this is the first drama that has food and Mukai. So, in line with the principle of cash cow system, they also released the cooking book that looks more like Mukai’s looking good cooking photobook than a cooking book, and I’m going to buy it (yeah, I fall into Mukai’s trap too). A bit disappointing with the ending though because I’m hoping that Eisuke will ditch Maria and get Chie, OR Chie keeping Taku is also not a bad ending. But after all those indulgences of looking at all those pretty food, I can’t complain much as this one is a very light, no brainer drama. I do hope Mukai taking a more serious role next time J.
Hayami-san to Yobareru Hi ~ 早海さんと呼ばれる日
Another type of drama that I love is family drama, not the heavy ones when there are family members dying or whatever (yeah, still traumatized from Under the same roof) though. Not particularly like Matsushita Nao except in Gegege no Nyobo, so having Johnny’s boys in drama actually works because it’s one of the pulling factor for me to watch this one. The story is about Hayami household. The family consists of mom, dad and 4 boys (you already know from here that this family smells trouble haha). The first son, Kyoichi is married to Yuriko, his colleague who turned to housewife after marriage. Not long after that, mom left the house which led to the household turned to chaos. Why did the mom leave the house? What ticked her? You immediately see why on the first episode. Kyoichi even said that he didn’t even know when his mom ate her dinner (goodness). In order to return the household into order, Yuriko decided to stay in the Hayami house and help out the family. But this is not the drama all about, there are more to come. Problems…
3rd son has problem finding job (current reality to most of university graduates nowadays). So many people can totally relate to his dilemmas, frustrations, worries and the stress to meet his family’s expectation. I like the way this drama project this topic by spreading it out to few episodes. The 2nd son is working but his only working under contract, hence he’s not going anywhere nor that he’s trying to do more also, hmmm… why is that. The youngest son is in the height of puberty age and when mom left just like that, he’s left confused not knowing who to talk to about his problems. Not enough drama? Let’s add the always drunken dad who only knows how to make havoc and yell at people but not bringing money to the household. So who’s been running the shop all this while? Gee, who else… But don’t think first son is free from problem. He has an almost perfect wife, pretty, smart, not really a nadeshiko in house chore, but she survived, and most importantly the wife was good at what she’s doing at work before she married him… ohhh… inferiority complex.
The drama basically shows the typical MCP of Asian male species and their expectation of what the female in the house must do. Having Yuriko there is actually good for mental health because Yuriko make changes to the household full of lazy bums, well the dad doesn’t really change much but at least changes are shown for the younger generation, else I’ll stop watching the show already, no matter how adorable Yuriko and Kyoichi together. I like how they close the drama with the climax focusing on the main couple and how they pull back together and reaffirm of why they’re marrying each other in the first place. And the good thing is that they don’t make the mom go back to the house, so the drama felt more real, as the reasons mom leaving is not just because of petty reasons.
Did I mention Johnny’s boy in this? Yeah, Innochi from V6 and Nakamaru from Kat-tun are in it. Nowadays Johnny’s trying to push for 2-3 boys in the same drama, which is why this season is quite overwhelming. Sorry for the side track, back to the drama, I love the OST by Funky Monkey Babys, Kono Sekai ni Umareta Wake.
Risou no Musuko ~ 理想の息子
Another family drama but it’s not a so typical family drama because the theme here is mommy’s boys. Initially I’m quite reluctant to watch this drama because TOO MANY JOHNNY’S in this drama. Having Yamada Ryosuke (HSJ) alone is not enough, the show just have to add on Nakajima Yuto (another HSJ) and Fujigaya (Kisumai). So I thought it’s going to be another ridiculous drama… NOT. Yes, in some aspect, the drama is ridiculous in the way how blindly mommy’s boy with major mother complex syndrome love his mom. But, the drama brings a good balance in some heavy topics that actually make you to take a step back and ponder. I started watching this drama after reading other blogs and found out that the script writer is the one who wrote Love Shuffle, and I love Love Shuffle so yeah, it’s a must watch.
The story is about Daichi, number one mommy’s boy. He’ll easily dump his girlfriend when the girl make him choose her or his mom (DUH!). He’ll happily wear the pink color full of heart pattern sweater because it’s from his mom. Off course, he’ll study hard as well to be on top in his school to please his mom, and his goal is to buy house for his mom. What a perfect son, you say? That’s Umi’s (the mom) goal the moment she’s pregnant with Daichi. Hence, since early, Umi’s been raising Daichi with care and love (off course she worked hard to raise money for Daichi’s school etc etc) but they’re not for free as Umi wanted his son to buy her the house and this had been brandished in Daichi’s head since young.
The interesting point not to mention funny in this drama is the pattern of mom suddenly panicking after discussion with the fellow aunties colleagues in the cafeteria where she works eg. Worries that his son could be gay (LOL) or domestic violence etc etc, and she’ll do some weird things at home under the premises of those worries. The son on the other hand will happily comply and just put his best smile and happily entertain her whims which make her even more panicking that her worries will actually come through. Off course, this drama is also full of to deceive and be deceived from both the mom and son’s point of view. Mom has been deceiving her son to ensure the son thinks that he’s been loved above all, for example, buying the cheap gloves and claiming that they’re hand made.
Then come the funny part, Daichi who went to the school full of delinquents just to ‘protect’ his mom faced challenges by each episode because everybody seem to think that he’s good at fighting for no apparent reasons. We have 1 delinquent per episode with the animal nickname eg. Crocodile, Elephant, you name it, by final episode, you’ll have the whole zoo in this series and Daichi will defeat them with his mommy’s boy Koala punch. Yes, you get to see the blue angry Koala in every episode, without fail. LOL. It’s ridiculously funny and well done by Yamada (I still don’t particularly like this kid, but I think he should be in more drama and act more aka he has potential, and he’s getting more and more look like Koichi from Kinki Kids). Another funny part will be those cosplays that the judo club senpai is making Daichi to wear under the premise to encourage his currently on the wheel chair sister to walk again. And Daichi being the good hearted boy in the end comply with the request and start wearing those cute dresses. Yamada is seriously a pretty boy that those cross dressing gags actually come out very cute and he can beat average girls easily in terms of looking pretty and cute and off course if you don’t know him, you’ll think it’s a girl!
OST is Super Delicate done by non other than HSJ, for once I listen to HSJ and it’s because of this drama. LOL.
Do give this drama a chance if you like your brain to be poked every now and then while you’re laughing your butt off.
Bunshin ~ 分身
This one is a short 5 episode drama not from the major TV channel, but it has Nagasawa Masami. Not watching it because of her though, but the synopsis doesn’t tell me anything so I’m just watching this drama for filler between the rest of the drama.
The drama starts off with Mariko, who leaves in Hokkaido and on the verge of graduating as a social worker handling child welfare cases. She grew up thinking her mom hated her to the point of committing family suicide though Mariko and her dad survived the fire 9 years ago. Having these doubt all this time and coincidently find out a picture of her dad with another woman whose face blacked out along with some other suspicious items in her late mom’s belonging and moreover, the sudden offer from her dad to study abroad, Mariko started to dig the past. On the other side of Japan, in Tokyo, we have Futaba, also a college student but with the passion of singing in a band and hoping to make it big someday. The band had the chance to appear on TV which lead to her mom sternly warned her not to do that again, ever. This totally confused Futaba which all while has been encouraged by her mom to pursue her dream. Why the sudden change?
Confusing? Off course, especially when Mariko and Futaba both acted by Nagasawa. So what are the possibilities here? Twins separated at birth? Daddy had an affair? Surrogate mother? Cloning? Which one do you think it is?
I like the way this drama flows, you get to see how Mariko went back to her parents’ memory lane, while Futaba is in search of what had changed her life, and those chain of events will keep you on the edge of the seat by each episode, when will the drama have Mariko and Futaba meet? And the good thing is that it’s just a 5 episodes drama so you don’t get a merry go round.
Saikou no Jinsei no Owarikata ~ Ending Planner ~ 最高の人生の終り方～エンディングプランナー～
This drama will be full of my rants as you can see here, it’s on the verge of going to my meh bucket as I haven’t even finished it yet. Having Sorimachi back on the later episodes also not really doing the drama any good as the story is just… not really developing that fast and it’s just… slow… oh well, I haven’t deleted this drama yet, so maybe I’ll be revisiting this one, though I doubt it.
On top of this, there are some other dramas that I don’t touch because they’re just too dark, eg. Shokuzai, Kaitakusatachi, or not really interested in eg. Renai Neet, 13-say Hello Work, Dirty Mama!
OK, now it’s the SP turns.
I feel like I’m watching lots of SPs in the past view months, regardless it’s Arashi’s or not.
Mou Yuukai nante Shinai ~ もう誘拐なんてしない
This one is Ohno’s SP. Still have mixed feeling about this drama (longer review is in here). It’s not a really fantastic SP, though it’s fun to watch. I consider this as a light mystery drama because they’re quite a number of humour in here despite we have a murder here as well. Off course, we have lots of familiar faces too in here, especially with Sho-chan and Matsujun split seconds appearances to promote their dramas.
SPEC Shou ~ SPEC 翔
By now, we should get used to the trend that when a drama is turned to a movie, we should expect that we’ll have an SP prior to the movie released to warm up the hype for it. I love SPEC drama because of the plot and how well it’s played out, not to mention the cool spec abilities that we’ve seen so far. So what’s this SP is about? Well, it’s just another case of SPEC but we do get the answer as to how Touma been able to survive that last battle scene. Sort of guess that she has SPEC too but didn’t have a slightest clue as to what kind of SPEC she has. And is Ninomae still alive? This SP will affirm that.
Like the drama, this SP is also full of plotting and for me not to think so much when watching it, it full of surprises, and again, I like Toda Erika in SPEC best compare to her other works. Though I like Liar’s Game, I do think that her character there is annoying, but not in here.
If you haven’t watched the drama before, do watch it first before touching this SP because you’ll be confused if you just make a jump here. Lots of characters from the drama appear again in here, so yeah, watch the drama first J.
Nazotoki wa Dinner No Ato De SP ~ 謎解きはディナーのあとで
Nazotoki is one of those drama that you absolutely have to have sub so that you can properly watch it because most of the part of this piece is just dialogue between Reiko and Kageyama and with limited Japanese, it’s difficult to follow. They don’t change the style how the drama flow, just that in this SP, the scale of the case is slightly different because they’re merging 2 cases that initially have nothing to do each other together and lots of assumptions and guessing involves here, so yeah, that’s why I totally need subs. Why the hype of this SP, you’d say? Well, first, it’s Arashi drama and when it comes to Arashi, FujiTV done its promotion properly aka over promotion as usual. I did finished the drama as it’s getting more interesting towards the end despite the totally boring first 2 episodes but I find there’s not much more special in this SP other than well, the shooting location is more grand aka production team is splurging on this, but that’s about it.
OK that’s all what I watched for Winter 2012, my current list for Spring 2012, which is most likely the same as everybody else, is:
- Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri - Aiba-chan’s drama and it has a cute cat… can’t resist… must watch all those cuteness
- Kagi no Kakatta Heya - Oh-chan’s drama, first episode is interesting… must watch
- Ataru - Nakai’s drama, passing it at first, but saw the rating… will try to watch
- Papa wa Idol - Ryo-chan’s drama and there’ll be the whole herd of K8 in it too, and wait, the little girl from Zenkai Girl is in it, so am watching this
- Kazoku no Uta - No Johnny’s!!! Finally LOL
- Mirai Nikki - Look stressful, but interesting at the same time, keeping it here first
- Kaeru no Oujosama - BOSS is singing Broadway? Yeah, I’ll watch haha
- Mou Ichido Kimi ni, Propose - after some time, I’ll watch some love story, hope this is not a sad ending one
So, what are you going to watch this season?