With the last episode of the highly entertaining drama Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari coming up, I thought it would fun to showcase one of the many things I loved about Minami Hamabe’s Mami Shirasawa: Her hilarious case of OCD whenever she and partner (Masaki Okada) are sitting down to a table to interview people for their cases!
No matter how serious the person or how grave the situation, Shirasawa just CAN’T focus until things are aligned as straight as she can make them, LOL
This has been a great little show so far (episode 6 was particularly great, a perfect mix of wackiness and seriousness), sad that they only allotted a mere 7 episodes for this series! Hopefully we get a Special or something afterwards!
With this drama, Minami Hamabe has moved WAY up in my list of new fave actresses!!!
Been dying to watch the new drama “Shanai Marriage Honey” starring Crush of The Day Alum Airi Matsui as a sweet and adorable girl named Ami Haruta who meets a man named Manatsu Miura (Mizuki Itagaki) on a Dating App and, though having no knowledge of him at all, marries him in a quick, whirlwind wedding!
Ami is a thoughtful and efficient secretary for a business with co-workers who like and care about her. She is engaged to a man named Kentaro (Katsumi Hyodo), but when he shamelessly boasts that he has been cheating on her, she calls it off.
Trying to deal with her feelings one night, she sees a man in a dating app that says he needs to marry a woman right away, no questions asked. This should clearly raise some alarms, but with the hurt in her heart from her fiance’s betrayal, Ami decides to click on the link in a spur of the moment act!
Fast forward a few days later, and the two are living together in Miura’s place as a newlywed couple! Though they seem like lovebirds, behind closed doors their relationship is purely platonic. Though mornings are cheerful and bright, this strange married couple have no physical relationship and in fact, do not even know where the other one works!
And so it is quite a shock for both when, one morning at the company, the elevator doors slide open…and the married couple comes face to face with each other!
The ride up is awkward as they pretend to not know each other, but once outside, they happily talk about the strange coincidence! “I guess we should keep out marriage a secret?” Ami says, and Miura is quick to agree. “Let’s keep it a secret for now”.
The couple is caught by some of the girls, to which Miura pretends he is talking to Ami about some business related quibble, and leaves. It’s here that Ami finds that the man she’s secretly married to is QUITE the catch and is extremely popular among the ladies!
No reason has been given for the circumstances in which Miura wanted to get married right away to a stranger, but as for Ami, she is falling fast for this thoughtful and soft spoken guy.
Despite their platonic partnership, Ami wants more, and even tries to push the agenda, dolling up and dressing in loose clothes for him. She gets Manatsu to drink beer with her, but he tells her that unless she really loves him , they shouldn’t do anything. But of course, Ami is already in love.
Very cute moment the next day when Ami decides to drop by and visit Miura in his office, just because. She looks so cute and you can see she REALLY likes him.
Going to the stairwell, Ami admits she has no reason to bother him and just wanted to see him. He tells her he ordered a package and that she should open it when she gets home.
Ami scampers off happily, but when a co-worker confronts Miura, we see that he may be hiding a darker agenda than an innocent marriage. What is the reason for this marriage facade, anyway? Why is he doing what he’s doing?
And what is going to happen to Ami, who is totally in love with the guy?
As she gets home and opens the parcel, we find that it is a box of CONDOMS, leading us to wonder…does this guy like Ami? Is their romance going to become a true one? Ah, we’ll have to keep watching to find out!
YES, this drama has an utterly RIDICULOUS premise: marriage to a stranger without knowing a SINGLE thing about them? And two beautiful looking people who shouldn't have any kind of problem getting marriage prospects, I might add!
All of this seems like a very whimsical manga story, but I DON'T CARE because Airi Matsui is simply KILLING it as the sweet Ami!! I already love this girl and this show is only making me love her even more!
Shanai Marriage Honey airs every Friday-Can't wait to see more of it!!!
There’s this new channel on youtube called “The First Take” where they invite artists on to do a “one take” of their songs, and their latest episode featured classic duo Def Tech doing a one take of their 2005 song “My Way”!
WOW, Shen and Micro sound JUST as great as EVER! From the moment they began singing I was locked in, and once the groove kicked in, I was happily swaying side-to-side— ALWAYS loved this song and those vocals and hooks knock me out all over again!!!
Whenever I hear “My Way”, I ALWAYS think of“Brother Beat”, the 2005 drama starring Misako Tanaka, Tetsuji Tamayama, Hayami Mokomichi and Nakao Kiyoshi as a Single Mother and her Three Sons, as it was the “insert” song played during key moments in the show~
Ryoko Kuninaka starred as a shy and mousey girl named Chisato who falls for Tamayama’s character Tatsuya, and I always loved the way the Def Tech song would play whenever “something seemed to be developing”, like a fun wink to the audience....Awwww, as some of you may know, I fell MASSIVELY in love with Ryoko Kuninaka in this drama. So sweet and pure, Chisato Tamura HAS to be my all-time favorite role she’s played! One of my FIRST “Crush of The Day” girls and certainly one of the most enduring ones as well!
Man, even just re-watching this episode to make the gif, I ended up watching 4 episodes of the show, I loved the storyline of her and Tatsuya SO damn much!
Sadly for Brother Beat, I did not care too much about either of the other two brothers, maybe that’s why despite how much I love the Ryoko Kuninaka parts, Brother Beat isn’t higher on my list of favorites…though it SHOULD be, on sheer Ryoko Kuninaka merit alone!!
Just began watching “Satsui No Michinori ~ the Road to Murder”,a mumbling murder mystery that could only have come from the mind of the eccentric Bakarhythm!! Our drama opens with the sombre scene of a funeral. Kazama Kubota’s (Arata Iura) father was a factory owner, but due to dealings with a shady company helmed by a businessman named Murooka (Shingo Tsurumi), he was forced into bankruptcy and committed suicide. Kubota holds Murooka personally responsible for his father’s death, and can hardly hold his frustrations in when the man arrives to pay his respects at the funeral.
After the funeral, Kubota is out having a smoke when his cousin Mitsuru (Bakarythm) comes out to talk. they share memories of the Father, and looking over how angry Kubota is, Mitsuru asks in a concerned voice, “You’re not thinking about getting revenge, are you?” To which Kubota adamantly denies.
And then, getting up to leave, Mitsuru says, “”Cause if you WERE…I’d help you.”And as the two look at each other, a silent pact is made….
The set-up seems so ominous and at first you might be thinking you’ve begun watching a very dark and serious drama… But as soon as the credits are over, you see JUST what kind of show you’re getting into, when we see the two men talking about planning the murder…while peeing and arguing about whose house they should hold the meeting at!
In the end, none of them wants the other guy to come to his house and they end up at a family restaurant, AHAHAHA!
First order of business: what is the NAME of their murder plan? The two toss out various names and though they think they’re slick and secretive, they keep getting interrupted mid-sentence by the waitress bringing them their food! Oh my GOD, I was laughing SO HARD!!!
“I’m thinking “Project M”….
"Project M?"
“Your sticky udon, Sir!”
. . .
"Okay...what's next?"
“How about “Burning Flames of Vengeance?”
“Your meat platter, Sir!”
LOL
As kids laugh out loud and play chase master, they finally figure out that a restaurant isn’t the best place to begin planning a murder, luckily Kazuma knows a guy named Hayato who has a flat that is unoccupied which they can use.
It’s a stylish place and the two get down to nailing down a name for their wonderful murder plans!
The two work hard at the list, and they’ve just about agreed to pick “Burning Flames Of Vengeance”...
...when who should burst in but Hayato (Kaii Gamon) and a hostess he picked up at a club!
"I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by, but you can continue to do what you were doing!” he says, eager to show his DJ stereo set-up to the girl.
“Hey, what’s that?” he asks, seeing the list of names, and Mitsuru is horrified to hear Kazama tell Hayato everything!
“Hayato, I have to tell you- I believe a man named Murooka is responsible for my father's death, and we're planning to take revenge. This is a list of names for our plan to kill him!” he blurts, to Hayato’s amazement.
A panicking Mitsuru pulls Kazama outside and scolds him for telling, but Kazama assures him that Hayato is OK.
“But what about that girl?”, he wonders, looking in on the two. "If Hayato trusts her, then I'm sure she’s fine", Kazama concludes.
Indeed, not only can the girl be trusted, once they are back inside and have resumed picking out a name for their murder plan, the sassy girl strides over to give them HER OWN opinion on their list!
Her name is Konoha (a VERY sassy and sexy Mayu Hotta) and, looking over their list, remarks, “Wouldn’t it be better to name your plan something completely unrelated to the murder?”, noting that most of their choices refer to the revenge.
"Let's see...what would a good name be..." On a whim, she picks up a flyer and exclaims, “here, what about Strawberry Fair? It’s completely unrelated!" The boys nod in awe and thus the plan is dubbed so!
How were you gonna kill the guy?” she asks, now completely interested in their plans, and when they say poison, she gives them a complete run-down of the pros and cons of poisoning someone. She really seems to know her stuff, and she even adds, “from watching crime drama on TV, I can tell you the top five ways to kill somebody!” And with that, the Hostess gives the guys a real textbook schoolin’ on murder!
After their very informative lesson in ways to kill someone, she gives them her card and with a twinkle in her eye, says, “Call me if you need any more help!”
MY! Looks like the boys' Murder Plans are off to a GREAT start!!!
AHAHAHA! Oh boy, as you all know, I’m a HUGE fan of Bakarythm’s “Suteki Na Sen Taxi” series, and when I saw he was writing and starring in this drama, I was hoping for some Sen Taxi style nuttiness- and that’s JUST what I got!
This show is already so much fun, and when the episode ended I was like “NOOOOOO! I want to see MORE!!!” Promises to be a terrific little show!!!
And MAN, Mayu Hotta…You know, I had only just started liking her through her performance in Kiken na Venus, but WOW, she simply STOLE the SHOW in this first episode!!!
Now I’m wondering if I should check out “Itoshi no Nina”!
