Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! review

After 94 hours of playing the 11th game in the Ryu go Gotoku franchise in hard mode over the course of 11 days, I was hoping to write about how freaking brilliant this Sakuraba Nanami game was but unfortunately its turned into a mixed bag.

THE GOOD

- Sakuraba Nanami bathing scene.

- Sega really packed a crazy amount of content into this game. I liked the Kyoto version of karaoke and Japanese dance although the hardest Japanese dance needs two people playing.

- It was so much fun watching Sega put their own twist to the Sakamoto Ryoma/Shinsengumi story.

- Speaking of twists, the best one was the one I should have seen coming since it was so obvious when the casting was announced.

- I loved how Sakamoto Ryoma actually got the Satsuma and Choshu alliance going.

- Bloody awesome to play such famous incidents such as the Teradaya inn incident, Omiya inn incident and the burning of Kyoto. The 2nd half of the game really got my blood pumping. (until the end chapter)

- Unarmed fighting style is Bayonetta-like, albeit not as graceful.

- 60 fps really helps with the tight parrying/just block timing. No braindead Assassin's Creed mash reversal instant win.

- Majima who is playing the Okita Soji character in this game is gold. He basically saves the game from the boring boy scout Ryoma.

- Mine from Ryu ga Gotoku 3 is the epitome of cool as Hijikata. They need to bring Mine back... somehow.

- Really good side stories which are the trademark of the Ryu ga Gotoku series. Some of my favourites include the little girl farewell, Ryoma playing mom and the ugly samurai.

- Takahashi Katsunori facial expression captures were really good.

- Hirano Aya singing enka, lol.

- The castle storming stage is so ridiculously awesome!

- Playing strip janken and shooting game with Konno Anna. :)

- Tosa-ben sub story.

MIXED

- The best side stories were mostly in the early 1/3 of the game. In fact, Ishin overloads you with sub stories to do early and they become less and finally stop at chapter 6 before the game ramps up the story. Different formula from the previous games where the pacing is more even but at least you can complete any sub story in later stages.

- The free PS Vita app is an interesting idea; load your save game onto your Vita and you can play mini games, dungeons on your way to work/school in Japan. Unfortunately there seems to be input lag or somehow the cooking mini game has different timing. You do get free mahjong, koi koi, shogi etc for free on your Vita, even if you don't have the game.


- Dungeon battles are necessary for getting weapon forging parts but its lags on the Vita and you have to use the back of the Vita which has touch points as replacement for the L2 and R2 buttons. Not responsive at all.

- The dungeons are basically Ryoma equipped with power up cards which you need to level up in order to beat bosses that can kill you with one or two blows. I basically either had to level up my cards (boring grinding) or played strafe, dodge and shoot with a pistol. (Not as boring as grinding your cards but beats getting killed in one blow)

- It takes a long time to get access to the fun moves and Kenzan was more fun.

- Another life with Haruka became a grindy distraction in the end. They should have given her a bigger side story instead.

THE BAD

- Sakuraba Nanami's part is the 2nd worst written in the game. Whoever wrote her and Ryoma's stuff obviously never heard of the 'better to show than to tell' rule. We don't need the okami of Teradaya telling the player Oryo has a thing for Sakamoto 10 times when I can't see nor feel it.

- The final chapter and ending that should not have been in the game. Sega wanted to make the story mean something more and just destroyed the great momentum that they had building. The big fight should have been settled at the level before the last when the momentum was strong. Let's just say the baddie who has caused so much death and suffering with the words love and forgiveness and then to make things more anti-climactic, we get a surprise history figure as the 'true' baddie that I didn't give a crap about so Sakamoto Ryoma can preach a lot. Ishin had so much story momentum in the second half and it.... just..... came.......... to ....... a........ screeching..... halt. And what happened to the white hair?

- What's worse than fetch quests? Quests where you have to fetch the same thing 6 times for the same person and no, you can't give it to the NPC in one go. You have to go into the nearest building and come out again to reset and repeat.

- I did all the side quests and I still don't have all the skills in game? WTF? Who the hell balanced this thing? If I did all the sub stories, I should have access to all the special moves. I hate grinding games. I died a few times early which is good (since I played on hard) but once I forged my weapons, it was easy except for high level dungeons which require powerful cards.

THE UGLY

- Why did they use the 40 year old Kiryuu Kazuma face instead of the younger Kiryuu from Ryu ga Gotoku 1 and 2? Ryoma was supposed to be 31 when he died. Ryoma and Oryo look like erojiji and girl doing enjyou kousai.

- The Disneyfied eyes of the final villain. WTF?!

SUMMARY

Gotta applaud the effort. They tried to do too much, but that's always been the hallmark of the series I guess. Its still a very fun game though and I enjoyed most of it, except the end. IMO, Kenzan is a much better game.

EDIT

Poured another 10 hours into this getting all the revelations but still not being able to access all the moves. I hate that they designed the game so that you can only max out one fighting style. Ggggrrr. The system works similarly to FFX's sphere grid. Each fighting style has a spherical grid to unlock moves and bonuses and you get one point per level of fighting style and another point for your general level which you can use in any grid.

Problem is, fighting style level maxes out at 25 and I can only slowly get new moves through upgrading my level. I have gotten all the sword abilities and you upgrade again all the way to level 50 but its going to take way too long to complete the abilities for the other styles.

I like games that force you into choosing certain tech trees for your character but limiting the me from getting everything movie by making it grindy? Ryu ga Gotoku has always been about doing sub stories to get experience points but turning it into a grind fest is so sad.  Worst of all, it forces me to stick to sword style because it is the only style I have unlock to post level 25. Why Sega, why???!!!!!

Sakamoto Yuji - Soredemo Ikite Yuku interview Part 3B

The original interview can be found here. Corrections and comments are most welcome. Thanks to Chuks and Satomi for translation help. Only the last 1/4 of the interview left to go, if I can tear myself away from Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin. Click on the translation tab for the previous parts.

Sakamoto: Once I saw the actual thing, I could write according to the images that I saw and did not have much resistance (to the difference between the images in Sakamoto's mind and the actual thing). Therefore, I cannot enjoy watching first episodes every time.

Abiko: In the fifth episode, there is a long scene where Otake Shinobu-san speaks by herself for close to 10 minutes. This is an incredible scene. Since you did not go the shooting location might have not known about it……

Sakamoto: No, I only heard about it later. Otake-san went to the location in a flash, did the difficult scene and quickly went back home. (laughs)

Abiko: Was it done in one shot?

Sakamoto: Of course it was in one shot. It’s like that every time. Just before that scene was shot, Otake-san was jokingly quarrelling and having fun talking with everyone. When it was time to start, she got into character immediately.

Abiko: Although this scene wasn’t done in one cut, did you use multiple cameras at the same time?

Sakamoto: Yes. We used a similar set up for Kazama’s scene in episode 8. Incidentally, in that scene where the interior of the house was actually a studio set, any scene featuring the entranceway to outside was actually at the Nagano location shoot. When Otake-san was rehearsing she said ‘After Kazama-san leaves the house, I have to go after him.” So Otake-san had to see him off not just from the inside of the house.

Abiko: So, she had to go the Nagano location shoot.

Sakamoto: Exactly. If we did not shoot the outdoor scenes with Otake-san in Nagano, it would be inconsistent but Otake-san could not make it to Nagano for scheduling reasons so she was told, “Otake-san please don’t go outside”. So they were shooting the big fight (between Otake-san and Kazama-san) and straight after “Ok, cut!”, Otake-san in a flash went outside the house set and said, “from here its Nagano…” with a twinkling smile. She really is a monster! (laughs)

Abiko: (laughs) In spite of that, you wrote it the long lines because it was Otake-san?

Sakamoto: Yes, because it was Otake-san. Although I’ve seen Otake-san act in plays, I wanted to see a different sort of acting from her on television. When I think of plays, the main thing is always long lines. I actually write a lot of lines similar to a play but that was too much for me.

Abiko: So, did Otake ask for the lines?

Sakamoto: No, no. It was the producer who wanted the long lines. Of course, I did not write the long lines thinking that they would be able to be broadcast on television. Starting from the scene where Otake-san leaves the house and says, “You killed my daughter” to going to the lake, along the way I was thinking what sort of emotions are there in first half and wrote that in the script…. I thought the first half was really interesting but if we cut the second half, it won’t make any sense, so we put more weight on the second half.

Abiko: After rewatching that long line scene, although Otake-san was the only one speaking, the people in the background still have to act. I think that it must have been difficult for them to act when they can’t speak and can only listen. Just in case, there were cuts in the scene so was it done in one shot? Was it shot in the flow? I’m interested to know.  

Sakamoto: For television doramas, outside of location shoots, everything is basically done in one shot. The shootings outside were done piece by piece. Naturally there are no long shoots in television doramas. However, people working on the show were nervous. At the time of submitting my first and second drafts, Otake-san was informed that there were long dialogues. After the script was delivered, were flipped through the pages and were surprised that there were a lot of long, continuous dialogue in it but I heard that Otake-san did it like there was nothing to it, as usual.

Abiko:  It’s not really that important a scene but after reading the script I’m interested and stuck a tag on this part. In the last episode, Eita’s and Mitsushima Hikari’s characters went on a date. They were talking about where they wanted to go for vacation and Mitsushima said she wanted to go to Easter Island. When she was asked, “What do want to do there?”, Mitsushima-san said, “The Moais to..” (Easter Island statues) She’s was talking about Eita’s face, wasn’t she?

Sakamoto: Aaa…. Was she?

Abiko: Eh? She wasn’t?

Sakamoto: No she wasn’t. (laughs)

Abiko: Its about something else?

Sakamoto: She wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. (laughs)

Abiko: But, Mitsushima-san glanced at Eita’s face when she said Moai and said “It’s a secret” and laughed.

Sakamoto: That’s the type of person she is. That is Futaba’s role. She’s interesting because she stops herself before she says something.

Abiko: That’s right. That’s right.

Sakamoto: Actually, I don’t know. (laughs) Maybe Mitsushima-san thought so when she was doing that. My assumption is tha the Futaba that Mitsushima portrays liked the Moai since she was a kid and just wanted to see the Moais. That’s probably what she wanted to say when she stopped at “Moais to…”

Abiko: Ehhh… Aa, I’m glad I asked.

Sakamoto: You should ask when you have a chance. The explanation might not be what you were expecting. (laughs)

Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin DX Pack has arrived!

It was sent from Nippon Yasan inside a box and wrapped up in newspaper. I usually order from play-asia but while I was mulling over whether to get the DX pack in December, pre-orders quickly sold out and I had to resort to Nippon Yasan for the first time. Nippon Yasan has mixed reviews online but I have little choice.

I paid a lot of $$$ for Fedex shipping as apposed to normal EMS. With play-asia I usually receive Fedexed stuff after 3 days. The game came out in Japan on Saturday and Nippon Yasan only sent out shipment information to Fedex on Sunday! No, the Kiryu figure doesn't come with the DX pack. I got it a long time ago and as can be seen from the younger face, is from Ryu go Gotoku 2.

Worse, the game was only picked up by Fedex in Osaka on Tuesday and had to transit through Guangzhou and Singapore adding an extra day instead of the usual 3 days before arriving on Friday. Nippon Yasan is supposed to be based in Matsuyama, Shikoku so either there's no Fedex there or stock was in Osaka. The sake bottle set is a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

Don't expect Nippon Yasan to send stuff straight away if ordering from them and its not worth going Fedex since EMS takes 4-5 days from Japan (from HMV) but then delivery times from Osaka might be slower than Tokyo. In summary, game came out in Japan on Saturday last week and I only got it on Friday.

The game also comes a 15 day PS Plus voucher. Loving the higher res and 60 fps. It really makes a huge difference and for the first time ever, I'm playing on hard.

Loving the history lesson in this game with the class system of the Tosa clan. Takahashi Katsunori plays Takechi Hanpeita who in this story in Sakamoto Ryoma's brother in arms who saved Sakamoto as a child when his family was burned alive by the joushi (upperclass samurai) Its fun looking up what actually happened. In the game, Yoshida Toyo was secretly working against his clan and raised both Ryoma and Hanpeita to set up the Kinnoutou (Imperialism party) and change the Tosa system but according to history, Hanpeita assasinated Yoshida Toyo.

Why can't they have furiganas for the names as well? I can't bloody read handwritten kanji. I've been trying to finish Sen no Kiseki before Ishin arrived but looks like I'm going to have to put it on hold.

Izakaya Hanako 500円 discount.

Saikou no Rikon SP 2014

The gang is back for more hijinks one year after the series ended. Eita is the same grumbling guy as usual, Ono Machiko is having a strong awakening if her maternal instincts, Ayano Go runs into his old flame Usuda Asami and Maki Yoko is a MILF.

THE GOOD

- Usada Asami!!!!!

- You can't go wrong with Sakamoto Yuji dialogue and humour. The man can write fun arguments that is more about the speaker than the argument.

- Young Hayao Miyazaki. lol.

- The train conference. roflol.

- Eita and Ono Machiko are gold.

- Ono Machiko and Maki Yoko singing Shabondama! Not exactly old school momusu but close enough.

THE BAD

- I don't give a crap about Ayano Go's character. The only knock against the main series was that he and Maki Yoko turned into side characters when their story flamed out. They are both opposites of two extremes with flimsy excuses.

THE MEH

- The Soredemo Ikite Yuku ending though I'm was scared it would turn into Madoka movie 3.

SUMMARY

I don't think they could have done much better. Dorama specials are usually pure ratings grabs but are also due to fan who want to see more. How do you do a 1 1/2 hour story that's not a retread of the series but doesn't ruin it? Entertaining, but I would have been happy as well if it never existed in the first place.

Rewatching Shinsengumi!

I could have sworn I wrote a review for Shinsengumi! since it was the first taiga dorama that I ever completed but it didn't show up in the search box.  Hhhmm, on further inspection, I didn't even write about Musashi either which I liked as well. Anyways, the reason I rewatched Shinsengumi! was in preparation for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin which is an alternate reality telling of the Sakamoto Ryoma and Shinsengumi story. Its my 2nd most anticipated game of the year but the huge number of characters is so intimidating.

I wanted to put faces to names that I will encounter in the game but frankly, outside of the main characters, I had a hard time with remembering names. The first time I watched Shinsengumi many years ago, I really enjoyed the Kondo Isami, Hijikata and Yamanami dynamic. You've got your leader flanked by his two advisors, the street smart Hijikata who is not afraid to play bad cop and the well read Yamanami.

On second viewing, Shinsengumi! plays to me more like a Hijikata as the ultimate puppeteer show. Mitani Koki in turning Kondo Isami into a saint, as transferred all the blame and guile onto Hijikata thus turning our ultra good guy main character into a puppet that was used by kingmaker Hijikata.

While I was half-rewatching Shinsengumi while half-playing Sen no Kiseki (I'll not be able to finish this game before Ishin arrives), its more obvious how Mitani Koki writes an honourable out for ever killing and seppuku that happens. I guess its the unwritten rule in taiga doramas that famous historical figures must be presented in the best light unless they were historically reviled. Every backstabbing, power struggle move can be justified as doing it for love of country/Shogun/Emperor and every bad guy is just doing it for his own interests.

As much as Mitani Koki can dramatise the story, he cannot change the actions and deaths of the Shinsengumi and I found myself thinking more of what actually could have happened instead of what was presented to me on screen. Don't take it as me noticing the flaws of Shinsengumi! the second time. Mitani Koki has crafted a very enjoyable show with colourful characters but it played to me more as a work of historical fiction the second time.

The stand out performances for me are Yamamoto Koji as the mastermind Hijikata, Fujiwara Tatsuwa as the child-like yet deadly Okita Soji who has an interesting character arc, Sato Koichi as Kamo 'I don't give a damn' Serizawa, Suzuki Kyoka Oume and course Eguchi Yosuke as Sakamoto Ryoma. I really enjoyed Euchi Yosuke and Uchino Masaaki's portrayal of the unkempt and enigmatic Ryoma and I found it very hard to get into Masaharu Fukuyama's stiff Ryoma in Ryoma Den. Still a fun, must watch show the second time around.

Kinkyuu Torishirabe Shitsu ep 1

I found the fact that Amami Yuki's character was angry the hostage taker was shot when clearly the hostage who had run out from the bus was in danger. Yes, she could have possibly continued to talk him down but he could have easily killed Amami Yuki or worse, the hostage. Anyway, the first scene establishes we have our maverick investigator who does not follow the take out hostage taker  as soon as a clear shot is available and without endangering the hostages. (Which I assume is in the SIT handbook)

So turns out the gimmick of the this dorama is a special emergency interrogation team meaning I expect to see not your everyday jdorama interrogation scenes.

So Moriyama sensei is the baddie for this episode who turns himself in after setting his plan into motion. He plays a game with Amami Yuki and leaves her this 36F clue.

It turns out special interrogation team people also interview witnesses and search homes. Why not call this show generic police section-1 investigation show?

Amami Yuki surmises that 36F refers to Fahrenheit and the police finds the bomb at the morgue of the university where Moriyama works. Bad guy is smart enough to (I'm assuming) remove the mobile phones from the two police hostages but stashes them and the bomb at his workplace morgue? Fine, bad guys can be idiots too. Case closed right? His confession is on video, hostages are safe and bomb is being dismantled.

 
Nope. The writer realises that since this dorama is about this emergency interrogation room, he better write in a meaningless 'interrogation' where we find out about Moriyama's motive (instead of the cops just reading his case file) and Amami Yuki gets to cry and basically call Moriyama a bad boy. WTF is the point of all that besides the writer feeling to need to write some powerful scene for Amami Yuki but it just make sense in the context of the story? Where is the purpose of this emergency interrogation team as apposed to letting your regular investigation team who have been investigating a case do the interrogating? The stupidity and inconsistency in non-WOW and NHK police shows just continues to astound me. Watching crap like this just pisses me off. Now, more than ever, Japan needs a Ministry of Common Sense to prevent stuff like this from airing.

Jmovie review: R100

From Matsumoto Hitoshi, the writer and director of the awesome Scabbard Samurai comes the most 'WTF did I just watch' movie of the year, R100. Omori Nao (security guy from Link) is a mild mannered furniture and upholstery salesman who signs up for this one year S&M play with this club called bondage. Basically anytime and anywhere during the year Omori Nao will can be assaulted by any of the club's girls.

R100 is similar to Sono Sion's Why don't you Play in Hell in that its a self aware film that is trying to say certain things by breaking the fourth wall with one big exception; R100 is a very slow movie that is not even half as fun. I can see that Matsumoto Hitoshi purposely made it bland with the drab colours and lack of titillation despite the subject matter but whatever he was trying to say made it boring for me with pacing issues and a nonsensical story that that the censors in the film were happy to point out. The only good thing about R100 is that its made me appreciate Why don't you Play in Hell more which was a much better attempt at a self aware movie.

Isharyou Bengoshi Ep 4

This is such a weird domestic violence (DV) episode. Husband gets abused by wife and what does the lawyer do? Send him back to get whacked by the wife so that they can get evidence of the abuse. I wonder what would happen if he send a wife back to her abusive husband? Imagine the wife coming back to the office with a bandage around her head and her lawyer going, "Good job! Now we have evidence!"

All good until the long suffering husband is about to win and we get some stupid excuse for all the violence about the wife being lonely and needing money to keep up with her new rich friends. I want to see a dorama where an abusive husband gets away with it in the end with such a flimsy excuse! Serious, WTF. This reminds me of something Sakamoto Yuji said near the end of his interview I am still translating about glorifying people who have done evil things.

I'll keep watching cause Japanese divorce law is so amusing but this episode was just fucked up. Somehow our expert lawyer doesn't think that a wife who can treat another human being that way doesn't have deeper issues. Why isn't the family association of Japan complaining about this show teaching people to get the most from a divorce?

S -Saigo no Keikan- ep 1

Saigo no Keikan is a tokusatsu show masquerading as a cop dorama. There is not even an ounch of realism or excitement in this show. Contrived things happen so that certain characters can do and say certain things that are suppose to be cool to 6 year old boys and really aren't if the 6 year old thinks about it. Saigo no Keikan has got the kind of dumbed down dialogue and stereotypes to make it easily understandable for kids and I'm pretty sure the source material was a seinen manga. I want to make fun of this show but its just too easy. Run very far away from this and rewatch Gonzo, Rinjo and Gaiji Keisatsu.

Edit: The Ravine of Goodbye is available on the net with English subs!

My favourite movie from the Japanese Film Festival. Great story, acting with a raw and unflinching story. The Ravine of Goodby straddles the line between artsy and entertaining well. Don't go in expecting light entertainment. Highly recommended.

Legend of Galactic Heroes anime remake???!!!

Just saw this post at Jin115 and I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm pretty sure アニメ化 means making an anime version and there's already a classic 100+ episode series which I dearly love. I could watch it again and again and again. Its the greatest anime series ever along with Macross. How do you improve on perfection? Will today's anime viewer be even interested in a smartly written, grey area political drama with a huge cast of characters?

The one good thing is at least people will now know the name of the series. I hope Yang Wenli will not get his own harem of female generals and little sister/maid. I'm not really excited cause the anime is so perfect but I'd rather watch an anime try to improve on perfection rather than your usual interesting light novel premise that descends into generic harem anime series. I predict its going to fizzle out cause if the awesome Guin Saga can't even get a 2nd season, what hope does LoGH have unless all the generals turn into your stereotypical female harem?

Why Fukuda Saki is not getting a push.

Was going through Majide2ch, a nice blog that translates various stuff from 2ch and came across this post about Anne and Fukuda Saki. As mentioned many times, Oscar agency's huge push of Gouriki Ayame and Takei Emi is a blight on jdorama land and I couldn't understand why someone who has shown so much potential in Life and Daisuki 5 years ago is now relegated to supporting roles. If Oscar agency is so powerful as to shove those two talento who cannot act down the throat of the Japanese public, surely they can push Fukuda Saki who is so much better?

Turns out Fukuda Saki was apparently a diva during the shoot of Sakura no Sono, a movie that's been on my to watch queue for ages. Of course this all makes sense because Erika-sama is still popular and getting main roles despite her betsuni incident and reputation. The article says that its difficult to barter Fukuda Saki with other talents so its obvious that her only main role recently was in IS which was with the overpushed Gouriki from the same agency.

Article finishes by saying that Takei and Gouriki have been warned to be nice to everybody which reminds me of reading about how Fukada Kyoko is like super nice on set. Lesson of the day for Japanese talent, unless you are a johnny or have one of those faces that Japanese women worship, be nice to everyone.

Sakamoto Yuji - Soredemo Ikite Yuku interview Part 3A

I haven't touched the interview since my Japan trip but I am determined to see this through to the end. Thanks to Chuks for fixing my translations and hopefully it reads better than my previous efforts. Corrections are most welcome. This is the first half of part 3 of the original interview which can be found here.

Abiko: I think Soredemo Ikite Yuku was a revolutionary dorama. The unification of language in novels and doramas has actually become possible. Characters can speak not just through conversation but also explain things through verbal expression. The lines in the drama sound realistic, just like you see in novels. The characters(casts) speak naturally, without any unnatural explanations (explanatory dialogs) you see in many dramas. Plus, I think the direction of the fighting scenes were excellent.

Sakamoto: Thank you very much.

Abiko: The direction of the fights were different from the so called usual ones. For example, the actor playing the criminal, Kazama Shunsuke and the victim's mother Otake Shinobu scene at the fishing house (Episode 8: Prepared for everthing). After they found out who each other were, they started to fight. There is no way Otake Shinobu can win. (Laughs) Although, she cannot not win, Otake was leaning on Kazama, and Kazama doesn't stay still and and take the beating. He fights back while listening to her yelling. Isn’t everything in this scene in line with the promise to be real? So, I am interested in finding out who's decision it was. I thought it was the director's decision but there were more than one directors, right?

Sakamoto: It was decided by 3 people.

Abiko: In the case where there are multiple directors, who's decision has the most influence on the style of the directing?

Sakamoto: I think it is the producers together with the directors after having detailed conversations. The only thing I ask is this, 'please shoot the performers' acting properly'. Recently the demands on the actors have become wide ranging. Not only do they have to act, they have to be able to do facial expressions that are easy to read. An example of the type of acting that is asked of them is that when surprised, they go 'Waa!'. Actors act the way they are expected to in accordance with the changes in the times. The starting point of an actor's job is the create emotions and that is the foundation of acting. However nowadays, so not to be boring to the viewers, every scene is burdened with high tension. Even the script and lines explain everything so it is easily understood. This prevents actors from acting they way that they want.

Abiko: Yes.

Sakamoto: However for this dorama, I only provided the emotions of the characters and minimum setting, to let actors create the dorama by acting the way they feel is right. We have to protect the actors and let them ride the emotional waves, capture the actor’s expression of emotions and just continue with it. When the whole crew keep it in mind and just focus on the actor’s acting and nothing else, there won’t be a need to shoot from various angles. Music or gimmicks can’t capture the actors’ unspoken emotions between the lines. Once everybody starts to focus on nothing but shooting the actors’ performances, Otake would get into character followed by Eita and Mitsushima. When that happens, watching the actors performance becomes watching them portraying someone’s life realistically.

Abiko: The actors' tension and the atmosphere at the set can be seen in the performance, can't it?

Sakamoto: The actors' decide how good a dorama is. It was nothing to do with the script or the director. In any case, everything is about whether the actors can unleash their acting powers.

Abiko: The actors' are unable to put their mind at ease until they have given their whole effort, right?

Sakamoto: Yes. Even with Mitsushima-san, at the time she was waiting for the script for the third episode, she was nervous because she could not wait to see the script. I could feel everyone had high motivation.

< I want to see Otake-san who normally acts on stage in television>

Abiko: Sakamoto-san, did you managed to go to the shooting locations?

Sakamoto: I did not even go to the locations once.

Abiko: Then what did you think of the finished product when you saw the DVD that they sent you?

Sakamoto: I honestly think it is interesting. I was not pleased with the script and most of the lines I wrote for the first episode. However, after the second episode, I became used to that world and began get in tune. I began to enjoy the show and thought, "Ah, this is good." (laughs)

Abiko: Why were you not pleased?

Sakamoto: I'm not certain but I had a vague image in my head. A character wearing a certain clothing a certain way or speaking in a certain rhythm. Although I don't have a concrete idea, these images exist in my head when I write.

Abiko: So the more you watched the more you got used to the show being different from your images.

Sakamoto: Yes.

Ashita, Mama ga Inai ep 1

Thanks to jadefrost for pointing out that Nojima Shinki is the script supervisor as can be seen above.

If you've been following Japanese entertainment news, you can't escape the so called Ashita, Mama ga Inai controversy where the Child Welfare Association is protesting against the dorama giving a bad name to orphanages. I completely agree with the Child Welfare Association because jdoramas have a responsibility to portray all public institutions only in a positive light.

I think other associations should join the Child Welfare Association in protesting their own depictions in jdoramas:

1.  The Love Hotel Association should protest against Isharyou Bengoshi because it has taught the Japanese housewives that their husband's mistresses can be sued for damage, thus driving down Love Hotel patronage in the last few weeks.

2. The Police should protest every single Japanese cop show because they always show every other police officer besides the main character as inept. One would think from watching all the police jdoramas that Japanese Police are a bunch of lazy bureaucrats that despise anyone who can do their job properly.

3. Emergency Medical Services should protest against Code Blue for having their seasoned medical professionals played by actors in their early 20s giving the impression that it only takes an emergency doctor 5 years out of high school to get a degree and training.

4. The Japanese Harbour Warehouse association should protest against every single action jdorama ending in a harbour warehouse making the public think that warehouses are the base of operations of choice for all bad guys. This has also led to the practice by Japanese police of breaking into random warehouses every time there is a kidnapping, troubling law abiding citizens who use warehouses for non-kidnapping purposes.

5. The Seto Islands should sue Umi no Ue Shinryojo for falsely depicting that there is a hot chick on every island. The Seto Islands tourism board have been beset by complaints from disappointed tourists.

6. The Japanese Surgeons Association should protest against Iryu because patients now expect every surgeon to be able to do surgeries on the beat and save on the heart machine costs.

7. The Japanese Employers Association should protest against Dandarin for making employees believe this fabrication that they should get paid for overtime.

As for the first episode of Ashita, Mama ga Inai, I love the acting by the little girl from Woman. Not sure about Ashida Mana cause I find she's overacting playing an adult in a child's body but I guess it plays a counterbalance to Suzuki Rio's more realistic girl. Speaking of realistic characters, I bloody hate the two Jolipi girls. How anyone can protest against this fake, contrived dorama is shocking. Not as super melodramatic to the point of absurdity as Beautiful Rain but it doesn't feel as smart as your Nojima Shinji show.