HamsapSukebe

This movie has been sitting on my hard disk for years and I finally got around to watching it after looking for Ito Ayumi movies because of Tsumi to Batsu. I always had a thing for her since Wedding Planner but I hardly see her in jdoramas/movies. I completely forgot Be Sure to Share was a Sono Sion movie, probably cause Akira from Exile is in it and surprisingly, he actually does a decent job in this movie.

Be Sure to Share is Sono Sion's most mainstream movie ever, even more than Land of Hope. It is also his most personal movie. I think he did it after Love Exposure. If his name didn't appear in the beginning, you would not be able to tell its the same director who is doing Minna! Esper Dayo!

Be Sure to Share is a father-son movie. Akira's father is hospital for cancer and everyday, he goes to visit him. Over the course of the movie, we get to see details of their relationship through very well done flashbacks. We see that Akira's father was the demon coach of the school and how their relationship was as he was going up. Actually its as much a father-son movie as it is a movie about two people at different stages in their lives.

I love how Sono Sion structures the flashbacks to tell the audience what we need to know and how it affects the present day. It prevents to need for exposition dialogue and takes us deeper, step by step into the characters, their relationships and their thoughts.

It is a mark of how great Sono Sion is as a writer/director that he can write something as crazy as Love Exposure and also do something as simple and touching as Be Sure to Share. The only thing remotely Sono Sion-like occurs in the end but its such a beautiful scene.

Ito Ayumi is great in this as well as Akira's girlfriend and she does the emotional heavy lifting in this one. I want to see her in something where she has a career defining role. Looking at her filmography, there are plenty of her movies that I haven't seen so she may have already done it.

While I would still place Love Exposure and Noriko's Dinner Table as Sono Sion's best films, Be Sure to Share is his best mainstream movie. Its what Japanese melodramas should be, simple, poetic and memorable. Absolute must watch.

Bframe has been talking about Toranaide Kudasai!! for a bit so I decided to check it out. Behind the scenes show with gravures? Can't think of a reason not to watch it and frankly, I'm disappointed I did not notice it sooner. Checked out the d-addicts torrents and no one is seeding them. :(

My only choice was to go down to my local DVD shop and get those chinese DVDs. The original price was $25 but they were doing a 3 for $30 special so I grabbed Tightrope no Onna and Taburakashi, too shows I have not seen that looked remotely interesting.

Bframe told me that at the back of his DVD box, it says this dorama was fiction and it really is. I know reality tv is scripted but Toranaide Kudasai!! doesn't even try to pass itself off as reality. Way too many shots where the lighting is better than cheap doramas cause you want to get the girls in their best light and sometimes with conversations, the camera goes back and forth from two viewpoints.

So Toranaide Kudasai!! is a dorama about the making of a documentary that doesn't even try to pretend to be a real documentary featuring real gravure idols playing themselves in situations that true to life. So far at the end of each episode, every girl gets to have their JCVD monologue moment. If you've not watched the movie JCVD, its this famous long monologue where Van Damme bares his soul to the audience in a monologue.

I really like Kawamura Yukie's monologue. I think she was pretty good at that part because a lot of it is true. This is unreality, the opposite of reality tv. Gravure idols playing fictional characters based on themselves you keep wondering how much is real but it looks more like a dorama than a documentary. I guess it just weird me out why they don't make it more realistic

I'm only three episodes in but the formula of one girl per episode will probably wear thin soon. It will be very hard to do interesting individual stories for all the girls. I like the connectivity between the stories with girls running into each other.

I was really happy when the back of the DVD box said it had Japanese subs. Then I realised the Japanese subtitles aren't even correct. They sort of correspond with what is being said on the screen but are not accurate. Its as if auto translated the Chinese subs into Japanese!

Was looking through the 2012 fansub map when Tightrope no Onna caught my eye. Name sounded familiar and then I realised that I had bought it along with Toranaide Kudasai!! Seeing as the first two episodes have been English subbed, might as well give it a go. Tightrope no Onna is a daughter v former mistress/second wife business dorama. Tokura Yuri (Ikewaki Chizuru) is the naive ojousan of a wire manufacturer and Takaoka Saki is his second wife Tokura Kyoko.

Mr Tokura passes away leaving his company to both his daughter and wife and of course the daughter Yuri hates the 2nd wife, blaming her for the family's breakup and Yuri's mother's death. Kyoko, however needs Yuri's help in order to save Mr Tokura's company which is in dire financial trouble.

First of, I've got two main problems with this dorama. Number 1 is that Yuri is such a slow and naive character that its hard to root for her. Being the focus of the dorama, it takes her too damn long to grow brain cells and even then the master plan to save the company.

Well that brings me to me second dislike, its not an exciting business dorama. It reminds me of Magma, I expected exciting business twists and turns and all I want to shout at the screen is kirei koto iu na! (Stop saying beautiful words). It wants to be a touchy feely dorama but at the expense of business logic. For example, why wasn't the guy who has been cooking the books canned in the first episode? So it can lead to this idealistic, forgiving moment at the end.

This brings me to why I finished the 6 episodes. I like the daughter who hates the 2nd wife story. Lots of complicated stuff amidst some soapy plot lines but it is kept afloat immensely by the acting ability of Ikewaki Chizuru and Takaoka Saki. I like how the 2nd wife manipulates the naive daughter to do certain things and pushes her buttons. Doesn't happen successfully and there are deep emotions involved but it certainly reminds me of Doctors. Smart characters are always a happy thing for me. Speaking of Doctors, why hasn't anyone uploaded the special yet?

You could say the acting from the two actresses has lead me to see it as a half full dorama instead of a half empty one. Good acting does make generic doramas tolerable. Plus when was the last time Japan produced a good business dorama since Hagetaka? Watching jdoramas can certainly mess with your expectations. I certainly do not regret watching it but it may also have to do with the story's simplicity making watching with Japanese subs easier. If you want something to watch, no harm giving it a try, I guess.

What's happening to this dorama?! Its just no longer funny. Episode 8 is about Tengaman getting bewitched by a fat overweight but it was so boring, even with the team working together. The best bits were of the Yoshiro-Miyuki-Asami triangle with Asami not believing in espers and Yoshiro and Miyuki being able to hear each other's thoughts.

The episode ends with Yoshiro finally responding to Asami's thoughts instead of always running away. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to label it a 'do not watch'. Come on Sono Sion, I believe in you!

Now that Tsumi to Batsu has been subbed and I've tried everything I want to watch, its time to look back at the best and worst doramas that came out in 2012. Not really a memorable year because nothing that was an absolute classic came out and it was more a year of doramas that could have been. Actually 2012 is the year many great 1st episodes which are followed by crap.

I CAN'T BELIEVE AWARDS 2012

I can't believe Hancho has been around for 7 seasons and averages 11% rating.

I can't believe Fuji TV expected Going My Home to get good ratings.

I can't believe all the I.T. and business bullcrap in Rich Man, Poor Woman. Now I understand characters in the old trendy doramas always worked in advertising.

I can't believe someone tried to remake perfection. (GTO)

I can't believe the producer of Renai Dekinai still has a job.

I can't believe Ishihara Satomi's lips won best actress for pouting through 10 episodes.

I can't believe the scripts for Suitei Yuuzai and Magma were so bad after great episodes. Surely someone with common sense must have read the scripts first?

I can't believe I never really called out Nagasawa Masami's lack of acting ability until Bunshin.

I can't believe there's a second season of Legal High.

I can't believe I'm still spending so much time watching jdoramas.

BEST ACTRESS

Kaho - Hitori Shizuka. She has gone from child actress to showing that she can be the main actor.

Honourable mentions -
Koizumi Kyoko - Shukuzai and Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi.
Kimura Yoshino - Hatsukoi. The first time I can remember being impressed by her acting.
Nakatani Miki - Seinaru no Kaibutsutachi. Its a horrible, unwatchable dorama but she kept me in it for 6 episodes. An actress of her caliber deserves better scripts.
Matsu Takako - Unmei no Hito

BEST ACTOR

Abe Hiroshi - Going My Home. Its always Abe's award to lose.

Honourable mentions -
Nakai Kiichi - Saga Kara Nibanme no Koi
Masahiro Motoki - Unmei no Hito
Kora Kengo - Tsumi to Batsu
Tanihara Sosuke - Tsugunai

BEST DORAMAS OF 2012

5. Nemureru Mori no Jukujo.

4. Unmei no Hito

3. Shokuzai

2. Hatsukoi

1. Hotori Shizuka

BEST OF THE REST

1. Double Face (dorama SP)
2. Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi
3. Going My Home
4. Tsumi to Batsu
5. Kodoku no Gurume (1st season)
6. Tsugunai
7. Spec Sho (dorama SP)

Took a look at Mierino Kashiwagi cause Jung recommended it. Its about 3 people who work at a cafe and help people to break up. First of, I really like the look of this dorama. Its more realistic, people talk normally and its got a subdued sense of humour. The good thing about 30 minute doramas is that there is usually no fat. It has to introduce characters and tell a story efficiently.

Just when things where looking up, Kashiwagi gets a phone call and meets up with Kyabakura 48 producer Akimoto for some boring fourth-wall breaking talk. All of a sudden Mierino Kashiwagi is pointing out that its existence is to pimp this kyabajo, I mean idoru. Everything else about the dorama is interesting.

The Akimoto hogging the screen part I cannot stand. His talks with Kashiwagi are sort of related to the story but I hate how they try to relate the relationship stories to this 'junsui' idoru. This is a dorama that's stuck between telling interesting stories and serving an idoru. Only for fans.

While bullying movies/dorama are a dime a dozen, I've don't remember seeing one that approaches it quite like Fourteen. If I have to compare it with another movie, I'd say its a darker version of Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo and explores issues of bullying and being 14 years old through the eyes of teacher and students without giving a simple answer.

The first half of the movie is very disorganised. We see bits and pieces about the 5 main characters but the narrative is quite weak. Compounding the problem was some very questionable cinematography. For example, there is an important scene where the teacher finds something written on the blackboard but the camera is just floating around aimlessly and distractingly in the middle of the classroom and its not even representing a student's viewpoint.

The movie starts to make sense in the middle when the connection is made with the stabbing scene in the beginning and we realise who the characters are and what actually is going on. Its hard to talk about the movie without spoilers but let's say it covers a lot of dark and interesting subject matter well. Like all dark/realistic movies, everyone's got issues not just the students and nothing gets resolved easily.

Interesting to note that the director, Hirosue Hiromasa also plays on the of the main characters Sugino, a piano teacher and a very young Sometani Shota (Minna! Esper Dayo!) plays his student. The acting is really good but I feel slightly let down by the directing/cinematography. Its not just the above mentioned classroom scene. Instead of feeling like a fly on the wall, sometimes I feel like I'm peering at the characters from outside. I'm not saying the camera work is atrocious, just that it could have been a lot better and less distant.

I'd like to give it a must watch but I can't. The first half could have been tighter and the camera work much better but the script and acting more than make up for it. Despite its slight flaws, its a dark movie with a soul and its guaranteed to stay with you after watching. If you're looking for a serious jmovie about youth and bullying, you can't go wrong with Fourteen.

Sawamura Ikki is back as Sagara. I really love the first season because it takes your generic jdorama hospital stories and adds some brains to it. Good things don't happen just because Sagara is good and naive. Things happen because Sagara knows how to push people's buttons for his own interests. Things happen because our main character makes it happen, not because good things happen to good people.

Of course the magic of DOCTORS is not complete without the character defective Moriyama sensei. What started out as just another useless colleague who is angry at our hero is the perfect foil and partner for Sagara. Sometimes overacting can be a great performance.

It is just me or do a lot of the eyes in this show look like they've been operated on?

Its not we haven't seen people manipulation doramas before. Shows like Hammer Session are stunt based and rely on people realising the 'goodness' in their hearts. In DOCTORS, Saga uses Moriyama's pride and other people's insecurities to get the desired results. I doubt Sagara will ever go full Machiavellian but to me, its such a breath of fresh air.

Anyways, the same characters return for the dorama SP with Moriyama sensei coming back from a 3 month stint in Texas. The villain for this SP is Sengoku sensei, the leader of the group that Moriyama left in episode one. Sengoku who is up for re-election at his University Hospital wants to destroy Dougami hospital. I really wanted to see this type of story in Iryu. Sengoku actually does the same type of 'relocations' that Noguchi sensei did in Iryu.

The other story is a patient from Sengoku's hospital who has lost hope of living and is depressed. Nothing much to see here. Its your typical sweet hospital story. Interesting to note everyone tells her to live for her son but say nothing about the invisible husband. Lol. Can't blame the writer since being a widower with a kid is probably a great pick up story.

Its fun watching Sagara appeal to Moriyama's pride and the running joke of the SP is Moriyama being too proud to kneel before Sengoku. A character who sticks to his guns whether for good or bad is always interesting.

She dressed up to tell the rich lawyer this load of crap?

Another thing I liked abour the script was inferring that Sagara's plan was not contingent on Sengoku losing the election. Sagara did not do much to plausibly claim he had a strong chance of effect the elections and part of his persuasive reasoning was that Sengoku would have a hard time if the operation is successful. The only part of his plan Sagara was counting on was the operation succeeding.

I am kind of surprised they wasted this villain and story for the dorama SP. They could have easily stretched it to one whole season. I was looking for whether its the same writer but no confirmation from Fukuda Yasushi's Japanese wiki. So the evil big hospital trying to destroy our heroes is out for the second season. What other ways can Sagara improve Dougami hospital by manipulating people? I await the second season with cautious optimism as long as its the same writer. Must watch SP and I highly recommend the first season.

Yeah right. Probably cause her eyes are so big the veins look like they could pop.

I'm loving this episode not just because it has Mano Erina frolicking in bed singing Morning Coffee. As an old school Momusu fan, its just perfect.

Yoshio's parents are funnier when you've got Terumitsu (Tenga guy) going nuts over Yoshio's mom in the background.

Love the dry humour from Mano Erina's dad asking about nonhoi.

The best part of the episode is Sometani Shota and Kaho going on a date and making full use of their powers to their and our great amusement.

I think Minna! Esper Dayo!'s greatest sin is that it could have gone to many interesting places but instead went for the most boring slice of life angle.

Shota and Kaho are the bright spot of the series.

Love Kaho's acting and facial expressions. She's so a natural.

ROFL.

End of the day, I just want to watch these Espers use their powers and have fun using it.

Haven't been impressed with Mano Erina yet, besides the speech scene a couple of episodes ago.

Then you finally get to the Mano Erina and Kaho bitch fest!

Sono Sion should have done this 4 episodes ago!

This should have been an tsundere osananajimi vs yandere dorama from the get go.

Mano Erina singing Aogeba Toutoshi just caps of a perfect episode. Two more episodes to go. Can Sono Sion keep this up?

Kaibutsu is a very interesting thriller. Sato Koichi is a police detective dealing with two cases. First is a murder case where Mukai Osamu who works at a high-tech garbage disposal research facility is suspected of murder. The waste disposal tech is able to reduce rubbish and bodies into pure liquid, making it the perfect tool for getting rid of dead people.

The second case is a 15 year old case where Kaname Jun who a political prince, is suspected to have murdered a 15 year old girl. Tabe Mikako was also a victim of Kaneme Jun turns up wanting to confront him. Needless to say the two cases somehow get connected and interesting things happen.

This is a show about monsters/kaibutsu and I'm happy that it doesn't take the black and white route. Its sad that all jdorama villains have to laugh like a maniac but I'll take that since the story is good. There a lot of twists and turns that I wish they could have done it in 5 episodes instead of a 2 hours special but I'll take grey area morality any way I can.

The one thing I was worried over was the ending and I was so glad when the karmic ending turned out to be a hallucination. The ending is really exciting, ends on a cliffhanger and I really want to see what happens next. I really want to give this a must watch but by the jdorama gods, the lighting in this is horrible. Lots of random light scources from who knows where litter this dorama SP and light glares. The lighting guy on this dorama uses glares like JJ Abrams uses lens flare. Overall, really fake mood lighting.

Highly recommended. They don't have enough time to sell some twists and turns and you'll probably be wishing someone from WOWOW directed this but any serious thriller dorama that manages to go to interesting places is not to be missed. If Sono Sion or Kurosawa Kiyoshi had directed this, it would have been a classic. I want to know whether the novel stops here or whether it has a sequel because the possibilities for part 2 are endless.

EDIT: Episode 2

I've always found Tanaka Rena to be a decent actress. There's this scene in episode 2 where things go bad for her at work and she comes home, runs into her husband and throws a tantrum, except its probably the fakest tantrum ever. In my mind I was screaming at the director to cut and reshoot the scene. There was no way any decent director would have allowed that crappy performance from Tanaka Rena. Was it a one-shot take? Was she not able to do better?

20 years ago, some students went to Kyoto for a trip and a girl named Fuyuha disappeared. One day, her former classmates receive a mail from her asking whether they remember her. The five classmates reunite and we start to get a glimpse of the lives of these former classmates.

Gekiryuu is two doramas, the mystery dorama and reunion dorama. The meat of it seems to be the five characters and their various secrets. The one thing that will ultimately decide the watchability of Gekiryuu is the mystery. The emails at the moment feel very prankish instead of scar.

I love the casting. Tomosaka Rie, Tanaka Rena, Kuninaka Ryoko and Yamamoto Koji who is losing the battle at the top. Kuninaka Ryoko needs to break out from being typecast though. Unfortunately, the directing is very pedestrian and generic. NHK should have paid the people who did Hatsukoi to do this cause it looks so uninspiring. Hatsukoi was such a visually sumptuous dorama to watch.

Too early to judge this show. Not optimistic but I will keep watching for the cast which also includes Satsukawa Aimi. :) Nice reveal at the end though.

1. WOMAN

Mitsushima Hikari is the best Japanese actress today, Sakamoto Yuji (Chase/Mother) is writing this and the director Mizuta Nobuo also did Mother and Maiko Haaaan! If that is not a recipe for a classic dorama, I don't know what is.

2. DOCTORS 2 : Saikyou no Meii

The dorama SP was good. Is there anything left for the second season?

3. Akuryou Byouto

Kaho as a nurse! Woohoo. Scary dorama by the guy who directed Ring 0. I'll only be watching for Kaho.

4. Keibuho Yabe Kenzo 2

More from my favourite detective with the wig. Can we please have a cameo from Abe Hiroshi?

5. Limit

Sakuraba Nanami in a schoolgirl survival dorama? What can go wrong? Actually, hold that thought. Its still worth a look.

6. Saitou-san 2

No Mimura. :( Their chemistry was what made the first season work. Same writer might recapture that magic, maybe.

7. Meoto Zenzai

Moteki and Ono Machiko playing a Geisha? Yes, please. Let's see whether Moteki can really act.

8. Double Tone - Futari no Yumi

A dorama about 2 Yumis who see each other's lives in their dreams. Sounds interesting.

9. Furueru Ushi

From Jadefrost's synopsis, sounds like a murder + corporate conspiracy dorama. Right up WOWOW's alley.

PREDICTIONS

Will this be the greatest season ever? Woman and Meoto Zenzai will probably end up being good. Can't think of what else to do with Doctors 2. Everything else will be pedestrian, Saito-san will be boring without Mimura and Furueru Ushi will end up like so many WOWOW doramas that peter our at the end. What do I need to sacrifice to the jdorama gods to get 3 must watch shows this season?

Faaaaaaaarrrrk. Woman is so effing good. Only in Japan can a dorama have a crappy name like Woman with a uber photoshopped poster and still be awesome. Mitsushima Hikari absolutely kills it in the acting department and just absolutely becomes her character Aoyagi Koharu. Sakamoto Yuji was surprisingly quick in getting rid of Oguri Shun, lol. Don't worry ladies, he'll be in the flashbacks to come.

I was wondering how Sakamoto was going to pace this dorama and its by making Woman more than just a single mother hardship story. Looks like the tension is going to come from Koharu's strained relationship with her mother and her current family. Thank the jdorama gods that Koharu is a character rather than a bland single mother archetype. For a more soap opera story, there's the dude working at the welfare department who is married to Tanimura Mitsuki and Takahashi Issei (the dude from Gonzo who looks like he wants to cry all the time) as her colleague.

I'm getting strong affair vibes from that set up but I trust in Sakamoto Yuji. The rest of the cast is awesome. The mom from Mother is Koharu's mom and the master from Shinya Shukudo is her husband! Not to mention Usuda Asami (Suzuki sensei) as Koharu's colleague and we've got some of my favourite actors.

So many highlights in one episode. The heart stopping pram scene. The old welfare guy asking her if played pachinko. Can't blame him though, he's probably seen too many welfare cheats. Koharu asking money from the young welfare guy. The money scene with Koharu and her mom. OMFG, the tension and the gamut of emotions in that scene and the beautiful directing. Mitsushima Hikari just runs through Koharu's pride, anger and desperation all at the same time.

There's this shot when Koharu and her mom are talking where the camera is behind Koharu's mother and it loses focus on Koharu's face so we can concentrate on the side of the mom's face from behind. We can't see Koharu's mom's face but every twitch of her muscles convey more emotion than Fukada Kyoko ever can.

Woman is so Soredemo Ikite Yuku-like in the way it just holds my undivided attention. Realistic dialogue and characters and just mesmerising acting that made me feel like a fly on the wall. Why can't more doramas be like this? If you're not watching this, you shouldn't be watching jdoramas.

I love this shot.

This season just keeps getting better and better. I was attracted to Double Tone's premise, two women named Yumi start to see each other lives in their dreams. We see what happens during on Yumi's day and then the other Yumi wakes up with that knowledge and so on and so forth. It makes for some interesting drama when they run into people the other Yumi interacts with in dreams.

During the first episode, I was thinking the two Yumis can't meet up right away. They need to milk this concept first before they get together and we get to the next phase of the story. The at the end of the episode, this huge reveal happens that changes everything.

What a great episode. Sell the high concept and then end with a twist that had me scrambling to pandora.tv and dailymotion for episode 2 to no avail. Gaaaaaahh, I want to see what happens!!!! Japanese subs for ep 2 have already been uploaded to jpsubber though and sadly Japanese subs for ep 1 are not available. Whoever decides to sub episode 1 is going to have to time it which is half the work.

Someone please sub this so furransu will upload ep 2. It'll hopefully show up on pandora.tv sooner or later. Hope NHK don't stuff Double Tone up cause they can do some great drama with the concept. Low level Japanese is sufficient for this except for some job talk. Jadefrost's synopsis should get you through it otherwise.

I've been waiting so long for this and its now available on the interwebs with Japanese subs! Suzuki sensei is to this 2K10 dorama era what Kinpachi sensei was to the 90s. Kinpachi sensei was an idealistic, preachy and moral look at various student and social issues while Suzuki sensei is smarter and looks at grey area issues. I'm not dissing Kinpachi sensei but Suzuki sensei is a more sophisticated dorama. Plus Kinpachi season 6 was the only time I thought Ueto Aya was a decent actress.

The movie is basically two episodes into which would have worked better separately; one is the high school council election and the second story is about two former students who are now 'rejects' of society. The student election story I enjoyed a lot more. Taruko sensei comes back and has the power to completely ignore Suzuki sensei's existence which becomes a running joke throughout the movie.

To combat spoiled votes, Takuro sensei changes the voting rules to require all ballots be signed. What follows is an interesting examination on right to not vote and its fun watching the students gear up for elections and having to give speeches. Good thing they didn't have to walk around the school with megaphones giving speeches about Japan.

The second story is about two ex-students who hang around at the park everyday with one of them being played by Mitsushima Hikari's brother from Soredemo Ikite Yuku. Those two are perceived as dangerous people and Suzuki sensei and Ogawa are the only two to treat them as normal. An incident happens in a park and suddenly the public ashtrays are removed and a sign erected saying be careful of suspicious people. Basically the two ex-graduates only place to hang out are taken from them.

One of them, having lost is hang out place ends up bashing his mom and Mitsushima Hikari's brother decides to go to school and make Ogawa his hostage. Suzuki sensei has always been about interesting arguments from both sides but hostage dude does not have an argument. I was excited about his casting cause of Soredemo but alas, there seems to be a law in Japan that every bad guy has to do the evil laugh.

The hostage situation is more to set up the payoff of Suzuki sensei's speech to the class about the merits of acting in real life and to the most wtf action scene in Suzuki sensei that had me in awe and laughing at the same time. The movie ends with the result of the hostage situation but the movie doesn't take time to appreciate the gravity and trauma of the hostage situation. Its as if it were just an everyday occurance.

Not the must watch movie I was hoping for but it doesn't suck either like the Gaiji Keisatsu movie which I'm trying to forget. I think the writer did what he could to make it work as a movie. I think its worth watching for fans of the show.

Here's some necessary vocabulary to watch to movie:

小川病 - sometime every guy in the movie has
公約 - public commitment
生徒会 - student council
選挙 - election
書記 - secretary
立候補 - announcing one's candidacy
記名投票 - registered ballot
無効投票 - invalid ballot
宣言 - declaration
立会演説 - campaign speech
規制 - regulation
不審者 - suspicious person

Why is no one hating on Oguri Shun dying over pears? It is pretty hard to not notice a train is incoming in Japan. There are:

1. Electronic signs telling you when the next train is coming.
2. Voice saying train approaching soon.
3. People lining up.

One could possibly have excused 1 and 2 if Oguri Shun were wearing earphones but yeah, its a bit of a sell. I'm happy to accept the premise because it lead to the awesome scene in ep 1 where Koharu finally found out why her husband had pears with him but showing it a bit too many times makes my mind start wondering about how he died. Unless of course there is something to be revealed about his death later.

Hottest MILFS in the world.

I love the flashbacks to ep 1. It was such an awesome episode that I started wandering about how they could keep the momentum going. My biggest fear is that it would become Beautiful Rain aka Crying Porn.

While episode 2 is about the awwwww promise between Koharu and Nozomi, the execution is pretty good. I like that Nozomi is able to sell the feeling of guilt without saying stuff and crying. Hated/loved the way Koharu asked Nozomi whether she was lonely. I was screaming in my head, "Don't fucking do this guilt thing on your kids! Let them enjoy themselves ffs".

However character flaws are what makes characters interesting and real. Plus it ties in with what the welfare people told Koharu. Just happy that Nozomi's performance is not from the Ashida 'Look at me I'm so cute' Man school of acting. Love the above scene where the kids are stuck between wanting to have fun and guilt.

Got a bit excited with the above screencap cause it looks like Usuda Asami is wearing just a t-shirt.

Episode 2 advances all the other plots a little bit. Big surprise welfare dude has problems at home. It ends nicely with Nikaido Fumi introducing herself which makes me more excited for ep 3. You hear that Koreeda? End your episodes with something exciting! Que Koreeda fans screaming blasphemy.

I really liked the dorama special but it raised the question of what's left for the series? Season 2 starts of teasing in going in the direction of Moriyama becoming the director of Dougami General hospital. Dougami is going to get a huge amount of money from a bank and Moriyama's aunt wants to retire, go on a cruise and leave Moriyama in charge.

Of course the nurses are in uproar and threatening to quit. Sagara of course has a plan. Looks like the Moriyama gang have gotten ahead of themselves and are not treating their patients properly. One of Moriyama's patients requests that Sagara become her doctor instead and he uses this chance to deal with the Moriyama becoming director problem. (Or is it the other way around)

So in the end everything is back to where it was in season 1. I would prefer episode 1 to set up the direction of season 2 but could we possibly be looking at a rehash of season 1 ala Yuusha Yoshihiko? Episode 1 really does feel like its going through the same motions. Does the writer have new and inventive ways for Sagara to trick Moriyama? Guess we'll find out in the next episode. Doubt Doctors will get subbed so hopefully someone will upload it to d-addicts or I'll just have to download from dailymotion.

Whoever cast her in this episode must have gotten a lot of under the table action in return. Her acting is just so bad.

On an unrelated note, someone's subbing Double Tone which I recommend. So far the 3 episodes are very solid. Could be the sleeper dorama of the season.

So it ends not with a bang or a whimper but with a WTF is Sono Sion trying to accomplish here?!

Besides creating the most fun to screencap dorama next to Jyouou, that is. Note to self, maybe its time to watch Jyouou 3.

The worst thing a dorama can do is tease you with its many directions but never really go anyway and that is Minna! Esper Dayo!

Its not a team esper dorama cause he didn't spend enough time on building them up as a team.

Nor is it a sankaku kankei dorama cause that story just comes and goes without going anywhere interesting. The Sae is an esper revelation should have been a big deal.

Try mapping out Kamogawa's journey that doesn't go anywhere.

This dorama can't possibly be about powers as an analogy for social outcast?

Minna! Esper Dayo does a bit of everything of the above but doesn't have a backbone unless you consider panchira.

I didn't really care about what was happening and didn't have a reason to with the non ending.

I was looking back at my reviews trying to figure out how many bad episodes out of 12 and the common thing I was writing was that I was waiting for it to go somewhere interesting.

By my count, eps 1-5 and 10 are good and the rest are crap.

I wish I knew what Sono Sion saw in the manga that made him want to adapt it.

Faaaaark, ep 3 is so good. One thing that's been bothering me is how come there's always two doctors in the consulting room with Koharu everytime she goes to the hospital? I guess both doctors will figure heavily into Koharu's life in later episodes. I take back all criticisms I had of the pear thing because we finally find out what happened to Oguri Shun! Stop reading if you haven't watched it.

Oguri Shun is a chikan! I think Snoop said it showed up in a newspaper in ep 2. Mountaineering, nice dad touched up some high school girl (pretty obvious who it is), dropped the pears and may have been pushed. I kind of don't want them to disprove the chikan thing. Ties in with the theme of good people do bad things and bad people do good things.

Like the revelation that Koharu's dad physically abused his mom. He was violent towards his wife but he raised Koharu by himself for 10 years after that. Pretty sure he didn't abuse her unless Koharu repressed it that much. She probably repressed any memory that hinted her mom was abused.

Kobayashi Kaoru aka Shinya Shokudo is awesome as the step-father. Great source of humour, especially with the kids and you always need some humour with an ultra-serious dorama like this but earnest in his performance. Watching him act as the buffer between mother and daughter, I couldn't help but pity and laugh at him at the same time.

Speaking of the mother-daughter confrontation. That was some awesome slow building smorgasboard of hidden emotions and outbursts. This is the type of scene that any actor in Japan should sacrifice money and CM deals to do. I can just imagine the actors getting the script and thinking 'this is awesome and I'm going to be an emotional wreck after this'.

Nikaido Fumi who was in Sono Sion's Himizu is not bad but Mitsushima Hikari's facial reaction to what her step-sister said is what acting awards were created for. I was going to write about Hanzawa Naoki but furransu had just uploaded ep 3 and there was no stopping me. Good doramas make me happy. Didn't understand Shinya Shokudo's joke though. The 90s may be the golden age of trendy doramas but did they ever have emotionally gripping doramas like this?

Banking/financial jdoramas are a rarity. That's why I even found Tokkan fun to watch. Financial jdoramas are also very difficult to watch for the non-fluent people like me without English subs. I started watching before the English subs came out and I was reaching for my dictionary and pausing every 3 lines till I had two pages of financial terms and jargon which I will only remember the meaning but don't remember the words. The English subs came out just after I finished watching ep1 but there's no point rewatching it.

Hanzawa Naoki is the loan manager of a bank and he was forced to do a 500 million yen loan by his boss. The thing is the company that he loaned the money to, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt straight away and Hanzawa is blamed for the loan and must now recover the money.

Hanzawa Naoki is an interesting financial conspiracy dorama. However, its not being done by WOWOW or NHK which means lots of overacting and cartoony villains such as the tax office guy who becomes interested in Nishi Osaka Steel. Not only does Hanzawa Naoki have to deal with recovering the 500 million yen, he has to play cat and mouse with the tax office.

Ueto Aya doing her hitozuma impersonation. Is there anything scarier than Japanese housewives?

I like the story. I want to see how Hanzawa Naoki and his friends survive. I just wish the villains were less scenery chewing/anime-like. An example would be Kagawa Teryuki acting like he's playing a Kenshin villain or when the president of Nishi Osaka Steel distracts Hanzawa Naoki with some stupid line about how banks don't hold an umbrella over your head when its raining. Of course you have to make the villains hateful like the table slapping guy but I would have preferred a more realistic tone like Hagetaka and Chase, two of the best financial jdoramas out there.

I can't hate Hanzawa Naoki for what it is; a banking anime. When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked very generic. The chances of Ueto Aya doing a realistic dorama is practically nil. I'm pretty sure the dude who looks to green to be in finance and is there for exposition is a johnny. Sigh. As long as they can keep the story interesting and keep throwing interesting obstacles at Hanzawa Naoki, I'll keep watching.

On an unrelated note, the second episode of Doctors is up on dailymotion here. I've downloaded it and retimed the subs but I'm not sure I should post it up on furransu's Japanese sub thread.

Jmovie review: Be Sure to Share / Chanto tsutaeru

Toranaide Kudasai!! Gravure Idol Ura Monogatari eps 1-3

Tightrope no Onna

Minna! Esper Dayo! ep 8

HAMSAPSUKEBE AWARDS 2012

Mierino Kashiwagi eps 1+2

Jmovie review: Fourteen / 14歳

DOCTORS Saikyo no Meii SP

Minna! Esper Dayo! ep 10

Kaibutsu

Gekiryuu ~ Watashi wo oboemasuka? ~ ep 1+2

Jdoramas that should be subbed - Summer 2013

Woman ep 1

Double Tone ~Futari no Yumi~ ep 1

Suzuki Sensei movie

Woman ep 2

Doctors: Saikyou no Meii 2 Ep 1

Minna! Esper Dayo! eps 11+12

Woman Ep 3

Hanzawa Naoki eps 1+2