Thursday, July 28, 2016

Juken no Cinderella Episodes 1 -3

WHAT IS IT?

Juken no Cinderella is basically Dragon Zakura + Medaka + Biri Gal. In other words, its a jdorama about getting into Todai with the main character being a high school student who studies at night school and is poor. Koizumi Kotaro is the tuition teacher who specialises in getting students into Todai with a 90% passing rate.

WHAT I LIKED

+ Great cast all around including Tomita Yasuko (Suzuki Sensei) as Kawaguchi Haruna's mom and Yamaguchi Sayaka.

+ I enjoyed watching Koizumi Kotaro play against his usual type as an arrogant teacher with a hot temper.


+ Who doesn't like an underdog story? How can anyone not support a poor girl trying to get into the most famous university in Japan?

+ Its also a tale of redemption.

+ About two characters who need each other at the lowest point in their lives.

+ Its an NHK BS show so the directing is better than average and they do really seem to specialise in making feel good shows.


WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Theme songs sucks. Great music would have pushed Juken no Cinderella towards a must watch show. I don't think I would have rated Medaka must watch without Spitz's Masayume.

- I can't believe so many subbers chose to sub crappy shows over Juken no Cinderella.


- Found out that there is an old movie starring Mr Lan Evo Toyohara Kosuke but it's not available from my usual places.


SUMMARY

I really enjoyed the first three episodes. Can't wait for episode 4. My guess is its going to end up like a lot of NHK BS shows like Coffee-ya no Hitobito and Kiseki no Hito being feel good shows that are just below the border of must watch. You can get the first two episodes from nyaa and episode 3 is up at jplovetv.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I plan to sub this but not in English haruna really good in this
the story really good it not to simple underdog story it had realistic throw in
man i really love when haruna fight with kotaro
kotaro it really a$$ hole but haruna always say like "i don't give a f$ck just teach me already"

it like Dragon Zakura + Medaka but is similar with Biri Gal in the way of underdog but totally different level
i still cant get what hype about Biri Gal whne i already watched Dragon Zakura and Medaka which it a lot better for me
kasumi really cute but so far from masami and gakki at they prime.

Akiramike said...

Good luck with your subbing! Juken no Cinderella deserves to be watched by more people.

I think Kasumi might turn out to be a better actress than Masami or Gakki.

Anonymous said...

Rootabega sez:

I am sensitive to music and scoring, so when I read this part,

"- Theme songs sucks. Great music would have pushed Juken no Cinderella towards a must watch show. I don't think I would have rated Medaka must watch without Spitz's Masayume."

I had to do a little fist pump in the air. Nothing worse than than watching a dorama with artistic potential get torpedoed by an embarrassingly awful j-tune wedged in as the intro/theme song. Terrible ending songs are easier to ignore, at least.
Example: Quirky comedy "Fuben na no Benriya" getting saddled with a generic, commericial j-rock theme. Kinda damaged the overall vibe. The ending tune by Spitz was fine (dude can really sing) - it should have been the intro song.

Akiramike said...

Another recent show, Kiseki no Hito wouldn't be as good without the ending song, Hone.