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Re Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Eps 1-7

May 27, 2016, 11:58 pm
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Isekai Seikatsu is yet another light novel adaptation with a long name and interesting premise that doesn't take full advantage of the concept and ends up being yet another generic moe harem anime.

This time our generic protagonist is transported to fantasy world and everytime he does, he goes back to the start ala Boku Dake ga Inai Machi. He is aware of the tropes of fantasy alternate world anime and they try to play it for laughs but before long Isekai Sekatsu just becomes full of cliches like our protagonist being a super nice guy to get to girls to his side.


How much more interesting would it be if he just pretended to be nice because that was how characters in moe animes solve their problems and somehow it didn't work? The groundhog day gimmick is interesting but everything else bored me to tears especially the butler and cat maids part.


I'm just so frustrated because the writer could have done so much with the concept. No more stupid light novel animes. They are just shallow shounen fantasy that always end up being the same derivative crap. Episode 7 ends with another cliffhanger but I don't give a crap about the cardboard characters. Isekai Seikatsu seems to have been received favourably by the anime fans but I'm guessing they liked SAO and DanMachi as well. For me its just more of the boring same.
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Kiseki no Hito Eps 1-3

May 29, 2016, 8:00 am
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Ladies and gentlemen, I have found my feel good dorama that I like more than I should in Kiseki no Hito. The last jdorama which fit this discription was Coffee-ya no Hitobito, also from NHK BS Premium. Coincidence?

The main character of Kiseki no Hito is yet another loser who's done nothing in life. I was thinking not another freaking Boys on the Run because they usually run the loser character through the stereotype wringer without doing anything interesting.

Then I noticed the dialogue of Ichitaku and his friend whinging about life and how aimless they were to be pretty funny. I have no idea what it is but it is a gift to be able to write characters complaining about the world and make it funny, informative and not stale.

After watching the first three episodes, turns out the writer is non other than Okada Yoshikazu, writer of Boku no Tsuma to Kekkon Shite Kudasai, Watashi to Iu Unmei ni Tsuite, Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi etc etc.

Ichitaku who does nothing but somehow has a room somewhere in Tokyo meets former yankee Aso Kumiko and their first meeting is gross but funny. Did I mention I love Aso Kumiko who was underutilised in Love & Peace and Haiyu Kameoka Takuji?

Aso Kumiko has a daughter who is both deaf and blind and is being kicked out of her apartment because the daughter is too noisy. Ichitaku wanting to score with Aso Kumiko (who wouldn't) introduces them to his landlady who is unusually kind and Ichitaku begins his journey to finally be useful to someone.

On the face of it, Kiseki no Hito seems like an oversentimental Ashida Mana type show but trust me when I saw its more laid back comedy. The thing that seals it is the writing. I don't know how to describe it when stereotypical characters come alive because their dialogue have just enough nuance and bounce. Nojima Shinji couldn't pull it off with Our House but Okada Yoshikazu is the man!

Very similar in tone to Coffee-ya no Hitobito despite being completely different genres and having different creators. Its as if both shows could exist in the same world. They are not realistic but neither do they have the fakeness of your mainstream shows. I guess they are both stories about humanity dressed in melancholy and joy.

I had more fun watching Kiseki no Hito than I should have. You can grab the raws from Avistaz or just google Kiseki-no-Hito-EP01-720p-x265-ER (third link). Make sure you have ad blockers on your browser. Subtitles can be gotten here. The ending song Hone is not available yet but there is a Ando Yuko version out. I can't stop listening to this song. Very watchable.


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Yureru / Sway movie review

June 1, 2016, 9:38 am
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This has been on my to be watched list for so long and somehow I thought about watching it and did so. Odagiri Joe and Kagawa Teruyuki are brothers. Odagiri's gone to Tokyo and become a photographer while Kagawa is stuck back in their hometown working for their father at a petrol station.

So you have two brothers who are very different. One very hip and speaks his mind and the other is stoic and filial. Maki Yoko is Odagiri's old flame and works for his brother. The three of them go on a trip together and something happens and Kagawa is arrested.

The second half of the film is about the court case that flows from the incident and there are two things that make this movie fun: first is that we have no idea whether Kagawa is really guilty and secondly, the court case is basically a euphemism for the divide betwen city and rural life and Odagiris desire to run away from his country roots.

I do have big problem with this movie and that is with the big twist which relies on a wound which to me looked very old but was supposed to have been new. I have had my skin scratched badly before and it gets very red and takes time to heal.

Kagawa's scar looked very old and it seemed like he must have gotten the wound when he was a child or something. If the wound actually looked fresh instead of a scar, I don't think the reveal would work cause most people can put 2+2 together and wonder why the police weren't even concerned with it.

Good movie that ultimately stumbled over itself in the end. The devil is in the details and one important detail and undo a movie with good acting and tense moments. Meh.
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Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Eps 1-8

June 4, 2016, 10:04 am
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WHAT  IS IT?

Attack on Titan with zombies mixed with Snowpiercer.

WHAT I LIKED

+ Beautiful detailed 90s inspired artwork. I'm sick of the moe round face style used by so many light novel adaptations. The characters look like 90s anime stereotypes including Sakura from Sakura Wars.

+ Hero is not a boring nice guy who solves problems by being nice.

+ Train driver chick has muscles. No I'm not a muscle fetish guy but too many strong chicks with slender arms in anime.

+ Its violent and like Attack on Titan people die.

+ Its a zombie anime on a train! As long as its about survival and people doing bad things without being too simplistic, it can't go wrong.

+ Did I mention it looks very pretty?


WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Feels a lot like Attack on Titan and it takes a while for Kabaneri to find its own voice.

- Some of the adults are a bit simplistic. Like almost everyone on the train saw our hero saving the train but the anime makes it like everyone is against him being on the train. I get the Kabane fear but surely there must be more people not motivated purely by fear.

- Hero is a bit too 90s in that he loves shouting stuff without actually thinking it through.


SUMMARY

I'm not crazy about Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress but its got enough positive things for me to keep watching. Its not Berserk but its not Isekai Seikatsu either. At the very least, lots of pretty animation to look at. Watchable.
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5 ways Juhan Shuttai! Eps 3-7 got better

June 7, 2016, 8:17 am
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1) Kokoro the obnoxiously genki, overacting asadora main character becomes more of the main supporting character.

2) The supporting character take turns being the main character instead.

3) Usually in jdoramas, its the super idealistic character who changes each character's viewpoint per episode or reminds them of what they used to believe in etc but in Juhan Shuttai its the individual characters themselves that solve their own problems and Kokoro does do it for them or lecture them into submission. The best way to describe it is that the world doesn't revolve around the main character but rather Kokoro is the POV character for the audience to experience this world.

4) I love the story about the two aspiring mangakas, one a talented BL doujinshi artist who can draw beautiful pictures but has problems with names and one who has crappy art but has the talent in doing names. Its the type of blood sweat and tears that the Bakuman movie did not have time to do.

5) Yasui the crusher. I was watching his episode thinking what he is saying is not wrong although he is sort of portrayed as the bad guy. I love that its not a story about Kokoro reminding him about his ideals but its a story about Kokoro realising why Yasui does what he does.

SUMMARY

I am bloody glad I stuck around past episode 2. My only complaint is way overuse of the stirring music everytime someone says something cool or emotional. Juhan Shuttai! is not the first jdorama to overuse it but music is suppose to enhance a scene, not be an overly manipulative signal. Overall, Juhan Shuttai! has gotten pretty good. Very watchable for me.
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Dear Doctor movie review

June 11, 2016, 7:36 am
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After watching Sway and talking to a friend about it, I was recommended Nishikawa Miwa's other movie Dear Doctor. While Sway's twist didn't work for me, she did direct Dreams for Sale/Yume uru Futari which I love.

Dear Doctor is about a doctor who works in the country, played by rakugo actor Tsurube Shofukutei and Eita is the intern who is doing work placement at the village. The movie begins with the disappearance of the doctor and through flashbacks we slowly see the build up to his disappearance and the secret of this country town.


So the big secret is that the doctor is fake with only the village chief, the experienced nurse and the medical salesman being in on it. I don't consider this a spoiler because Dear Doctor is about how this fake doctor is so crucial to the village. How its less that the villagers need his medical skills and more that they need someone to turn to. It is actually better to know it beforehand so you can enjoy all the knowing/worried glances and facial expressions.

I love the scene in the beginning where this old person is dying and the fake doctor was relieved the old man died so he didn't have to do the intubation and the daughter in law was relieved she no longer had to look after him.


Dear Doctor is about how being a doctor is more than just diagnosing and prescribing medication especially in a rural town where everyone is living far away from each other. One of the police officers said in the end, the villagers were more likely to kill them to keep their doctor. The fake doctor started doing this for money but being put on a pedestal and the heavy responsibilities forced him to try his best. As Eita's character says in the movie, he's glad he finally met a real doctor, not someone like his father who only thinks about business management.


I have to say its wonderfully acted but the pacing was very slow. After watching I thought it was an ok movie but it didn't do anything for me. Then I started thinking about the characters and their motivations and what what they meant and slowly I began to think a lot about the movie.

Dear Doctor is a movie where a lot of things aren't explained. The story on the face of it is very simple it says a lot of interesting about rural and urban life which Sway/Yureru also dealt with. I really recommend it if you're interested in a not explain too much movie. The only place you can get this movie is avistaz.
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Saigo no Restaurant Eps 1-6

June 13, 2016, 10:03 am
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When bframe told me that Fukuda Mayuko was in Saigo no Restaurant, I knew I had to check it out. I can't even remember the last time I saw her and now she is in a dorama with pigtails and a maid outfit!!!!! If you have no idea who she is, watch the Byakuyakou dorama

Anyway, Saigo no Restaurant set in this restaurant where business is not doing well and the chef likes to run away from problems. One by one, famous people start being transported to restaurant right before their death and the chef has to fulfill their request and give them their last meal.

Saigo no Restaurant wasn't that entertaining as its more like a light historical lesson with food thrown into it. I planned only watch until episode 4 for Trendl Reina's Joan of Arc but luckily her character stayed on in the show.

Her character is funny because she thinks of the head chef as good and there are a lot of jokes you can make about her faith especially with all the technology we have today. Unfortunately, there are not too many of them.

The main parts about linking the food requests to the famous people doesn't really work for me but at least since the episodes are only 30 minutes, its tolerable. For example, Cleopatra's request was for a dish equivalent to her pearl. So when she rejected the first ice cream they gave her, the chef made her eat something very hot first before serving the same ice cream to make it taste better.

Sad to say Mayuko doesn't have much to do. Its the type of role that's usually left to a gravure idol.

Better to give a small, thankless role to someone who can act than someone who can't.

I'm wondering why the role wasn't given to an idol for ratings purposes but my guess is Mayuko gets to do more than look cute later on.

I'm on this bus as long as Reina is in the show though the preview for the next episode looks like she might be leaving. :(

Saigo no Restaurant is a meh light historical food fluff that is not as funny as it should be. Don't waste your time unless you like the screencaps.
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Kamogawa Shokudo Eps 1-3

June 16, 2016, 4:34 am
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It seems like the jdorama trend now is to add food to any genre and in Kamogawa Shokudo's case, its the detective genre or more specifically investigating the past of people seeking to taste a dish they once had.

The good things about Kamogawa Shokudo are that its a laid back food show to make you very hungry and that it looks good unlike Saigo no Restaurant, which is coincidentally another NHK show.

The bad thing is that the concept of investigating someone's past and recreating food with a touching ending does not leave much wiggle room for the stories.


Its always going to be some contrived situation where some sort of misunderstanding/ignorance which gets revealed after the investigation so we can get a food + waterworks scene at the end.


The three episodes have been very bland and I do not foresee the episodes getting any better. I have been wrong before (see Juuhan Shuttai!) but I give Kamogawa Shokudo a meh.
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Kiseki no Hito Eps 4-8

June 19, 2016, 3:03 am
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Kiseki no Hito is just a visual delight to look at.

Jdoramas are a visual and audio medium and often times, the camera seems more concerned with capturing and idoru's face rather than the beauty of the moment.

The way the camera is positioned is almost as much part of the storytelling is the script and the acting.

I watched Kiseki no Hito just thinking about screencapping every scene.

Looking for beautiful screenshots in Kiseki no Hito is so easy that it should be illegal.

The show definitely would not have worked without Aso Kumiko's acting.

I am glad her character is not extreme anime level tsundere.

My big problem with Kiseki no Hito is whether it deserves the 'must watch' label.

The acting, music and visuals are all great.

In the feel good disability genre which used to be popular but has been usurped by the crying porn fatal illness genre, Kiseki no Hito is near the top.

However, I have this feeling that there is something missing in the storyline to push it to must watch level for me.

Kiseki no Hito just stands on the border of 'must watch' for me and is highly recommended.
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Uzumasa Limelight

June 20, 2016, 8:34 am
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I effing love Uzumasa Limelight. It ticks all the right boxes of a feel good movie for me. I know every beat of the movie that is coming but its just oh, so enjoyable. Its as if the movie were made for me or something.

Uzumasa Limelight is the story of Kamiyama, an old man who specialises in being killed in old samurai movies and tv shows.

Unfortunately for him, times are changing. Chanbara shows are no longer popular and in order to appeal to the younger audience, talentos who are not concerned with authenticity are cast in the shows and cg swords are used.

Kamiyama finds work drying up. Being killed in chanbaras is a skill that is no longer valued while being an extra in other shows requires no acting at all and is unfulfilling.

This young girl Satsuki appears and wants to be an extra.

She seeks Kamiyama's help in sword fight training and becomes his pupil.

Satsuki finds success because of her skills and becomes famous. You can guess what the ending is going to be and its one hell of an exciting fight scene.

I love the casting of Uzumasa Limelight. Kamiyama is a real life kirareyaku in his wrinkled face emotes to an audience more than those old actors with plastic faces we see all the time.

I was surprised to find out Satsuki is a newcomer who is also a wushu champion! Hats of to the casting manager for going for the most important thing which is believably and she can act better than anyone from AKB48.

Cinematography is exquisitely beautiful.

Ultimately what makes Uzumasa Limelight work so well is not just that its a wonderfully executed feel good movie but that you can feel the love for chanbara throughout the movie. Must absolutely watch movie.
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Juhan Shuttai! 8-10

June 24, 2016, 7:46 am
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The Iokibe episode is so good and I am glad that the right person got the glory of the last episode.

I love the look everyone gives Iokibe after his proclaimation. Juhan Shuttai!went on a roll since episode 3. I've already written my post on why this show works so well despite having a super overacting asadora main character.

Allow me to add point no .6 and 7. to that list of reasons why Juhan Shuttai! works in that sub stories are sprinkled throughout the series and make appearances even when their stories have finished. No. 7 is that as the characters take turns being the main protagonist in each episode, the seeds of their story such as Iokibe's have been planted earlier and when it come to their turn, I was already invested.


More than Kiseki no Hito, Juhan Shuttai! has become the feel good show for me this season. What Juhan Shuttai has done is the evolution of the GTO style formula. The eccentric main character does not magically solve people's problems for them and gives them a lecture but watches and maybe gives them to nudge to solve their own problems.

 As an audience, it feels good to watch people succeed when we see the blood, sweat and tears (which is why the Bakuman movie didn't work for me) and Juhan Shuttai! is filled with such characters.


Like Kiseki no Hito, I'm very much on the fence of very watchable and must watch but what nudges Juhan Shuttai! over to must watch is that it subverted my all expectations and the episodes got better and better after a meh first two episodes. Must watch.
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Ie Naki Ko Ep 1

June 27, 2016, 9:01 am
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Ie Naki Ko or Child without a Home is the 1994 jdorama that made Adachi Yumi's career and got a 37% rating for the final episode. I got interested in Ie Naki Ko by accident. I came across Nakamura Ataru doing a cover of the theme song of this show and it ended up with me watching it.

In Ie Naki Ko, Adachi Yumi is Suzu, a little girl who pretends to be sick during physical education so that she could steal her classmate's tuition money. Her classmates accuse her of being the thief and we find out Suzu is poor.

Suzu's mother is in hospital because of heart problems and her stepfather is a drunk who beats her and takes her money. He tells her people will always betray each other. Suzu's mom is a stupid woman who blinds herself to her husband's uselessness and tells Suzu that people have good and bad sides. To complete the Suzu is oh cute and pitiful picture, she even has a dog following her around.

So this is a little girl who has to grow up because she's live a harsh life show. The interesting character for me is her teacher played by Hosaka Naoki who at first seems naive but catches on to Suzu's act.


He still covers for her because he doesn't want to ruin her life and says that he is the same. I haven't seen this actor for so long and he's in a bunch of 90s jdoramas including Salaryman Kintaro. He will always be Takatsukasa from Kintaro to me.

Probably the most memorable scene from episode 1 is Suzu's line to her teacher, "If you feel sorry for me then give me the money! (for my mother's operation)"

One interesting thing to note is how often Suzu gets hit and slapped by adults. If this show were shown now, there would be an uproar about the amount of 'physical violence' inflicted on a child when back in those days, it was considered disciplining.

Not a bad first episode. The raws are available here. There are no English subtitles but the Japanese requiremen is pretty basic. Finally, for the love of all jdoramas I do not want to see an Ashida Mana remake.
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Contrail : Tsumi to Koi Eps 1-6

June 30, 2016, 8:29 am
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Contrail is a jdorama with a decent cast; Arata, Ishida Yuriko and Sakuraba Nanami but has horrible writing. Ishida Yuriko lost her husband when someone when amok with a knife and runs a curry shop.


She runs into Arata's mute truck driver who as it turns out was the one who killed her husband when struggling to disarm the killer.

Wife falls in love with husband's killer. We can pretty much expect some super tense scenes right? Nope. The writer, Ooishi Shizuka write Contrail like a weekday afternoon housewife soap opera complete with annoying mother in law and son.

Scenes that are supposed to be exciting like Ishida Yuriko vs Sakuraba Nanami turn completely flat because of the dialogue and motivations are just so undeveloped. Oh yeah, there's also a cop who rivals Jorah Mormont in terms of wasting time with a woman with no hope of breaking past the friend zone.

Don't waste time with Contrail. I'm going to see this two the end cause there are only two episodes left and I need more Sakuraba Nanami, despite the fact her character is so stupid. So disappointing. Avoid.


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Why Street Fighter V sucks

July 1, 2016, 12:56 pm
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The latest patch just come out with the new story mode and Ibuki and Boxer but I'm bloody fed up with Capcom.

1)SFV is a freemium game sold as at full price.

Capcom promised you won't need to spend money on DLC packs to get all the characters but they've erected a huge wall for players to get enough fight money especially with the super tedious survival modes where you lose your progress if you are disconnected from the server.

I've done the story modes and only had fight money for two out of the four DLC characters. What happened to unlocking characters but beating the arcade mode? Oh yeah, SFV doesn't have one.

2) They've promised daily challenges for players to get fight money but it still hasn't happened.

Why? The fight money from winning matches online is negligible and Capcom are afraid challenges would give out too much fight money that people won't pay them extra money.

3) You need fight money to buy fucking stages in addition to the characters.

WTF!?! How much do they want to milk their fans? Its bloody hard enough getting money for the characters and they want money for stages? I already payed $80 for this piece of shit game and you want more money for Guile's stage?



4) Another loading screen is coming your way.

The game takes so bloody long to load its not funny and they've still not fixed this after 4 and a half months. In Ultra SF4 it takes an instant to go from training mode to ranked match and back again. In SFV the loading is Playstation 1 level of frustratingly long. USF4 might have a lot less people playing but at least I don't have to stare at loading screens all the freaking time.

5) 8 frame lag and the constant server connection produces lag even when playing offline versus.

6) The new story mode is freaking boring.

The money and time would have been better spent on making a decent arcade mode with escalating difficulty and more stages for versus. So much unnecessary padding. I cleared it and skipped most of the cutscenes. The arcade mode in SF4 was more entertaining.

7) Still no answer to rage quitting.

How could they not have anticipated this problem with an online freaking game?

8) Not as fun as USF4.

A lot of characters are so boring to watch or play. Without Tokido's Ryu, a lot of tournaments would be sleep inducing. I just don't enjoy a limited reversal, 3 frame wakeup jab heavy game where characters have variable frame data.

9) Marketing bullshit.

I hate how Capcom badmouths USF4 with fallacies like auto Ibuki set ups when SFV has R Mika corner set ups. At least after I block an Ibuki set up I'm fine. Speaking about Capcom marketing bullshit, how about how SFV is easier to play because it doesn't have 1 frame links? SFV Beginners have no chance in SFV.

10) Still no ability to search/create rooms by region/ping

Its an absolute joke that they have still to address this. Its such an important part of online play and should have been there since day 1.

SUMMARY

I give up on this crap. If the game had come out as a free game or with a super low price, I would have been happy to pay for extra characters and stages but now its no different from one of those freemium mobile phone games. At least they didn't introduce pay to win bullshit like SFxTekken. Screw you Capcom. KOFXIV has fifty characters and they've got plenty of stages that won't cost extra money.

Ultimately, SFV is a rip off, not just for the hardcore fans but also the casuals who bought an incomplete game at full price and has since moved on to other games. Capcom will keep milking the hardcore fans by charging for things that should have been on the disc in the first place. Its like going to a hostess club and the girl asking you to buy her drinks in addition to the money you are already paying for her time.

I liked it better when Capcom kept releasing new versions of Street Fighter because I was getting my money's worth.
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Berserk (2016) Episode 1

July 3, 2016, 8:37 am
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OMFG. Sometimes when you wish for something long enough, it will come true. Last year was the Shenmue 3 announcement and this year it's the arrival of the Berserk anime and Miura finally released a chapter!

WHAT I LIKED

+ We finally have an anime pass the Golden Age story! I was hoping the anime movies will be successful enough to warrant a fourth movie but I've been waiting for this since I first saw the 1997 series on videotape!

+ Its violent Berserk in all its ugly glory.

+ Puck is in it, a character that was omitted from the original anime.


MEH

= The 3D can look very stiff at times but I understand that Berserk doesn't have the budget of a harem anime so I'm all for using the budget as effectively as possible,

= They skipped the Lost Children story which was grotesque and scary but I can understand that it might be less appealing to casual watchers.


WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- The opening and ending just really cannot hold a candle to the classic 1997 anime. They should just reuse them.


SUMMARY

If you've never heard of Berserk, watch the anime and read the manga and be prepared for the biggest WTF of your life. For fans, we can only keep our finger crossed that the anime will continue all the way and the Musou game will be decent.

EDIT

YAKINIKU KARUBI!


Remember that yakiniku karubi episode from Kodoku no Gureme in season 2? I had forgotten all over it though I did eat yakinuku karubi in Japan. Which looking for news about Nakano closing, I found this link to the actual place, called Heiwaen! Its actually close to Numabukuro which I've been before for Muteppou tonkotsu ramen.

Scroll down on the first link for the actual map and note that it closes on Monday and Thursday.
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7/7/16 Mega jdorama round up!

July 6, 2016, 7:51 am
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KINPIKA Eps 1-3

I so wanted to like this WOWOW show. Three people; a yakuza, jietai member and political secretary were betrayed and then brought together so they can help each other get revenge. The writing is oh so bad I cannot begin to describe it.


Instead of being a more WOWOW style revenge show, its more like a mainstream cop show where there is a lot of posturing and trying to look cool without any regard to logic. Avoid. Seriously so disappointed in WOWOW.


GOOD PARTNER Eps 1-3

The best of the bunch, which isn't saying much. Takenouchi Yutaka has gone from taxi driver to lawyer and his chemistry with Matsuyuki Yasuko is good. Its not like we get a lot of corporate law doramas.


The only thing I don't like is Yutaka's shtick of taking his badge off and saying I'm not going to talk to you as a lawyer but as a person. Three episodes in, there's no reason not to watch Good Partner but there hasn't been anything particularly good either. I'm just going to keep watching cause of the cast.

HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI Eps 1+2

Mystery suspense show with lots of idorus who can't act based on a famous visual novel (I think). This might be so bad its watchable and I can't make sense of episode 2's ending and episode 3's preview so I'll keep watching.

FUKIGEN NA KAJITSU Eps 1-4

Another super trashy and cheesy Hirugao style 'adult' show to kill off more brain cells. Its so bad only its targeted audience can appreciate it.


On a related note, Inagaki Goro is just a horrible actor. I have never ever seen him in anything that made me think he can act. Only for people who enjoyed Hirugao. Everyone else avoid.

HI NO KO Eps 1-5

Santamaria Yusuke is creepy guy who was once accused of murder by was found not guilty. He moves next door to the judge who freed him and befriends the family. The family members don't come across as very smart although to be fair, they all of motivations for behaving the way they do. Its just the family members are like those victims in horror movies.


They are there to do stupid things and die but no one in the family has died yet. In summary, I don't care about the family and there has not been an exciting twist yet. Small chance it might turn very exciting in the end but I can't be stuffed finding out. Meh.

UTENAI KEIKAN Episode 2

I am giving up on this series for now because I really need Japanese subs for this and because I cannot stand how this dude always mumbles his freaking lines. Seriously, Japanese subs should be mandatory everytime he opens his mouth. WTF was his Japanese teacher who never taught him how to enunciate properly?
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Shizumanu Taiyo movie / The Unbroken (2009)

July 9, 2016, 7:04 am
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In getting ready to watch WOWOW's Shizumanu Taiyo, I decided to watch the 2009 movie on which the dorama is based on. The 3 hour plus movie starts off with Japan's biggest air disaster and then through flashbacks we see the relationship between Onchi and Gyoten, two leaders of the airline workers union.


Onchi sticks to his guns and his banished to Karachi while Gyoten helps management to set up a new union and works his way up the ranks. Shizumanu Taiyo is the story of two friends that go on two very different paths and is set against the corruption politicians and people in charge of the airline who only want to protect their own interests.


The main character of Onchi reminds me of Goda in WOWOW's Marks no Yama and Lady Joker; the straightforward person who is trying to do the right thing while working in an organisation that is corrupted. Coincidentally, Goda plays Onchi in the dorama version.


However, the movie just feels too uneven and unwieldy. The 3 hour runtime is too short for what the story tried to do and Gyoten and the female characters feel very shortchanged. The movie should have been streamlined even more and the scenes about the air disaster reduced.

My main reason for watching was to prepare myself for the WOWOW dorama so I wasn't really thinking about the shows problems.  As a movie its kind of ok but nothing special. You can grab it from avistaz or you can just watch it on youtube with English subs.


Gonna start watching the WOWOW version after this. Fingers crossed it doesn't get bogged down like the movie but I am very concerned how they are going to fill the 20 episodes based on what I saw in the movie. 8-10 episodes yes but 20? There better be enough character fleshing out stuff to keep things interesting.

My other concern is whether it might feel too similar to so many WOWOW shows about corruption. If you want to watch the dorama, you can stream it here.
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Shizumanu Taiyo Eps 1-8

July 12, 2016, 7:32 am
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By the jdorama gods, I think I just watched 8 episodes of the best jdorama this year. On a side note, if jdorama gods really existed, would they have permitted overpushed Takei Emi, Goriki, Kiritani Mirei and Kitagawa Keiko to each have their own shows in the same season?

Gnosticism aside, Shizumanu Taiyo is really Fumo Chitai 2.0 and completely blows the movie out of the sky. I had many doubts coming in and everytime I thought the show might drag, the way the story is executed just kept me going.

Unfortunately at this time, I do not know of a download source besides streaming it from dailymotion here, although one can easily download from dailymotion. The Chinese subs are distracting and I hate it when they cover the Japanese subs when someone is speaking a foreign language. I need a clean no Chinese sub rip and Shizumanu Taiyo deserves to be freaking subbed in English. If you've got basic Japanese, you can watch the movie first and be able to follow the dorama in terms of plot.

Now I need to get to spoiler talk so don't continue reading if you haven't seen it. If you need English subs, write to your senators, petition in d-addicts and raise awareness for Shizumanu Taiyo because it deserves to be watched by as many people as possible instead of stupid Kiritani Mirei romance doramas.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+ OMFG, I need to start of with this. Onchi taking the stand in episode 8 was so fucking cathartic after all that he had been through.

+ The dorama really built up all the trials and difficulties that he encounters so well and I love that the show has time to show all the cultural differences of the three places Onchi is stationed.

+ Onchi taking up hunting is a sort of release and the only way to keep himself sane works really well.

+ The looks his family gives him when they see his house of stuffed animals. As a viewer, you are surprised to see how much his kids have grown but for Onchi's family, they are surprised at how much he has changed and I could really feel that in the acting.

+ There were times during the show I really felt Onchi should quit his freaking job or just promise no more union involvement for his family. The president already lied to him twice and Onchi doesn't need to keep him word anyway.

+ Speaking of the president, what a useless old man who can't even muster the political strength to save one of the few good employees of the company.

- One thing I do hate about Shizumanu Taiyo are the bad guys sneering all the time as if they are in Hanzawa Naoki. OK, the overacting is not as bad but its one of those Japanese things that gets on my nerves. Bad guys don't act like bad guys in real life.

= I can't believe all those accidents happened and the airline was so freaking corrupt. I'm assuming everything that happened are based on real incidents.

+ I was so happy for the Samurai Boss cause it was getting tiring watching Onchi get beat down at every turn.

= I missed Gyoten's relationship with the stewardess from the movie though.

= I liked that they series had more time to develop Gyoten and show why he turned but after that he was just a faceless bad guy. In the end its more Onchi's story rather than Onchi and Gyoten.

SUMMARY

Two more episodes for season 1 and I have no doubt it will be awesome. The question is the remaining 10 episodes of season 2 about Onchi's investigating the sneering bad guys. Its always better for a dorama to have a stronger second half than a first. However, the first 8 episodes truly made for a memorable viewing experience and nothing that happens later can spoil that. Absolutely, positively must watch jdorama.
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Hibana Spark

July 16, 2016, 2:31 pm
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Hibana Spark is the second Japanese netflix show after the horrible Underwear. I couldn't even finish the first episode of Underwear because it smelled like a crappy prime time Japanese dorama show. Hibana Spark smells different. Thats because its a philosophical movie about the nature of comedy wrapped up in a story about  a struggling manzai duo Sparks.


Also central to the story is Tokunaga's (one half of Sparks) relationship with Kamiya (one half of Ahodora), a senpai who he respects with a skewed sense of humour. Together, they are like monks living a life dedicated to making people laugh while musing about the nature of their occupation. They find in each other the ideal audience for their jokes but the question is whether they can find enough of an audience out there for their acts?

I have however, one problem with Hibana Spark and that is I didn't find it funny. Not the manzai jokes about curry or nabe or even the dry humour like the scene where Sparks are watching their appearance on tv and Tokunaga's partner Masato asks his girlfriend if she recorded the thing. I know why its suppose to be funny but it just didn't work for me.

I think people who enjoy manzai would like Hibana Spark but I found it too dry and didn't really enjoy watching any of the characters. Actually, the character I was most interested in was kamiya's girlfriend, Maki because I was interested to know what she though of all this.


Its surprising Netflix chose Hibana Spark to do because I don't think it plays well to a foreign audience except for the underdog trying to make it in a difficult industry part. I like that its not your usual jdorama but I sort of get what its trying to say but I don't feel it. Hibana Sparks gets a meh from me.
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Koekoi Eps 1+2

July 18, 2016, 7:29 am
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There are only 3 things I ask from Shoujo doramas. First, they have to be funny like Ore Monogatari, secondly eye candy for me and thirdly some sort of twist on the typical shoujo formula.

The surprising show of the new season so far, Koekoi ticks all three boxes for me and the twist is that the main dude Matsubara wears a paper bag on his head.

Not only is the idea of the paper bag guy with a good voice (apparently) funny, it can represent a lot of things and can be used to represent a character with any sort of quirk/physical difference. Speaking of voice, Matsubara's voice reminds me of the boss of this famous tsukemen place in Shinjuku called Fuunji.

He sort of uses a similar put on voice which is suppose to be yasashii for lack of an appropriate English term. Anyone who's been to Japan might notice that employees at eating places might use a softer/higher tone when speaking to customers to show servitude.

Anyway, its been a pretty funny two episodes. I hope they never ever explain Matsubara's reason for having the paper bag on his head and never show his face, though it seems unlikely. I recommend Koekoi and hope it can keep it up! 
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