Iryu season 2 eps 5-7

Fujiyoshi Sensei: I see yama!

The mark of a truly great jdorama is one where it makes you watch the next episode without subs. If only it were not a medical dorama and understanding the medical stuff truly important to enjoyment of the series I would watch the raws all the way. The last time I watched the raws as soon as they came out as KDO. That's how fucking good Iryu 2 is.

Uchida Yuki, please bear my children!

Ep 5 marks the climax of the diet member storyline and what a fucking climax it is. Doing an operation without enough blood. You know Asada is going to work his miracles but its just so gripping how they constantly come up with new challenges and how well they present it. Its freaking edge of your seat stuff. Not even the early years of ER is as exciting.

Super doctor? WTF? What does he do for little girls I can't do?

Ep 6 takes a look at Toyoma, the irritating, stuck up doctor. I thought they episode was heading for trouble when they too easily gave an excuse for his behaviour. Nothing pisses me off then when everything is too simplified. Somehow, they've managed to show him as a messed up character with his phone call to his dad and make the audience cut him some slack when he took responsibility for his mistake.

Hellooooooo doc!

Still, I hope that he keeps that cocky attitude of his. Its not fun when a character becomes a completely good guy like Arase. What ever happened to the bar chick from the 1st season? Its was one of the most memorable episodes because it just made Arase such an intriguing character. I guess the writers decided his character has run its course and he's reduced to plot device.

What's up doc? Nothing, only a kabe!

And the ending for ep 6. OMFG. That is superb writing. I love how the conversations slowly led up to the fucking awesome 'super doctor' cliffhanger. I just had to watch ep 7 straight after and ep 7 has an even better cliffhanger! Its like watching Angel when they somehow always managed a mini cliffhanger for every commercial break. You must fucking marvel at how the writers did it.

warning: EP 7 SPOILERS



I loved the confrontation between the Hikuyou director, Zenda sensei and Noguchi sensei. There's a sense that he might raise the white flag and sell out but the moment he declared war was so fucking cool. I truly have to give special props to the director/cinematographer. The way the camera pans round to behind the fish tank was too fucking cool. And the scene where Arase confronts Kodaka. Love how there's no clear shot of her face. As if all Arase's words don't reach her. Its like her umbrella shielding her from the rain.


Can't wait to see an episode about Kitou sensei's decision to sleep with the devil for the greater good. Its an interesting concept to explore and sounds damn good in theory except when the sacrifices become too great. Looking forward to cheering Uchida Yuki's character. IMO, she's doing a superb job as the enigmatic Kataoka Kazumi. I'm going to marathon both seasons when this series finishes. :)

Nagasawa Masami 2008 calender

Yataa! Two calenders I ordered from jlist arrived today! After deciding for some time, I decided to get Nagasawa Masami's and Matsuura Aya's. Unfortunately, jlist didn't have Nacchi's or Isoyama Sayaka's. The calenders came in really sturdy cardboard boxes but unfortunately they didn't fit in my bag so I had to drag it around the city while buying dinner. The Nagasawa Masami calender is beautifully shot and I couldn't be happier with it as can be seen from the following pics.








Unfortunately, the Matsuura Aya is crap. Only two shots are pretty good, which are below. The rest are boring. I guess they deviated too much from the typical Ayaya look that it doesn't really look like her. Ayaya + black + trying to look retro sophisticated = not a good thing. Avoid it even if you are a hardcore Ayaya fan. They should have done a GAM calender with lots of yuri innuendo. :)




Shoulda gone for the Toda Erika/Nacchi calenders from yesasia. Oh well, at least I've still got my old Ayaya poster from Weekly Comic many years ago. Maybe I should try to get an old school momusu poster after this. :)

Galileo eps 1-7

In the tradition of the Trick series, comes a new jdorama starring Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou. My brother has been pushing me to watch this show but I just never got around to it. I'm not really a big fan of Shibasaki Kou and her one dimensional ice queen act so I wasn't really expecting much from this show.


Shibasaki Kou plays Utsumi Kaoru, a rookie who enlists the aid of Galileo, a physics professor played by Fukuyama Masaharu to solve mysterious crimes. Its not dissimilar to Trick where there's always a trick to a crime except in Galileo its more from a scientific perspective. Of course, Galileo is the cold, logically driven person while Kaoru is more hot headed. The fun is watching the bickering that occurs between them.

Hirosue Ryoko!!!!!!!

Its not as good as the chemistry between Abe Hiroshi and Nakama Yukie in Trick but its still pretty damn entertaining. The quality of the stories vary from episode so it is important that the characters be enough to draw the audience in. So far its been entertaining and I like how Kaoru is aware of Galileo's catchphrases.

Kaoru giving Galileo a verbal low blow...

Galileo is based on a series of novels but I particularly like some of the visual trademarks of the show such as Galileo's hand on face thinking pose and the whole writing on anything when he gets his final clue, as stupid as it may be. WTF would be need to write F=MA for some of the 'mysteries'? Oh well, just shut off your brain and enjoy the coolness of Galileo vandalising private property.

Sexy Voice & Galileo! Is this the beginning of a spin off show? And twisted joshi kousei sounds appealing....

Another big appeal of this show is the guest stars. I was so fucking happy when I saw Hirosue Ryoko in ep 3. Though she had probably 15 minutes of screen time, it was great to see her on the small screen again. Ep 4 sees Sora Aoi in a 10 second cameo, ep 5 has Ohgo Suzuka (Sexy Voice) and ep 7 Fukada Kyoko. While I think that Fukada Kyoko has the acting ability of a broom, it was interesting to see her act as a villain. I spent the episode just watching her sometimes dropping her uber fake 'kawaii' persona. Seriously she should either completely drop her irritating facade or get lessons from Ogura Yuko. Its just so nice to see her speaking in a more 'real' tone of voice at the end of ep 7.

Finally Fukada Kyoko shows her true colours...

So far, Galileo has been a fun ride. Mystery doramas are hard to judge because they isn't really a main story to follow. Its more a collection of mysteries and how good a show is, is based on how well one remembers the stories after watching.