Saito-san Eps 4-11

I'm going to miss this show a lot. Specifically, I'm going to miss Mimura's potryal of Wakaba Mano. She is one of the most entertaining characters jdoramas I've ever seen. When she was cast in the Ima Ai ni Yukimasu dorama, I was wondering what the producers ever saw in her. Her acting was so bland and could not compare with Takeuchi Yuko's. Still, it was a futile attempt to stretch a movie into 10 episodes.


Why I want  to be a kindergarden teacher when I grow up...

Saito-san proves that Mimura has the acting chops after all. Mano-san insecurities and need for acceptance and acknowledgement are a joy to watch. I enjoy the way she stammers when unsure of herself and throws tantrums like a schoolgirl over her own misunderstandings. In the middle of the series I was a bit disappointed when she did not become 'braver' but then I realised that it was her character flaws that created the interesting dichotomy between her and Saito-san.


Mano-chan totemo kawaii...


Her relationship with Saito-san is very much hero worship. Saito-san is the woman Mano-san wants to be. You could say that Saito-san is like the archetypal Ojousan in a shoujo manga who the students look up to and aspire to be. It is this hero worship that propels Mano-san to overcome her own ensecurities. It is her 'flaws' that make her decision to stand with Saito-san all the more impressive. The way that Mano-san celebrates every single step that she takes, from singing the 'seigi no mikata' song to being overly enthusiastic shows the purity or innocence of her hero worship.


I'm going to miss the schoolgirls on bikes....

The writers portay Saito-san as a bastion of goodness. Sorta like how Superman is the symbol for Truth, Justice etc, Saito-san is the perfect suburban housewife among a sea of housewives who don't have backbones and only play follow the leader. The writers refuse to reduce her a mere mortal except for a little bit in the end.


... especially Ayoko. :(

However this leads to another problem of convincing the audience that the Saito & Mano relationship really did progress from one of admiration to mutual friendship. To me, Saito-san is like the reluctant leader and Mano-san the follower. As Griffiths said in Berserk, to be friends, both parties must be of equal standing and Mano-san's worth and friendship to Saito-san is sorely understated.



I would have loved to see Saito-san run into deep trouble and Mano-san moving mountains to save her. However, I can see why the story went the way it did. Though the dorama is called Saito-san, its really about Mano-san who is like a sidekick to the superhero and breaking Saito-san down would mean that Mano-san would have to be elevated. In other words, Saito-san is like this force of nature that tore through Mano-san's life and humanising Saito-san too much would lessen the impact.


Gambarre Saitou team!

This show is definitely in my 'must watch again' list. Whoever knew that a dorama about housewives that did not involve sex and murder would be so much fun?

Mop Girl

Mop Girl was a show I had heard good things about but when I skimmed through ep 1, I wasn't very impressed. Goes to show how one should never judge a jdorama at a quick glance. Kitagawa Keiko stars as Hasegawa Momoko, our main character who has the ability to travel back in time/see the future in order to save someone's life or help them do something before they die.


Basically the first half of every episode sets up how a character dies and the the second half is Momoko running around trying prevent the death from happening. The premise is brilliantly simple and fun. Who among us would not like to be able to redo our actions with the benefit of hindsight?

Everyday I give thanks to God for creating maid cafes. If only I were in Japan...

One show Mop Girl really reminds me of is Trick. Tanihara Shousuke (who's been in too many shows) is Ohtomo-san, Momoko's colleague and partner in her adventures. Similar to Ueda Jiro from Trick, he is a narcissistic person who always gets into fights with Momoko except its Momoko who is always asking for his help. His obsession with gaijin women is probably the best running gag of the series. Tanihara Shousuke is always playing the forgettable nice guys in doramas but I think this is the first role I've seen him in which he completely ownes. I just love watching people who've payed their dues get their chance to shine.

I always wanted to see Koide Saori after Densha. Never dreamt it would be in maid costume!

The crux of the series, like Trick is the chemistry between the two leads and its just a pleasure to watch them argue and Momoko try to manipulate Ohtomo. Can't believe that Kitagawa Keiko was in the Sailor Moon dorama. I've only seen two episodes of the show many years ago but she certainly has the goods to be a good actress. Kudos to whoever decided to cast her as Mop Girl.


The stories are decent with episode 4 being the stand out episode. In fact, I would say ep 4 is probably the best single episode I've seen in a long while, thought its partly due to Koide Saori. (the idol from Densha) Yes, the show has only been subbed up to episode 5 so I went out and bought the HK English subbed version which is pretty bad. (the subs)


Can't really tell whether its the bad subs or just that the stories started getting boring after ep 5. It still picks up at the end though but nothing matches the greatness of ep 4. I would recommend waiting for the fansubs and avoiding the HK DVD. Usually I can survive with English subs translated from Chinese but the subs for Mop Girl are that bad. Maybe it would have been better watching them raw. Highly recommended. Now to look for someone who has the Sailor Moon doramas. :)

4 Shimai Tantei eps 1-4

A detective show with Nakagoshi Noriko (Pride), Kato Natsuki (HYD2) and Ichikawa Yui (H2) certainly sounds like the perfect recipe for a fun dorama. As long as the mysteries don't have big plot holes, I'd be happy staring at them for 9 episodes.



Alas, just when I thought this show had potential, I quickly realised the show's first problem: its got the wrong title. Instead of 4 Shimai Tantei, it should be called Yuriko and her 3 idiotic/useless sisters. Yes, the three actresses who I had looked forward to watching have been reduced to supporting roles. Not only that, they have become irrelevant characters whose only purpose are to be comedy foils and to advance the plot. Sigh, I had so hoped to see what Nakagoshi Noriko can do after only seeing her in Pride.



But not liking the name isn't really the main problem. The main problem is the end of ep 1 when Yuriko caught the criminals in a scene straight out of Home Alone. That's when the realisation really hit me that this was a fucking kids show. FFS, shouldn't shows aimed at kids be screen earlier or something?


Suddenly the stupid characters and dialog made sense. In kids shows, its always the kids who are smart and everyone else is stupid. Smart characters get minimal screen time and only appear to advance the plot. Words cannot describe how pissed off I am at the makers for wasting 3 beautiful actresses to entertain kids watching doramas at 9pm. Avoid!

Saito-san Eps 1+2

I remember someone saying that Saito-san was probably the best dorama from last season. A dorama about a mom who likes to speak her mind? If there were two genres I try to avoid, it would be mother-in-law and suburban mom shows. This probably led me to think that last season was pretty bad. I mean, how good could a show about a nagging mom be?


So far from two episodes, Saito-san is a very good show because its not really not a show about a mom who likes to speak her mind. Its a show about politics of power set in the suburbs with a kindergarten as the battlefield. Its a show about a single person's ability to take action versus a group mentality of accepting things as they are. Saito-san is about doing what's right versus pleasing everyone and fitting in.


Saito-san is like a force of nature. The other moms want to get rid of her but she just exists. Mizuki Arisa is perfectly casted as Saito-san. She's got this aura about her. But Saito-san would not be Saito san without Mimura as Mano-san. Mano-san is the opposite of Saito-san. She tries way too hard to fit in get everyone to accept her. She has such a huge fear of being rejected by the other moms that its sickening. She's like the weakest of the weak that I just despised her.


However, she's the only one of the moms who sees that Saito-san is right although her fear of the others prevents her from speaking up. This makes Saito-san an emphatic figure without making her a failure as the audience projects their frustrations on Mano-san. We see Saito-san through Mano-san's eyes, hating her cowardice but ultimately cheering her on.


I still can't believe how engrossing this show is. Maybe its just me wanting to see Saito-san lay the smackdown on those spoiled high school kids. Nothing pisses me off than kids who think the world owes them a living. If you have not watched this show, do so. I'm slowly catching up on my doramas (at the expense of my gaming) and this year seems to be a pretty good year for doramas.

Life/Raifu eps 3-11

I kinda left this show in the backburner for a long time despite the first two episodes being pretty. Finally decided to continue with the show and ended up watching the rest of the series in one night. Life/Raifu is a show about high school bullying.

Blow wind!

To me the star of this show is definitely Saki Fukada as Anzai Manami. Anzai is what a good villain should be. Relentlessly cruel, unforgiving, forever scheming and most importantly is the villain because she enjoys it. Her ability to make me hate her is astounding and kept me watching just to see her get her just deserts. She is the character that drives the story. Anzai is the villain that forces Shiiba Ayumu to become the heroine of the story.

Mop Girl? Oops, wrong dorama.

Actually she's not the only 'evil' character in the show. Katsumi is fun to watch as the manipulative sob who is abused by his father. The overacting does take away from the believability of the character but he's still fun to watch. Lets not forget the useless self serving teachers, especially Seto Asuka's Toda sensei. For me Anzai is the most hateful character and I wished I could teach her a lesson with my rod of justice. :)

Bitch fight!

The set up of the show is sorta like those old school melodramas where the formula is to stack the odds against the heroine. Except this time instead of bucket loads of tears and self pity, we see Shiiba Ayumu continue to struggle against seemingly impossible odds. I wouldn't have blamed her if she went into a mental breakdown. Its like everytime something nice happened you knew it was going to get worse.

Unfortunately, this isn't what it looks like.....

The pace of the show doesn't let up. And it actually manages to pull off the Watashitachi no Kyokasho ending pretty well and make it a pretty cool scene. Kyokasho milked this really long and overly dramatic school hostage situation while in Life, its handled really quickly and succinctly while ending story arches of two characters.

I wish Saki Fukuda would say that to me...

Huge kudos to the show for not getting too preachy with the ending. I couldn't believe it when I found myself feeling a bit sorry for Anzai. For all her manipulation and evil doing, at least she has the guts to face the other students when it was her turn while practically everyone else are actually cowards who seek refuge in bullying. Even those two megane girls really got into bullying. You can say that the message of the dorama is to hate the sin, not the sinner but to me, what it has shown is that people are weak.



The hardest thing to do is to stand up to the majority which is something only 4 people in the whole school did. Its sorta like saying don't judge people by what they do but how they react to adversity. Whether the face it head one or run away/sell out their friends for their own survival. I hate to say it but when they really showed that everyone else were really cowards, I'd almost understand why Anzai did what she did. Almost.

Sonoda's one lucky guy, except for the whole cigarette thing...
Plus the guy who was the catalyst to turning the class against Anzai when Ayumu was caught cheating. It was basically the turning point of Ayumu's battle against Anzai. For a character of such significance, its kinda weird that his character is not even developed a little. I suppose he represents the other classmates who finally decided to speak up after being silent for so long.

One thing you'll definitely learn from this show is 'dogeza'. :)

Its too late to redo my top 5 shows from last year but Life is certainly up there. It has certainly shown me that Japanese doramas can have great, efficient writing. Or maybe this just applies to manga adaptations? Highly recommended show.

Bara no nai Hanaya eps 9-11

If Bara no nai Hanaya showed one thing, it is that good acting can overcome gaps in logic and soap operatic plotlines. (such as where football and sticky ball thing in ep 11 came from. Did Eiji rob some poor kids or something?) As I have said, I am willing to turn off my brain if it is necessary for the story that the writer wants to tell. And what a nice story it is. Compare Eiji with Oguri Shun in Binbo Danshi. Both are selfless to a fault except that Binbo Danshi is a fucking idiot while the writer in Bara no nai Hanaya takes effort to explain Eiji's behaviour.


I must applaud this show for actually doing a well written idealistic character. Usually such characters cross the line of stupidity thus eliminating all empathy to the character. Their idealism and selflessness blinds them to reality and they continue to make stupid decisions. ( see also Enka no Joou or any idealistic teacher show or most current anime shows)

I'm gonna miss the supporting cast. A fun supporting cast is integral to any series.

With Eiji, the writer makes great pains to show his past. I like how Shun functions not just as a plot twist but as the opposite of Eiji. Both chose different ways to deal with their past and Shun's character and reasons however lame serve to reinforce Eiji's character. To me the big pay off of the show was when Eiji was overcome with happiness. To me, the whole series was built up for that scene. So that the audience can truly understand and empathise with a man who is afraid to be happy. For most of the series, I kinda thought that a lot of actors could have done Katagori Shingo's role but he really nailed that scene and showed that he owned the role. And there is a joke about Shingo's alter ego, Shingo-mama when he farewells Shun.

No way I could have abandoned a girl as hot as Motokariya Yuika.

Takeuchi Yuko is brilliant. The whole bring her to the operating room to scream at her dad thing was cheesy but her acting was so absorbing that I couldn't care less. I think she does the whole sadness mixed with happiness scenes better than any other actress I've seen. I highly recommend this sometimes flawed but riveting show. Oh yes, I'm surprised no accident happened at Eiji's workplace. The way the shots were framed was so ominous. :)

Koshonin eps 5-8

I can't believe I watched the whole series just to see how it was going to end to only experience one of the most pathetically written shows ever. This show started out ok, with some obvious flaws but it was watchable. The show had some interesting angles; the whole negotiator stuff plus mystery and conspiracy. However, what follows is the most obvious example of amateurish writing I've ever seen. Actually, I'm pretty sure lots of amateurs can write the show better.


I feel as if I'm wasting my time trying to talk about what a train wreck of a show this is. So many freaking holes in the story it actually makes Rondo look watchable. The Diet needs to pass a bill banning Jinnai Takanori from ever acting in serious shows. The only positive thing I got from this show is Hayashi Tantan, who plays Usagi's sister. Avoid! Now to delete this show forever.....