New season, new dramas, and a renewed spirit! This’ll be my first drama preview post as just my first impressions on the dramas I’m planning on watching and reviewing.

First Impressions

Shikaotoko Aoiniyoshi

A very unlucky man is forced to move his post at a university lab to a girl’s high school in Nara, where the deer roam around freely. Ogawa Takanobu moves into an apartment/inn of some sorts with a bunch of his co-workers. Life in Nara is quite different from Tokyo and Ogawa has probalem adjusting, including a student who seems to hate him. And not to mention that there seems to be someone tailing him and writing telltale notes on his classroom blackboard. So far, I’ve found Shikaotoko Aoiniyoshi to be quite interesting. Even though, it takes place in Nara that’s depicted as mostly slow-paced and not very exciting, the drama is full of life. I also love that the humor is very dry; there doesn’t seem to be any slapstick to be seen. I also have to mention that Tamaki Hiroshi and Ayase Haruka have pretty unflattering hair compared to their previous hairstyles. Maybe it’s supposed to be reflect on their location.

Hachimitsu to Kuroba (Honey and Clover)

Probably one of the more anticipated drama for overseas watches would be Hachimistsu to Kuroba, more commonly known as Honey and Clover. It’s a story of five college students in art school and the drama and comedy that ensues from college life. The story starts when Hanamoto Hagumi, an amazingly talented painter among other things, starts school. It centers around Takemoto Yuta, though, who is mostly the narrator and falls in love with Hagu. There’s a lot of love triangles, random fun, and all sorts of art. I was really looking forward to this drama, but I was disappointed in the first episode. Some parts were funny, but other parts were just on the boring side and all in all I was not impressed. Fortunately, the second episode redeemed it a bit for me, but it’s still not as good as I had hoped. I have read a few chapters of the manga, and I’ve never watched the anime. I did watch the the movie and thought it was rather boring, though I found the manga to be pretty enjoyable. I just hope the drama will get better soon. But since the third episode’s rating is now below 10%, maybe all there is is hope.

Ashita no Kita Yoshio

I found this story synopsis to be quite intriguing. A man, Kita Yoshio, has always had a strange connection to the number 11. He has lead a life that he regrets and is sad about. He feel that the world hates him and there is nothing left for him to live. He had a wife, but she divorced him 11 years ago. He had one good friend, but he also died. Kita Yoshio decides to end his life 11 days from then, on the anniversary of his one friend’s death. However, fatefully, he meets Yashiro Heita who pulls him into a world he never knew about. This is the start Kita Yoshio’s most eventful 11 days. After being disappointed with Hachimitsu to Kuroba, I watched the first episode of Ashita no Kita Yoshio and was pleasantly surprised. The story is kind of trippy, but is really enjoyable. There’s a morbid side to it, yet it is very funny. Kohinata Fumiyo who plays the titular “hero,” Kita Yoshio is, so far, amazing. His character is really pathetic but at the time can relate to many people. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of this drama.

1 Pound no Fukuin

This is the story of a boxer who absolutely loves to eat. However this always gets into trouble since he needs to keep a close watch on his weight to stay in his weight class. One day, he meets a fledging nun, Sister Angela, and feels a strange pull towards her. I don’t know. The nun thing is really weird, but the juxtaposition of a nun and boxer is quite interesting. It’s weird, though, having Kame as the boxer cause he’s so skinny. Generally, it’s a little cheesy and dramatic (but what sports drama isn’t?). But Kame is nice to look at and Kuroki Meisa is really pretty.

Koshonin

I cannot resist a crime drama. Seriously. Koshonin is about the Special Investigation Team unit of the police. This team goes directly to the front line of a crime to negotiate with the criminals. The story focuses on Usagi Reiko, a new trainee in the SIT. She is the only woman on the team and the leader of the team lets her know straight up that she is not welcome. After watching the first episode, it seems that this drama is not about the crimes, but really mostly about police hierarchies and internal politics. Actually, I don’t find the actual case to be very interesting or engaging; what is interesting is the internal politics, perhaps the drama is a commentary on the rigidness of the system?

Still to start

Binbo Danshi

Two words: Oguri Shun! It’s the story of a poor college student who always lends a helping hand with other people’s debts, even though it always lands him into trouble (and he’s already dirt poor). This drama is either really good or really cheesy. I think I’ll watch it no matter what. That promo image is gold. Plus, it’ll also be an interesting ride to see him in a purely comedic role (a nice departure from Hanazawa Rui and Sano Izumi).

4 Shimai Tantei Dan

Yeah, just can’t resist mystery. It revolves around a team of 4 sisters who solves crimes. I’m interested to see what kind of mysteries the sisters will solve….Yukan Club-esque mysteries? (please, no more of those) or Galileo-esque mysteries? Hopefully this won’t disappoint. Also interesting to note that the abbreviation is 4STD.

Bara no nai Hanaya

I’m still not sure if I want to watch this drama. But it does have rather high ratings, I think the highest of the season so far. I dunno. Maybe. I do want to watch Matsuda Shota in a lighter role, though, since his recent leads have been rather dark characters (though he’s not the leading role in this one). What I gather about the story is that it’s about a single father running a flower shop and the people that he meets.

Nodame Cantabile

Starring:
Ueno Juri as Noda Megumi aka Nodame
Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki Shinichi
Eita as Mine Ryutaro
Koide Keisuke as Okuyama Masumi
Mizukawa Asami as Miki Kiyora
Saeko as Saku Sakura
Uehara Misa as Tagaya Saiko
Takenaka Naoto as Franz Stresemann
Endo Yuya as Okochi Mamoru
Ibu Masato as Mine Tatsumi
Nishimura Masahiko as Tanioka Hajime
Toyohara Kosuke as Eto Kozo
Kondo Kouen as Tamaki Keiji
Sakamoto Makoto as Hashimoto Yohei
Fukushi Seiji as Kuroki Yasunori
Mukai Osamu as Kikuchi Toru
Hashizume Ryo as Kimura Tomohito

Nodame Cantabile is a Japanese drama that aired in the fall of 2006. It was broadcasted on Monday nights on Fuji TV. Based on the manga of the same name, Nodame Cantabile averaged rating of 18.79%.

Nodame Cantabile is the drama for all of us orchestra dorks (or more generally, music dorks). It takes places at Momogaoka Music Academy, focusing on the life of Chiaki Shinichi and his strange relationship with Noda Megumi, nicknamed Nodame. Chiaki is the top piano student at the Academy, as well as a talented violinist, but secretly dreams of conducting. He longs to return to Prague, where he spent his childhood, but feeling trapped in Japan because of his phobia of flying and sailing. He wonders what his future in music will be like, since one must study abroad in Europe to truly have a career as a conductor. Soon after, he transfers to the conducting division of the school.

He and Nodame meet coincidentally and she falls head over heels in love. Chiaki, however, is repulsed by Nodame since she is everything he is not - messy, dirty, and very eccentric. She is also a piano student. Though she cannot even read a piano score correctly, she is ridiculously talented and chooses to play by ear.

One day the famous conductor, Franz Stresesmann, comes to Momogaoka and requests to start a new orchestra. The students are surprised to see that the new orchestra is not made up of all the top students, but all the underachievers! Stresesmann takes Chiaki as his one and only pupil and as Chiaki begins to conduct, he realizes that this orchestra is made up of people like Nodame; talented and into the music, but cannot follow a score or the conductor. It’s the story of an up-and-coming conductor and an eccentric but talented girl who loves him.

Nodame Cantibile is one of the most hilarious dramas I’ve watched. All the characters are so full of life and totally exaggerated. A lot of the manga-actions are also translated into live-action. Like when Chiaki hits Nodame, she goes flying across the room, rolling around and everything. At first, it’s weird, but after a few of them, it becomes much more fun and it sticks out less (especially since everything is so wild).

A huge strength in this story in the uniqueness of each character…they are all very different, so there is no getting people mixed up (which is sad but happens to me sometimes). And since they’re all so different, there should be at least one character you will like. The most entertaining part of the show is the interaction between all the characters; it is so fun and energetic…sometimes I can’t understand how the actors and actresses didn’t just break out laughing with all the extremities of the script.

Even though there is a lot of slap stick comedy, there is also a huge amount of character development and two plot arcs included. I thought the cast was excellent; they all fit and looked the part.

There’s almost no reason to not watch Nodame Cantibile. Well, that’s not true. If you don’t like music, Nodame will be hard to watch (and listen!). If you don’t like comedy, there’s way too much in this story to overlook it. But that’s probably it. It’s a super fun drama with an interesting plot and relatively fast pace.

Buy the boxset: Japan Version

Starring
Miyazaki Aoi as Satonaka Shizuru
Tamaki Hiroshi as Segawa Makoto
Kuroki Meisa as Toyama Miyuki
Aoki Munetaka as Shirohama Ryo
Koide Keisuke as Sekiguchi Kyohei
Oonishi Asae as Yaguchi Yuka
Uehara Misa as Inoue Saki

I watched Miyazaki Aoi in NANA; she was great and I was interested in her other works. And I do love Ai Otsuka’s ballads (the movie’s theme is Renai Shashin), so when I found subs for Tada, Kimi wo Ashiteru, I had to watch it.

It starts out at the end of the story where Makoto flies to New York to meet his good friend Shizuru. He then recounts the story of their unusual friendship. Makoto is somewhat autistic and has a difficult time socializing with others, so he often keeps to himself. Shizuru is an eccentric young woman who acts and dresses many years younger than she actually is. The two meet on the first day of university when Shizuru is attempting to cross a busy intersection and Makoto points out to her that it would be better to cross at an intersection with a light. He leaves and she still stands at the intersection waiting to cross. Makoto is taken by this and pulls out his camera and snaps a photograph. He later notices her in a class and sometime later, she joins him in the school cafeteria. This is where their tentative friendship starts.

Shizuru follows Makoto to a gated forest. He enjoys photography and sneaks in there to take pictures. Together they discover different parts of the forest and it kind of becomes “their place,” somewhere where it is only the two of them. Eventually Shizuru also takes up photography.

Miyuki is a beautiful girl who befriends Makoto, who incidentally likes Miyuki. Makoto becoming friends with Miyuki and her group create a little rift between Shizuru and Makoto, since Shizuru is known as the strange girl, and his new friends poke fun at her. Makoto makes things right with Shizuru and they once again start taking pictures together again. He takes her back to his house to use his darkroom to teach her how to develop photos. Soon Shizuru and Miyuki also become friends. However, Shizuru knows that Makoto is in love with Miyuki. And in turn tells him that she just want to like the person that she likes like.

Shizuru and Makoto decide to enter an amateur photography competition near the end of their university years. Shizuru wants to take a picture of the two of them kissing in the forest. She says that she wants that for her birthday present; Makoto agrees. After that day, however, Shizuru disappears without a trace.

Tada, Kimi wo Ashiteru is a beautifully crafted film. The pace is fairly slow compared to American films, but that is one thing that I enjoyed about it. There’s a simplicity in the story that is just very charming.

Miyazaki Aoi is great as a cute, innocent university student; the character she creates is really very lovable. She has some lines that you just think, “what was that?!” to, but I think that it just adds to her character’s emphasis on not being mature yet.

I also liked Tamaki Hiroshi’s character a lot, though a bit too shy and non-confrontational at times. Kuroki Meisa’s character is so seemingly perfect that you almost doubt that someone like her really exists. I mean, who really know anyone like Miyuki?

This movie is definitely worth seeing if you enjoy slice-of-life or romance stories. If you’re a fan of the three actors/actresses listed above, it won’t disappoint either.

Buy this movie: HK DVD | J Special Edition