Hotaru no Hikari 1-9

Hotaru no Hikari is Ayase Haruka's chance to show that she can really act after the disaster that was Tatta Hitotsu no Koi. She was ok in Byakuyakou but she hasn't shown that x-factor that separates the Matsushima Nanakos from the Uchiyama Rinas. As Kanno Miho has shown in Watashitachi no Kyokasho, all a good actress needs is just a meaty role to show she is more than eye candy.

Someone please stop casting Fujiki Naohito in serious shows.

In Hotaru no Hikari, Haruka plays Hotaru, a himono onna, a woman who pretends to be ladylike outside but at home wears a t-shirt and sweatpants, drinks beer and lazes around. First problem is that the show treats it like its such a bad thing. Its as if its a bad thing to not to bound by society's dress code and rules of behaviour when at the comfort of one's home. I mean wtf is so uncultured about t-shirts and for sweatpants?

Not even Kuninaka Ryoko could save this show for me. They should have put Ken-chan in it. :)

Is Japanese society so image conscious that image is everything? If this rule only applies to women then I don't really care. Still , making such a stupid concept the main subject of this show makes everyone who cares about it look like idiots. I seriously doubt the show is a critique of society's obsession with image. Yes, they way one presents oneself is important but to the extent of looking down on girls wearing t-shirts and sweatpants? The way everyone throughout the course of the 9 episodes makes snide comments about women in t-shirts is just not funny.


I like how the script portrays Hotaru. She's probably the only 'real' character in the show. Everyone is just a 2d character. Fujiki Naohito's Takano-san is just a device for Hotaru to voice her emotions. As well written as Hotaru's personality is, there's just something about Ayase Haruka's acting that just doesn't impress me. I'd rather see Kuninaka Ryoko switch roles with her. She just doesn't have the talent for comedy and the show could really use a few laughs.

Maybe I'm just pissed off Kuninaka Ryoko hardly gets any screen time....

Part of me thinks I just can't get this show cause I'm a guy. The other part just feels that the acting is not good enough. I just can't help comparing this show to KDO. I would say this show is KDO for women. Unfortunately Ayase Haruka and Naohito Fujiki are not even in the same planet as Abe Hiroshi and Natsukawa Yui acting wise. They're not even fit to feed Ken-chan cucumbers. Can't fucking believe they and Kuninaka Ryoko won awards for their acting, especially Naohito Fujiki's stilted acting which only works in comedies. I like Kuninaka Ryoko as an actress but serious, she was just doing the stereotypical ojousan role. But then last season was a really crap one.


Acting has a lot to do with facial expressions and using that to express emotions to the audience. Hotaru no Hikari spells out every single emotion that the characters go through. Compare how Kuwano in KDO expresses his happiness with slight changes in his behaviour. Its subtle and entertaining. There is no freaking emotionally charged scene in the show. Even the scene in ep 9 where Hotaru's bf confronts her and Takano san in the house is so lame. You can't feel the tension. Compare with the scene in KDO where Kuwano and Hayasaka are arguing in Michiru's home. You could cut the freaking tension with the knife. You feel for Michiru cause she's angry that she's been blind all along. You feel for Hayasaka cause she realised too late that she has hurt Michiru and she is torn between what she wants and her sempai relationship to Michiru.

In Hotaru no Hikari, you don't feel the conflict Takano's conflict. You don't see Teshima's pain of betrayal not just by his girlfriend but by his boss. You don't see and feel that not just because the acting sucks but because they've not developed their relationships well in the story. Hotaru no Hikari tries to be a dorama where the characters write the story not where the story decides what the characters do. It doesn't work when the characters and relationships don't feel real.

Ushi ni Negai wo: Love & Farm eps 8+9

Fark. My PS3 died. This is almost as bad as having my internet connection go down. What am I going to do without my VF5-fix? Should have finished Folksoul first. At least I've still got tons of PS2 games to finish and doramas to catch up on. The highlight for Ushi ni Negai wo so far is when Takashimuzu's sister finally lets it all out and calls her brother for what he is; a hypocritical, idealistic idiot who can't make decisions. There's nothing wrong with being an idealistic idiot who can't make decisions. Its being a hypocrite.


Unwilling to take over his family's farm and yet easily 'assuming responsibility' for Katsuya. Idealistic people make promises too easily and are blind to the simple truths of life. I was so happy when someone on the show with common sense finally spoke up. Takashimuzu's sis would be my favourite character if only she were featured more. Katsuya's farm is bleeding money. Getting more money to delay the demise of an unprofitable business is like pouring gasoline on a fire. The explosion is going to hurt even more.


Which brings me to my second point, about how much the farmers are struggling. When farmers struggle because of drought anyone would feel sorry for them. In this show, they never say why business is bad. Is it because there's not enough grass for the cows to eat or something? From the series, I get the idea that its because small time farming for milk is inefficient. I mean how many cows does the Takashimizu family have? Twenty? thirty at most?

I'd live on a farm and milk cows just for Toda Erika....

Is its because the profit margin is so low and only mass, efficient production of milk profitable? I'd like to emphatise with the farmers but is their hardship because of bad luck or because they have not moved with the times? Would a better idea be to consolidate the farms themselves so that they can have a higher volume of production and be competitive.


Why should tax payers prop up struggling farms just because they've been there for generations? Without a clearer picture of the farmers' plight, it just seems to me that they're not helping themselves by expecting a miracle to save their farms. If my assumptions are correct, then shouldn't the problem be the small time farmers who cannot think outside the box and not the politicians who want to create more jobs?


The whole speech by the group in front of the politicians is so laughably bad. Is Japan in such a bad shape that people come home from work and listen childish speeches by kids who've only been farming for a few months making promises without having any idea of the hardship that await them? Its not like this group has really gone through any real hardship anyway...


And just because a politician looks sleazy doesn't mean he is evil. This show is suppose to make the audience sympathetic to the poor farmers and their plight. All it does is make them look like people just expect handouts. When a farm can't even repay part of a loan, its freaking obvious what must be done. And Mano-kun is a fucking idiot. Now man can refuse a Toda Erika koukuhaku!

Jdorama review: Dream Again ep 1

Every jdroma starts of as a great one. In Dream Again's case, its a brilliant start. Takashi Sorimachi once again plays another baseball player. Plagued by injury, he is demoted to the second team and finally fired. Working as a salaryman, he gets the baseball itch and decides to call off his wedding to Kato Ai. Unfortunately, he gets struck by lightning and is killed.


He's given a second chance in life, in the body of a rich fund manager. First thing is, this show has got loads of fucking storyline potential. You've got the former baseball player trying to get back in the team in the body of an out of shape man. There's the story of the fund manager being an evil bastard and how Sorimachi will cope with work. The third story is Shida Mirai showing up claiming to be Sorimachi's daughter. And finally is what Sorimachi will do to get back his Kato Ai.

hhhmmmm...

With so much storyline to cover, pacing should not be a problem with the show. Most of the time, jdoramas are just one main storyline and they rely on side stories to fill in the gaps. Basically, there's no way they are going to fuck this up. I know I've said this about a few shows before but the quality of the 1st episode has made this cynical fella an optimist.


I've never been a fan of Kato Ai. Its cause she's always playing the irritating younger sister type role. This is the first show that she's playing the main actress and so far so good. The 2nd eye candy is Aoto Noriko as one of Sorimachi's employees. I'm kinda sick of seeing school uniforms and a hot looking OL with nice legs is just what I need.


Its just nice to see Sorimachi back in a bigger budget dorama. Hotman 2 was such a huge waste of time. And oh yes, the fact that the first episode ends with a nice twist doesn't hurt either. It just feels good to be excited about jdoramas again!

Baseball players get groupies and fund managers get hot OLs. Which one is better.....

Gravure review: Kadena Reon - A Girl's Desire

Warning: The following post is boderline NSFW (not safe for work). This post is not people who think Naruto is the greatest manga ever.

Where's the goddamn wind when you need it?

OMFG. If only gravure videos were this good. Seriously, why can't gravure videos be more creative like this one? A girl's video came out in 2004, a year before Virginity which I looked at two posts ago. While it may not have the iconic ipod scene, overall provides a much more umm, satisfying viewing.

You've been a naughty girl Reon...

A Girl's desire starts of with Reon in a school uniform. You can't go wrong with that. They try to keep the scene simple cause Reon's not really the schoolgirl type. ( Ueto Aya is another story) She does that typical stare far away at something look but enchances it by pursing her lips and swallowing her saliva, hinting at some action which Bill Clinton is fond of.

Hello, I've seen you somewhere before..

Slowly she lifts up her skirt while barely giving us the view we want. The cinematographer is a man after my own. Less is more and more is less. One must tease and tantalize the audience. Make them want the payoff even more.

Mirror, mirror on the drawer, who has the best cleavage of them all?

The next scene is of Reon in a yutaka and again, its just so fucking hypnotic the way she slowly takes it off. There's just something about the yutaka. How it covers up so much and reveals so little yet so easily taken if. I'm just surprised I've got enough blood in my head to think.

Need a hand? :)

Reon stares at a mirror, blowing into it with her cock-sucking lips. Man, her lips rival Ishihara Satomi's. I just love the symbolism in this gravure vid. Its so playfully innocent yet so naughty.

A is for apple. B is for breasts...

Next, she's wearing this bra with fruits all over it as she points to each of them and tells us what each of the fruits are. I was too busy drooling at the suppleness of her oppai to care. Whoever came up with these scenarios deserves to be given the best gravure scenario writer.

I see England, I see France....

The vid slows down a bit as we get to the typical various costume changes. But the good thing is that they don't waste time and quickly get on from one costume to another. Then comes the secret weapon. Wet school uniform! She opens the top too quickly for my liking. Wet t-shirt is a genre in itself. There was no need to rush to wet bra so quickly.


And the final scene is the ultimate secret weapon! Something that no parent would want they gravure idol daughters to do! Reon with white milky substance all over her chest area and she proceeds to smear it all over her bosom and finishes by tasting some of it. Bukakke symbolism in a gravure! Is the line between gravures and JAV going to be crossed anytime soon?

In the words of my friend will, I'm very nafsu...

You can easily find this torrent on the net and I bloody highly recommend it. My opinion of gravures as just idols lounging around has changed. Gravure vids can be dynamic, a sort of erotic art form but within the boundaries of non-nudity with the added requirement of imagination!

Does it taste good?

Wonderful Life ep 10

I don't know whether its the disappointments of last season or the fact that I'm playing even more VF5 recently but I'm losing my urge to watch jdoramas, until I saw ep 10 for Wonderful Life. As I've lamented in my review of ep 9, why don't they make simple and fun shows like this anymore?


What this series has done is broke down the character of Kirishima Akira. He was introduced as this arrogant and irresponsible former star and slowly, we are shown that he is not a bad person, just that he made bad decisions. All the while, he was entertaining to boot and finally after doing his 'penance', he is given the chance to go back into the spotlight.


We finally get some more back story on Masayoshi, the former lawyer and it really makes him more of a sympathetic character as he had chosen a more difficult path in life. He may have been a self serving, dishonest lawyer served well as a comedic character but the fact that he could have an easy life's shows that at one time, he must have had some ideals and had the balls to act on them. Its just that the lost those ideals on the way.

Ah yes, the staple of jdoramas, carrying a girl on your back so you can grab her ass...

This ties in with Kirishima's journey for redemption. Though the setup for Masayoshi's future is pretty obvious, its still fun to watch cause there's nothing better than when a supporting character slowly gets fleshed out with minimal screen time and gets a resolution.

She must be thinking how good life would be if Kirishima were playing baseball....

Another thing I want to touch on for this episode is some things are left unsaid/unexplained like Masayoshi's background. They show us his interaction with his family and his facial expressions are enough to tell us his history. The fact that he didn't lament about his problems only serves to arouse the audience sympathy. Or how Mizuki's uncle keeps getting injured as he gets even more worried about her. The use of symbolism in jdoramas is always refreshing.


But the star of this episode is is definitely Mizuki (Hasegawa Kyoko). She gets to peer into what Kirishima's life was like and is disturbed by this world he comes from. Instead of the out of job and penniless coach of Jaguars, she sees him as this former star who lived in a world where money was no object. Again, all she did to tell us that was her facial expressions of frustration and confusion while her uncle did all the talking. Hasegawa Kyoko has never impressed me until this episode.

Gravure review: Kadena Reon - Virginity

WARNING: The following pictures may cause nose bleeding.


I haven't watched any gravures in a long time. Basically my supplier has given up on such a noble pursuit after getting a gf. Oh, the blasphemy! I've heard of of Kadena Reon before and had seen pictures and small clips but it was only after a friend was watching her clips on youtube that I became hooked.

So, this is what heaven looks like.....

As you can see from the pics, she is one fine specimen of why Japan produces the hottest girls. Part Sawajiri Erika, part Hsu Chi with the firmest looking pair of oppai ever created by God. One cannot speak about her without mentioning her gravity defying breasts. Maybe it has a lot to do with her young age. She was only 21 when the gravure dvd was shot.

The greatest camera shot in all of gravure history!

99% of gravure videos I have seen are pretty much unimaginative. The director of this gravure shoot must be commended. In addition to doing your typical lazing around pouting at the camera shots, there are some pretty dynamic shots. I'm speaking of course of Reon rocking around to music from her ipod while wearing a small tube top.

Such a naughty smile! :)

The director knows what camera angles to use to accentuate her strengths and tease the audience. I'm pretty sure that most people have at least seen the animated gifs of her listening to her ipod while the camera gives ample view of her bosom from below. It even surpasses Alizee's bum shaking in terms of hypnotic ability.

Where's the food? Oh well, I'd be more than happy to eat her. :)

The 1st half of the video is very good but the second half becomes your generic walk along the beach in bikini type shots. Is she good enough to supplant Isoyama Sayaka as my favourite gravure idol? There's only one way to find out, which is to hunt for more Kadena Reon stuff. :)

Jmovie review: Taitei no Ken/ Sword of Alexander

After the huge disappointment that was Dororo, can Japan finally produce a decent action movie that does not look like a a sentai show? This film has it all, Abe Hiroshi wielding a huge sword, aliens, ninjas, bazookas, lots of cg blood. I'm not even bother going to give an introduction to the movie's story. There isn't really any. Its a huge mishmash of genres that just don't belong together, no matter how tongue in cheek they try to present it.

Obviously, she's not into S & M menage trios.

Abe Hiroshi is a damn good actor but not even he can save this mess of a movie. The starting is entertaining. The CG of the alien spaceship is good for jmovie standards. Genkuro (Abe Hiroshi) saving the hostage scene is funny. Then it begins to drag, from one lame action scene to another. I guess that the show is primarily aimed at kids and all kids watch sentai shows so they're accustomed to the ridiculously bad fight scenes. The only positive thing I can say is that the fight scenes are not as bad as Dororo. But then, nothing is as bad as the rubber snake fight in Dororo.


The only intriguing part of the show is Kuroki Meisa (the other chick from Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru) who plays a mystery historical character who I will not spoil here. Fans of Samurai Spirits should be able to guess the male character that she plays. She was overshadowed by Miyazaki Aoi in Tada Kimi wo Ashiteru but here, she's just too fucking hot. Maybe I just like chicks wielding swords.


This is one film that tries to do too much. Its evident from the CG and sets that they have a pretty good budget. Instead of so many crappy fight scenes and villains who belong in Power Rangers, they could have reduced the number the fights and spent more time on the humour. Less is more. One or two fight scenes done really well is so much better than 5 or 6 lame ones that can be seen on Japanese TV every evening. There are some scenes where I can't laugh at the absurdity cause I'm not 6 years old and I'm wondering why I'm putting myself through this misery.

Where are the Power Rangers when you need them?

Maybe the fact that Dororo did well means that I can never understand appreciate the influence of sentai shows in Japanese action movies. Maybe they feel that action has to be as exaggerated as those in anime. I guess, I should have expected it from the movie poster. I probably would have liked it better if half an hour were trimmed off the running time. In summation, only watch this movie with the assistance alcohol or other depressants.

Someone please cast Abe Hiroshi as Miyamoto Musashi based on the Vagabond manga! He is goddamn perfect for the role.

LIFE eps 1+2

Finally, a dorama worth watching this season. I avoided this dorama cause Watashitachi no Kyoukasho despite the crap ending was a pretty good show on bullying in school and I didn't see how any show could do it better. I wouldn't say its better but this is the first show this season I didn't reach to fast forward.

Manami getting touchy feely with Ayumu......

First thing I gotta say is, the pacing is great. So many things happen in the 1st two episodes that I couldn't it. It goes against the grain of so many shows to drag things out that I was almost wishing they could have fit the 1st episode in two. Almost.

Turn around you idiot! The wind is your friend!

Kitano Kita plays Ayumu who is best friends with Yuko in junior high. Yuko, who is the smarter of the two wants to get into Nishi high school and Ayumu wants to follow so they study together for the exams. However in the end, Ayumu ends up doing better than Yuko and gets into Nishi koukou while Yuko does not. Yuko then blames Ayumu for spoiling her dream and attempts suicide. And the above happened in 36 minutes. I'm just fucking impressed at the efficiency of the story telling.

With 'friends' like these, who needs enemies?

Ayumu goes to Nishi koukou, meets Anzai Manami (played by Fukada Saki) and her life just gets worse. I won't spoil the rest of the story so far. Regardless to say, this show is dark, as is any story about bullying. There's abuse, violence, bondage and blackmail. People with multiple faces and dodgy agendas, which is par for course with such shows.

I was born the wrong country. Where's that pesky wind when you need it?

Ayumu is probably the only likable character here, and maybe the guy with cigarette burns on his arm. As I said in my review of Kono yo no Hate, with dark depressing shows, you need likable characters put in difficult situations and difficult choices which all lead to despair. So far Ayumu is a pretty bland character but that's ok as long as the story and pacing is fast and furious. Ayumu's lack for characterisation might be the show's downfall but I'm pretty sure she's going to be developed through the choices she makes rather than any idiosyncrasies.


Whether or not this becomes a great show depends on two things; the choices Ayumu makes when she goes to war and hopefully none of the villains apologising in the end and blaming it all on their childhood/parents etc. That's what killed Watashitachi no Kyoukasho. All that bloody talking and poor attempts at philosophy. As long as Katsumi doesn't spend 20 minutes crying and blaming everything on his abusive father, I'll be happy.

Lets not forget the hot teachers....

I can't believe this midnight dorama is better acted and infinitely better scripted and shot than Jotei. Thanks to those who recommended the show to me. Oh yeah, the eye candy is good too, but I guess its obvious from the screencaps.