Trendy Jdorama cliches

This funny video appeared in my twitter feed so I though I would share the screenshots with translations. The video is titled rules of Trendy doramas.

Two people invariably having a bad first meeting and in this case bumping into each other, causing paper to fly everywhere and blaming each other.

However, on that night...

... they will have the  conventional miracle reunion. It says in the circle trendy level 65%. I am not sure if it means how often it happens or how Trendy it makes a jdorama.

Random friends with distinctive personalities.

And one of them must be a playboy. (And have some stupid sad reason for being a playboy so housewives can swoon)

When 7 people get together, it is Trendy. Trendy level 75%.

In the beginning, everyone will be having a great time.

Invariably, someone will get angry and go home. Not sure what 自由すぎる現地解散 is because it translates to on site break up that is too free? 55% Trendy level.

The further the better, 10 metres distance shout of love. Trendy level of 85%. This is why jdoramas will survive the corona virus. The makes of Trendy doramas have ensures that it is pandamic proof.

100 coincidence, genius who always walks in at the wrong time. Trendy level 60%.

Rain and tears and the telephone box. The 3 things that make the sad set. Trendy level 70%. Mobile phones have ruined so many trendy jdorama plot devices.

There is a point to getting wet: The heavy rain runner of love. Trendy level 90%.

And finally the human powered merry go round. Trendy level 100%.

Chase 2017 controversy

Bframe5 brought something interesting to me attention about the Amazon jdorama Chase. From the Japanese wikipedia entry, it seems that although the Chase says that it is a work of fiction, the story and the murders in the jdorama are essentially the same as the real life Ashikage murder case.

The article also says that the makers of Chase did not interview the victims' families nor did they seek their permission and ignored their feelings. Because of this, Amazon stopped the distribution of episode 7 for a short while.

I have no idea why the creators did not just say it was based on real life events because the story of the reporter and the ending is the same. Maybe there are monetary reasons for it.

The facts that it is based on real life just makes the story all the more interesting. I will get to season 2 once I find time. I find Chase a very watchable show and hope everyone sees it.

Hikinukiya: Headhunter no Ryugi Episodes 2-5

I really wanted to like Hikinukiya but there's something about the show that seems off and that's because I would have enjoyed it more if it were called the 'Faun Takeover' as Hikinukiya gave me a certain set up expectations that it did not fulfill.

First of all, calling it Hikinukiya tells me that is an occupation jdorama and I love occupation jdoramas because they can go into the minutiae of how a job works and I would still be entertained. I want to see the day to day, what skills a person in a certain job needs to get from point A to B to C.

In Hikinukiya, we don't really see any certain skills from our main character played by Matsushita Nao. Episode 2 was probably the best episode with Watabe Atsuro's friend who was hired to fire people and ultimately to be fired but episode 3 was another run of the mill father son story which you can find in any jdorama.

Matsushita Nao's job is just about making long lists and her key to victory is tied to hers and Uchida Yuki's night job of working at a kyabakura. The whole kayabakura thing with Akuma no Bengonin Kaname Jun is wayyyyy to convenient, especially how information keeps falling onto her lap.

The networking and information gathering aspect of her job was too easily condensed into working in a kyabakura and instead of working to make clients happy, she has clients giving her all sorts of information. I just cannot agree with it as a tool for dumping information.

Also, I do not agree with how concerned the Forte Flows people were with the Faun problem. It had absolutely no connection with their work and they were treating it like a company crisis.

Is Forte Flows a headhunting company or a busy body let's worry about an unrelated company getting taken over by Chinese because this is will somehow generate some profit from us?

To sum it up, I don't feel like Matsushita Nao got her fingernails dirty doing her job as the Hikinukiya and I have to give the show a meh.

Diary 2018 Episode 1

I am a simple man, when I see a Renbutsu Misako jdorama, I have to watch it.

Renbutsu Misako plays Ayaka who works at a stationary company and is engaged to her senior. However, she does not have a good relationship with her mother who raised Ayaka by herself.

One day, Ayaka's mother collapses and gets into a coma and Ayaka has to decide what to do with her mother in a vegetative state.

Ayaka finds her mother's living will which says do not resuscitate as well as his diary that her mother has been exchange with her 3 other high school friends. Ayaka decide to head to her mother hometown and find out who has the other copy of her mother's living will.

Diary seems like a pretty standard mother flashback small town mystery jdorama. I am very sure that Ayaka's father is a teacher. I will watch Renbutsu Misako in anything as long as its not horribly bad.

Nothing much to say about the first episode except it doesn't suck and I look forward to watching the remaining 3. On a side note, Avistaz is running free leech until 6 June so better take the opportunity!

Chase 2017

Chase is an investigative jdorama made by Amazone Prime starring Honda Tsubasa as a rookie assistant director for a broadcast satelite (BS) station and Otani Ryohei as the freelance journalist who she teams with to investigate the unsolve murders 27 years ago.

First off, I never knew that BS stations were looked down by others in media because they did mostly shopping programs. Sometimes I find BS jdoramas more enjoyable than the mainstream ones.

Second is that everyone in the BS station was demoted there for various reasons so there is the underdog element because they are the station that no one gives a crap about and they are going against the police and courts.

I really enjoyed this show because it does something we see very often in jdoramas; the unsolved case from XX number of years but its done without all the overacting and doesn't repeat the phrase 'unsolved incident from XX year ago' one hundred times. (I am looking at you Triangle)

Honda and Otani have decent chemistry as the young AD out of her depth trying to be acknowledged as a reporter by the grizzled veteran. The 30 minute runtime is breezy and every episode ends in a cliffhanger so I went through the whole 7 episodes very quickly.

Chase doesn't do anything extremely well but it does everything much better than your average jdorama. Very watchable and its been a while since I've since a good underdog investigative reporting jdorama. Its just so well paced that I've got no complaints.

Big thanks to rjgman56 for subbing and I got the raws and retimed subs from avista but they are also available at nyaa. Can't wait to get started on season 2 which I don't think has been subbed.

Akuma no Bengonin Episode 1

Akuma no Bengonin is a no budget midnight dorama starring Kaname Jun as the devil's lawyer because he wears all black 24/7 and he never smiles.

I think every actor desires to play a role where they don't have to move any facial muscles and try to recite every sentence without any feelings.

Becky plays his new assistant whose housemate works as a legal reporter.

Akuma no Bengonin is about this defence lawyer who will supposedly say and do anything to get results. Its a pretty standard legal dorama and you won't find any good acting here.

Its got too things that make it different though; first is that its got flashback scenes where the lawyers are in the flashback. Hard to explain but you'll see in the first episode.

The second is the secret of our Devil's lawyers which is revealed at the end of the episode. Ultimately, Akuma no Bengonin is a decent and breezy way to spend 40 minutes. Episode 1 has been subbed by Avallac'h here.

Hikinukiya: Headhunter no Ryugi Episode 1

Hikinukiya feels like someone watched Suits and then decided to make a WOWOW version set in the world of headhunting.

By headhunting, we are not talking about everyday jobs. The show is about getting the right person for the very elite jobs.

I have no idea about such things since I would think that very lucrative jobs would be well known within the top industry people would have the absolute best candidates but it seems like that is not necessarily the case and perhaps people from outside an industry might be best.

Matsushima Nao (Yami no Bansosha) is our main character. The daughter of an outdoor clothing manufacturer who is fired and told to learn for herself what the real world is.

Matsushima Nao has Uchida Yuki and the dude from Suits as her mentors and Watabe Atsuro as their company's main rival.

What has me worried about this show is whether there are any interesting tricks to winning. Whether there will be strategies that will make me think that was smart or if they are just going to pull random stuff and people from mid air.

Its a WOWOW show so I'll give it a shot and the first two episodes have been subbed by Gabrielmpf. Meh first episode but will continue as there is nothing wrong with more Uchida Yuki.