Byouin no Naoshi Kata Doctor Arihara no Chousen Episodes 1+2

Byouin no Naoshi Kata Doctor Arihara no Chousen is a jdorama about a doctor (Koizumi Kotaro) and a banker (Takashima Masanobu) who team up to try to save the hospital that Koizumi's dad founded which has been horribly mismanaged.

Koizumi Kotaro's character is a stupid idiot who would rather talk about stems when Konishi Manami is giving him the cat smile and Takashima Masanobu wants to get out of this hospital business and get back to his banking career path.

The first episode bored the hell out of me especially with the 1 and 1/2 hour runtime and generic acting and directing. I'm starting to believe that Koizumi Kotaro is not a good of an actor but rather had a good run of really good scripts.

This is suppose to be an underdog style story but they don't feel like underdogs. The hospital got into trouble because management was incompetent and corrupt and let things get so bad for for long. The hospital just needs to be run in a normal way and the two episodes have not made me want to continue.

The only interesting character is Takashima Masanobu's banker because he is a reluctant main character trying to convince the medical staff he knows more about running a business than they do.

Byouin no Naoshi Kata Doctor Arihara no Chousen just feels so tired and uninspiring. Very meh from me. If you want a hospital management show, watch the more entertaining Doctors or even Shiroi Kyoto. Speaking of which, I did not finish watching last year's version. Hard to muster interest to finish when there's the near perfect 2003 version.

Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu Episodes 1~3

I very much enjoyed Hamabe Minami in Pure, a new version of Trick made by NHK last year. Someone at TV Asahi must have thought the same and now we have Alibi Kuzushi Uketamawarimasu which is sort of like Trick and Pure and not.

Hamabe Minami is the girl who actually does the problem solving and Yasuda Ken is the useless detective who needs her help and takes all the credit. So far, sounds like Trick and Pure and there's something that is missing.

In Pure, Hamabe Minami is idoru who pretends to be Pure on the outside and mischievous and calculating on the inside. The comedy is in the fact that while she is good at solving cases, she sucks at her day job of being an idoru and both main characters need each other.

Hamabe Minami in Alibi Kuzushi is just a nice girl running a watch shop with no customers and too much time on her hands. There's no bickering between her and Yasuda Ken to make their relationship entertaining.

In fact, most of the bickering is between Yasuda Ken and Narita Ryo plays Junior, a policeman who's dad is a politician so everyone sucks up to him. Narita Ryo exists so that Hamabe Minami has an easy excuse to get involved in the investigations and play antagonist to Yasuda Ken.

I don't like Narita Ryo's character because he is just an annoying third wheel and Yasuda Ken should be bickering with Hamabe Minami instead.

I don't hate Alibi Kuzushi. I'm going to keep watching and hoping that it improves but it could have been so much more. Watch Pure if you haven't but otherwise meh.

Theseus no Fune Episodes 1~4

Theseus no Fune is a time travelling dorama where Tamura Shin, the son of a mass murderer goes back in time and tries to change the past. Its basically Boku dake no Inai Machi aka Erased which I have seen in anime and movie form. Main character goes back in past to save family and to uncover the true criminal.

I thought the show was pretty decent for the first 3 episodes. It wasn't trying to hard to be overly sentimental and the story was moving at a decent pace. Plus the ending of episode 3 left me eagerly anticipating episode 4.

Then episode 4 happened and Theseus no Fune turned from thriller to super soap opera with the sister story. I lost complete interest. Its just way too contrived. I know they explained it with the making up for the father's sins thing but that was my limit.

I'll probably go one more episode before I drop Theseus no Fune. The story needs to back to 1989 asap. Meh from me. Go watch Erased which has a better story.

Ryu ga Gotoku 7 / Yakuza: Like a Dragon Review

WHAT IS IT?

Yakuza 7 is the seventh main line game in a long running action RPG series set in the world of organised crime. It is also the first main line game with a new main character in Kasuga Ichiban and new battle system with a command based RPG system.

In other words, after 10+ years of doing the same thing, it was time for Ryu ga Gotoku Studios to do something slightly different.

THE GOOD

- Kasuga Ichiban is a great main character and more emotive than Kiryu and Nakaya Kazuhiro's voice acting is superb.
- Jdorama fans will recognise Yasuda Ken, Tsutsumu Shinichi and Nakai Kiichi.

- Otsuka Akio aka Snake as Adachi. Please bring him back in the sequel!
- Its refreshing to have a female party member in Saeko.
- The main story about Ichiban and the main villain is good with a great ending.

- Bleach Japan, the group that wants to end grey zones in Japan is so easy to hate.
- Continuation of side quests from the older games are fun, including the infamous Be My Baby from Yakuza 2.
- Side quests are partially voiced in the beginning and end
- The new city Isezaki Ijinchou is 3 times Kamuro's size and its refreshing to run around someplace new that bigger but not too big.
- Group conversation are fun

THE BAD

- Some parts of the main story happen for the sake of happening and are completely WTF. Something really big happens in the story that should not be just a footnote to the main story.
- There is a certain point in the game where if you don't level up at a tower, you will not beat a boss. Believe me, I tried. This just spoiled the pacing of the game for me.
- Last dungeon has no save before the 2nd last boss and that boss has a one hit kill move and you can't change your equipment during battle so I had to redo the freaking dungeon just so I could equip anti one hit kill accessory.

- Freeter class (Ichiban's base class) is useless.
- Other party members do not participate in the side stories so its like the old Yakuza games where Ichiban does them himself but all party members magically turn up to fight at the end. I would have loved to have seen everyone's reactions to the side stories!

SUMMARY

RGG Studio really put a lot of effort into this. They can easily polish the RPG formula for the next game and make it really really good. I think fans won't be disappointed and if you are looking to get into the series, I would suggest starting with 0. Yakuza 7 is coming out in English probably end of 2020.

Hamsapsukebe Jdorama Awards 2019

Finally finished Ryu ga Gotoku 7 after 95 hours. Time to get my life back to normal aka watching jdoramas. But first, let's look back at what has been a very good year because we have had a lot of great quality shows.

WORST TREND OF THE YEAR 

REMAKING KOREAN SHOWS

For some reason someone keeps choosing to remake Korean dramas that are super-melodramatic with too many coincidences to take serious. On top of that, the dialogue usually sounds like its been google translated.

FAVOURITE GUILTY PLEASURE OF 2019

KABUKICHO BENGONIN RINKA

Its a draw between this and Tokusatsu Gagaga and..... I just realised I did not finish watching Tokusatsu Gagaga which I will rectify immediately.

BEST ACTOR

ABE HIROSHI - MADA KEKKON DEKINAI OTOKO

Was there any doubt? Well, if Harassment Game came out in 2019 we Abe might have a fight but his brand of physical comedy is too funny.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

NOGUCHI NORIKA - KORE HA KEIHI DE OCHIMASEN!

I can't ever remember an annoying and equally entertaining character joining a jdorama series halfway and making me wonder how the show survived without her in the first place. Strong consideration for Shiraishi Sei in Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita.



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

KEN-CHAN - KDO

I can't remember any supporting actors that impressed me in 2019 so I'm giving it to Ken-chan who can express so much with his eyes.

BEST ACTRESS

SAKURAI YUKI - DAKARA WATASHI WA OSHIMASHITA

Hardest one to give. So many great performances from female leads this year from Tabe Mikako to Uchida Rio. There can only be one and it feels like Sakurai Yuki gave everything to her character.

BEST JDORAMAS OF 2019

5. MADA KEKKON DEKINAI OTOKO

4. SAKA NO TOCHUU NO IE

3. KORE HA KEIHI DE OCHIMASEN!

2. MUKAI NO BAZURU KAZOKU

1. DAKARA WATASHI WA OSHIMASHITA

Hakuoki Episodes 7-11

I am ashamed to admit it was not until episode 10 when I finally put 2 and 2 together and realised that Hakuoki is based on a certain famous samurai story, except it is from the other side.

No idea how I missed all the obvious clues staring me in the face.

However, knowing how the story has to end kind of took the wind from the sails for Hakuoki.

That's why I was probably so blind to the obvious; I was expecting the story to go a totally different way.

I enjoyed Hakuoki but not as much as Yoshiwara Uradoshin which I could rewatch every year.

Apologies for the slow updates recently. There's a little game called Ryu ga Gotoku 7 aka Yakuza: Like a Dragon that is taking up all my free time.

Hopefully I can finish it in a week and then back to jdoramas and USF4.

Watchable jidaigeki and a great change of pace from your usual jdoramas.