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Written by Mei
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Sun, Jun 21 2009, 09:35AM |
A little late to be writing about JDramas for the spring season, since most of them are over or about to be over. But since I've been rather busy and just had a chance to watch 2 them last week, I have to say, I liked both of them. Here are my preliminary reviews/thoughts.
Atashinchi no Danshi (アタシんちの男子)
The deciding factor in me watching this was of course, Horikita Maki. I've always enjoyed watching dramas with her in them. 
The story goes that, Maki's character, Chisato, is a homeless girl constantly on the run from the loan sharks who are after her for the 100million yen her father owes them. Just as she was cornered, Ookura Shinzou, the president of a large toy and game company came to her rescue and paid off her debt. However, in return, she was more or less forced into being his wife for the month of life he said he has left.  A month later, just when she thought she had fulfilled the contract, it was revealed that she has to live in a castle with the 6 adopted sons of Shinzou and act the role of the mother for 3 months while fulfilling other conditions before her debt can be cleared. And, to top it off, all of the sons are distrusting and each have their own past and issues to deal with and none of them are happy about her appearance and tried to get her to leave.  How will Chisato handle life with 6 guys who would sooner have her gone? And why did Shinzou pick her and put her into this situation?
Well, I'd just like to point out that. For one, this drama has good looking male cast. =P Eye candies never hurt. Half of them were familiar faces and half of them were new to me. The acting isn't too shabby either. The acting of the actor for Akira, the youngest son at age 12,  could have been better but hey, he's a kid. Like typical Idol JDramas, lighthearted humor and exaggeration all the way, but they did not over do it, so it's good. Although it is not even funny enough to be classified as comedy IMO, I think that's still the genre label for this drama. *shrugs* It is entertaining enough. Engaging without being too serious/depressing.
What kept me wondering the  whole time was actually, which guy Chisato is going to end up with. Aside from the youngest (he's 12, so duh) and the oldest (not going to give a spoiler here, but he's out) brothers, there are 4 possibilities. Although by episode 10, it is seriously starting to lean towards one of them. That's also what keeps me on the edge waiting for the last episode for XD. Nevertheless, nice chemistry between the cast and nice story pace. Ah, but speaking of story pace,  the only big fault I found with this show was the speed at which the brothers were taken in with her(come on, it is no spoiler, you all know that's what was going to happen). I guess they were trying to fit in other aspects of the plot, such as the conspiracy etc, so they didn't have much time to focus only on the interactions between Chisato and the brothers.
Anyhow, I recommend this show =P. That's the bottom line, and I'm eagerly waiting for the ending~
Mr. Brain
This show has currently aired 5 episodes, I have watched the first 3 up to this point. And I have to say, I love it. 
The deciding factor in me watching this was of course, Kimura Takuya. He's like, in my opinion, the king of JDrama. The first JDrama that drew me into the JDrama world was starred by him. He has awesome acting and a nice face =P What more could a girl ask for?
Story: Tsukumo Ryuusuke,  a host whose brain was damaged in an accident. After recovering, he went on and became a neuroscientist and has been newly employed in the Institute of Police Science in a newly formed Brain Department. The show follows him through several cases where his knowledge of the mysteries of the human brain helped the police in cracking several difficult cases.
Now, I did not say that I love this drama just because Kimura's in it. The story is great, each episode's story is pretty innovative for a detective drama, and believe me I've seen a LOT of those. It is centered around the idea of "brain" and each case is solved partially based on facts of the brain. Can't forget about the humor either. Although it isn't filled with laughable material, there are bits and pieces of humor through out (mostly in the interaction between Tsukumo and his assistant Kazune (Ayase Haruka).
Aside from the plot, the casts were also a nice surprise. Up until what I have seen, even the supporting/guest casts were composed of well-known and popular actors/actresses. In episode one, Hirosue Ryoko made a brief appearance; episode 2 had Koyuki (from Kimi wa Petto) and Gackt. Yes, Gackt, I was quite shocked when I was just skimming through the episode  and paused on a scene where I went, "Why does this guy look like...Gackt?" Haha, well, to my surprised, it WAS Gackt. He played the part of a psychopath serial killer, and er, I guess he fit the role.In episode 3, the most notable cast, IMO, is Kamenashi Kazuya from KAT-TUN. Now, I'm a KAT-TUN fan and I've seen several of Kame's dramas. Although he's been called "viewership poison" by a few people after his last role in not-so-well-liked "Kami no Shizuku," he's still very popular and I for one like his acting (And face of course. I am more of a Jin fan though, but that's besides the point). Another actress I am fond of: Nakama Yukie is to appear in episode 5 and 6.
As you can see, the show has done well in casting with some pretty big-time actors/actresses. This has got to be my favorite show this year, and I hope the upcoming episodes do not let me down.
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Written by Mei
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Wed, Apr 22 2009, 01:10AM |
(First Edition Album Art)
(Normal Edition)
After almost a year since their 3rd album was released, KAT-TUN's 4th album, "Break the Records -by you & for you-", is due to be released on April 29th~
According to their official website, the album will include tracks from the 4 singles: "DON'T U EVER STOP" "White X'mas(Album Version)" "ONE DROP" and "RESCUE" on top of 11 new songs (6 of which are solo songs tailored to the personalities of each of the 6 members), which amounts to 15 songs in total.
First edition is going to include a special 36 page booklet, and the normal edition will have a bonus track, making the total number of songs to be 16.
click on "read more" for details pertaining to the original news release in Japanese.
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Written by Mei
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Tue, Apr 7 2009, 10:35AM |
So, I just watched my first 2009 spring season JDrama. Here is my a little note of my impression.
Ghost Friends (ゴーストフレンズ)
The story goes that, Kamiya Asuka, your normal high school girl, gained the ability to see ghosts after a car accident where she was the sole survivor. Since then she's been constantly getting requests for help with things they want to settle from when they were  alive from various ghosts she came across.
Then she met Kaito. Who apparently can also see ghosts. She was happy to find someone with the same ability but Kaito seems very pessimistic about ghosts and warns Asuka that she should steer clear of them.
It is not really a spoiler since it is revealed at the end of episode 1 but, Kaito is a ghost himself. An incarnated one. He is chasing after and trying to catch a female ghost, whom the official site labeled as his girlfriend (from when he was human I guess), that is going around the human world occupying people's bodies then leaving them (They collapse when she does but I can't tell from the only little such scene in Ep 1 if they die or just temporarily become weak) because she wants to re-live her life. Maybe Kaito became incarnated for that "mission"?
Ghost-seeing people isn't really a novel idea, but episode 1 was kinda interesting nonetheless. The female lead, Fukuda Saki for some reason looks kinda like Toda Erika (from Liar Game) to me, especially when she smiles (see image below), and I like how Erika looks =P so yeah, Saki is a good female lead, at least look-wise.
(Left: Fukuda Saki Right: Toda Erika)
Don't they look kinda alike?
As for the male lead... apparently this is his first drama so his acting is a bit...off, and he isn't exactly an eye candy (no offense to his fans), so I'm a bit "eh" about him right now. Lets see how he fares in the upcoming episodes; especially since apparently Saki's character is supposed to fall for his character as the story progresses.
Anyhow, overall, this definitely will be a JDrama I'm going to be following this spring season.
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Written by Mei
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Thu, Mar 26 2009, 10:30AM |
Ah, I accidentally left out a drama in the article about japanese dramas I'm watching this season. I can't believe I forgot to mention it considering it has MY name in the title =P but that really says a lot about how I feel about that drama =P It is pretty...unremarkable.
A bit late now but anyway:
Mei-chan no Shitsuji (メイちゃんお執事)
All things considered, with me being a menkui and all, I should have loved the story setting: basically an elite rich daughters' school where each girl has their personal cutie male butler. I have watched a few eps so far, and I don't know, I just can't make myself love it.
The male lead is nanpa-senpai from hanakimi and I've noticed that several people so far have noticed how he looks kinda like Jun from Arashi. Personally I think he looks a tad better (I'm not a Jun fan I'm afraid). but I feel like Jun's acting is better...hmm. The thing is, personally, I think he's better suited to more active/goofy type of roles instead of these gentle and serious types. Maybe it's just me.
The thing that I disliked the most right off the bad was the female lead who played Mei-chan. She looks....kinda weird. I can't put my finger on it, but when she dressed up and is supposed to look pretty and stuff....she didn't. *shrugs*
Well, it has already ended by now, haha. It was still airing when I firsted started this draft. Oh well. I glanced at the ending, it was...ok. The "touching" moments were not touching, etc. But at least it's sorta a happy ending. I'll do a more detailed review after I force myself through the whole thing.
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Written by Mei
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Thu, Feb 26 2009, 11:56PM |
As I mentioned previously, I've been following two Taiwanese Dramas this season. Which is a rare thing of me because I don't watch CDrama much and much less recent Taiwanese ones, because they've been so....cliche and tacky and some even bordering on annoying in recent years. (not to mention I was thoroughly disappointed after the Taiwanese Hana Kimi. Yes I am one of those people who disliked it =P even though I loved the original manga AND the Japanese drama version. But that's a totally different subject altogether.)
Ok, now back on topic:
Mysterious Incredible Terminator (霹雳MIT)
When I saw the Chinese name the first thing that came to mind was the university, MIT, but no it has no relations to it whatsoever. The MIT here stands for, as the English name suggests, "Mysterious Incredible Terminator." I know it's kind of a "...."-ish name, but I guess I should give them credit for trying...?
This was kind of a detective-ish drama. Basically, there's a group of people at this school who are out to help people and stuff, and strange things started happening at school when someone started sending "game discs" to people. 
These "game discs" contain instructions on how to punish/hurt people the user wanted to all the while dropping clues to the MIT, making it a game of "see if you can find out what I'm up to before it's too late."
Now, the best thing about this drama? Aaron Yan. =P He's just so....adorably cool =P He also gets a lot of nice angled scenes where his pretty face was shown at its best =P. His role is cool too: a genius who got Meniere's Syndrome (basically sometimes everything would appear to be spinning around and he'd pass out)when he was too stressed about
passing the cop school exam so he can match up to his famous father or something.
Story wise, it's alright. Each ep would be one new "game," although I have not finished watching it (the series has already finished airing), some of the eps were so...predicable. There was even one ep where I knew who the "culprit" was right from the start and thought how it took the "genius" a whole ep to figure it out @_@.
My Queen (败犬女王)
 A story about a 33 yr old workaholic who sports a very sharp tongue and a 25 yr old jack-of-all-trades freelancer. There paths first crossed when she, in her rush in getting her big headline story in, "borrowed" the bike he was paid in giving to orphans at a church dressed up as Santa on Christmas Eve.
Then several more things happened and he was hired as her assistant plus bodyguard by her boss to protect her while she worked to uncover deep dark secrets of a politician. The story went on from there...
It is a nice change from the typical "idol" dramas that had been coming out of Taiwan in recent years. The male lead being cute helps too =P. Although...I hate the female lead's haircut, it made her look so old and her face so long. I guess the "old" part was the point since the show stresses on the 8 year difference between her and the male lead and her inferiority Complex at being old yet single.
I personally think she has an unnecessarily sharp tongue  but I guess it helps build her unique character? Even though I can't associate with her character completely, I think many women out there would be able to somehow empathize or correlate with her character. I did too on some levels.
The pace of the drama slowed somewhat starting from episode 4 or so. Heck they spent almost 1 whole episode just to lead up to her going on matchmaking dates. I am anxiously awaiting new eps. Hopefully the ending won't disappoint me.
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