Shoutai jdorama review

In all my years of watching jdoramas, I never thought one day I would type the words: Kamenashi Kazuya did a decent acting job in Shoutai! Every since Kame came on the jdorama scene long time ago, his bad acting and being in bad jdoramas had me avoid everything that he was in. I think the last thing I saw him in was the horrible One Pound Gospel.

Good news is Shoutai is a WOWOW production so automatically the acting and story is better than the rest. I would say Shoutai is the best fugitive type jdorama I have seen in a long time. The last one I saw was Toboui F which was so bad it defies belief.

So Kame has been sentenced to hang for killing a husband and wife but manages to escape. Luckily he is not a surgeon so he doesn't have to do an operation every episode. Shoutai is about Kame escaping from the law and trying to find the truth and in true fugitive fashion also help some people.

I really like the first episode about him doing hard labour with Ichihara Hayato and helping the labourers with some worker rights issues against their bad employers. There are not enough people about Japanese people on struggle street. If they exist, they are mostly horrible written shows like Fukakyon's Silent Poor. I really like how Shoutai showed how day labourers had no protection when injured and contractors mistreat them because they have no other jobs. Wage theft is a horrible thing and the average Japanese cop with service zangyou.

The second episode has the marvelous Kanjiya Shihori and Mr Iryu Sousa. Episode 3 has Hotta Mayu and all the characters come together for a great episode 4. Have to point out that Kuroki Hitomi has reached the age where they can cast her as an old lady with alzheimers.

Has Kame become a decent actor or is this the WOWOW effect of having a strong script and strong supporting actors around him? Maybe I should check his other jdoramas out or maybe not. I don't think he has done any WOWOW shows before this but he is good in this role as a fugitive on the run.

What you should be doing is checking Shoutai out. Its sitting somewhere between watchable and must watch. I really like Shoutai more than I should and am tempted to give it a must watch. The script is tight and the four episodes pass by in a flash. One of the best jdoramas of 2022 and a big thank you to miawmaw subs for subbing and thank the jdorama gods for WOWOW.

Silent Episodes 2~11

All renai jdoramas are about keeping the couple apart until they can profess their love in the end of the series or in the case of Silent, show how they got together in the beginning and separated on got back together in the end. The key to a fun renai jdorama is for the characters to face interesting obstacles until the end.

Unfortunately for Silent, it has the most useless obstacle I have ever seen in jdoramaland ever with the name Minato, Kawaguchi Haruna's boyfriend at the start of the series. You know how in jdoramas, they always pair the main girl with someone who they have no chemistry with so that the audience wants the heroine to be with the hero?

Well, Minato is that guy plus he is a complete pushover. He is not evil, he does not scheme, he just lays down and raises the white flag. Completely unnecessary character. The writer needed Minato to be friends with Kawaguchi Haruna's ex Sou but being with her in the beginning of the story did nothing for the story. I bloody fast forwarded every scene with him. Everytime he is on screen I want to slap him around because his character has no urgency and does nothing for the story.

I fast forwarded through a lot of episodes but I always stopped for the Kaho scenes. She is that good especially her facial expressions because she can't speak and I thought she should be the main character. Now Kaho is playing an interesting character and I am glad because she has too much acting talent to be playing simple supporting character. Kaho's character of Nana is interesting because she was born death and instrumental in teaching Sou how to sign. She is also interesting because it is through her that we learn there are distinctions between people who are born deaf and people who are deaf later in life and she has a negative view of deaf people hanging out with 'normies'.

Part of the appeal of disability jdoramas is watching people navigate life and solve problems that people without disabilities would never consider. As I said in my review of ep 1, I want to know how Kawaguchi Haruna manages to pay for her spacious apartment with two freeter salaries because the details and world building make the character.

Luckily for Kaho, we see how her character managed to go to university without being able to hear and that is by having volunteers transcribe the lectures for her. We also see that it has a negative point in that she cannot be lazy when the lecture is going on unlike most people at the lecture. It is small details like this that make Kaho's character of Nana more real and interesting. We also see that she is cynical and suspicious of people's motives. 

 For me, Nana was the main character of Silent. Her relationship with Kazama Shunsuke is the highlight of the show. Kazama Shunsuke will always be in my good books because of his acting in Soredemo Ikite Yuku. The Kawaguchi relationship was good in some parts but also slow. 

If you skip all Minato scenes, there is a watchable show here. If you are a Kaho and Kawaguchi Haruna fan like me or like disability jdoramas give this a go. Flawed but watchable and don't be afraid to fast forward scenes.

Thoughts on Silent Episode 1

 

Disability jdoramas used to be all the rage back in the day but are not so common anymore. I have a soft spot for Kawaguchi Haruna ever since Juken no Cinderella. I am so glad we are no longer in the bad acting era of Gouriki Ayame and Ueto Aya. There is no overpushed young actress who can't act except maybe Araki Yuko.

Pretty roomy 2LDK apartment assuming this is Tokyo area on salary of 2 freeters? Everytime I see huge apartments in jdoramas I want to know how how much of their salary they spend on rent. Reason is I watched Japanese apartment videos on youtube like naiken Johnny and you see all the small and cheap apartments that Japanese live in but you don't see them in jdoramas. Weird how Kawaguchi Haruna's brother keeps wanting her to move out. Do the parents own the apartment or something or does the brother have a housemate in mind. I am asking too many questions that the dorama will not answer.

Silent is about this idiot who is dating Kawaguchi Haruna after his best friend dumped her because he was going deaf but idiot keeps looking for his best friend because his friend is more important than his relationship. Of course there would not be a story if he didn't try or would there but he is not helping himself in the smarts department.

I am enjoying the Spitz music because I like Spitz. I don't love them like a lot of Japanese. My favourite is Masayumi, the theme song for Medaka, a Mimura dorama which I need to rewatch one day.

Nooo, why is Kaho playing another supporting character girlfriend who will get dumped after watching her in First Love? She deserves to be main actress in jdoramas dammit! Wait, maybe she is just a friend to Kawaguchi Haruna's ex. Can't complain about acting talent in this show.

Has Shinohara Ryoko moved into the mom phase of her career? This makes me feel old. Kimutaku still hasn't really moved into the dad phase. He has played a dad once in BG but he was not very dad-like.

The climax of the episode is Kawaguchi Haruna catching the ex-bf and him signing to her that he cannot hear her. The cynic in me says says that ex-bf should have just typed out the words and used his mobile to speak but of course it would not be as dramatic. Still, it was a good and effective scene.

Watchable first episode. I think how good Silent will be will depend on how interesting the side characters can be because we know how the main story will go. Thanks to irozuku subs for subbing the whole thing and you can get the hardsubs from their website.

Get Ready! Episode 1 jdorama review

I saw the poster of Get Ready! and thought I would not mind watching a show with Tsumabuki Satoshi, FujiTatsu and Matsushita Nao. Unfortunately not only is Get Ready! another high concept TBS show it is another version of the horrible Miki Clinic de Kanpai Wo which is a jdorama that tries to be cool and edgy that nothing makes sense.

Get Ready like Miki Clinic is another show about an underground surgeon Ace who does very high risk and illegal surgeries. Tsumabuki Satoshi is trying to channel a bit of Dr Blackjack, a very famous surgery manga but I am perplex at what the surgeon is doing running a cake shop all by himself? I want to ask the writers whether they have any idea the amount of time and effort it takes to run a one man cakeshop? One of the writers probably decided that mysterious super surgeon is not interesting enough and audiences will be hooked when they learn he makes cakes when he is not cutting people up.

I guess if Get Ready! exists in a world where just a doctor and a nurse and a voice controlled aesthetic machine can perform the world's most dangerous operations by themselves, then one must accept that said doctor is able to run a cakeshop all by himself everyday. Get Ready! is very much a dorama not set in the real world.

Luckily, the crux of Get Ready! is not the surgeries because it would get a do not watch with how boring it is. Plus Iryu has taught me that you need a team of the best people to do surgeries and it is hard to accept this two person surgery bullshit from a storyline perspective.

The main story hook Get Ready! is that Ace will not operate on patient if he determines that they are not saving. FujiTatsu is the negotiator Joker and they appear as holograms to negotiate with potential patients. In other words, Get Ready! is about patients dying who have done bad things and maybe good things and an underground surgeon judging them. Episode 1 has the group agreeing to save a hagetaka and maybe there might be future episodes where patient is not worth saving? Not that I want to find out.

Get Ready! is not as bad as Miki Clinic because it doesn't fall apart completely but there's really nothing here besides the cast. This feels like another one of those trying to be so many things high concept anime-like shows. Meh from me and if you still feel like trying it out, masterchief has subbed episode 1.

On a side note, Quartet is out on Netflix so please watch it if you have not. Sakamoto Yuji writing is just magical and it is such a beautiful jdorama. That scene about karaage and lemon is one of the best jdorama scenes ever.

The Travel Nurse Episodes 1~7

I went into The Travel Nurse fully expecting to drop it within 2 episodes at most. Who wants to see a jdorama about not just one but two male nurses with female names? I was expecting a lot of why is a male nurse here jokes where there are but what I did not expect was that The Travel Nurse is similar to Sawamura Ikki's Doctors: Saikyou no Meii.

Doctors is a smartly written show about a doctor Sawamura Ikki who manipulates people to get good outcomes, especially Moriyama Sensei who is just a bad person but has the ability to do good. The Travel Nurse is about Nakai Kiichi whose real identity and motives are mysterious doing behind the scenes stuff at the hospital that the just started working at.

Okada Masaki (Ayumi) is the other travel nurse who joins with Nakai Kiichi at the hospital. He has worked as a nurse practitioner in the United States and complaining about how Japan does things different and has an antagonist relationship with Nakai Kiichi. He is the typical annoying and whining main character that needs to be taught a lesson.

Now I am not saying that The Travel Nurse is on the level of Doctors. The Travel Nurse is not on a must watch level but I find the writing surprisingly funny and the stories touching without being too melodramatic. It also helps that the nurse are overworked and treated badly by doctors and hospital so you are of course rooting for them.

Even Nanao who I don't particularly like is OK. Nakai Kiichi's identity and motive is a good hook for the show. On a side note I need to check if I have watched all the dorama SP for Doctors and one day I shall do a rewatch.

So if you want an easy to watch a feel good jdorama about a group of nurses this show might be for you. It is interesting to know that travel nurses are a real job. They get to travel around a lot, get paid and not have to pay for accomodation. 

Thanks to Madmansubs for subbing the show. You can get the show from their discord. One thing that is bugging me is that Endo Kenichi has been doing the voice over for the show's intro and he better show up in the final episode. Surprisingly watchable.     

Fishbowl Wives Episodes 1~5

 

The best thing about Netflix's fishbowl wives is that there is a lot of sex and nudity. Jdoramas are always very chaste. A lot of love stories barely have any lust in them. Part of the appeal of jdoramas and jmovies for me is sometimes scenes are beautiful because less is more like Miyazawa Rie getting Sanada Hiroyuki ready to fight in Twilight Samurai but sometimes characters in jdoramas are seemingly devoid of lust. There seems be rule that only virgin characters can be lustful and characters in love cannot show lust for the audience.

Anyways Fishbowl Wives is about Shinohara Ryoko who lives in a tower mansion and is married to rich guy who treats her badly having an affair with a guy who sells goldfishes. There are other housewives in the tower who's affairs serve as the individual stories of each episode while Shinohara Ryoko's story serves as the main story that binds everything together.

Fishbowl Wives is proof that nudity and sex does not buy chemistry. The main story is so bad and soapy and I can feel nothing between Shinohara Ryoko and goldfish guy. The individual stories can be hit and miss but it was a struggle for me to get to episode 5. I'd rather rewatch Vinland Saga. Hajime no Ippo or Kengan Ashura on Netflix, lol.

Fishbowl Wives is neither fun, nor thrilling or melancholy. Even the way too chaste Jyanai Hou no Kanojo is more fun than this. Actually if you gave Jyanai Hou no Kanojo Fishbow Wives's sex and nudity, it would be one of the best affair shows ever. 

If you want a decent affair jdorama, watch Ukiwa. If you want a must watch affair jdorama try Kimura  Yoshino's Hatsukoi or Konshuu Tsuma ga Uwaki Shimasu. Meh from me and jdoramaland is littered with so many boring affiar/mid life crisis jdoramas. 

Speaking of Hatsukoi, I think the Kimura Yoshino Hatsukoi is a much better version of Netflix's First Love since they both cover the same story. I need to rewatch Hatsukoi one day. I feel like I have forgotten as many jdoramas as I have seen and my blog if the only way to keep track. I put the word 'affair' on the top left search bar of my blog and there are so many boring affair jdoramas probably because they are the easiest ones to do but the hardest to get right.

Hatsukoi / First Love jdorama review

 

I remember when Utada Hikaru's First Love came out and a lot of western media made a big deal about her. I thing I first came across her in Asiaweek or something. It was my introduction to Japanese music besides sentai shows and a friend who was a Sakai Noriko fan. I think everyone must have listened to her music at that time.

Hatsukoi is a Netflix dorama based on the song. The series stars Mitsushima Hikari and Kenshin as a couple who fell in love in high school and somehow in the present they are not together and Mitsushima Hikari is a taxi driver and Kenshin works as a security.

The story is mostly told through flashbacks as the audience is slowly told what happened in the past this Hatsukoi is basically a memory loss soap opera about love and destiny and similarly to Sakamoto Yuji's Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naite Shimau tried to be this epic love story to end all love story doramas.

To be honest, my reaction to most of Hatsukoi is ugh. Its soapy and slow and the dialogue is not anywhere close Sakamoto Yuji's writing. It felt like for most of the show, anyone could have done Mitsushima Hikari's role. Its not like Soredemo Ikite Yuku or Mother where I'm watching her acting and thinking, by the jdorama gods she is probably the best actress in Japan. I am watching Hatsukoi thinking Sasaki Nozomi could have done the role, except the cafe scene on the phone in the end where Mitsushima Hikari got to show why she's the best.

The  impressive acting for me was Kaho in the thankless role as Kenshin's psychiatrist. Kenshin is annoying. The story is supposed to be heart wrenching about him not telling Mitsushima Hikari who he is but I could not care because he could easily tell her.

The one other show I kept thinking about as I was watching Hatsukoi besides Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naite Shimau was Sasaki Nozomi's Tenshi no Koi. It was a really beautiful kmovie style romance story that was skin deep but fun and the funny thing is the writer and director of Hatsukoi Kantake Yuri also wrote Tenshi no Koi. I kept thinking Hatsukoi should look more like Tenshi no Koi. Its not that Hatsukoi looks bad but I guess I wanted Hatsukoi shot more like a romantic story with slow motion scenes in rain instead of a serious epic love story.

Ultimately, I did not feel the 'magic' from Hatsukoi. Some shows like Shitteru Wife or Koi ga Shitai just have this feeling while I didn't get it from Hatsukoi. I think it is because Mitsushima Hikari and Kenshin spent the whole series apart and their relationship was played by other actors as younger version of themselves. I guess there is no chemistry when your two main actors are hardly in scenes together.

I am happy that Netflix has put more money into jdoramas and that a lot of effort went into Hatsukoi but I could not get into it. Meh from me.

Mitsumei Kangetsu Kasumigiri and the 5 rules of jidaigeki

RULE NO 1: The hero is usually a humble samurai who is banished from clan or on some secret mission so he can hang with the peasants, do some actual work and get into fights. 

RULE NO 2: The hero goes around solving crimes and beating the bad guy every episode and is the unofficial cop.

RULE NO 3: Women need rescuing and there is usually a triangle relationship going on. (not always) Nothing wrong with good old-fashioned damsels in distressed especially in this era of so much social hierarchy.

RULE NO 4: Hero will befriend local businessman who is the source of most of the side quests I mean storylines.

RULE NO 5: The action scenes will last as long as the battle music and hero will unleash finishing move at the end of music. Also there will be no bloodshed despite the abundance of slicing and dicing. I guess its better than CG blood which I hate.

If you feel like watching a show about a humble samurai dispensing justice, then Mitsumei Kangetsu Kasumigiri is the show for you.  I had fun with this one and I find it is on par with Shinsengumi Keppuuroku but not as good as Yoshiwara Uradoushin. Big thanks to evasive for subbing. Watchable if a little generic. Raws can be downloaded from sinflix.

Home & Away Episodes 1~6

As someone who has spent too much time watching jdoramas, I have often wondered whether my tastes have changed or time and whether watching too many jdoramas has changed my perception of what is good. A lot of what is popular in jdorama and especially anime I find absolutely shit and I wonder is it just an effect of getting older or that I can't enjoy the new shows because I have seen similar stories done much better as old shows?

Home & Away was one of the early jdoramas that I watched back in the day. It was probably among the first 5 jdoramas I had seen it was a tv rip from Jem who uploaded Japanese shows from Singapore TV. The 720 rips had been uploaded to nyaa and Avalla'ch has transcribed the subs and uploaded them to d-addicts so it was time to see whether I liked Home & Away because it was new and refreshing or whether it was actually good.

Home & Away is a feel good comedy starring Nakayama Miho goes to China with her two friends played by Sakai Wakana and Nishida Naomi as her final pre wedding trip, loses her ring and gets involved in a series of adventures where she ends up travelling all over Japan and helping people everywhere she goes.

The only thing you need to accept with Home & Away, is that Nakayama Miho will not get home until the end the ways that she is always stopped form getting home is funny. Once you accept that, just sit back and enjoy the laughter and the tears. After watching the first 6 episodes, I am happy to confirm that Home & Away is a very good show and it was not because it was one of my early jdoramas. The writing is excellent and feelgood. I must commend the trio of Sakai Wakana, Nishida Naomi and Koizumi Kotaro who play Nakayama Miho's friends and brother.

I have to mention the appearance of a young Furuta Arata and Ito Ayumi in the series! It is fun rewatching old shows and finding my favourite actors playing bit parts.

The three of them regularly meet up at her apartment get clues about her travels such as gifts and provide a lot of the comedy relief for the show. The show would not have been as good without them. Nakayama Miho doesn't need to do anything special as the good supporting actors that she meets along the way carry the show as well as the good writing. Looks like the writer Kimizuka Ryoichi also wrote the Odoru Daisosasen series. If you want a guarantee feel good jdorama that is must watch, then look no further than Home & Away!