Cheer Dan Episodes 1+2

Its been a long while since the last female sports jdorama and I can't really think of any since Ganbatte Ikimashoi! and Attack No.1. Tsuchiya Tao has cemented her position in the past few years as the go to person to play your average high school girl leads a bunch of underdogs to go against the Fukui powerhouse cheer dance team, Jets.

THE GOOD

+ The underdog sports dorama is almost fullproof. We've got this underdog cheer dance team wanting to take on the champs and we've got this traumatised teacher who is afraid to try.

+ I love the Fukui accent! So kawaii!

+ No AKB/SKE whatever idorus who can't act. (as far as I know)

+ Sambomaster is one of my favourite bands ever. I hope this become their second iconic jdorama theme song after Densha.

+ High production dorama and not in the sense of lets waste money so this scene has 500 extras trying to hard to be cool even though it makes no sense. Love the Fukui countryside.

THE MEH

= I'm having flashbacks to Love Live which I only watched for research purposes, which is not a good thing.

= The whole ganbatte and pretty speeches thing could get repetitive by the end.

THE UGLY

- Watching actresses who are clearly younger than Tsuchiya Tao play characters who are older than her. i think jdoramas should just cast real teenagers as teenagers.

SUMMARY

There is no reason not to give it a try especially with all the eye candy.

Daisy Luck 6-10

Daisy Luck , the show about 4 women turning 30 is utterly predictable right until the end, Shokotan's storyline could have been funnier but I have no complaints and enjoyed it all the way through.

Maybe its because Daisy Luck does not aspire to be more than lift fluff for the around 30 genre or maybe like Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru, I just like the cast and there was no overpushed talento/idoru to repulse me.

Perfectly watchable though not particularly memorable. If you need a break from WOWOW and cover up doramas, and want something fun that doesn't require much attention, Daisy Luck is the show for you.

Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru Episodes 5-11

Finally finished this affair+divorce jdorama after a bit of struggle. There were a couple of times I felt like giving up but in the end it was worth it, but only just. The main problem with this show is Tamaki Hiroshi's character is actually the supporting character although he gets so much screen time.

Reason is, his character is forever the indecisive person who never puts his foot down and never experiences any character growth. His indecisiveness is just there so that characters can put in certain situations but his reaction is always the same. He just pulls the Tamaki Hiroshi bewildered face and tries to run away.

The true main characters of the show are Santamaria Yusuke and Kimura Tae because once you find out about their secret, their actions make a lot more sense and brings a lot more depth to their characters. Tamaki Hiroshi and Nakatani Miki are more like walking cliches to support the main story. In other words, the main actors should have played more of a supporting role.

I don't know if that was the writer's intention or if someone mandated that most of the screen time be given to the bigger names. Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru works a lot better when its Nakatani Miki with Santamaria Yusuke or Kimura Tae.

I just feel that there is universe where Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru runs for nine episodes, Santamaria Yusuke and Kimura Tae get more screentime and it wins the hamsapsukebe jdorama of the year award. Unfortunately in this reality, it will have to settle with being a watachable jdorama that drags in the middle and makes me want to avoid all Tamaki Hiroshi shows in the future.

Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru Episodes 1-4

Another jdorama staple besides the arasa and suburban housewife politics is the mid life crisis affair jdorama. All three are not mutually exclusive and blend into each other but the standard setting is a loveless marriage and in Ananata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru, its between Nakatani Miki and Tamaki Hiroshi.

Tamaki Hiroshi is playing the exact same character he played in Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi 10 years ago, this wishy washy main character who never quite does the right thing and of course, Nakatani Miki is the unappreciated housewife.

While a lot of Kaeru Ie ga Aru is pretty straightfoward with the build up of the affair. What kept me watching was this sense there has to be more behind Kimura Tae's character who has an affair with Tamaki Hiroshi and Santamaria Yusuke who is Kimura Tae's misogynic husband who treats her like a maid. It also helped that the son mentions a few times that his family is not normal.

The end of episode 4 has this hilarious scene between Nakatani Miki and Kimura Tae and I have a strong feeling the rest of the series might be very crazy. I have moderate hopes of Kaeru Ie ga Aru. The first 4 episodes feel slightly too familiar but I think episode 5 will be where the good parts begin.

On a side note, I can't believe Triendl Reina is playing such a minor role in this show! Affair jdoramas are generally pretty dull affairs but Anata ni wa Kaeru Ie ga Aru might have enough acting ability and be warped enough to be good. Has potential, can wait to continue watching.

5 reasons why everyone should watch Genkai Danchi Episodes 1-5

I had zero expectations for this show about this grandfather and his granddaughter who move into this old housing complex but by the jdorama gods, the first five episodes have been an incredible ride.

1) This is the first suburban/housing complex housewife dorama I can remember that manages to be creey that didn't feel stupid, albeit with the housewife role being played by a grandfather.

2) I love it when an actor like Sano Shiro who always plays supporting roles get to shine as the main actor. I guess that was what kept me watching Black Revenge until the end.

3)  Sano Shiro's character Terauchi is one of the most fascinating, well written effed up characters in jdorama history. He is so fun to watch that I want to do a spoiler review when its all finished.

4) Its a show about old nostalgic old Japanese values maybe not having a place in today's world.

5) The writing is absolutely golden. I was at the edge of my seat for every episode. Its unpredictable and yet I have a sense the writer Takafumi Kosaka knows what he is doing. A bit of googling reveals that Kosaka has written some of my favourite WOWOW shows including Kageri Yuku Natsu and Umoreru. 

Summary

Watch it! Thanks to Monchi for subbing it. 3 more episodes to go. Fingers crossed. You can get the raws from nyaa here.

Tsugunai The Unforgiven download links

Due to popular demand, I am going to upload Tsugunai to mega. It helps that the file I have is the 480 file so it didn't take forever. If anyone knows where to get the 720 version, please let me know.

You can get episode 1 here. 

Episode 2 is up. 

Episode 3 is up.

Sorry about the delay. My internet was down for 3 days. :(

You can get the subs by Kz from d-addicts here. Just rename the files.

Black Pean Episodes 1-6

Black Pean is a big budget hospital dorama that is a cross between Shiroi Kyoto and Iryu Team Medical Dragon. How do I know its a big budget show? Because the first scene they show is 'look how cool it is when we have 200 hospital staff in a room watching an operation!'

My response to Black Pean is if a hospital can have 200 staff wasting their time, then they must either have no patients or are neglecting their patients. I bloody hate when jdoramas do this huge number of people in a room/hall for no reason at all. What sort of stupid viewer gets impressed with that crap?

Anyway, the only Johnny I like Nino, plays Tokai, a doctor with no teamwork or communication skills. He loves wasting people's time but not telling them about his plan until the end probably hoping people would be impressed and tell him he's so smart.

The truth of the matter is, he is wasting resources as the other doctors could have been using their time to tend to other patients. Plus, he thinks he is so great because he can tie knots really quick and hold a gun with a steady hand. Tokai is just an annoying brat who gets away with everything because his colleagues suck at their jobs. Tokai is not even fit to hold Asada Ryutaro's shoelace.

Speaking of gun, Koizumi Kotaro plays this doctor who is in love with this stupid miracle gun he calls a Snipe. He is like this pharmaceutical company forcing experimental drugs on people so he can write a stupid paper with bullshit results so he can sell this Snipe.

I used to like Koizumi Kotaro but I am starting to realise that he can only act one way and it is getting annoying. Perhaps he was just very lucky to get Namonaki Doku and Petero no Souretsu?

Uchino Masaaki is Dr Saeki, this doctor who loves the world 'impakuto fakuta'. Its like when a kid first learns about swear words and doesn't know how to stop. He is the only decent surgeon besides Tokai and he is in some political vote buying race with another doctor but I don't give a crap.

Truth of the matter is while watching Black Pean, all I can think about was how fucking cool Iryu is versus the very boring operations in Black Pean and how much more interesting Zaizen sensei was as a political character in Shiroi Kyoto.

I tried very hard to like Black Pean. I really did. 6 not so fun episodes is all I can take. At some point I had to push the delete button and admit I'd rather rewatch Iryu for the third time. Meh.

Rewatching Tsugunai The Unforgiven

Sometimes when I've seen too many mediocre shows and all my reviews can't be summarised as 'meh, I've seen better', I just want to watch something fun, even if I've already seen it twice like Tsugunai, a pretty good 3 part series from 2012 with Tanihara Shosuke in the lead role.

Its one of the rare shows where the main character is a homeless guy and not some idealistic asadora hero who gets involved with a murder mystery. I've already reviewed each of the three episodes so I'm just going to write about things that stood out for me on the third viewing. If you have not seen it, I recommend you do though I have no idea where you would get access to it today.

1) KUSANAGI MAKOTO MADE A COMPELLING SUSPECT

The general rule of mystery thrillers is that the first suspect is always innocent. A lot of times, I'm just waiting for the main character to eliminate the first suspect from the list so we can move on. However, Makoto is different because the show plants this seed that this weird kid is the killer because he can hear people's sorrow and wants to silence them. The audience's first reaction is, this can't possibly be true! But its so weird and creepy that it could be and that is what a good red herring is.

2) KUSANAGI MAKOTO'S ACTING IS AWESOME

I really enjoyed the kid's acting on third viewing because he gives the vibe something is off with him which makes the viewer not dismiss Makoto as the killer. You know something is not quite right with this kid but you can't get a read on his intentions.

3) THE PARRALLELS BETWEEN EISUKE AND MAKOTO

Both characters endured great trauma, their loved ones have endured great hardship and both characters blame it on themselves. Eisuke, the doctor cannot forgive himself for the death of wife and child and the kid blames himself for being the victim, surviving and having his mother go crazy. 

I know 99% of Japanese doramas are about characters coming to terms with their pain/past etc but Tsugunai does it by showing, with depth and making the audience feel the pain. Makoto life was saved by Eisuke but that only brought him even more pain and suffering.

4) THE COPS WERE NOT INCOMPETENT NOR VINDICTIVE

Not saying all cops in jdoramas should all be good at their job but making the police look stupid so the main character can look good crutch has been used way too often. I liked that they suspected the main character but did not do so in an evil moustache twirling way and used him to help solve their case.

5) WATCHING HOW THE HOMELESS SURVIVE

Homeless people are everywhere in Japan and hardly seen in jdoramas and it was interesting watching this homeless main character look for a place to sleep or hunt for food behind a convenience store.

6) WHERE IS THE SEQUEL?

I want another murder mystery with the homeless, recovering alcoholic doctor.

SUMMARY

I did not give Tsugunai a must watch because I didn't think the execution was as good as it could have been but now I think the negatives are relatively minor and maybe I just like it a lot more than I should but Tsugunai is now in my must watch list.