Ai no Nai Koibitotachi Episodes 3~9

One of the things that made Hayabusa Shobodan one of the best jdoramas of 2023 was the use long shot during the title scene. In Hayabusa, the title scene would be usually early in the series with the shot establishing the theme or story of the episode and or most memorably at the end of episode 5 establishing a twist.

Instead of the title of the jdorama appearing at the beginning of the show, I like that the title of Ai no Nai Koibitotachi appears near the end of each episode, usually at the emotional climax. Someone put in the comments previously about how many modern jdoramas don't use long shots compared to the old days. It is more time and effort in addition to shooting the close ups but a little effort goes a long way and you can see from the screenshots, they look pretty good and looking at them I can remember the feeling that the shots were trying to capture for the audience.

Don't worry, not of the shots are big spoilers. I finished Ai No Nai Koibitotachi pretty quickly. Episode 3 was a bit meh because the relationship between the cop and the ojousan was very fake but that was the point of it and the show got more interesting again when everything feel apart.

I described the first 2 episodes of Ai no Nai Koibitotachi as evoking the same feeling as Kanno Miho's Koi ga Shitai. After finishing the 9 episodes, I would say it is Koi ga Shitai mixed with another Sasaki Nozomi show Daisy Luck. It is similar to Daisy Luck in that it is a show about female friendship and the show is cliched but goddamn Yukawa Kazuhiko knows how to write an entertaining show.

Yukawa Kazuhiko knows how to write a script to entertain your average jdorama fan. He knows how to give the people what they want and to set things up and reward the audience. Like the early scene with the 3 students singing Spitz's Cherry. The basics of storytelling, set things up and make it pay off. Sometimes jdoramas try to hard to be smart when they just have to do the cliche but fun things.

There is an almost all school vibe to Ai no Koi Koibitotachi despite it covering online dating. The only funny thing is that they really could not afford any customer's in Erika's coffee shop until the last episode lol. I liked how the main character is struggling  working a minimum wage job not living in a big apartment but how can the coffee shop even survive a month without any customers?

If you are looking for a cliched feel good dorama about 3 guys and 3 girls all building up to the pivotal kokuhaku scene with decent humour, you can't go wrong with Ai no Nai Koibitotachi. The very definition of a very watchable jdorama. Thanks to eveychooey for subbing the first episode.

Narumi Riko needs to be in more jdoramas. She was wasted in Keibuho Daimajin.

Ai no Nai Koibitotachi Episodes 1+2

I am a simple man, when I see a jdorama with Narumi Riko and Sasaki Nozomi in it, I have to check it out. Ai no Nai Koibitotachi is a looking for love story featuring 3 guys and 4 girls written by Kazuhiko Yukawa who wrote GTO, Majo no Jouken, Oyaki, Koi ga Shitai etc.

The show got my attention during the flashback scene featuring the 3 guys in high school singing Spitz's Cherry. While not my favourite Spitz song, this is the most famous one and a safe choice for karaoke.

On the guy's side you have a struggling jdorama writer who is working at a gyudon chain who never goes on more than 3 dates, a policeman who tries to hard to please the girls that he has no personality himself and of course the virgin who happens to be Narumi Riko's colleague.

On the girls side, you have Okazaki Sae is the owner of a book cafe without any clients, Narumi Riko likes Hongo Kanata he claims he has no interest in love, Fukugawa Mai as the rich daughter who does not want to omiai and Sasaki Nozomi who was the madonna of the 3 guys but now works in a kyabakura.

I watched episode 1 with eveychooey's subs and then went straight to episode 2 with because I wanted to see what would happen next. I am not going to marathon the whole thing in one go although episode 2 ends with a cliffhanger. Ai no Nai Koibitotachi reminds me a lot of Koi ga Shitai which Kazuhiko Yukawa also wrote. Its got that whimsical wanting to fall in love kind of feeling mixed with a bit more humour. 

I really like the laid back comedy aspect of this show. There are hardly any punchlines like Oi Handsome but a few scenes had me chuckling. Dating Apps are also a big part of the show and it talks about how some people in Japan don't know the word goukon anymore.

Ai no Nai Koibitotachi is mostly about a bunch of people having an early life crisis imagining what their high school selves would think if they could see them. Ultimately it is about likeable people trying to find their place in the world.

I like the characters and so far the writing has been solid. I have faith in Kazuhiko Yukawa's writing ability and I suspect I will probably finish the whole 9 episodes at the end of the week. Watchable so far.

Double Cheat Itsuwari no Keikan Episodes 1~3

Jdorama remakes are a very common thing. GTO has been remade once to poor effect and the great Shiroi Kyoto has been remade 5 times which reminds me that I don't think I ever finished watching the Okada Junichi one but the Karasawa Toshiaki one is perfect and does not need a remake.

Double Cheat has Mukai Osamu playing a police officer who works at a police box who goes after scammers and cheats and repays their victims. If you think a show about a good swindler going after bad swindlers sounds familiar, that is because it is the very same plot of Kurosagi, which was a Johnny sponsored movie and dorama series that I never liked because it was not very believable.

Episode 1 felt like a remake of Kurosagi. Mukai Osamu cheats a swindler who cheats an old lady from 1000 yen when he claims to be a president of a company who got lost. Mukai Osamu then claimed to be the old lady's son and would give the swindler more money but needed the 1000 yen to get his car from the car park.

I did not like the deja vu of episode 1 especially with the bad guy who fell too easily for his own trick. They do explain by saying scammers don't expect to get scammed and I would have given up if not for Mukai Osamu and Uchida Rio.

I like Uchida Rio from Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu and in Double Cheat she is a former bank worker turned police detective. She is demon with a calculator and her job is to check for discrepancies between accounting books and she chaces after scams where Mukai Osamu scams the bad guy in the end. Uchida Rio is not the most convincing police detective but she is not meant to be.

You know you are old when Densha is no longer playing main character roles and is now playing boss roles. This dude has come a long way from Densha Otoko.

Episode 2 has a lot better and more interesting as it was about scholarship money scams with Eiji from KDO as the bad guy.

Episode 3 was about fake restaurant scams and Mukai Osamu's plan was quite exciting. There's also the mystery of why Mukai Osamu who was an elite cop from Section 2 went to a police box and why he is scamming the bad guys.

Exactly like Kurosagi he is looking for a master scammer named Yamagami. I am convinced that the producer of Double Cheat said Kurosagi is full of crap, let's do a better version of it and not have to pay any licensing fees for the manga!

There is one thing that you have to accept to watch Double Cheat and that is somehow this guy who works at a police box has time to go around dress up and scam the scammers. I have heard plenty of stories about working hours in Japan and how difficult it is to get time off.

I am not giving Double Cheat a watchable rating yet but it is slowly growing on me. No English subs according to fansubwiki but big thanks to glumlily for uploading the jp subs at avistaz. If you like scam shows are are a fan of Mukai Osamu or Uchida Rio, it is worth checking out.

Kesenai Watashi episodes 1~7

Kesenai watashi is a rape revenge jdorama. Haibara Shoko was raped by a fellow student when she was in high school because her friends were jealous of her becoming the model of a youtube makeup person played by Hongo Kanata.

The friends did a fake apology and the video was spread on the internet with plenty of false accusations and Haibara Shoko was shamed into not going to school. Her parents died in a house fire soon after and she spent 10 years as a hikikomori until she spotted the 3 friends in a new year broadcast celebrating while Haibara Shoko was attempting suicide. It was time for payback.

Like most revenge shows, watch Haibara Shoko infiltrate lives of her former classmates and bring their downfall. Of course the 3 conspirators are horrible and absolutely deserve what she is going to do to them.

I like revenge shows because they are either fun and trashy (Fukushuu no Miboujin) or raw and depressing (Samayoi Yaiba). Kesenai watashi is sort of in the middle. You have Hongo Kanata telling her not to do it, if you look into the abyss, it will stare back at you blah blah blah. Look mate, they screwed up her life, let her live for revenge and this show should be fun and trashy and less philosphy.

Kesenai watashi is very fast paced because of the 20 minute runtime yet it doesn't feel as fun and sometimes it is lacking in detail. I can't really complain except I do not feel compelled to watch until the end until the above two mentioned revenge shows. Maybe the revenge plans are not as creative but I just didn't find Kesenai Watashi that fun.

With Black Familia and Kesenai Watashi being meh shows, maybe doing a good revenge jdorama isn't as easy as I thought. Thanks to mikilove13 for subbing but if you want a revenge show, watch the above mentioned two revenge jdoramas or Burn the House Down on Netflix if you have not seen it. Meh for me.

Jdorama files sizes are getting crazy!

Dgundam mentioned that Hanasaki Mai raws are 1.9GB in size. As 1080p files have become the norm, its not unusual to find 2GB size files for one episode. I keep my jdoramas in a 5TB portable HDD hoping one day 7TB portable will appear in the world.

Unfortunately, portable HDDs have not advanced further than 5TB and watching Gunshi Kanbee and Ryomaden filed out my 5TB and now I have gotten a second portable HDD for jdoramas. I really wanted all my jdoramas in one portable HDD so everything is easily searchable.

Yes, I can get a 12TB desktop HDD and not run out of space for 2 years at the rate file sizes are going but I like the portability of easily being able to watch anything on any screen. Maybe the answer is a network drive. It will be a while before I have troubles remembering which show is on which portable HDD and I can always refer to my blog to remember when I watched it.

dramahd used to provide 720p encodes which were a lifesaver because the file sizes were half the 1080p ones. The other answer is of course, to be more strict when deleting jdoramas after watching. I used to only delete 'do not watch' jdoramas but now I am starting to delete shows that do not get a 'watchable' rating because why keep if I have no intention of rewatching. 

That being said there are some hardsubbers who encode their stuff into smaller file sizes like blitz fansubs which I appreciate. As someone who enjoys jdoramas for free, I can't complain. I can get almost any show I want and if English subs, are not available it is a lot easier getting Jp subs. 

Occasionally I do think about how many shows I have stored, the shows that are on my rewatch list and to watch list, some of which I never got around to after so many years! I wonder if more people don't store their jdoramas anymore since you can find quite a few shows on Netflix now. I just like knowing I can rewatch Coffee-ya no Hitobito or Black President anytime I want.

Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai 2024 Episodes 1~4

First thing that popped out at me is that I have not seen that much cash in so long living in a society where cash is no longer king, banks don't have many staff anymore and being a bank teller is becoming an extinct job.

I did not realise that this Imada Mio dorama is a remake of a Watanabe Anne 2014 series based on a book by the writer of Hanzawa Naoki. I am not a fan of Hanzawa Naoki despite its popularity because of the extreme overacting but Hanasaki Mai has less of that kabuki-like acting.

Hanasaki Mai (Imada Mio) is a bank teller is transferred to the inspection division of Tokyo Daiichi bank, working with former loan officer Soma Ken (Yamamoto Koji).

I am glad to report that Imada Mio does not overdo it in the super genki shtick like she did with Warui. Soma Ken does not show much enthusiasm for his job as he shows Hanasaki Mai the ropes but clearly he knows how banks work.

Kamikawa Takaya is Hanasaki Mai's uncle who runs the izakaya where she lives and I am surprised to see him playing such a minor role. I am also surprised to learn that he played Soma Ken in the original Watanabe Anne series.

So every every episode, Hanasaki and Soma investigate a branch to uncover non compliant deeds by very bad bank employees which make for fun viewing.

The chemistry between the two is ok and I think Soma become a more interesting character in episode 4 when his past is revealed.

Hanzawa Naoki has his famous phrase I will pay you back multifold, Hanasaki Mai's is okotoba wo kaesu before she lectures the non compliant bankers with no ethics. 

Kikuchi Rinko's character has a very bad wig and a very cool last name Shosenkyo. Her job is to monitor the investigation team uncovering the wrongdoings and to snuff them out so no one finds out and doesn't damage the bank and Kaname Jun is her boss.

The first two episodes felt like they should have been better but I think 3 and 4 got better and looks like there might be an appearance for Hanzawa Naoki in episode 5 but not from Sakai Masato. Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai is a pretty standard investigate wrong doings in a bank and episode 4 involved a client company but I quite like the cast and there is nothing to dislike. OK watchable, nothing special. Thanks to furritsubs for subbing!

Oi Handsome S2 Ep 3: hara goshirae

Love the writing for Oi Handsome and episode 3 is centred around food. 3 of dad's subordinates  you see in the background already had lunch reservations and decided to ditch it when he invited them to lunch.

The subordinates thought he was leading them to some fancy place but in fact he was leading them to this standing soba place so they quickly remembered their lunch reservations.

Mum gets delivery sushi for lunch and her nosy neighbour tries to steal her maguro. We later find out that this is one of her enjoyments and traditions.

At 12pm Mika and pointy boobs power walk straight to their lunch place the all seats have been taken women from other companies including the woman stalking Mika's boyfriend. Pointy boob's rant is funny.
 

Dad is about to enjoy unaju aka eel on rice with 2 other people from partner company Nihon Yuusei Corp when an emergency occurs as the hometown of the company president is wrong on the pamphlet. Only in Japan can an insignificant thing like this be life and death. Dad wants to eat the unaju but the two other people leave because it is an emergency.

This becomes a problem when the two Nihon Yuusei people found out that dad had finished his unaju!

Nihon Yuusei have a meet with dad the next day accusing him of being a suitable partner because he finished his food when an 'emergency' was going on! lol

The chief from Nihon Yuusei comes into the meeting, apologises for taking dad's time. He says that if some problem happens having a meal before tackling the problem (hara goshirae) The funny thing is I have just come across this word on the same day playing Unicorn Overlord. Very seldom do the words I learn from playing RPGs come useful for watching jdoramas. I will forever remember hara goshirae because it is such a unique phrase.

Chief asks dad where to go for lunch and he suggests the standing soba place which surprises the 3 subordinates because they were expecting something grand for a VIP but at the end of the episode they end up going to the standing soba and finding it delicious. Moral of the story is don't do your work on an empty stomach and just because a place is cheap doesn't mean it is not good. (in Japan)

There are so many meal related stories like Mika making a shobu meal before he tries to get his manga turned into an anime. This ties back to hara goshirae.

Or flashback to mom's tradition of take away sushi. It is easy to make Megumi look 30 but it is impossible to make her look old.

All the various stories about food and the importance of meals come together beautifully at the end of the episode. I have to give this episode a must watch because it is masterful writing about the importance of a meal before tackling a problem.