Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu

Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu which means 'I will be more serious in my next life' is a sex comedy about 5 people who work in a CG company starring Uchida Rio who was in the very excellent Mukai no Bazuru Kazoku.

In Raise Uchida Rio plays Momoe who loves sex very much and has 5 sex friends from A-kun to E-kun. Momoe is the heart of Raise because of how straightforward she is and how despite having so much sex, she cannot find love.

Its been a long while since I've seen a sex comedy. Most of the time when I think of jdorama sex comedy, its usually teen comedies about losing ones virginity like Stand Up! and if the characters are of working age its usually about affairs.

Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu is a breath of fresh air because it is not ashamed of sex and it does get into all sorts of kinks that our five main characters have but they are all very fun characters to watch.

From the virgin obsessed Hayashi to the hardworking Hiyama who is spending all his time and money on something that he cannot have. Towards the end I just thought, these are a fun group of people to work with.

I went through the whole series in no time and hope they will do a season 2. 6 Episodes have been subbed by HPriest so far and I recommend everyone check it out. I had a blast and I think you will do. Very, very watchable.

Arimura Kasumi no Satsukyu Episode 2

I had to write about Episode 2 of Arimura Kasumi no Satsukyu straight after watching because I find it very interesting. This series is a fictional take on it-girl Arimura Kasumi having a day off from filming. Pretty sure junny won't be watching this but I would never say Arimura Kasumi can't act.

The story of episode 2 is about the perception of Arimura and everyone has different perceptions of her from her friend to her friend's love interest. To Arimura's friend, she is being perceived as being liked by all men because of her fame but it is far from the truth.

They only like her if she acts kawaii which is pretty much the truth for any female in the entertainment business. You see that with idorus in that they try to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

They try to get approval from the men and like Arimura's friend acts in a way to get approval from her love interest.

I'm no feminist but a lot of what this episode is about can also be applied to Japanese women in general. That a woman's value is how kawaii she is perceived rather than her good she is at her work.

Episode 1 is your typical Koreeda go back to hometown and uncover some secret story. Decent episode and he does it better than the rest but he's done it plenty of times now.

Episode 2 is different and got me thinking about a variety of things. Watchable and thanks to TVlover10 for subbing!

Konya wa kono ji de Episodes 1+2

Konya wa Kono ji de is a food dorama set specifically in ikazayas with a U shaped counter. The katakana for ko looks like コ so the titles means 'tonight at the U shaped counter'. The story is about a salaryman who is stressed out at work and is not good at socialising but on the advice of Nakamura Yuri starts going out to izakayas with U shaped counters.

Most important thing about Kono ji is that every episode comes at a breezy 22 minutes. I tried to get into Kodoku no Gurume which must be at its 20th season by now and its just way too freaking long and 1/3 of the show is going back to the real shop which is another waste of time.

These type of food doramas are meant to be breezy and easy to digest and Konya wa kono ji de is exactly the right show if you want something fun and easy to watch. On a side note, I never knew that you were suppose to put the wasabi on the sushi. I always put it in the sauce. Now I know.

I love going to izakayas or bars in Japan and chatting with the regulars which is what the show is about. Too bad I won't be able to do that anytime this year. I just hope my regular bar in Shin Koiwa is able to survive the downturn.

Very watchable but only two episodes have been subbed by frillish so its going to be a while before another episode is subbed but I think its pretty easy to understand show for people who have basic Japanese. I hope one day this Corona business will be over and human beings can go back to connecting with each other over food and alcohol.

Jmovie Review: Asako 1 & 2 aka Netemo Sametemo

Asako 1 & 2 is an artsy and mellow movie starring Karata Erika and Higashide Masahiro and no its two movies, just one movie. I guess someone decided 'Even when I'm asleep or awake' would not make catchy title in English.

Karata Erika plays the main character Asako a shy, nondescript girl who falls in love instantly with Baku, a charming guy who has no aims in life and will disappear at a whim.

In fact, this Baku character is very similar to the neighbour DJ from Nagi no Oitama. I wonder if the writer for Nagi stole him from Asako or maybe its a well known Japanese stereotype.

One day Baku disappears and two years later, Asako runs into Ryohei, a person who looks exactly like Baku but has a different character.

My main impression of Asako is that while Karat Erika is very photogenic, there is not much depth to her character. The whole movie is about whether she likes Ryohei because he looks like Baku and besides that, there is nothing much to her character.

To the movie's credit, I never felt bored but the script could have better shown us Asako's internal struggle. 

I feel like I've watched this character Asako for two hours and I felt like I still don't know her as she kept herself at arms length from her friends and the audience.

One thing this movie should have done was given Asako a different look for the 2nd half of the movie to show the passage of time. Maybe Asako purposely kept the same look on purpose? Hhhmm.

Ultimately I feel Asako 1 & 2 could have been a lot better but ultimately it will be remembered as the movie that started the affair. Slightly watchable and available from avistaz.

High Position Episodes 7-12

In the beginning of High Position, I was complaining how it the show was not concerned with the main character Amano not applying his knowledge from the future in the post but rather was more of a love letter to the 80s and high school romance.

I must say, as the show has gone on, I have started to enjoy the show more and more and the characters grew on me.

I guess it took me time to realise that while Amano was an adult, he was someone who had arrived at a certain stage in life without actually having to grow up and he had to go back to his youth and redo his high school life to finally grow as a person.

You could say because he never had a high school life, he was emotionally stunted and ended up a divorce father of a daughter.

Ultimately I rate it very watchable, particularly for people who like Showa stuff like me. 8 episodes have been subbed by narai225.

10 no Himitsu Episodes 1~3

10 no Himitsu's tagline is that everyone has secrets which is 99% of all jdoramas anyway, except they are not usually so blatant about it. 10 no Himitsu has Mukai Osamu aka Mr Kuninaka Ryoko play the divorced father of a teenage girl who has been kidnapped and the kidnapper has tasked him with finding his ex-wife, Nakama Yukie who seems to be in all sorts of trouble.

10 no Himitsu has got a good supporting case of Naka Riisa as Mukai Osamu's friend who's more like a relative and Watabe Atsuro who works for Nakama Yukie's former company.

It is weird seeing Mukai Osamu playing an everyman ojisan and not to mention the daughter of a teenage girl. If I can be sure of one thing, he is not an everyman actor. They sort of try to make him a sympathetic character with the single father making lots of sacrifices but he bloody lives in a very, very nice mansion and if money is tight because of his lifestyle choice, then I have no sympathy for him.

Unfortunately, 10 no Himitsu is written by someone who thinks that just because there is a secret, that means the audience is interested. Just because someone says that he has a secret he cannot tell or that the narrator says that this person did not know the truth at this time, that does not mean the audience is interested.

The audience is only interested in the secret if they care or have empathy for the character(s) and in this case, Mukai Osamu's character is someone who chose to do the wrong thing many years ago and has never learnt from his mistake so I do not care about him.

I've watched 3 episodes trying to find something to keep me interested because I like the cast but while 10 no Himitsu is not nearly as bad as Triangle, its pretty boring. Avoid.

Chichi to Musuko no Chika Idol SP

Chichi to Musuko no Chika Idol is basically Kodoku no Gurume taking over as the manager of an underground idol group when his estranged son gets into an accident and is in a coma.

Chichi to Musuko no Chika Idol hits all the usual underground idoru beats not with any depth but the good thing is the story is more about Kodoku no Gurume righting the regrets in his relationship with his son as he delves even deeper into the world of underground idorus.

The bad thing is Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita came out last year and it was the underground idoru jdorama to end all underground idoru jdoramas. It was so freaking good that it basically said everything that needed to be said and made me feel everything that needed to be felt. 

I am not saying that Musuko no Chika Idol is not good just that there's nothing new to see here. Can't blame the show cause they only had 1 1/2 hours to tell the story and I would say it was efficiently done.

The music is good and script is decent but I could not help thinking about Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita.

Watchable and great subs from HPriest but ultimately forgettable for me. Still a nice diversion from all the corona news. The raws can be found at nyaa and stay safe everyone.