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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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: