Soushite, Ikiru Episode 1

Just when I thought there's nothing for me to watch this season, I saw HPriest was subbing WOWOW dorama Soushite, Ikiru and I knew there was still hope for this season.

First of, like I saw with 90% of WOWOW shows, the production values is better than your typical jdorama. Even the car crash at the beginning of the episode was better than what you usually see in your every jdorama.

Soushite, Ikiru has 'it girl' Arimura Kasumi play an orphan who was raised by her uncle is sort of a countryside idol wanting to try to make it in Tokyo.

Before she could go to the audition, the great Tohoku earthquake hits finds herself doing volunteer work in Kesennuma where she meets Sakaguchi Kentaro.

Very good solemn and moving first episode. I was glued to the screen from beginning to the end and I got attacked by onion ninjas during the bonfire scene.

I like the revelation in the end from Sakaguchi's character. Not sure how this show will proceed from here or what the gimmick is but Soushite, Ikiru has the potential to be must watch show. I'm guessing Soushite, Ikiru about people who on the outside should be happy but have a deep profound sadness.

Very promising first episode and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Keishichou Zero-gakari Seasons 1-3

Every generic police show needs a gimmick. Keiji Zero had the detective who has amnesia. In Keishichou Zero-gakari, it is about a collection of cast offs or unwanted people lead by the most irritating and obnoxious main character in jdorama ever played by Koizumi Kotaro.

The main character Kobayakawa is full of himself, cannot read situations at all (ky) and has no social skills. If there's any fictional character that I would love to see die, its Kobayakawa Fuyukiho. He's so obnoxious that I was happy he finally met a character as irritating as him in season 3.

The next question you are thinking is this show any good because I watched 3 seasons of it? The answer is that its not good but it doesn't suck that much aside for me wishing a car would hit Kobayaka everytime.

I can't really remember any stories that were too sentimental and there are some dark stories in there. Truth be told, I use Keishichou Zero-gakari as background noise when looking up twitter and reddit. Its the type of show you can play in the background pay minimal attention and know what is happening.

There are some things in Keishichou Zero-gakari that I don't understand. I don't understand why the antics of Kobayakawa and Terada are suppose to be funny. I don't understand why the dinner place they go to having bad food is suppose to be funny. I don't understand why Kobayakawa being annoying is suppose to attract viewers. Finally, I don't understand why Osugi Ren playing a character who always goes to the toilet is funny.

Gisou Furin Episode 1

The best thing that Gisou Furin has going for it is the concept, an arasa woman who has not had any luck in love lies about being a married woman and has an affair with a younger guy. So the question is about whether the affair happened because younger dude like married women?

The worst thing about Gisou Furin is that the concept is about telling a lie and letting it snowball. We've all seen so many of these type of shows to know how they go. I'm not a fan and they need to be pretty funny for me to want to continue watching.

It doesn't help that the main character is boring and the sister played by Nakama Yukie is actually having an affair. So I have zero care factor towards the characters in Gisou Furin. Maybe Watanabe Anne's antics to cover her lies gets better/funnier but I have no interest in finding out. Meh.

Anata no Ban Desu Counterattack Episode 12

Anata no Ban Desu started off as an interesting who dunnit mystery but now its just bloody dragging on and on and on. It feels like a show that was so successful that NTV is squeezing as much as they can but not giving the viewers enough breadcrumbs.

Instead we just get more specials about the weird people in the mansion. The best who dunnit thrillers are tight and exciting not the ones with padding. I thought the story was coming to an end cause everyone kept dying and they are introducing even more characters? I've lost any will to go on and don't care about revenge or if everyone dies. Meh.

Mirror Twins Seasons 1+2

Mirror Twins is Fuji TV/WOWOW joint production with 8 episodes for season one shown on Fuji TV and 4 episodes shown on WOWOW.

Mirror Twins is a cross between The Fugitive and Byakuyako about two twin brothers, one of whom was kidnapped as a child. The other brother ends up being a police officer while the other is on a plan of revenge.

The Johnny actor who plays both brothers does a decent job at the role. It helps that you can easily tell the brothers apart because the cop is rigid and well dressed and the other is scruffy, has lots of make up under the eyes and loves hoodies.

What truly helps Mirror Twins is that Johnny guy is surrounded by a lot of my favourites including Kurashina Kana, Ishiguro Ken, Takahashi Katsunori and Takeda Rina. How long has it been since I saw Takeda Rina in High Kick Girl? I'm glad that she's still around.

As an action/mystery jdorama, Mirror Twins is pretty exciting. Sometimes people are a bit too incompetent and certain things happen because they have to but the twists and turns really kept me on my toes until the end of season 1 and the pacing is good. I watch the two series in 3 days because I could not wait to see what happened next.

Season 2 is very meh. They turned an accident in season 1 into a murder but it just didn't make sense to me and I was thanking the jdorama gods that it was only 4 episodes. Nevertheless, I was invested enough in the fate of the characters to see the show to its end.

A shame Mirror Twins isn't being subbed as far as I know but I am so happy that Henrietta_R_Hippo uploaded the torrents on nyaa with Japanese subs.

Edit: Mirror Twins is being subbed by fanofta here.

On the whole, I saw Mirror Twins is a surprisingly watchable detective series with a meh second season. Flawed but pretty well done.

Kioku / Memory Episodes 6-8

My biggest concern with Kioku was that there would not be enough side stories to pad up the 12 episodes but luckily the side stories have become interesting from the clown incident to Honjo's dad to Honjo's deceased child.

The only one character who doesn't feel as developed would be Honjo's wife played by Yuka. She's no more than the perfect wife but I feel so much more of their relationship could have been explored and their chemistry is kind of not there.

 The paralegal and assistant are my favourite couple of the series and its just fun to watch them together.

Four more episodes to go and things are heating up with everyone finding out about Honjo's alzheimer and Honjo getting closer to the truth which will probably turn his world upside down.

After 8 episodes, Kioku is turning out to be a very watchable show about treasuring what you have that doesn't get too preachy.

I wholeheatedly recommend Kioku but you need the raws from avistaz.

Impossibility Defence jmovie review

Casting can often times make or break a movie and Japan is not known for casting the best person for a role instead of the most famous face. Impossibility Defence is about a devilish character who has the ability to kill people with the power of suggestion hence Impossibility Defence because you can't charge someone for a murder when you can't prove that they were responsible for it.

This devil character grants the wishes of people who wants someone dead with the requirement that their desire for murder is 'pure'. Impossibility Defence is your typical morality tale where after someone's wish is granted, they found out that there are actually grave consequences or that they don't actually want that person dead.

In this story of the devil granting the wishes of foolish humans is the trying to be hardboiled detective played by Sawajiri Erika. Yes, the Sawajiri of 1 litre of Tears and countless beauty saloon ads.

If the only way to get the money to make this movie was casting her, then I would have said there are plenty of actresses who can do a much better job because it is just so freaking wrong. No amount of posturing and and cigarette smoking and turn Sawajiri into this hardboiled detective who struggles between doing the right thing and doing the right thing.

The movie does not fall apart behind Sawajiri's casting but there's this nagging feeling that a stronger lead to face the devil would have worked better. The stories are interesting but the movie just feels like a setup episode to a long running series. Meh.

I think I got the raws from j-raws long time ago which has since shut down. Anyone know any other website for getting smaller size raws?

Perfect World Episodes 9+10

Perfect World is what I would call stock standard boy meets girl with a disability angle thrown in jdorama.

Plenty of relationship triangles and unrequited love and all the supporting characters are super nice and get a consolation prize in the end.

While I might have been a bit harsh in my review of the first 8 episodes, there's nothing much wrong with the show except maybe the chemistry between the two leads is not that good.

There are not many boy meets girl jdorama that I can watch all the way until the end.

If you want a just watchable and predictable renai jdorama that doesn't do anything wrong but doesn't excel much, Perfect World might be for you.

Have to mention I like the ending song Machigai Sagashi and I'm not sure whether I want to give the movie a try because the story would definitely be leaner.

Survival Family jmovie review

Survival family is an interesting movie about what happens when every electrical good and machine in Tokyo stops working through the eyes of this 4 person family.

Kohinata Fumiyo aka Kita Yoshio is the father who loves to blame everyone else and Fukatsu Eri is the mom who keeps the family together.

Having watched so many zombie movies, Survival Family feels like a zombie movie without the zombies.

Survival Family asks the question of how do we as human beings survive when we can no longer get water from our pipes and food from the konbinis and I had an enjoyable time thinking what I would do in their situation.

Survival Family is more of a family movie so it does not have the gore and violence of similar themed movies which usually are concerned with showing how low humans can go.

Survival Family is more concerned about with showing this family learning to cope with things that we take for granted.

I have no complaints about Survival Family. It was a breezy watch and I liked all the characters and the beautiful Japanese countryside.

Survival Family is a very watchable family movie that is available at avistaz with English subs.