House of Ninjas

 House of Ninjas is Netflix jdorama directed by Dave Boyle who is American. I think it is interesting to see foreigners directing Japanese shows. One of my favourite movies from last year was the Yakusho Koji movie Perfect Days directed by German director Wim Wenders and it did not feel like a non-Japanese movie.

House of Ninjas is a family drama about a family the Tawaras that is descended from the Hanzo clan of Ninjas. They try to live a normal life and boring life. Dad played by Eguchi Yosuke runs a sake brewery which used to be his cover but he is desperate to save it. Mom played by Kimura Tae shoplifts because she is bored. Second oldest son played by Kaku Kento refills vending machines and uses his throwing skills when his partnet is not watching. There is grandma and a daughter and a youngest son who does not realise his family is ninja.

While House of Ninjas is a family drama, there is a bit of violence with plenty of blood and ninjas dying. While it is not a kid's show, House of Ninja tells you not to take it seriously with the Bureau of Ninja Management and you have the main character of the story, the son played by Kaku Kento who refuses to kill in a world of kill of be killed. I really got bothered by this bit because it is annoying. Mom and dad kill because the ninja are at war and this guy puts everyone in danger with his no kill bullshit.

It is a so-so family drama because the chemistry is nothing special and there is not much humour. The jokes are mostly from granny doing ninja things without the grandson noticing. I love the cast and Eguchi Yosuke and Kimura Tae is a dream pairing for me. Not to mention Yamada Takayuki as the villain. The fighting is decent but did not get to that level I wanted. It felt like House of Ninjas wanted to be everything but did not doing anything well.

That being said, I love the budget and I can see that everyone involved in the show tried really hard. The house set is amazing and they did some action scenes on the roof of the house. No jdorama has the money to build such a nice house in a studio for shooting. 0.5 no Otoko did it but they did not shoot the roof. 

I never felt the need to fast forward but nothing in House of Ninjas really gelled for me. Maybe it needed more humour or maybe it was all the English songs. I would not mind watching season 2 but I would not mind if it never happened. 

I cannot rate House of Ninjas a meh because I don't dislike it and the effort is there. Also happy that Pierre Taki is in it though his role is minor. There should be a Netflix rule that any jdorama must have Pierre Taki in it since he has been cancelled everywhere else. I just don't get the tone of the series. Somewhere between meh and watchable for me.

Gaming ramblings 2024

RYU GA GOTOKU GAIDEN: THE MAN WHO ERASED HIS NAME

The RGG spin offs have always been lower quality affairs, see Hokuto no Gotoku and Kenzan holds a special place in my heart but Gaiden is the worst of all RGG spin offs. Kiryu becomes a secret agent for a secret organisation and he gets spiderweb powers.

The game feels like a poorly done mod especially with the gameplay. Kiryu's spiderwebs are stupid overpowered even on hard. It feels like a randomly slapped together game in terms of gameplay mad by fan modders. It was sold at a slightly lower price but it should have been a 3000 yen game at most. 

The whole point of the game was to do this sob scene at the end but the game is just rubbish. While playing, I kept thinking about how they could not even do any memorable side stories in Gaiden and I will never complain about Hokuto no Gotoku again. Avoid.

RYU GA GOTOKU / LIKE A DRAGON 8

+ RGG finally moves overseas and I quite enjoy walking around Hawaii. Almost makes me want to go there to see how much the game captures the real life.

+ Ichiban doesn't have a useless fighting style/job anymore. 

+ Yamai is the new Majima

+ The effort and level of completion of the game is good. RGG studio doesn't have a AAA budget but you can feel they tried really hard.

+ The Four Shine reunion! 

+ I was not happy Kiryu was going to steal the spotlight from Ichiban but they've actually got a good reason for Kiryu to be in the game..... but

- RGG studios screwed up Kiryu's ending. I am not happy. Have the balls to pull the trigger FFS.

- The last two characters to join the team were pure fanservice and complete waste of space.

- The last boss has horrible English. Hire someone who can speak both languages.

- The dungeons to level up and gain materials for your weapons are so randomly generated. Its like the training tower in 7. Unnecessary padding with randomly generated assets. 

UNICORN OVERLORD

+ I love the beautiful and amazing 2D animation.  

+ Did I mention how beautiful everything in the game looks? Especially the elves. :)

+ Unicorn Overlord is a mix of old school turn based combat mixed with RTS.

+ Beautiful 2D overword to explore. I love how because it is 2D, they can hide many secrets on the world map.

= Not a fan of auto-battles. This game is basically Ogre Battle. It is for fans of strategy RPGs who like to figure out what the best and most overpowered combination of troops and skills are.

= Not a fan of romance everyone because there is no depth but at least there are conversations are about the wars going on instead of boring slice of life stuff like in Fire Emblem.

= Having to recruit soldiers all the time to place in towns is a minor annoyance.

= I would prefer at least 2 story routes with characters specific to each route/choice ala Triangle Strategy. There is no point killing any soldiers.

- The game is too easy once you figured out a good team combination and commands. Reminds me of playing Final Fantasy 12 with one hand because everything is automatic. You don't even need to pay attention any more. Make sure to play on the hardest difficulty!

RISE OF THE RONIN

+ So much better than Ghost of Tsushima. I could actually die in this game playing on hard lol and there are actually challenging boss battles.

+ Worth playing just for being a Kyoto simulator. The only way to enjoy Kyoto without all the pesky tourists!

+ Fun to meet all the historical characters and I watched Ryomaden to prepare for this game

= Don't like the romance everyone option but obviously they made it for the ladies.

= Gameplay not as good as polished FromSoft games but I don't mind. There was one 3 on 1 boss battle that I was wondering why it was so hard when I discovered the key was just to keep swapping fighters.

- You have to choose whether to be pro or anti Shogunate but unfortunately it does not matter to the ending and the story anyway because you end up doing both missions. This feels like Mass No Effect all over again. Give players all that choice but have no consequences.

- For some reason Team Ninja loves having random loot generators in their game. Its one of the reasons why I could not finish Nioh. It is not as bad as Nioh but it is still annoying having to clear my inventory all the time. WTF do I have to spend so much time going through random loot?

Kanpeki Wife ni Yoru Kanpeki na Fukushuu Keikaku Eps 1-3

The name of the show translates to the perfect wife with the perfect plan of revenge. Kanpeki Wife ni Yoru Kanpeki na Fukushuu Keikaku is about this couple pretending to live in this perfect relationship playing their perfect roles when in fact their relationship was never real. 

Wife works as a nurse and is looked up to by her kouhai. They live in an incredibly huge apartment but wife does not know that husband is having an affair.

Husband wants to leave but does not want to pay compensation money if his affair gets found out.

What is husband's escape plan? Get his best friend to seduce his wife so that you can get the compensation money from her!

First we have to wait for wife to discover the truth which she does at the end of episode 3. Now to see how wife will execute her plan of revenge. The 3 episodes flew by and the 23 minute per episode run time helped as well. Kanpeki wife will live and die on how exciting the revenge plan is. Watchable but let's see what happens with the revenge plan. 

Warau Matryoshka Episodes 6-11 spoiler review

 

WARNING: DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU HAVE WATCHED EP 11

By the jdorama gods, I really like the ending of Warau Matroysha. In the end, Seike Ichiro has become his own master. Or has he? The whole show is about the search of who is his true Hanussen. In the process, we learn that Seikei has been programed from a young age to be a perfect politician by his mother. He has the same amazing gifts that his father had but also the same flaw and everyone sought to use him for their benefit.

Seikei was a person with no self and relied on others to give him purpose and because he could rise to that purpose everyone sought to use him. Seikei was a tool, a man with no desire except for the desire of the Hanussen he latches onto. Seikei was a machine seeking purpose, seeking awareness outside of what his mother intended.

The calm headed Seikei had no desire but he did find one, the desire not to be looked down upon. He did not want to be looked down upon as a tool, not by his mother, not by his lover and not by Suzuki. It was his only reason to keep going to the top, so he could look down on everyone. I loved the revelation that even the times he had outbursts were all planned and taught by his mother. That guy is scary.

I really love the psychology of Seikei who worships Hitler and wants to make himself the supreme leader of Japan. He is Pinnochio who has surpassed Gepeto and now becomes king. Michiura is the one person who he has shown his true face to besides his father. Dammit, I love the story of Warau Matroysha. Sakurai Sho does a good job as Ichiro with that smile that seems slightly fake and with an acting that you can never tell his real. I love that line after Seikei tells Michiura everything and he asks her are you scared of me?

My one complaint is some of the political stuff is too simple. Michiura becoming Ichiro's brain came and gone in 3 minutes. Should have been a whole episode but I get it. It is not a dorama about the machinations of politics but Seikei was talking about amending the constitution and the show could have gone into polling, campaigns and so much delicious political stories. Seikei changing his mind willy-nilly just shows that he got by because of his oratory abilities and not political shrewdness.

Now I am faced with a dilemma. Do I award Warau Matroysha a must watch? I love this show especially the story. Its a brilliant idea and pretty well done though a bit too simple in the political department.  I would have made the story move faster, put in a bit more political stuff and done one episode of Michiura being the brain. 

I want to mention another minus point which is Watanabe Dai's role being so small. I love Warau Matryosha very much but it is missing something to make it must watch. Very, very watchable and well done TBS!

Netflix being a disruptor to the jdorama industry

Chiaki has written a very good article on the effect that Netflix jdoramas are having on the industry or as I would like to call it, Pierre Taki jdoramas. Must read IMHO. Is this bad news for WOWOW because to me they still have the best jdoramas in terms of storylines but just don't have the budget? Everytime I watch a Netflix jdorama, I immediately notice how many different sets they have. I want more money in jdoramas because a healthy industry means more things for me to watch. I just hope they don't try to cater to a foreign audience and continue to cater for the locals first. 

Mikkoku wa Utau season 2 Episodes 1~3

The second season of Mikkoku wa Utau is here! I did not expect WOWOW would do a sequel to the interesting first season. Mikkoku wa Utau is a police internal affairs type show. Lots of tailing and investigating fellow police officers and lots of people talking with serious faces in dimly light rooms. It was a show where you have to pay attention to the dialogue and it is the same with season 2.

This time Sara played by Matsuoka Masahiro is the squad leader of Jinichi or the first investigation team. In season 2, Jinichi received an anonymous tip off requesting they investigate commissioner from the Shibuya Central Station because a raid on a scam headquarters failed because the scammers had fled just before the raid. 

One thing I did notice is that the tailing scenes are nowhere as good as say Gaiji Kesatsu. There is a lot of standing around and walking in dark places and nothing difficult to shoot. It also shows how cheap Mikkoku wa Utau is to shoot because it hardly has any action and is just lots of observing people doing things. Not a complaint, just an observation.

I also enjoy seeing actors who usually play comedic roles like Ikeda Tetsuhiro and Makita Sports play super serious roles. Their characters become uber serious and usually have a tragic backstory like Ikeda Tetsuhiro's in season 1.

My only complaint is that Minaguchi played by Izumi Rika is too emotional and does so many stupid things but someone has to do it for the story and she went through a lot with the main story of season 1. The new member is not the brightest either.

I recommend rewatching season 1 because there is a possible connection with the story in season 1. Looks like we might have a bit of action in episode 4. Watchable if you like serious internal affairs police stuff as much as I do. Not English subbed as far as I know.

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