366 Days jdorama review

366 Days is a very evil jdorama. It is the name of theme song 366 Nichi by HY which was also the theme song of a decentd jdorama Akai Ito. Everytime I hear the song 366 Nichi, I think of Minamisawa Nao in that show though to be honest I don't remember much. I say 366 Days is evil because it tries to completely erase all association of the song with Akai Ito and overwrite it with this Hirose Alice dorama.

366 Days is your typical childhood friends who never confessed to each other and meet up years later at a class reunion. Thing start looking up at the end of episode 1 when suddenly something really stupid happens. The guy was trying to save a kid from falling down. I really wanted to quit this show.

Look at this screenshot. Kid is about to fall over. Guy runs over and just have to grab his legs. Easy. Kid weighs nothing. Somehow, guy flings himself over the railing to save the kid. Does not make any freaking sense at all. If Hirose Alice were not in 366 Days, I would have stopped at the end of episode 1. Japan, I am offering my services to be Minister of Common Sense. If a character in jdorama has to put himself in harms way, it has to be approved by my ministry so that it doesn't kill the story.

Anyway, 366 Days like Akai Ito is a story about a couple who should be together but are not because the story keeps throwing obstacles at them which in this case is memory lose and rehab. 366 Days also deals with memory and identity. If someone does not have the same memories anymore, are they a different person and should they behave like the previous person.

366 Days is also a group of high school friends with secrets story ala Nanyoubi ni Umareta No with more secret crushes and everyone trying to find their niche in the world. Besides the main character throwing himself over the railing, I don't have a complaint about the writing. Some parts are super cheesy but this is a soap opera love story and it does it pretty well. It is not Nanyoubi ni Umareta No but I think 366 Days does it better than most.

I have to point out it makes me sad seeing Kitamura Kazuki aged out into a minor supporting role playing a father to adult children. It feels like only yesterday when he was the main actor in Neko Zamurai.

The biggest obstacle for our couple is this nurse played by Natsuko who I only just realised was Ririri in Toki wo Kakeru na, Koibitotachi. She has this anime like, this can't be a real face thing going on. Reminds me of Kobayashi Ryoko.

I also enjoyed seeing Wakui Emi after so long. She used to be the mainstay of jdoramas and has been in so many classics.

I would say 366 Days is a pretty watchable, well done universe trying to keep boy and girl apart jdorama which is not that memorable for me.

The most important question is, has 366 Days removed my association of the song with Akai Ito. The answer is no, because half the time, I could hear True Love, the theme song of Asunaro Hakusho which 366 Days reminds me of though I have to admit I have forgotten a lot of except for the theme song and the feeling of the story. Watchable. Thanks to Blitz for subbing!

Kanzen Muzai Episodes 1+2

Kanzen Muzai is a WOWOW show about a lawyer played by Hirose Alice trying to get a retrial for Kitamura Yukiya who was convicted for the kidnap and murder of a young girl. Hirose Alice was also kidnapped at around the same time and she believes that Kitamura Yukiya may be her kidnapper.

If you have seen Tasogare Yusaku, then you know Kitamura Yukiya can play the role of a convict in his sleep. With Kazama Shunsuke as Hirose Alice's colleague and childhood friend, Kanzen Muzai has a lot of acting power.

However, there was something amiss from the very beginning. The visuals looked a bit off, the lighting looked very amateurish and colours too muted. The worst thing was for most of the scenes the director liked to start of with the wide view and then slowly zoomed in on an actor during a conversation.

Usually in jdoramas when two characters are speaking, there is a wide shot to establish place and position and then alternate close up shots when characters are speaking. Kanzen Muzai hardly does this and it just feels so off. Characters are looking at something far off but the camera just slowly zooms in on them as they are talking instead of showing what they are looking at or any face shots. 

The few times that the director uses the usual alternate close up shots, it is so much better that I am wondering why the director is screwing up his own drama for? There is this scene in episode 2 in the rain outside a house when I was so relieved that the director when back to using close ups. I looked up and to my surprise, the director for Kanzen Muzai is Omori Tatsushi who directed two must watch movies The Ravine of Goodby and Mother! WTF is going on? Some of the angles of the shots made me question are you sure this is the only good angle to shoot from and why just this one angle?

I feel like Omori Tatsushi is wasting the good performances because he wants to stuff around with camera instead of doing the yeoman's job and capturing all the fine acting properly. Even the courtroom scene in episode 2 was not shot and cut together as well as could have been. This is the first time I have ever seen a show where I felt most of the shots were so wrong and I could not concentrate on the story.

I don't know what to say. Kanzen Muzai is just horribly shot. The story should get interesting after episode 2 but it could have been so much better. I feel like a producer should have question the director for his shots and lighting. Disappointing meh. Thanks to luwang for subbing and uploading the hardsub.

Anime review Monster

Just finished the 74 episode epic anime Monster ,based on Urasawa Naoki's manga. I think most people have heard about the time travel problem of if you could travel back in time, is it ok to kill baby Hitler? Monster asks a slightly different question, if you are a super surgeon Dr Tenma and you treat all life as equal, is it ok to save the life of evil named Johan and if you have helped this evil to survive, should you finish him?

The reason I started rewatching Monster was that I was wondering why Japan has not done an anime adaptation of Urasawa Naoki's 20th Century Boys? It is one of the greatest mangas and pieces of fiction ever and Japan can have 50 Isekai animes every season but not an anime of one of the greatest stories ever told. I know I have actually watched Monster before but I don't remember finishing it. I must have watched it long, long time ago when I was still burning anime onto DVDs.

Monster starts of off as a Fugitive clone with Dr. Tenma getting framed for Johan's murders with a cold, calculating detective in pursuit. The doctor of course does emergency surgeries and saves people he meets along the way while he tries to pursue the monster Johan.

THE GOOD

+ Amazing animation. Looks like Urasawa Naoki's manga come to life. You know how anime usually have good first two episodes before the animation goes bad? Doesn't happen for Monster. Quality is consistent throughout and I was thinking no anime that does not sell toys won't get this budget unless it is Netflix.

+ Urasawa Naoki is great at creating terror and delving into the psychology of the characters. A lot of scenes gave me the chills. This is the mangaka who created Tomodachi in 20th Century Boys and he has created another scary villain in Johan.

+ The episodes will often start off with a seemingly unrelated character or situation and bring it back to the main story.

+ Great supporting characters especially Eva, Grimmer and Suk. I would say one of my favourite things is that the supporting characters get treated like main characters. They don't exist just for the sake of the main character Dr Tenma and have their own wants and needs.

+ The world building is excellent. I say this not because the story is based on the real world but the world feels real because of all the little details and the characters behave like complicated people.

+ It is a philosophical discourse on identity. How much does having a name matter or even memories to establishing one's identity.

THE BAD

- The pacing is very slow and can be painfully so. I think the story could have been told more efficiently in 50 episodes. I started to fast forward  during the second half of the show.

- Some of the cliffhanger tropes are overused, especially with the slow pace which make things a bit repetitive. 

- How a Japanese man accussed of being a serial killer can travel so much across Germany and other parts of Europe without drawing attention everywhere is amazing. There is one episode where a cop said that he mistook Dr Tenma because of race.

THE MEH

= I don't know what to think of the ending. Not as satisfying with an ambiguous ending and we should have been shown that dinner.

SUMMARY

I think Monster is very worth watching because there are very few anime like this. Monster is the type of anime you can proudly show non-anime watchers. I don't think an anime like this can be made today. Very watchable with pacing issues. Please watch it on Netflix to support good anime!

Taiari deshita : Ojousama wa Kakuto game nante shinai Episode 1

Taiari deshita is finally here at nyaa! I first saw the trailer very very long time ago for this 2023 jdorama. Main reason I was waiting for Taiari deshita is that it is a gaming jdorama, not just just a random made up game, it is for Street Fighter 5!

Aya is poor girl studying at this prestigious boarding school, Kuromi high school for daughters of the wealthy and influential. You get to see every anime ojousama stereotype from the hohoho to the desuwas to the overuse of hinkaku (dignity)

The Kuromi, gaming is forbidden. Early in the episode we see a poor student who's mobile phone has been confiscated for gaming and told that gaming is an activity that is without dignity. Aya's roommate, Natsume informs her that worst case scenario, one could be expelled from the school.

We are then introduced to the second main character Shirayuri who is the only girl in the school with a white wig who returns Aya's handkerchief to her. Shirayuri is the only daughter of a big zaibatsu. They should have named the zaibatsu Mishima Zaibatsu IMO but that's a different game. She is a potential to become a Kuroyurihime and I think they are 7 of those and they are people with an assured future. Sounds like a going to Toudai kind of thing.

One night Aya discovers Shirayuri playing SFV on a laptop and 

Shirayuri is scared of being expelled.

Shirayuri discovers that Aya is a kakuge (kakuto game/fighting game) player because she called SFV Suto5 and the marks on her thumb are from playing arcade sticks. (akekon)

Shirayuri challenges Aya to a match but is interrupted by someone doing night patrol and they both hightail out of there back to the rooms as they were playing in a forbidden classroom. 

Aya and Shirayuri have unfinished business so they sought each other out and asked Aya's roommate Natsume if she could stay in Shirayuri's room for the night so Shirayuri could stay over.

Natsume's face when she realised why Shirayuri wants to swap and she said love comes in many forms. lol

Episode 1 ends with Aya and Shirayuri getting it on. I love fighting games and Street Fighter and am happy there is a jdorama with an actual real game. I had a quick look and there is an anime version of the story and it seems like they are using a made up anime fighter. I remember learning Japanese fighting game terminologies back in the day and now most of my fighting game knowledge are from Japanese sources.  Thanks to magicstar-subs for uploading the raws to nyaa. For gaming fans and fans of whatever girl group the girls are from. I am going to keep my expectations very low and as long as the jokes are decent, I will be happy. Sadly no Jp subs. 

Warau Matryoshka Episode 2 spoilers

Don't read on if you have not seen episode 2 of Warau Matryoshka! 

Just want to say the new annoying staple of jdoramas is the youtuber harassing people. I guess it is the same thing as what the media and scoop magazines do in jdoramas but being youtubers just makes it worst.

In episode 1, Michiura figured out that Suzuki was the brains behind the operation and that Seike had the ability to absorb and be whatever Suzuki needed him to be. In episode 2 we finally get to see their partnership in action and it is entertaining. I love the flashbacks to Seiki running for student president cut with scenes of his media speech. 

The question is what is behind the fake smiling face? Is Seike truly a person without will and does whatever Suzuki wants? Michiura believes he is asking for her help by sending her his thesis and wants to escape from Suzuki's control. Jdorama watchers know that the first supposition is always false.

Then the question is what does Seike hope to achieve by giving Michiura access? It is then that Michiura discovers that Seike is able to achive his dream at 27 because of a car accident and her father's death was also from a car accident. 

She tries to warn Seike about Suzuki but we cannot discern anything from his face. Is he really sending Michiura an SOS or is Seike playing her like a fiddle?

I want to say, so happy to see Watanabe Dai in this show. He better have a big role and I suspect he does later in the series.

Bloody exciting finding out the identity of the mystery woman. I love how Michiura pieces together her clues with information from Seike's autobiography. It reminds me of Yami no Bansosha where Furuta Arata and Matsushita Nao try to solve a mystery from clues in a manga. I need to rewatch it someday because it is one of my absolute favourites. Anything with manga in it, I love.

I am excited for the revelation of the 3rd party. The whole dying the same age as Hanussen's is brilliant. I thought Suzuki was going to be a scary character, Takaoka Saki (Kenja no Ai) is going to be even better. After two excellent episodes, I have to give Warau Matryoshka a must watch. As soon as episode 3 hits nyaa, I am watching straight away. Sooner or later we are going to run out of revelations and how good the show will be will depend on what the characters do. Warau Matroyshka does not smell like your typical TBS show, so fingers crossed!

Story of the Gameboy Advance Perfect Catalogue

This book is called the Gameboy Advance Perfect Catalogue. It came out on 28 May 2019 for only 2,547 yen. It is a catalogue of all Japanese GBA games with pictures and descriptions of the games edited by Maeda Hiroyuki.

This is my collection of the Perfect Catalogue books. As a retrogamer, they are an amazing resource and are fun to read.

On my last trip I was looking for the GBA Perfect Catalogue but could not find it. No big deal, I thought. I can just order it when I get back. When I got back I realised the price had jumped over 10,000 yen. More than 4 times the original price. Every other Perfect Catalogue I could find but not the GBA one. Either the publisher G-Walk super underestimated the demand or there are a lot more GBA fans out there compared to the other consoles.

I managed the find the last copy on yesasia and I think it was around $100 including shipping by I could not pull the trigger. $100 for a book is crazy. I managed to find a pdf scan and decided to be happy with that. Not long after, someone bought the last copy from yesasia.

But I kept an eye on the book and the price shot up like crazy. It went over 20, 000 yen. More than 8 times the price. Absolute bonkers.

Then one day while browsing mercari Japan, I saw this person selling one for 2000 yen. I thought it must be a mistake but had to click. The seller wrote that there is a new version (増補新版) coming in June and they were doing it as a public service announcement and not to click on buy. I should have taken a screenshot of that one because it was going after a while, maybe a few weeks.

I googled for the new version of the guide and could not see any news but had no reason to doubt the person. Lo and behold a few months later and the new version appeared for preorder on Amazon Japan for 3,700 yen and I could not click buy fast enough. Really grateful to the person. I was never close to buying the original version but I appreciate a retrogamer looking after fellow gamers. I could see the scalpers trying to offload their stock on yahoo auctions and mercari as they realised what was coming. The funny thing is that while the original version has dropped price, it is still not that cheap at 7,200 yen.

Finally I have the book which I will devour slowly! So what is new? The new version has nearly double the pages at 384 and I think the biggest change was adding the overseas game. The moral of the story is supply and demand determines price and if you see something you might want in Japan, just buy it before the price goes up! Can't wait for the 3DS perfect catalogue!

Warau Matryoshka Episode 1

By the jdorama gods, I have just watched one of the best first episodes I can remember in a while. From the car crash scene in the beginning, the first episode of Warau Matryoshka wastes no time in setting up its interesting plot.

Mizukawa Asami is a reporter Michiura who is looking into his politician Seike, played by Sakurai Sho. Seike, is a popular young politician who might be Japan's future prime minister and has a very capable secretary named Suzuki played by Tamayama Tetsuji.

As Seiki just published a best selling book about his past, Michiura was just visiting his old school, finding out Seiki and Suzuki were best friends and wondering why Suzuki was not mentioned in the book at all. Michiura receives a call that her dad has passed away in a car accident that we see in the beginning of the episode. Side note, only TBS has the money to show an actual car crash. Most of the time, it is a fade to black.

At this point I am thinking is this a version of Sanctuary, where two people aim for one goal which is Prime Minister of Japan but in this case instead of politician and yakuza, one guy is a good cop and the other does all the evil things necessary?

Michiura finds some fishy things about Suzuki's past which is tied to her dad's past and by the time she receives the thesis in the mail, I am thinking this is one of the most interesting plot set ups I have ever seen! Political intrigue with some history, philosophy and manipulation is right up my alley! The only thing keeping me from proclaiming this as must watch is that this is a TBS show.

However, I did notice that Warau Matryoshka looks a lot better than your usual TBS stuff like Kurosagi and Atom no Ko. The director did WOWOW's Ame ni Kieta Himawari which I liked and legendary jdorama show Shimokita Glory Days! 

I am cautiously optimistic because this is a book adaptation and the first episode is just perfect. I don't think I have ever seen a Sakurai Sho dorama but he is good as the politician who might be empty inside. (Sorry, have to get in my Johnny dig) So many revelations in episode 1, hopefully they have plenty more for the rest of the series. Can't wait for episode 2 and huge thanks to Monchi for subbing. Very, very watchable.

Double Cheat: Itsuwari no Keikan Episodes 4~8

Double Cheat starts off as a Kurosagi clone but starts to get better as the scams get more interesting and Mukai Osamu's past gets revealed. 

Double Cheat is a Kurosagi for an older audience and I enjoyed the personal nature of Mukai Osamu's revenge plan against Yamagami especially with Matsumoto Wakana from Fukushu no Miboujin playing his ex.

I don't think Uchida Rio can ever make a convincing detective and sometimes she looks like she's still doing her character from Raise de Chanto Shimasu.

Decent ending with the twist being that there will be a second season on WOWOW! The whole WOWOW/Tv Tokyo joint production should have been a giveaway.

New bad for Mukai Osamu to go after but no Matsumoto Wakana. Let's see what the writers can do for season 2 because Double Cheat would not have been compelling for me without Matsumoto Wakana's part in the story making our main character a tragic hero. It gave our main character pathos otherwise it's just a generic scam jdorama.

Fingers crossed WOWOW can make a decent followup. Watchable first season for me but not so confident for second season though Ichijara Hayato is good casting for the villain.

Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai 2024 Eps 5~10

 

The first season of Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai is finished and it was pretty decent. The original 2014 series had 2 seasons and if the ratings were decent, I suspect we will get a sequel next year. 

I enjoyed the cast and the feel good element of uncovering corruption and Hanasaki Mai telling people off. As I have said before, Hanasaki Mai is a less grating version of Hanzawa Naoki. Maybe I just prefer Imada Mio's anime eyes instead of the kabuki overacting in Hanzawa.

Watchable feel good show with no flaws. I definitely wanted to see the bad people get theirs and Kaname Jun is good as the bad guy but I would not say Hanasaki Mai is particularly memorable.

On a side note, I was looking up the writer Ikeido Jun. He did Hanzawa Naoki of course but he also did Soratobu Taiya, Tetsu no Hone, Nanatsu no Kaigi and Hayabusa Shobodan. That is 5 of my favourite jdoramas there with 4 of them on WOWOW. I want to try Kabuka Bouraku which is a WOWOW show with Oda Yuji. Jpsubbers unfortunately does not have the Jp subs but looking at the Jp subs list, I realised Jigoku Sensei Nube came out around the same time and I should give it a shot since I am familiar with the manga. I would definitely give it a go if they had the manga fan service!