mokudekiru

So when I’m not traveling to random places I’ve never been before, you might have noticed that I write a lot about Japan and jdramas here. Reviews, complaints, venn diagrams, relationship graphs, the whole deal.

But what if you’ve never seen a jdrama before? What is all this jdrama nonsense, and where do you even begin? Well, my friends, you’re in luck. The Ganbatte Times has given me a column all about jdrama! I’m starting with the very basics: the “what,” “why,” and “how” of jdrama, and then I’ll work my way into reviews of shows and recommendations on what you should and could be watching, for any and all levels of Japanese knowledge.

I started out in April with an Intro to Jdrama, which covered:
• What jdrama is and who watches it
• How jdramas are different from western TV shows
• Why jdrama addiction is for everyone

My second article came out this week, and it covered How to Watch Jdrama which covered all the technical details of how to get your hands on jdramas, even if:
• You don’t live in Japan
• You don’t know Japanese
• You don’t like computers
Or, of course, if you DO any of those things.

The Ganbatte Times is a Kyoto-based webzine aimed at (and mostly by) the JET community, so there’s lots of other cool articles about non-jdrama stuff too, if jdrama isn’t your cup of tea. The reviews here aren’t going anywhere, and I’ll always mention here when I have a new article or review up. I might not be quite ready to quit my day job, but I’m totally thrilled about getting this writing gig, so a big thank you to Laurel and all the people at the Ganbatte Times!

About six episodes into Massugu na Otoko, it occurred to me that the best episodes were behind me, and I was only continuing to watch for Fukuda Kyoko’s fashion sense. Oh boy.

Massugu na Otoko (“Straight Man” or “Honest Man” in english), an extremely recent drama (aired Jan-March 2010 in Japan) stars Sato Ryuta as Matsushima, an incredibly honest, upstanding dude who is confronted by the existence of Narumi (Fukuda Kyoko), a cheating, mischievous girl who effectively tricks Matsushima into giving her money, free food (mostly parfaits) and, eventually, falling in love with her. Whoops!

Fukuda Kyoko has left a bad taste in my mouth since Strawberry on the Shortcake so she made the perfect pretty bad-girl. She is bitchy, she’s self-centered, she can’t hold a steady job, she had a rocky childhood, but even though she’s borderline homeless at times, she still manages to have perfect hair and makeup and a killer wardrobe. Hmmm…

Fukuda Kyoko (left) doesn’t need a roof over her head at night to maintain flawless makeup.

Sato Ryuta on the other hand, normally a pretty funny guy, had way too straight of a character for this show to be any fun. He’s great because he’s bizarre, not because he can lecture people about ideals of honesty during coffee break at work better than any other actor. His main skill in this role was being able to pull off naiveté like nobody’s business, which is pretty important, as only really naive people ACCIDENTALLY FALL IN LOVE WITH CRIMINAL WOMEN.

And then decide to raise someone else’s child for said criminal woman.

LOOK HOW HONEST HE IS: REALLY HONEST

But I guess on the inside, Massugu na Otoko is just another Upstanding Guy Meets Unconventional Girl and Falls In Love genre of drama. Let us recall: Nodame Cantabile (Nodame is freaking bizarre, and can’t keep her room clean), and Hotaru no Hikari (Hotaru definitely does not have her act together whatsoever, also does not have a clean room). In both of these other dramas, as well as in Massugu na Otoko, the girl just kinda shows up and throws herself into Upstanding Male Costar’s life, wreaking havoc on the perfect world he has constructed around himself.

The side characters were as slimy and perfect as the main two: Kanjiya Hihori played the good girl-next-door, who Sato Ryuta was SUPPOSED to be in love with. She’s just the girl next door and boy is she boring.

The girl next door could use some help with her wardrobe

And finally, we have Watabe Atsuro, the creepy ex of Narumi, who kinda just hung out with her at the bar, constantly. I guess they slept together sometimes? It wasn’t clear what his role was, because although he was unreliable theoretically, he did seem to ALWAYS SHOW UP AT THE BAR whenever she wanted. I guess she just wasn’t that into him.

Watabe is just as smiley and weird in this show as in ROOM OF KING

There was also a female bartender who seemed to exist for the sole purpose of (other than serving the occasional drink), making sexy eyes at Watabe Atsuro for no reason.

This also brings us to an important point about jdramas that will need to be eplored later: WHY DOES EVERY SHOW HAVE A FREAKING BAR IN IT!? I know they’re convenient sets to have, but it’s getting a little odd how almost every drama has a minor character who happens to own a bar that is doing so poorly that only the 3 main characters in the show ever visit said bar, and yet the bar never goes out of business and is never closed. Either something fishy is going on, or all of my friends in Japan also must own bars and I’d better get into the bar-owning business right away because it seems to run on magic and dreams and fairy dust.

Empty bars are an essential part of Japanese social life.

Sadly, as expected, Sato Ryuta manages to turn Fukuda Kyoko into a nicer, more upstanding young lady. I’m not sure whether they live happily ever after, but I do know that when Fukuda Kyoko’s character turns good, I worry that her fashion sense may suffer.

Also, she has a giant Rilakkuma pillow that I am insanely jealous of. If you are a fan of mokudekiru, please buy me this pillow immediately!!

AND a kotatsu? Fukuda Kyoko is LIVING MY DREAM here.

Are you a guy who’s never seen many (or any!) jdramas? This article is for YOU.

I’ve been into jdramas (Japanese dramas) for 3+ years now and I love any opportunity I get to spread the jdrama joy. As I’m a Computer Science major, about 90% of the people I meet and interact with on a daily basis are guys. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had quite a few requests for jdrama recommendations… all from guys. Since a lot of jdramas are romantic and more girl-oriented, I wasn’t sure at first which to recommend. Here’s the list I tend to recommend to guys (and they’ve reported back that they liked). All five are superb shows by the way, and everyone (not just guys) should watch them.

Oh, and one note before we start: A lot of the clips have non-english subs. Apologies to those of you who don’t speak either Japanese or the language the clip is subbed in. All of these jdramas should be readily available with subs, though… so don’t let that stop you.

Here we go!

1. Kekkon Dekinai Otoko
The pitch: Neurotic architect resists pressure to get married… or eat anything except for steak.

More info: Kuwano is nearing 40. He lives alone in an insanely neat and clean apartment. He cooks himself steak for dinner every night, and has a glass of milk. He is an architect obsessed with creating wonderful kitchens. He hates people, has no intention of getting married. However… he’s a little anal, some health issues take him to the doctor, involving his next-door-neighbor, who won’t leave him alone. Hilarity ensues. I promise.

Why it’s fun: Ken-chan, Kuwano’s neighbor’s dog, is probably the best actor you’ll ever see.

Kuwano’s neighbor and doctor spy on him doing something unbelievable…

Kuwano and his architecture assistant obsessively read the blog of their architect-competitor

Ken-chan (the dog), about to be in BIG TROUBLE

Sample: Kuwano is uhh… a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to making okonomiyaki.

2. My Boss My Hero
The pitch: Yakuza boss goes back to high school.

More Info: Makio (Nagase Tomoya) is in line to become a yakuza boss. Unfortunately, he’s not the brightest crayon in the box, so his father (a current yakuza boss) insists that he go back and graduate high school. Makio becomes a high schooler by day, and a yakuza member at night (when not doing his homework, kanji practice and arithmetic).

Why it’s fun: You get to hear Makio’s aggressive, yakuza-speech style thoughts that go through his head while sitting through class… and become completely worthless around his cute, adorable crush played by Aragaki Yui <3

Makio is sure one intimidating gangster. He has this facial expression for 90% of the show.

Night job = YAKUZA aka intimidating people.

But Aragaki Yui is still TERRIFYING

Sample clip: Let’s just say getting the pudding at lunchtime is VERY IMPORTANT to everyone… including Makio.

3. Stand Up!!
The pitch: 4 dudes find out they’re the last virgins in high school… and go on a mission to change that fact. Maybe.

More Info: The story is set in a low-ish class Tokyo neighborhood. One of the 4 boys’ families runs a love hotel. One boy has a hopeless crush on their extremely attractive english teacher. A girl, Chie, comes back to town for the summer and awkwardness ensues. (Also, these 4 main characters are all major stars now, FYI).

Why it’s fun: Do you know how to insult a dude by calling him a virgin in Japanese? Well, you will.

Sample: Uhh… kissing practice?

4. Kisarazu Cat’s Eye
The pitch: Baseball player finds out he’s dying of cancer, his team decides to become burglars!

Summary: This show surpasses description. It moves at 1000 miles a minute and you will probably be left in the dust. In a good way. Also, there are TWO movies.

Why it’s fun: Probably just Sato Ryuta’s hair. Oh right, and EVERYTHING ELSE. This show is hilarious.

Sample: The baseball team visits Tokyo!

5. Nodame Cantabile
The pitch: Messy spaz / brilliant pianist Nodame goes to music school, studies under uptight aspiring conductor. Hilarity ensues.

More Info: This one is a pretty famous drama based off the manga of the same title (there’s an anime too which is totally not worth watching, IMO). Technically, Nodame is a love story, but the music (primarily orchestral) is the major thrust of the drama. It’s cute, a little cartoonish due to its origin in manga, and very good. Great music selections too. If you’ve ever played a musical instrument, this drama is a must-see (and even if you haven’t played one, really…)

Why it’s fun: Nodame is insane. GYABO!

Sample: Chiaki shows Nodame how this whole cooking thang is DONE!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope this list helped direct you towards a jdrama you’ll get completely hooked on. To all the guys who watch jdramas out there, let me know if you have a favorite that should have been on this list!

This post was a submission for the February 2010 Japan Blog Matsuri hosted at Muza-chan’s Gate to Japan.

You need to cry. This is so sad. Cry now, dammit. Are you seriously that heartless a bastard? If you don’t cry during this episode, *I’m* going to cry. This music cue should make you cry. I see those tears welling up. No? Please cry? Pretty please? With cherries on top? I’ll be your best friend if you cry… I’ll give you a foot massage…? Fine, be that way.

I felt like the drama 1 Litre of Tears was taunting me as such, every time I watched an episode.

But this show has reason to make you cry: based on the 1986 book by Aya Kito, 1 Litre of Tears tells the story of a 15-year old girl, Aya, diagnosed with 脊髄小脳変性症 (sekizui shounou henseishou, or Spinocerebellar ataxia), a neurological disease that leaves her mind intact but gradually robs her body of the physical ability to walk, talk, and eat by herself. The show focuses on Aya’s family and close friends, and how the disease affects their lives. Aya writes a diary for the entire duration of her illness, which helps her come to terms with the illness and reach out to her friends, family, and eventually a following of readers when her diary is published.

By the time we meet Aya (played by Sawajiri Erika) and her adorable, wholesome family, her body is already acting up a bit. She drops things too much, she falls on her face, she spaces out during basketball games and loses her depth perception. Aya is supposed to be a typical 1st year high school student with good grades, two BFFs, and a senpai-love interest. She helps out in her dad’s tofu shop, makes peace between her rebellious younger sister, Ako, and the parents, and helps look after her younger two siblings. Mom starts noticing Aya’s acting funny, takes her to the doctor (Fujiki Naohito) and finds out what’s wrong before anyone else has begun to catch onto the fact that Aya isn’t just a klutz.

And then there’s Asou-kun. Played by Nishikido Ryo, this boy is the son of a doctor at the local hospital, and, to his father’s dismay, Asou-kun has no aspirations of becoming a doctor himself. Traumatized by his older brother’s death, Asou-kun spends his time in bio club tending to the turtles, avoiding human relationships. People all die anyway, he says, and he doesn’t care. However, he seems to keep ending up in the right place at the right time to help Aya out, and gradually a bond forms between them. He helps her up when she falls, knocking over a whole rack of bicycles. He runs to get her in the rain after she’s stood up for a date by a guy (basketball-senpai) who can’t handle the whole “girl in the hospital” thing. Eventually, Asou-kun’s attachment to Aya helps him overcome the death of his brother. His dad, however, is vehemently opposed to their romance as he doesn’t want his son to get attached, as it will inevitably lead to pain — Asou-kun’s dad goes as far as blatantly telling Aya’s mom that he doesn’t want his son anywhere near her daughter. Of course, Asou-kun’s relationship with Aya does finally inspire him to study medicine like dad always wanted.

Asou-kun, telling Aya how he has a deadly disease. Not long to live. HA JUST KIDDING. What an ass. Good use of foreshadowing though, 1-Litre.

What I like about the pace of this show is that once Aya gets sick, her condition doesn’t deteriorate very quickly. They choose not to focus on watching her get very sick, and instead to center the show around the psychological impact of the disease.

Here were a couple of things that kept creeping up on you throughout 1-Litre (some people would call these “themes” I suppose):

You can’t actually keep this disease under wraps.
The number of characters who had to “figure out” what was wrong with Aya was kind of astounding. Aside from her neurologist (who should really be the only one who has to diagnose her), Aya herself isn’t told about the disease for weeks. Why does she have to take these strange pills every day, she wonders. She bets it’s not just for her dizziness. Mom also keeps the news from Dad, Aya doesn’t tell anyone at school, no one ever tells Asou-kun (but luckily he has a full library of medical books at home so he can figure out exactly what’s going on by himself). Possibly worst of all, Aya and her parents don’t tell her other siblings for an extremely long time, leaving Ako especially feeling even more hurt, annoyed, and untrusted in her family than usual. Pretty bad dynamics going on with all this secrecy.

The illness is not Aya’s fault. Or her mom’s fault.
This kind of should go without saying, but the show spent an incredible amount of time, effort, and metaphor showing us that no one in Aya’s family is responsible for her illness. She was an otherwise healthy girl, Mom always put plenty of effort into her daughter’s health and nutrition, etc etc. However, there was this subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) implication coming from everyone in the community that the disease was Mom’s fault, or at the very least, Aya was getting worse because Mom was holding a job, instead of being a housewife and looking after her children full-time (side note: the two-parent income in this family seemed to be mostly possible because Aya’s dad ran the tofu shop out of their home, and generally was far more involved in his kid’s lives than the average household.) 1 Litre of Tears certainly tried to emphasize that Aya was not, in fact, sick because Mom works.

Meiwaku is kinda bullshit.
Once Aya gets sick, she has to rely on others a lot more than she is used to – causing them a lot of meiwaku (basically “trouble” or “inconvenience”). Her friends help her walk to class, her parents drive her up to the school building (which virtually never happens at Japanese high schools), she has to borrow her friend’s notes, etc. etc. She starts to see her life as a big inconvenience to other people, and constantly keeps saying that she doesn’t want to trouble them (meiwaku kakechau to omou kedo…) but can’t get by without help with this and that. Aya suffers some massive guilt, and criticism from the community (especially the PTA at school) that she is just causing a lot of meiwaku and the school shouldn’t be expected to deal with it. Mom begs the other parents to give Aya a break for a little while longer, because she loves her school, but soon even the kids turn on Aya as well in a classroom-wide bitchfest behind Aya’s back, led by a girl who is jealous of Aya’s relationship with Asou-kun. She interrogates Aya’s two bffs, one who has undying loyalty to Aya, but the second cracks under the pressure, saying that she does things for Aya because they’re friends, but sometimes it’s so stressful, and… while everyone else (including the teacher) sits with downward-cast eyes, Asou-kun hits the desk, stands up, and tells them to stop being such hypocrites. If you’re so bothered by Aya’s condition, stop going out of your way to help her. If she’s just meiwaku like you say behind her back, don’t go on pretending and telling her it’s okay day after day. You people make Asou-kun sick.

It was an epic speech. Bravo.

Asou-kun and Aya

All the actors did a fab job, and most of them are incredibly famous today (the parents, the kids, the doctor, etc.) Nishikido Ryo is a smashing success doing the jdrama/popstar thing, and then there’s always Sawajiri Erika (Aya), who went onto play another sick girl in Taiyo no Uta, and, in later years, became the center of the infamous “betsu-ni” PR incident (Japanese girl celebs looking pissed and “whatever”-ing the interviewers don’t go over so well!)

Overall, I’m not sure this drama deserves quite the credit it is always given. It was touching, it was sad, it was fun, it always made me want to watch another episode, but it’s not one of the top 5 shows I have seen. What gives? It’s near the top of almost all drama lists I’ve seen. Hmm. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s a true story? Or perhaps the fans are just especially vocal? To those of you who enjoyed this drama over almost all others, what made it so moving for you?

Oh yeah, and about the crying…
In the end, it wasn’t the disease, it wasn’t the wonderfully portrayed tragic family that got me. It was a badly-scrawled love letter, breaking Asou-kun’s well-protected-yet-unmistakably-soft heart. A litre of tears all around!

Get ready for one of the most awkward moments you’ve ever seen in your life:

Slow Dance is a 2005 drama, classic romance, with a great cast, amazing dialogue, and a few major flaws.

Flaw #1: The first episode.

It’s just boring. I smile at all the wildly famous, awesome actors that appear, but no one seems interesting enough to care about, and the soundtrack is kinda eh.

Flaw #2: Fukatsu Eri is the star.

She plays a 31 year old woman named Isaki, who just passed up a mediocre marriage proposal, and is realizing her loneliness and a lifetime of failures with the dudes. Her biological clock is ticking (not for babies though, she hates children). She falls for Riichi (Tsumabuki Satoshi), a younger guy (25) who is pining away for a stewardess, Ayumi, whom he broke up with 3 years ago.

But instead of pulling off a Long Vacation style romantically-agressive older woman with a younger guy type relationship effectively, Fukatsu Eri just continues to be as needy, childish, and obnoxious as she is in the very first episode when she meets Riichi pseudo-cutting in the cafe line, and tells him repeatedly to「順番を守ってくださる？」(which effectively means “get your ass in line” politely enough that it’s rude). She’s definitely no Minami-chan from Long Vacation.

Instead, she’s outshone by almost every other actor or actress in the show. I suppose this does elicit some pity, at least. Hirosue Ryoko plays her BFF, Mino-chan, who is typically the life of the party and the all-the-guys-like her kinda girl, despite the fact that she’s actually been pining away for a high school BF who went long distance to med school and promised to meet her and ask for her hand in marriage after a 6 year break (as if). Which brings us to:

Flaw #3: Too many characters pining away for too long.

Mino-chan and her 6-year med school “prince,” and Ayumi and Riichi who have BOTH been pining for each other for THREE YEARS since they’re both too scared to just, you know, ask each other what they think. I know this is love we’re talking about, but three years is a long time.

However, this brings us to the things that Slow Dance does completely right:
Strength #1: Jealousy.

First of all, in this rather incestuous love-hexagon, there is a LOT of jealousy. Riichi is perpetually jealous of his older brother, Eisuke (Fujiki Naohito) in both a sibling rivalry kind of way and a love-rival kind of way. He assumes all girls like his “more handsome”, more successful brother (if Tsumabuki Satoshi is worried he’s not cute enough… something is really off with his perception of reality).

Secondly, all the girl-on-girl jealousy is really well done. It’s perfect that Isaki, the sort of annoying lead, kinda gets in the way anywhere it’s convenient — when Ayumi is thinking of telling Riichi her feelings, oh, look, it’s Isaki. WHY IS SHE HERE? Or, when Mino-chan likes Eisuke, and she sees that Isaki is already chilling at his bar (it’s not a real drama unless one of the main characters owns a bar), and WAIT A MINUTE WHY IS SHE HERE?? Jealousy. Eisuke clearly doesn’t care about his former girlfriend, Yukie (played by Ebi-chan. He’s insane, who would GIVE UP Ebi-chan??)

I tried to pin down the jealousy relationships into a diagram. Arrows go from the jealous person to who they are jealous of, and somehow touch or go around who-the-jealous-person-is-jealous-over.

However, while the jealousy is going on in a major way, most of it is relatively realistic. Unlike in ridiculous shows like Strawberry on the Shortcake where jealousy is equally pervasive, the jealousy in Slow Dance does not leave the audience convinced that any particular character is COMPLETELY BATSHIT INSANE (unlike in SOS). Kudos.

Strength #2: Fujiki Naohito. This is the 6th drama I’ve watched with Fujiki Naohito, and although he has been gradually growing on me (starting with pure dislike), this is the show that tipped me over from ambivalence towards him into genuine fandom. Maybe just a timing issue, but Eisuke’s character was great, and the first time I’ve seen him be MORE than the stuck up asshole he always is (yes, every other role, he’s been the anal-retentive one about cleaning or the environment or he’s the douchebag the girl shouldn’t actually get with… etc). Here he was still a bit of an asshole, just because he was so popular (and if I were dating Ebi-chan I would let it go to my head too), but he was a good guy, offered interesting insight to all relationships and his own aspirations. Also, a good brother.

Strength #3: Great dialogue. Like in any romance, the characters are continually obsessed with their own love lives and analyze them to their friends and themselves constantly. But something about all the lines in this show just seemed much better, it was all carefully crafted and there were great lines in almost every conversation. A lot of it was Japanese dependent language that struck a chord. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I’m fluent enough at Japanese to say with certainty whether the writing was ACTUALLY very good (then again, that sort of thing is rather subjective anyway).

Here are a couple of favorite conversations:

「探るキス」(saguru kisu, or “investigative kiss”).
The idea is that when you kiss someone it might be either a) find out your own feelings for the person, or b) test the other person’s feelings for you. In either case, once the investigative kiss is over, assuming the kiss has passed inspection, there should be an immediate follow-up kiss. Right?

告白する vs. 告白される (kokuhaku suru vs. kokuhaku sareru)
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of kokuhaku, it is basically a love confession. In America I guess the closest thing is “telling the person you’re into them” but somehow it feels a bit more formal in Japan. Like it’s necessary to proceed. Anyway, during this part of the show, Mino-chan was feeling weird about pursuing Eisuke, since she had only ever kokuhaku sareta before (i.e. she had only had guys tell her they like her, but never the other way around) and Isaki responds that wow, she’s only kokuhaku shita (told guys she was into them, but never had a guy tell her he likes her). But now the time had come for Mino-chan to kokuhaku suru and she was completely out of her element, searching for the right words.

驚き・桃の木・山椒の木 (odoroki momonoki sanshou no ki)
Apparently this is a punny way of saying “SUPER FREAKING SURPRISED” in Japanese. odoroki=surprised, but it sounds like / rhymes with momonoki and sanshou no ki which would be “peach tree” and “pepper tree” respectively. Isaki says it to Riichi in an appropriate place in conversation. However, apparently this phrase was created by a Japanese comedian a long time ago, so saying it really shows Isaki-san’s age. Riichi warns her “don’t say that in front of young people… they won’t know what you’re talking about.” It’s kind of like the day my linguistics professor was discussing word structure and gave “Un-cola” as an anomaly/example from pop culture (har har) and then realized no one in the room had any idea what he was talking about. See all the wonderful Japanese you can learn from jdrama? With this phrase, Slow Dance almost justified my claims that “watching jdrama is like studying!” Well…sorta.

Last time we talked about the show Buzzer Beat, it was July, and Buzzer Beat was still airing. We talked about how Yamapi had strangely colored outfits and embarrassing team colors for his basketball gig. However, I went on an inadvertent two-month or so hiatus from jdramas, yet another sacrifice to the Reflections | Projections Conference Gods.

So in November, I returned to Buzzer Beat.

And I’m *SO* glad I did. Why? Because I learned something important; I learned that Love makes me strong.

I learned this mostly through the subtle yet moving symbolism between physical strength and romantic love throughout the show. And the billboard in one of the three main sets of the show that says, “Love makes me strong” in giant bold letters.

To explain the show. (Warning: some spoilers to follow. But I really doubt they ruin it.)

We have Yamapi the basketball player and Natsuki (Aibu Saki), his cheerleadin’, schemin’ soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend. And randomly, Riko (Kitagawa Keiko) the violin girl who happens to fall in love with Yamapi because she can’t contain her excitement every time she hears that damn basketball bounce on the court next to her apartment, where she lives with her awkward roommate, Mai. Riko’s supposed to be in love with the coach of the basketball team, though, Kawasaki-san.

The first few episodes portray the relationship between Yamapi and Natsuki as full of jealousy, insecurity, and a lack of passion, while Riko develops feelings for Yamapi that no one except her devoted roommate is aware of.

Devoted roommate and her questionable hairstyles:

And then things heat up.

Natsuki cheats on Yamapi, and the middle episodes consist of Natsuki being a manipulative psychobitch, vying once again for affection from Yamapi, while continuing to shag his greasy teammate Yoyogi (until Yoyogi pseudodumps him for Nanami. Man I love those repetitive names.)

So let’s pause for a minute while I illustrate the middle couple of episodes with a mini-gallery of NATSUKI’S EVIL GLARE (juxtaposed with her charming smile, of course. She can flip between the two in under 3 nanoseconds.)

This is where Yamapi finds Natsuki macking on Yoyogi. THE LOCKER ROOM:

But boy does she look PISSED when he says it’s over. Takes up smoking and alcohol so we know she’s the BAD GRRL of this show (Riko drinks once, but she can’t hold her liquor and adorably has to ride home on Yamapi’s back, where she passes out as he cleans up her apartment. Remember, vulnerability and innocence are becoming when paired with alcohol, and a girl who can’t keep her apartment tidy is just quirky enough to fly as a cute trait, as we learned in Hotaru no Hikari):

Natsuki encounters Riko in the bathroom. But this is not a high school drama; she does not lock Riko in a stall. She pretends to befriend Riko.

Bitchy look #34782017, courtesy of Natsuki

Meanwhile (we are still in the middle three episodes), the coach Kawasaki-san proposes to Riko! What a catch.

So I haven’t watched a jdrama with subtitles in a very long time. But I got my friend Matt hooked on this one, and he watched the subbed version to fill in the Japanese knowledge gaps. Apparently in one episode, the subber lost a little something in translation, and the line said that his aspiration was actually to become the best COUCH he could!

BUT, Riko is not wooed by his couch-ly ways. Instead, she takes to COMPLETELY CREEPING ON YAMAPI and his basketball practicing. In fact, she stoops to the level of cell phone photography WHILE HE IS SLEEPING. If she wasn’t so cute everyone would be running for their lives.

Several episodes later, Riko has FINALLY figured out she likes Yamapi, and yet still seems to be perplexed at the whole situation. Things get even hotter when Yamapi runs up to her room in a post-Romeo-&-Juliet reference from balcony to basketball court. Riko’s just a deer in the headlights, and, honestly so is Yamapi.

Now here’s where the theme of the show really comes in. Riko is off practicing at some violin boot camp. Yamapi and his uncoordinated-yet-cute teammate come to the basketball court. And here is the dialogue that ensues:

Teammate: Ever since I moved here, I’ve looked at that billboard and thought, “love makes people strong”
Yamapi: Dunno about that.

REALLY? How ever did you get that message out of _that_ billboard?! Extremely perceptive. Also, why hasn’t Yamapi caught onto it yet?

Anyway, the drama has exactly the ending we all predicted from the first five minutes of the first episode, but it’s cute and it’s fun. I think one of the great things about Buzzer Beat is that while almost all of the characters are incredibly stupid, they still remain very likable and somehow you’re rooting for the ill-fashion-advised Yamapi and the creeper-violinist Riko.

Another great thing is Aibu Saki being a bitch. She’s always slightly annoyed me in her sugar-and-spice roles in the past, but I wouldn’t have guessed she could have such a brilliant mean streak. She sort of blew it by actually being into Yamapi, but I suppose it was actually more realistic to see why she was actually so vulnerable, jealous, and manipulative.

And the third major good point of Buzzer Beat over many other jdrama, is that the kisses were convincing. Whenever two characters were actually supposed to like each other, they looked like they were genuinely enjoying kissing each other (crazy!) A lot of jdrama has very stiff, awkward-looking kisses that just makes you go “I waited 9 episodes for THAT?!?” but Buzzer Beat got it right! Props.

And a final bitchy look from Natsuki. Enjoy.

Buzzer Beat: The show that seems to think I should take Yamapi seriously (yeah, like that’s happening anytime soon!)

The story of the first episode, told in pictures…

Yamapi is a 24-year old salaryman, on the basketball team (at his company).

Their team colors are delightful and masculine (I promise I did not photoshop this.)

The delightfully adorable Aibu Saki is his girlfriend. And, a cheerleader. I’m glad to see she has stopped dating robots like she did last summer. Whoops.

But clearly, Yamapi is a very insecure dude. Especially about his relationship with Saki. But luckily, we can be assured that he will not end up alone. Through a series of coincidental run-ins, he meets a violinist (Kitagawa Keiko). One night she sees him practicing, and appreciates the *rhythm* of his *basketball* skills. No, I’m serious.

But during a recital, she breaks a violin string. AWKWARD. Also, the recital was happening in parallel with the basketball game of pinkness above.

Yamapi has great matching pants & bag. True fashion sense, man.

Yamapi’s mom is the ever-wise and amazing Maya Miki. I’ve never seen her be anything other than fabulous. She did give Aibu Saki great advice last year about that robot boyfriend, so I’m sure she’ll advise everyone well again this time.

Buzzer Beat appears to have basketball as a backdrop, but it’s clearly not *about* basketball (thank goodness) — more in a Seventeen Again kind of way, where Yamapi=Zac Efron is dissatisfied with his life, and has something to do with basketball, and cute hair. (No, actually, Yamapi has weird hair in this show.)

Episode 1 aired this week on Fuji TV at 9PM (not that I was there). Now, this means it’s a 月9 (getsu-ku) drama. (Japanese language explanation– 月 is the first kanji in “Monday” and the 9 refers to the time). In general, this is *the* slot to have a drama with high ratings. I suppose everyone comes home Monday night and just needs to get their drama on (though, I don’t really think Japan has a case of the Mondays, not compared to the US anyway).

There is a Wikipedia page (Japanese) that’s a list of which dramas have been 月9 dramas since the late 80′s. Extremely successful 月9 dramas have included Love Generation, Long Vacation, Yamato Nadeshiko, and others.

One interesting thing is that last season’s 月9 drama was actually Konkatsu! which had the lowest rated 月9 episode ever. Hopefully Buzzer Beat fares a bit better, and I do love Fuji-TV.

Apparently this is what basketball guys do in the locker room.

And one last lovely picture:
Yamapi shows his matching skills again, as he selects a t-shirt, a girl’s bicycle, and graffiti in the same shade.

Classy opening quote from this show:

恋を知らない娘は不幸であるが、
娘の恋を知った父親はもっと不幸である。
A girl who is not in love is unfortunate,
But a father who knows his daughter is in love, is even more unfortunate.

What happens when a romance-author-single-dad’s teenage daughter finally finds a boyfriend? Mayhem. And existential crisis.

Dandy Daddy? is one of this summer’s dramas, starring Tachi Hiroshi, and the first episode aired last week. The story is very reminiscent of the summer 2007 drama Papa to Musume no Nanokakan (think Freaky Friday, but a father/daughter swap). Tachi Hiroshi again plays the overprotective father, but this summer, instead of a metaphysical dilemma, he faces a more philosophical dilemma. He writes romance novels for a living, and preaches people to follow love wherever it will take them — yet of course is ready to pounce as soon as he sees even the most feminine hair-clip-wearing high school boy take one glance at his daughter. Hypocritical much?

Snooping in his daughter’s phone when he suspects she has a boyfriend

Akari, his daughter, goes to high school that just went coed — imagine the backlash! She is appropriately annoyed at her father’s antics (phone theft? really??)

Note the collection of dad’s romance novels on the shelf.

Tachi Hiroshi spends the whole of episode 1 sneaking around, following his daughter in case she might be going on a date, or talking to a boy. After meeting a nice boy, Yuki, from Akari’s class, he uses him as a pawn to help do his spying. Sometimes, dad has to meet with Yuki in public, and disguises are necessary.

Nice hat!

Yuki provides some insider info on Akari’s alleged “date”. Dad is furious to find out the boy in question is a brown-haired earring-wearing prettyboy, and things get a little rough down by the ferris wheel. Too bad daddy jumped too conclusions — this dude is NOT Akari’s date.

Ironically, by the end of episode 1, Akari straight up confronts her dad about her new boyfriend (maybe all the spying on her wasn’t necessary?) and it’s none other than his former ally, Yuki!

But if his daughter already has a boyfriend by the end of episode 1, what’s going to happen in the other 10 episodes…?って感じ　(　´_ゝ｀)ﾌｰﾝ

Based on the first episode, my impressions of: cheesy, cute, and totally relies on Tachi Hiroshi’s facial expressions. A little silly, and I’m not really digging the actress who plays Akari (I liked Aragaki Yui as his daughter!), but let’s give it another week or two to prove itself.

Marriage hunting. That’s the meaning of the title of one of this summer’s jdramas, Konkatsu!, which ended this past Monday.

Kuniyuki (played by SMAP’s Nakai Masahiro) is a tragically unlucky guy, and when he gets accidentally and unfairly fired from his job, he has to go job-hunting. In today’s crap economy of course, this means he is especially desperate, and ends up lying to get a job that is looking for a married person, claiming that yes, he is intending to marry soon.

Everyone who knows Kuniyuki’s family hears the news, assumes he’s engaged, and throws a big engagement party in his honor. Great, now all he has to do is find someone to marry, so he doesn’t look like a complete ass.

Instead of going for the girl-next-door, Haruno (Ueto Aya) who has clearly been in love with him for YEARS, he remains completely oblivious to her feelings, and instead twiddles his thumbs while wondering, “who can I get to marry me?”

Kuniyuki and Haruno at their best:

He gets two other coworkers to accompany him on various 合コン (goukon) excursions (group dates), arranged by a matchmaking service. He has to be kind of sneaky about this, because it’s really not smooth to be seen at a goukon when you’re supposedly engaged…

The matchmaking (konkatsu) dates are essentially a bunch of different parties where the men and women mingle for fixed periods of times and then switch partners. In the show, konkatsu parties included: golf-konkatsu, cooking-konkatsu, pottery-konkatsu, even buddhist-meditation-konkatsu parties!

The woman who runs the matchmaking service, played by Ryo, is Kuniyuki’s childhood friend, and though she appears as a potential marriage candidate herself, she has gone through divorce before, has two small children, and is a little too wise to just let Kuniyuki marry her out of some obligatory feelings.

Ryo, just as hot as she was in her premier Long Vacation in 1996:

At the matchmaking dates, they discover Shaku Yumiko’s character, who is an unapologetic gold-digger. She considers herself too old, wise, and down-to-earth for those romantic ideals that Haruno, in her early 20s, still possesses. Every guy just has to fall for her at some point in the show, but she’s pretty hard to get.

Shaku Yumiko knows what she wants.

Meanwhile, the best friend, Sato Ryuta, goes through heartache after heartache, as he falls for each girl in turn, none of who return his feelings. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but his naiveté is charming and he’s very loyal to his friends. Kuniyuki would be nowhere without him.

Sato Ryuta is lovesick:

Konkatsu is real:
So it turns out that marriage hunting is an actual trend in Japan, perhaps to help counteract that pesky old declining birthrate. Even the matchmaking agencies depicted in the show are real and apparently thriving. See this Japan Times article for more info — apparently there are dating services that match women up with single doctors and dentists (maybe Shaku Yumiko should have tried one of those!)

On the title of the show:
I already explained that konkatsu is marriage hunting. Normally the word would be written like this: 婚活, and see Japannewbie’s article on konkatsu, a great explanation of where the word came from (it’s not a standard Japanese word, it’s actually one of those hip new combo words). But note that the show’s title is written 婚カツ in which the second character is written in katakana (but pronounced like “katsu” still). The title is actually a pun (Ohhh Japanese and puns…) on the word トンカツ tonkatsu, a food you may be familiar with. Kuniyuki’s dad runs a tonkatsu restaurant in a declining shopping center, and sees almost no customers. Kuniyuki himself, hates tonkatsu. There’s probably lots of cute symbolism here that I don’t care to explore.

Kuniyuki’s dad is played by Kohinata Fumiyo, who, if you haven’t seen before, you’re probably living under a rock. But seriously, he’s great in any and every role I’ve ever seen him in.

In Konkatsu, Kohinata is a stubborn dad and tonkatsu chef:

The show is cute, has an all-star cast, aside from the weakest link is Kuniyuki himself. He’s not awful, but a little dull and I don’t see what Haruno sees in him… Otherwise though, all the other characters are scene-stealers and despite a slightly underdeveloped script, the cast kept me coming back for more every week.

If you’re still desperate for one more reason to watch the show, and you happen to be a fangirl of the KAT-TUN member with some seriously oversized lips, Ueda Tatsuya… you can see him play Kuniyuki’s little brother, an ultra-feminine hairdressing fiend who has a small but memorable role.

Tatsuya’s lips from an angle that makes them look almost proportional. Don’t let them fool you:

And one last thing I just had to include…
Although Tatsuya’s character is allegedly straight, there is this one really weird moment halfway through the final episode, between Kuniyuki and his creepy coworker. I didn’t notice any similar incidents anywhere else in the drama, so while all the other characters ended up with their mates predictably, this was some way random unfinished business. All I can say is, uhhh……. enjoy? I left a few seconds of Haruno at the beginning of the clip so you can see her with an undistorted face, unlike in the screencap above :)

There are about 12 million dramas about marriage. But the one with a combination of the most funny moments and intense stares, would have to be Dekichatta Kekkon (Shotgun Marriage) from 2001.

Starring:

Chiyo-chan (Hirosue Ryoko), sleeps with Ryuunosuke (Takenouchi Yutaka) one night, and they don’t talk again… until she realizes she’s pregnant. Ryuunosuke resigns himself to marry her, and hilarity ensues when the two of them attempt to become a couple, face Chiyo’s overprotective and potentially violent father, and deal with the antics of Reina, Ryuunosuke’s stalker, who befriends his completely ridiculous mother.

Meanwhile, Chiyo’s older sister is at wit’s end putting up with a 10 year relationship with Abe Hiroshi’s character, who will NOT propose. But he can give a damn good massage. On the side, there is the slutty friend of Chiyo’s, who keeps throwing herself at Tsumabuki Satoshi’s character, who is extremely tempted, but keeps quoting his grandfather’s conservative advice about love and sex, all in his grandfather’s Kyuushuu-ben accent (or wherever he was supposed to be from). And Chiyo’s doctor, who is hopelessly naive and enthusiastic about everything (especially Chiyo’s pregnancy) to cheerleader proportions, falls hard for Chiyo’s sister.

d-addicts had a relationship chart already, but it was in Japanese and very wordy, so here’s the translation:

And now a couple of screenshots.

Chiyo, realizing she is pregnant and her father will never allow her to marry Ryuunosuke. Crap!

Ryuunosuke. Asking the dudes for advice, and then not listening to it:

Abe Hiroshi. “Marriage, for a guy, is the END OF THE WORLD.” Says the guy in the 10 year relationship. And man, wtf is up with your hair.

The doctor, with his unbridled enthusiasm, out of proportion to the situation.

Yeah Chiyo, you’d best be listening to their advice. Look, Tsumabuki Satoshi is even wrinkling his eyebrow at you.

More groups of 3 people sitting in a line. As usual, Abe Hiroshi is complacent, Tsumabuki Satoshi is sincere, and Ryuunosuke has some decision regarding Chiyo to deal with, in which he will have good intentions but everything will spin out of control. Just the way it is.

Overall the show is pretty funny. Eventually, the baby becomes more important to the story, and it takes on a little bit of a touching/serious tone, but still, the two leads are great together, and the other characters keep things lively and ridiculous. This is the first time I’ve seen Hirosue Ryoko and liked her, and Takenouchi Yutaka was certainly way less sketchy of a dude in this show than in Long Vacation.

Other fun fact: Hirosue Ryoko herself, a couple of years after starring in this show, had her own dekichatta kekkon, when she became pregnant and proceeded to marry Takahiro Okazawa in 2004. The two divorced last year, according to Tokyograph.

This drama might be a good older drama to check out, especially in moments when you need to get your Abe Hiroshi fix (or, your < insert favorite wildly popular star among this cast here, since they're all really famous > fix)

And finally, one last gratuitous screencap of Abe Hiroshi:

When you have a piece of strawberry shortcake, do you eat the strawberry on top first, or last?

SOS (Strawberry on the Shortcake) is the story of a total creepster, Irie-kun. In the first couple of episodes he does delightful things such as:

He meets Yui, a strange girl who seems to be following him, to learn that she will be his new sister when their single parents wed. Yui, played by Fukuda Kyoko, is equally selfish, greedy, creepy and annoying — in short, she and Irie are a perfect match.

SOS is from 2001, so Tackey (Mr. Creepster Irie) is a little bit young. Up until this point, I’d entirely managed to avoid Tackey (Takizawa Hideaki) dramas, and so I knew him merely as his 2006 self, where I saw him appear as part of his music duo (courtesy of Johnny & Associates, Inc.), Tackey and Tsubasa. They frequented TV programs and terrorized the nation with their song “Venus”:

Anyway, let’s get back to the point. Preventing Irie and Yui from their psuedo-incestuous relationship are two supporting characters, who thankfully save the show. Sawamura, Irie’s childhood friend, who has had a longtime crush on him, gets into a dating situation with Irie because he is too passive to ever say no. Eventually, when she takes him to a love hotel and he uh… fails to perform, she figures out that he’s really after Yui (before he does) and decides to turn her efforts to helping out with that, rather than being bitchy about the loss.

Meanwhile, Yui has a crush on their classmate, Saeki-sempai, who is actually 20 years old (and still in high school) because he is hopelessly in love with his teacher (the same teacher Irie-kun stole the underwear from). So now Yui’s jealous of her teacher (and even attacks her at one point) and Irie is jealous of Saeki on several levels, and suddenly this show has teacher/student relationship and the pseuodo-incest relationship. Things just keep getting better.

The show keeps going, Irie invents a fake character, Hirase Ai, and sends fake letters back and forth to her to mislead Yui, Yui plays sick, they both continue to be greedy, deceptive, obsessive, and rather disturbed, while their teacher remains completely confused as to whether she likes Saeki or not, while managing to be the blandest character of them all.

The whole thing gets more and more complicated/stupid, so I drew a graph to help out. Notice the unrequited love progression (the thick red arrows), starting at Sawamura and continuing all the way to the teacher. Those red arrows, are really the main problem this show deals with.

But what is this whole strawberry business? The whole show, other than resting emotionally on the line, which runs through Irie’s head several times per episode, “That’s why I won’t forget you,” is built on a solid philosophical base: the question, “If you have a piece of strawberry shortcake, and you like the strawberry on top the best, do you eat the strawberry first, or last?”

Throughout the show we learn the answer each character would give. Turns out, Sawamura and Irie-kun would eat the strawberry last, because they like it, and Saeki and Yui would eat the strawberry first, because they like it. Really deep, I know. Gives Socrates a run for his money.

So SOS kind of sucked. The two supporting characters kept it from being a total disaster, but I’ve never seen another show where the two leads were both so disgusting. However, after a few episodes, it was like watching a train wreck and I needed to see this disaster through to the end. And hey, the show made good use of ABBA.

Just when I was starting to wonder if Oguri Shun had disappeared into oblivion…

Smile is this season’s Friday night TBS drama, starring Matsumoto Jun (Matsujun) and Aragaki Yui. Matsujun steps outside his typical role as an overly arrogant, overly rich, overly permed high school student, and instead plays Vito, a half Philippino aspiring cook with a dark past and a dream of creating a shiny happy multiethnic restaurant.

Shiny, happy, half-gaijin Matsujun (who is currently nervously talking to Aragaki Yui):

He’s about as un-gaijin of a gaijin as you can get though — as is repeated many times throughout the show, he was born and raised in Japan, has never even been to the Philippines, and can only speak Japanese. Still, he has to deal with a lot of racism from those around him (getting asked to show his passport on the street by policemen, getting called “Phillipino bastard!”, etc.) and has certainly developed a gaijin-complex about his identity.

But hey, Aragaki Yui’s character can’t talk (as the result of some traumatic experience). So, we’re all messed up in our own special ways!

But the whole show is the viewer just waiting for it to all go to hell. It’s told from the point of view of conversations between Vito and his lawyer, Kazuma, as Vito sits in prison in 2015, looking back on the events of 2009. Lawyer guy wrinkling his brow in 2009:

None of this is the awesome part of the show though. The awesome part of the show, is the bad guy. Guess who? Oguri Shun.

Oguri Shun??? A bad guy?? I know, he’s about as bad as a snowflake falling on Christmas Eve, but you gotta suspend your disbelief, and just roll with his evil laugh.

Apparently he was the ringleader of this gang Vito used to be in, and Oguri’s character, Hayashi, keeps picking on Vito and framing him for crimes to keep himself safe.

Oguri bein’ bad by the bus stop in a suit:

Oguri bein’ a bad guy peeking around some sketchy corner (in a parking garage/alley/whatever). Now that’s bad!

Oguri bein’ bad having a smoke with Matsujun, pulling the old bad-guy-gone-good “you’re the only one who can help me” line… and Matsujun is good enough and stupid enough to fall for it.

I’d just like to remind you that last time we saw Oguri & Matsujun together was in 2007 in Hana Yori Dango 2. Things could get pretty serious back then too — especially when Oguri (on the left, in white) decided he liked Tsukushi, just like Matsujun (on the right with the awful perm) did too. Oh, the drama!!

The end of Smile, episode 7. Let’s just say the reason Matsujun is sitting in jail in 2015 — no longer a mystery. A gun is involved and here are the last moments of Oguri, squirming on the floor, peering up at Matsujun. But Oguri deserved it, because he was REALLY BAD. I promise.

Japanese celebrity gossip. So I was talking to Karen last night about jdramas, and she told me some gossip about Mizushima Hiro (who was in a bunch of great dramas since his debut in 2005 in Gokusen 2, including Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Zettai Kareshi, and Room of King, to name a few). Apparently he and Ayaka (the vocalist who sang Okaeri, the opening song to Zettai Kareshi), are married!

After perusing the internets for about 5 seconds, I came across this article: Japan Zone: Mizushima Hiro, Ayaka Married, which is one of the juiciest summaries of the situation I could ask for, so go read that.

But really… Mizushima Hiro, married already? And they kept it a secret for two months? And Ayaka has Grave’s Disease? What?? Man, I need to keep up to date on these things better. Anyway, here’s Ayaka’s song from Zettai Kareshi (last summer’s drama). Listening to it now is pretty natsukashii, ne?

What’s next, will Oguri Shun get married?? Tamaki Hiroshi?? All of my favorite actors are in their mid-to-late-20′s, but somehow them getting married makes me feel older… I guess they’re getting past the high-school dramas and having to be real people now T_T… that group has all but been replaced by the Miura Haruma crowd and after, guys born in ’89-’92ish range. Oh man.

This clip just MADE MY WEEKEND. So here’s the scenario: Kei (Tamaki Hiroshi the guy standing next to the girl) and Ai-Ai (the girl) were pissed off at Ojiro (the guy in the silky pajamas) because he lied and said he’d slept with Kei’s ex-girlfriend (well, they haven’t totally split yet). They found out it was a lie and told him he was the worst guy on earth, etc. Meanwhile, Kei has spent all day trying to get a panda out of a UFO catcher for this girl, and spent over $1000 on it, significant amounts of which he borrowed from Ai-Ai.

Kei and Ai-Ai: O-chan, we’re sorry!
Ojiro: Wait why are you apologizing? Aren’t I the “Number 1 horrible guy you’ve ever met in your life”
Ai-Ai: Oh, that…
Kei: Oh, you’re always saying such terrible stuff like that…
Ai-Ai: You were thinking it too!!
Ojiro: Ow-ow-owww! It still hurts so much!
Kei: Are you okay? The pain, the pain, just throw it out!
Ai-Ai: Throw out the pain in your heart too!
Ojiro: But… I have to apologize, too
Kei & Ai-Ai: Huh?
Ojiro: I took Mei home, and kind of kissed her
Kei: What!? I’m not falling for that one again!
Ojiro: I’m serious. Her lips were soft.
Kei: Hey! You’re lying, right?
Ai-Ai: Calm down, it’s just a kiss!
Kei: No it’s not okay, idiot!
Ai-Ai: You’re the idiot! Gimme back my money!
Ojiro: Here. One for you too.
Ai-ai: How was it?
Kei: His lips are so soft.

This show is so great. The only downside is that it is currently airing so I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK FOR THE NEXT EPISODE. Life is rough.

With 9 out of 10 dramas I watch, I know in the first 30 seconds exactly how good they are. With SCANDAL, a Fall 2008 Fuji TV drama, the first 30 seconds had me hooked and I didn’t look back after that. Less than two days later I was done with the series.

Here’s the opening (this all occurs within the first two minutes of episode 1). See below for translation.

Takayanagi-san:
My profession is a full-time housewife.
What? You say being a housewife isn’t a profession?
Well, I guess some people do believe that.
Granted, when filing my taxes, I reluctantly have to write “unemployed”,
but clearly, that’s incredibly outdated.
What an old-fashioned idea!
Because, the household is the foundation for everything.
It’s the place where everyone can come home to and be at ease.
If there’s a higher calling than protecting the household, what would it be?
When I’m asked what I do for a living, I proudly say “I’m a housewife”

Daughter: Quit it! How long are you gonna keep that picture up??

Takayanagi-san: Why? It’s such a good picture of us!

Daughter: EWW.

As creepily perky and pleasantville-esque as Takayanagi-san is… well that’s what makes this opening so great (the daughter who couldn’t care less is also a nice, realistic touch).

The show is *not* however, about Takayanagi’s adventures and crusades against dust bunnies. Instead, Takayanagi and three other women are invited to the wedding of Risako, a woman they all know, not extremely closely. All four women are housewives, and while they appear extremely content with their lives on the surface, each has their own particular issues going on. Each is of a different age (ranging from 25 to a woman in her 50s) and has a totally different class/economic situation. The four women also share one more thing in common: they passionately dislike one another.

On Risako’s wedding night, she proposes that all four women try to go pick up a guy and have the guys come drink with them. The two younger women have no problem doing so, Shindou-san, the woman in her 50′s, also manages to get some middle-aged guy, but Takayanagi-san is pretty square and refuses (after all, she is SERIOUS about being a housewife, and that’s not a very housewife-ish thing to do… now is it?) So she ends of taking the bill and gets made fun of by the other three women.

The two younger girls told the guys they picked up that it was a bet, but Shindou-san failed to mention this key point, and her guy gets angry and storms out.

In the meantime Risako is nowhere to be found, and in fact goes missing as of her wedding night. The four are reunited when they’re called to the police station for questioning, by none other than Shindou-san’s attempted date! Yeah, he’s pissed. And remains pissed for many many more episodes.

The four women still dislike each other, but decide to join forces to try and find Risako, somewhat in cooperation with the police, somewhat as their own investigation. Throughout the four weeks they spend searching for Risako, their own marriages are tested and the issues there rise to the surface. It turns out all four husbands are not free of involvement in Risako’s disappearance. Secrets galore.

SCANDAL would be a totally stupid crime/mystery/detective story if it were not for the focus of the show, which is on the women’s lives as they solve this case, rather than on the case itself. A few other key points:

-Risako is entirely unimportant to the show. She is the flattest character and she never develops, even though we often see flashbacks of her life. She seems vaguely evil, and boring. (On the day of her wedding, she huddles the 4 women around and tells them that she “won”… like, won at life? Because she’s more in love with a more impressive husband than the four of them have…? That’s a pretty creepy statement)

-The four women continue to hate each other. In varying degrees of course, and by the end they’re slightly closer than when they started, but still, perhaps, not BFF-LYLAS type girlfriends. Watching them fight and get pissed off at each other while still having to work together is the most captivating part of this show. And, watching their marriages fall apart.

-The drama watches like a romantic comedy, but like the stupid crime/mystery/detective story at its core, you never know who is really good, who is really bad, and who should be trusting whom. AKA SUSPENSE.

Today I finally finished Long Vacation, one of the classics. A 1996 Fuji TV drama, starring Kimutaku (Kimura Takuya) as Senna-kun, opposite an older Minami (Yamaguchi Tomoko).

I actually saw the first 20 minutes of this show in Japan, and kept rewatching the first 20 minutes over and over for a couple years before actually continuing with the rest of the show.

The first 20 minutes are SO GOOD because they involve Minami, dressed up in Japanese bridal clothes, running through the streets. She ends up at Senna’s apartment panicked, looking for her groom (Senna is the groom’s roommate) to find out that her groom has run away, never to be seen again. A couple days later she moves in with Senna (surprise!) since she correctly concludes there must be an empty room in his apartment now, right…?

The story grows from there, and we watch Senna and Minami’s dysfunctional love/roommate relationship grow as the both pursue other interests, both love-wise and roommate-wise. Kimutaku is really not very convincing as a pianist, but that’s okay because he’s not really convinced he wants to be a pianist either. He’s astoundingly young in this show (I’m used to seeing Kimutaku on SMAPxSMAP, a good 10+ years later… now quite so fresh anymore) and has amazing chemistry with Yamaguchi Tomoko, who is totally crazy (obviously, judging by her moving habits) but fun and an interesting character.

Her craziness reminds me of the leading lady of Love Generation, another Kimutaku drama, this time opposite Matsu Takako, who also appears in Long Vacation as Ryoko, a shy withdrawn pianist. So to put this in SAT analogy terms…

Yamaguchi Tomoko : Long Vacation :: Matsu Takako : Love Generation

Except that Matsu Takako is also in Long Vacation.

Weird.

If that wasn’t confusing enough, the other relationships in Long vacation can be quite complex. There were a lot of moments where I would pause and think, “Wait… so why is he giving his ex-girlfriend-slash-musical-competitor advice about how to date his ex-roommate-slash-love-interests’s brother who also happens to be his current roommate???”

But the whole thing was totally cute and 90′s. This was really right when the whole drama thing was starting to take off. Ahh classics.

To make the whole relationship thing either more clear or totally more confusing, I made a graph of it. Surprise! Click to view more closely.

You can watch Long Vacation online here at mysoju.

CRAZIEST SHOW SINCE 2003^*.

Three sketchy realtors in an office the size of a matchbox trick 9 unrelated people into sharing a ridiculously nice apartment, with the quasi-guarantee that whoever they determine deserves to become “king” gets to keep the place at the end.

The nine characters are:

Mizushima Hiro: A sometimes-employed florist, sometimes (seemingly randomly) in France, but also the glue that keeps the 9 potential kings together.

Suzuki An: An OL (bank worker, in particular) who gets scouted out by a strange pair of thumbs (this guy has faces on his thumbs… wtf!?) to become a sort of B-rated idol. Can’t really sing, can’t really act, but nonetheless attracts a few otaku to her pathetic gigs. Just as cute-because-she’s-realistically-awkward as she was in 2003^*.
“Stand Up!”

Igawa Haruka: Gynecologist who looks like a street-walker. Has a posse of prettyboys at her clinic.

Watabe Atsuro: MAJIMAX, a stylist who is always late to everything, and often drunk. Struggles with some Gundam-related project in the first couple episodes, and later his assistant quits on him. Often drunk and brooding.

Itao Itsuji: A cook who talks to horses. Like, that’s where he gets most of his recipes, by talking to his horse.

Ishino Mako: Single mom who ran away from home to be a mom at Room of King. More into nabe (Japanese cooking pot) than anyone I’ve ever seen or heard of. She and Itao Itsuji are a budding romance of strange obsessions and food.

Fujisawa Atsushi: fat recluse who spends a lot of time doing some tech stuff on laptop, though camps outside for several days (with laptop) and goes to the African Savannah during part of Episode 9. He eats bunches of bananas at a time, in contrast to the nabe that everyone else is downing.

Hirayama Hiroyuki: Magician in training, failed film producer.

Ookura Kouji: #1 recluse artist who isn’t found to be living in the house until the last episode or two. Oops!

Top three moments of the show:

3) Episode 6: The single mom is in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for the residents of the Room of King (everyone is still there at that point). Everyone expects nabe, since that’s what they’ve eaten for the past 37 meals or so… so one of the three at the table, the stylist (in the purple shirt) ironically asks, “Nabe again??” to which housewife mom says, “No! You don’t eat nabe in the morning!! Here you are, cheese fondue” to which stylist replies to the florist on his left, “don’t you not eat cheese fondue in the morning either?”

2) Episode 7: Everyone has bailed on the Room of King idea — they’re all depressed and have gone their separate ways. Except for the recluse artist (he never cared about anyone else in the house anyway) and Mizushima the florist… (glue, remember)? The artist is going through the fridge in what is probably his usual fashion, taking one gulp of milk from the bottle here, a handful of something else there, and is generally GROSSING THE FLORIST OUT with his habits. After scolding him for a bit they continue with their conversation, florist oblivious to the second best moment of the show, when artist takes a single stick of Pocky out from the box (WHY was the Pocky in the refrigerator??), takes a small bite off the end, licks the rest of a chocolatey part of the Pocky like a popsicle, and STICKS THE POCKY BACK INTO THE BOX, chocolate side first.

1) Episode 2 (ish?) No screenshot due to hardware failure. The OL-turned-idol is in some fancy-shmancy store, when a robbery occurs and she’s held at gunpoint by the perpetrator. She doesn’t want to die, and there is a massive crowd at the scene of the crime. Suddenly, an old woman fights to the front of the line, “let me past!! I’m the mother!” The police are like, “it’s the mother of the victim!”… but no, “I’m the mother of the perpetrator!! Don’t do it, honey!” Uh… okay… and then, another guy (the cook!) shows up, and says, “I’m a relative too!” who is it now? “I’m the cousin!” “of the victim?” “No, of the perpetrator!” and he sings a heartwarming song, inspired by his horse, which persuades the gunman out of committing the crime. Then he comes out and the cook realizes he’s got the wrong guy — they’re not cousins after all! Um….what?!

I haven’t given away any of the actually important parts of the show (like who ends up being King), so I recommend you go watch it. Cute theme song (Ai need by Kimaguren), fast-paced at only 35 minutes per episode, perfect to finish up during a sick day in bed with your head throbbing and fever soaring (me yesterday).

The year my favorite crazy drama ever, Manhattan Love Story, was aired.

The year Suzuki Anne was in Stand Up!!, another crazy awesome show.

Now that’s it’s break, I’m extremely happy to finally have time to get some serious jdrama watching done. The one I finished up yesterday was called Oh! My Girl!!, a fall drama that ended a couple of weeks ago. Hayami Mokomichi delivered, as usual, this time as a writer at a publishing company, who gets stuck taking care of his celebrity sister’s celebrity 6-year-old daughter. Hilarity ensues, and there are some very heartwarming moments. Needless to say, Mokomichi’s character, Kotaro, emoted quite a bit compared to his last role as a robot-boyfriend in Zettai Kareshi (summer 2008).

The show was cute, well done, and with only 9 episodes, left you wanting more. Kotaro’s sister is a movie star and a total flake about her daughter, Sakurai An, who doesn’t know her own father. When An’s mom goes to Hollywood for an audition she leaves An in the care of Kotaro and An’s manager, Mineko (Kato Rosa). Unfortunately, the love between Mineko and Kotaro doesn’t quite blossom (though by the end of the last episode they do appear to be living together… hmm…) The show focuses on the relationship of An and Kotaro: the rich & famous child star and her essentially impoverished but compassionate uncle. She takes him out for an $800 meal at a Chinese restaurant, while he normally gets by on cup-noodles and convenience store onigiri. At first An seems a little ridiculous and spoiled, but a lot of her issues stem from the outer shell she has to construct for the media, and the stress of wondering if/when her mom is ever going to come home or return her calls.

One interesting thing about Oh! My Girl!! was the disproportionate number of iPhones in the show. This is also the first time I’ve seen an iPhone in any Japanese TV show, which isn’t particularly surprising given that they only released in Japan this summer so we only have two seasons of dramas to work with here. However, there are several interesting things to note here.

iPhones are not very popular in Japan right now. The original 2nd generation iPhone, released in July of this year, which was the first iPhone to come to Japan, lacked some key features for the Japanese market, including the ever-important emoji. The november firmware update began to introduce emoji to the iphone, as well as a one-seg tuner (the signal that most Japanese phones already use to watch tv on the phone) that doubles as an external battery. I wrote a Japanese paper about this topic in late November (right around when the firmware update came out), and this is the first article that I have seen that portrays the iPhone in a fairly positive light (from last week):
http://www.asahi.com/digital/digimono2008winter/TKY200812150312.html

So, the whole iPhone cool/desirable factor is missing right now in Japan. When I got my iPhone, my friends were either jealous (if they didn’t have an iPhone), welcomed me to the iPhone-owning community (for those who did already have one), or at the very least showed considerable interest. Not so in Japan — nobody is going to get jealous there over an iPhone. I told one friend, who said he knew someone with an iPhone, and that it was difficult to use (of course, the exact opposite comment is the norm here — that it’s great because it’s so *easy* to use).

Despite all of this, out of about ten major characters in Oh! My Girl!!, two of them had iPhones. That’s a pretty high ratio there.

It’s not particularly mysterious when you consider that SoftBank, the local carrier of the iPhone in Japan, was a sponsor of the show. They do, of course, have a couple of great iPhone ads, including the one I mentioned a few posts ago (here’s a translated version of the same ad). This is of course normal practice for a cell phone company to sponsor a tv show, and product placement ensues. I can’t even really think of a drama I’ve seen from recent years that wasn’t sponsored by either Docomo, au, or SoftBank, and of course, the characters all have keitai from that company.

However, in Oh! My Girl!!, our protagonist Kotaro did NOT have an iPhone. Sakurai An’s character didn’t have an iPhone, and neither did her manager Mineko. So the three people you constantly see using their phones, had other random SoftBank phones. In contrast, the two characters with iPhones were actually sort of the bad guys. One, a guy who worked at the same publishing company as Kotaro, and wanted to publish an exposé on Sakurai An and her mother that would have jeopardized the careers and the well being of those involved. Second, Sakurai An’s flakey celebrity mom, goes to America, stops returning her daughter’s calls, and lo and behold, returns to Japan months later carrying an iPhone. “Look, I bought a new one, isn’t it cool?” she asks An. Way to show off your iPhone while using it as an excuse to neglect your daughter!

iPhones in action:

Kotaro’s bad-guy coworker takes sneaky pictures with his black iPhone around the residence of Kotaro and Sakurai An.

An’s mom, in the scene where she just shows up in Japan again and wants to whisk An away to Hollywood with her, failing to address real issues at hand like, “why haven’t you contacted us in months?” And no, iPhone is NOT an excuse. She could have used EMAIL. Mom has the white iPhone.

This is the point when I decided the whole show had transformed into an advertisement. An’s mom receives a call from her/An’s manager, who has a secret he’s hidden from An and Mineko for years! Semi-bad people calling definitely bad people, on iPhone!

Though they’re only reasonable to display information about maybe three sets or so maximum before the overlapping regions become ridiculously small, I think venn diagrams are crazy awesome and crazy fun.

And now that I have OmniGraffle… I can draw venn diagrams (and graphs) ALL THE TIME! Omg awesome!

Here’s one I did for fun. 3 semi-random jdramas that were all extremely good, and that I noticed had a lot of overlapping actors: