Blackpink Make The Cover of Billboard!

WHOA, I'm going to have to grab this one for myself!!!

Adventures In Cuteness: Rio and the Cat

 There was this setup in Nusumareta Kao where Shirato (Hiroshi Tamaki) is out undercover and so it is up to Ando (Rio Uchida) to feed the cat that his girlfriend Chiharu (Ayumi Ito) left behind before she disappeared on him! 
This leads to a funny scene where Ando is happily cuddling the kittycat when she hears the door open- and Shirato's girlfriend steps inside! Of all the times for her to return!

Poor Ando has to spastically explain about how she isn't some new girlfriend and is just Shirato's partner at work and is only there to take care of the cat, etc.etc! Ando looked so cute here that I just HAD to screencap the passage!

LOLOL!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Make Way For The QUEENs

As the drama title clearly informs us, QUEEN~Sukyandaru Senmon Bengoshi (Lawyers Specializing in Scandal) covers the cases of an intrepid lawyer team dedicated to scandals- in point, defending women in said cases.

The team consists of Ko Himi (Yuko Takeuchi), Chie Yoda (Asami Mizukawa), Shuji Fujieda (Taishi Nakagawa) and stoic Seika Mano (Yuki Saito). 

Along with their aloof boss (Bakarythm), they work their investigator magic to get to the bottom of their cases, reveal what is hidden, and bring the innocent and guilt alike into the open! Below: Ko and Chie get denied time off, LOL

QUEEN reminds me of  everything I’ve ever loved from a good ensemble cast with engaging actors who have great chemistry with each other, and with Yuko Takeuchi, Asami Mizukawa, Taishi Nakagawa, and Yuki Saito, these four work so well off each other that you could well imagine them hanging out outside of work and in real life!

Indeed, so engaging is their rapport that I feel like the actual cases they work on is secondary to watching the group interact with each other, squabbling as they break down a case,  Getting soft drinks as the do the footwork...

 ...and of course the classic “eating on top of the rooftop” to clear your head and get the facts straight!

Yuko Takeuchi seems to be channeling her “Sherlock” persona here, very spazzy and giddy when she is on the case, and I can feel my crush on her re-developing FAST!

But unlike Sherlock who had an antisocial slant, Himi is warm, fun and lovable, 
a great skill when you're staring down the big bad guys, or even trading information with others like Hiroko Todo (Rika Izumi)...

Ko and Chie make the perfect pair- keen on wits and investigation while at the same time very animatedly goofy and joking around. Asami is playing the “over 30-ish woman” character here, and very humorously!

And Yuki Saito… Ever since “Designer Baby”, I’ve thought she was one attractive older lady, but somehow no matter what I can’t connect this lady with the idol singing all those old J-pop hits. I’ve been recently discovering all Yuki’s old albums and somehow so hard to believe this stern looking woman is the sweet and naive girl singing all those 80’s tunes!

Oh yeah, QUEEN is working up to becoming one of my favorite dramas on right now!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

What I'm Reading: I Want To Eat Your Pancreas

 After glowing recommendations from not just a few friends I picked up the manga for the popular story “Kimi no Suiz0 o Tabetai~ I Want To Eat Your Pancreas” about a girl diagnosed with cancer who befriends a reluctant shy boy in her class.

 Right now I’m about halfway through and so far it’s pretty much your standard “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope, i.e. “Spritely girl shows introverted guy how to really live life and then reveals she is dying which is what made her life life to its fullest”…

I’m wondering if there’s going to be some big dramatic turn that I’m not expecting coming up, because so far, though it’s been enjoyable to read, it hasn’t really lived up to all the hype I’ve been hearing about it!

I see that an animated movie based on this manga came out last year…maybe I’d better check that one out and see if it grabs me more…

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Secret Life Of Tokusatsu Geeks: Fuka Koshiba in “Tokusatsu GaGaGa”

Fuka Koshiba as Kano Nakamura in Tokusatsu GaGaGa

Adorable Kano Nakamura (Fuka Koshiba) is a peppy and ordinary working OL on the outside, but what her co-workers don’t knows is that Kana is a closet Tokusatsu Geek who spends her every free moment at home watching Japanese Sentai shows and her whole paychecks go to purchasing Superhero CDs, DVDs and Magazines!

So obsessed with the Sentai Superheroes is Kano that they appear to her whenever she is in a dilemma as a sort of spiritual conscience such as giving up her seat on the train when she is DEAD tired from staying up and watching Tokusatsu all night!

While standing on the train, she happens to see another pretty young woman (Kana Kurashina) with a key charm featuring a character from her favorite Sentai show! Oh, how she wishes she could run up and tell the girl that SHE is a Tokusatsu fan, too! 

But she can’t. Because in the world she lives in, she knows that a grown woman still obsessing over superhero shows and toys would immediately be ostracized by her friendly co-workers!

She likens her hidden love of the genre with the Christians of early Japan who had to use code to relate to other Christians that they were of the same faith, and realizes that if she can get ahold of a similar keychain, then it would be a sign to other fans that she was  a tokusatsu geek like them!

And with that, Kano hilariously begins her mission to scour the city going to the vending machines in search of that perfect Sentai keychain hero, taking her to the arcades, stores and side streets!

But no matter what, she NEVER seems to get the trinket she wants, making her more and more and MORE obsessed!!! 

She even ventures to a candy store that she normally avoids run by a seemingly yakuza type thug in an attempt to get her desired keychain! She sees him take off for a smoke break and tries to get her toy...Unfortunately, he returns and she is forced to flee!!

I love this scenario so much! It reminds me of an old “Chibi Maruko-chan” episode where Maruko was secretly in love with Ichimonji “Kamen Rider 2” Hayato and would sneak to the candy store to purchase the bubble gum that his card came in (and failing just as spectacularly, I might add!)

Another relatable plight of the Tokusatsu fan is when Kano is at Karaoke with her fellow co-workers, and when she is forced to sing by a superior, she realizes she only knows Superhero songs!!!

Faced with the crushing embarrassment of being a secret Sentai geek, Kano flees the Karaoke room- only to be confronted by her childhood Sentai Hero…who tells her that the only way to get through it is to FACE her worries by going back…and SINGING her SENTAI songs HARD and TRUE!

With a new resolve, she goes BACK to the room, and grabbing the mic, belts out her childhood Sentai Show theme song  with ALL the passion she can muster, and like a rousing rendition of “Kamen Rider X”, she gets ALL her co-workers jumping up and SINGING ALONG!!!

AWWWWW, I’m LOVING this show (thanks Hamanosilence for the recommendation as always)…Fuka Koshiba is absolutely DARLING as the spazzy and sweet Kano,  and I can’t WAIT to see what she gets up to next!

PS: Bonus points for having Haruka “Murasaki” Kinami as a seemingly cold superior of Kano’s

 …and Yuki Matsushita as Kano’s strict, Sentai-hating MOTHER! LOL!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com