Guilty Episodes 1~5 jdorama review

Affair jdoramas are a dime a dozen. The ex flames who are now married is probably the second most used jdorama template besides boy meets girl.

Guilty is a Shinkawa Yua jdorama where she plays fashion magazine editor (what else is there) who's husband Koike Teppei is cheating on her and doesn't want to make babies with her. Shinkawa Yua runs into her old boyfriend who now runs an eatery. Unbeknown to Shinkawa Yua, her husband's mistress is actually her friend who she has been spilling her life story to.

On a side note, I am sick of fashion editor as a job in jdoramas. Its the easiest job to write about because they stand around and say this is good and this bad and when the story requires some danger, someone ordered the wrong dress or forgot the flowers. The shock and horror! 

Anyway, Shinkawa Yua's mommy problems got her to break of her relationship in the first place and her mom is now in hospital. Things start to go wrong in her workplace and Koike Teppei's affair seems to be part of something bigger.

Guilty's worst sin is that it is boring. Absolutely no chemistry between Shinkawa Yua and old boyfriend. No sexual chemistry whatsoever. Guilty is an affair jdorama written for 14 year old girls. There's no fun and everything feels so bland. Avoid.

Hakozume jdorama review

I had no expectations for Hakozume. I decided to give it a try since Toda Erika is in it. The first episode starts of with 20 year old rookie police officer played by Nagano Mei (who I always confuse for Nonen Rena for some reason) stumbling after a suspect before Toda Erika steps in to save the day.

The rest of the episode a flashback about Nagano Mei who wants to quit her job because it is too much for her but of course doesn't manage to. The first episode did not make an impression on me but I decided to push through and found myself enjoying Hakozume more and more.

Hakozume is a character driven police comedy from the female perspective and from working in the police box. Police boxes are a great Japanese idea because they are usually close to train stations and are a great place to ask for directions, pre google maps.

Hakozume is a fun look at what most police officers deal with in Japan, namely domestic disturbances, traffic violations fraud etc instead of murders which 99% of police jdoramas are about. Spoiler alert but there is no corrupt superiors at the top which is so refreshing and I love how they make fun of detectives.

Merebu from Yuusha Yoshihiko is the boss of the box and prefers to do as little work as possible while having an abundance of qualifications.

The characters really grew on me and many times while watching I thought the writing was really good. Looks like Haozume was based on a manga. Not every police show has to be about saving the world and its fun looking at everyday police stuff like everyone sleeping in the station during an investigation.

Highly recommended and very watchable. Big thanks to Irozuku fansubs for subbing and you can get the hardsubs from their website.

Miyako ga Kyoto in Yattekita! jdorama review

Miyako ga Kyoto ni Yattekita! is a jdorama about Miyako, the daughter of GiraGira who is a doctor in Kyoto who comes to visit and stay with her father. To tell you the truth, this show is more of an advertisement for Kyoto which just happens to have a father daughter story featuring Kyoto.

I found the story rather meh and finished the show just for Kyoto. I found the daughter annoying especially her English youtube videos.

Kyoto is a place that I have been many times but I can't really say I know the place. How great would it be to visit Kyoto now because there are no foreign tourists!

As a jdorama, Miyako ga Kyoto ni Yattekita! gets a big meh from me. However, as an advertisement for Kyoto its not bad because it has plenty of beautiful scenery and old buildings to look at and the 6 episodes at 25 minutes each means its not really a big commitment to watch. Thanks to madman227 for the English subs and the avistaz raws have Japanese subs so they are good for Japanese reading practice.

Zenkamono Jdorama review

 

Whoever Arimura Kasumi's manager is, deserves a raise. While Arimura Kasumi is or was the IT girl, she has been in good and interesting doramas like Konto ga Hajimaru and now WOWOW's Zenkamono. She's doing a lot better compared to all the previous IT girls like Goriki or Ueto Aya and to be fair she is a much better actress than they are.

While Samayou Yaiba was a thrilling jdorama about a criminal without any chance of rehabilitation, Zenkamono is the opposite. It is about your everyday criminals trying to get back into society after leaving jail.

Arimura Kasumi is a probation officer and the most shocking thing we find out is that she does not get paid as it is a volunteer job! WTF Japan! Most people are not in jail for life so surely some of your tax money should go into helping ex criminals become productive members of society!

Zenkamono shows the audience the humanity of people who have been caught breaking the law and shows that they might come from a nice background like most people. Zenkamono shows that sometimes people are blind to the seriousness of their crimes and some people need to be given a second or third and help because they cannot do it on their own.

Zenkamono is WOWOW at its best and the last two episodes were difficult to watch (in a good way). It is a show that does not pull any punches. Looks like a movie sequel is coming out end of this month in Japan. Which I could go to watch. Its been more than two years since we were last back to the holy land.

Very much a must watch show and truly WOWOW never fails to be the standard bearer for quality jdoramas. Thanks to GEO9875 for subbing!

The Journalist jdorama review

I saw somewhere that The Journalist was coming out on Netflix. Decided to give it a go since my Netflix was going to run out soon. In the beginning it seemed like just another corruption cover up story with Yonekura Ryoko as the journalist.

Then details of the cover up started to sound very familiar. Prime minister's wife and a school land buyout? I could not believe my ears. This was based on the Moritomo Gakuen scandal involving former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo!

It got me bloody excited because this does not make The Journalist just a dorama, its a half documentary based on real life events. It also got me really sad because I know what happened to the scandal in real life. I was hoping that they would change a certain event but I knew it was not possible. 

The Journalist has 3 other main characters besides Yonekura Ryoko. Yoshioka Hidetaka is the finance bureaucrat who is pressured to forge documents, Ayano Go is the secretary to the PM's wife who gets involved and Yokohama Ryusei is a newspaper delivery university student who never reads newspapers.

While part of my enjoyment was that The Journalist was based on reality, the other half was all the interesting things the series had to say about the attitude of many people not just the young about politics in Japan and how people have turned to the internet for news instead of newspapers and how it has created a situation of apathy and no desire to hold the government accountable.

I remember reading many articles about the Moritomo Gakuen scandal and wondering how anyone could get away with such obvious corruption and watching this series just made me so sad and angry.

The best compliment I can give The Journalist is that I kept looking at the top right of my screen looking for a WOWOW logo. I can't believe we already have a contender for best jdorama of 2022 and I have not even started on my best jdoramas of 2021 list yet!

Must watch. Get Netflix and support jdoramas. After years of pirating I am glad there is a way I can support jdoramas that does not include buying their every expensive dvds. 

The Crimes that Bind Jmovie review

The Crimes that Bind is the last in the Shinzanmono series. Shinzanmono is police series set in Nihonbashi where  Detective Kaga (Abe Hiroshi) goes about solving crimes. Actually, its less a police series and more about mysteries with a  touching or feel good twist to them. As a police procedural Shinzanmono is nothing special and the last movie I saw was The Wings of the Kirin.

My main reason for watching The Crimes that Bind besides Abe Hiroshi is Matsushima Nanako. I have not seen her in anything for so long and recently she was in Super Rich.

The Crimes that Bind is the last story for Shinzanmono because it has a connection with Kaga's past and the reason that he has been in Nipponbashi for so long.

As for the murder mystery, the execution is decent. I loved all the beautiful shots from Shiga-ken especially Biwako and of course Nipponbashi. The twist which I saw coming was ripped straight off another Higashino Keigo movie with an added twist which I did not really buy.

The movie also did not try very hard to sell me the revelation about Kaga's mom. I feel very indifferent to that twist. I was suitably entertained, its just the twists didn't do it for me.

If you like the Shinzanmono series, its more of the same. I enjoyed Tanaka Rena's way too short appearance and Matsushima Nanako had to do a bit of acting. I knew what I was getting into so I was not disappointed. If you have not seen the series before, keep your expectations low and the two hours will fly by very quickly.

The raw can be found at dramahd or avistaz and softsubs are easy to find.

The Naked Director season 2

 

The first season of this Netflix jdorama was a watchable show about the rise Japan's most influential porn director Muranishi Toru. Season 2 is about Muranishi's fall and its a pretty boring show.

Main reason for me is that Muranishi is not an interesting character. Yes he is charismatic and changed Japanese porn but he is a salesman with tunnel vision and the real interesting characters are all the supporting characters who are drawn to Muranishi. 

I felt there was too much Muranishi and not enough of everyone else and I was twiddling my thumbs watching him burn his empire down and ignore everyone who cared for him. I wanted more make up lady and Rugby stories.

The other reason I didn't like season 2 is that there were too many freaking endings. I was ready for the show to end so many times but it just kept going from one ending to another. 

Meh from me and season 2 felt like a waste of time and maybe I should dropped it halfway. As I said in my review of Season 1, you are better of watching Mosaic Japan or Make Up Room.

SUPER RICH Episodes 1~5

Ok. Take a look at the poster for super rich and tell me what you see? A bunch of people dressed in expensive clothing posing, trying to look cool. With a name like Super Rich, I am guessing the show is about obscenely rich people who value money differently from the rest of us and there is going to be lots of backstabbing.

Except that is not what Super Rich is about. Super Rich refers to the main character played by Eguchi Noriko who is the CEO of 3 Star Books who was an orphan and does not know what struggling for money. Eguchi Noriko hires poor guy to work at her company while 3 Star Books is going to face its biggest challenge.

Yes, Super Rich should have been called Rich Older Woman, Poor Younger Guy. Its a story about the poor guy teaching the rich older woman all the things that she did not know because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. This is set against the backdrop of the publishing industry.

I have a few problems with Super Rich which are complete lack of chemistry and the poor guy just does not make a convincing poor person. Secondly the publishing stuff is super fluffy and lacks detail. It could be a very fun part of the show but the writer doesn't give much attention to detail.

I really want to like Super Rich as it has Nakamura Yuri and Furuta Arata who is once again playing a manga editor but I do not care about the 2 main characters at all. I have way too many shows to watch and have to dump uninteresting shows quickly.

If you are a fan of Rich/Poor and Older woman/Younger Man genres, Irozuku subs have hardsubbed the show. Otherwise, its a meh from me.

Lastly, Matsushima Nanako is in this as well though she doesn't really get to do anything.