Crush of The Day: Elaiza Ikeda

 Just wrapped up “Hatarakazaru Monotachi“ which,besides being a short, fun drama you can binge in one sitting, is TOTALLY worth it for the ELAIZA IKEDA goodness ALONE!! 

Hatarakazaru Monotachi stars Gaku Hamada as a man named Hashida working for the I.T. department of a Newspaper. He’s noticed that while there are some employees who work hard, there are those who are lazy and simply goof off! Not that he’s much better, only half-assedly doing his work while he works on his online comic about “Ass-Man” LOL!

Part of him knows he should get down to working seriously, but the more he sees his fellow workers lazing around, the more demoralized he gets! But in time he realizes that these seemingly slacking employees have merit in what they do and he begins to see their worth.

Elaiza appears as Nana Kawae, the company’s HR employee who is the first to discover Hashida as Ass-Man’s author when she sees some doodles on his worksheets.

Confronting him, she steals every scene she’s in as she encourages him to continue his comic, give critiques and ideas which, however much unwanted by Hashida, inevitably help and INSPIRE him!

You all know how much I love my Elaiza and she KNOCKED ME OUT here!She was dolled up AS COULD BE in each episode as she helped/bossed Hashida, and I found myself waiting in anticipation to see what she would be dressed in next!!

Okay, full disclosure, despite how I may be presenting this, Elaiza 's part isn't that big, but WOW how great she is when she appears!!! After SO MANY posts about how lusciously SEXY Elaiza could be in various dramas and movies, it seems strange that this minor role would be the one where she finally attained Crush Status, but it was here that I really thought to myself, “Man! Elaiza is so freakin’ GOOD in every drama she’s in, so sexy and so CHARISMATIC!!!”

Definitely has become one of my BIG fave actresses !!!!

Ore No Ie No Hanashi

 As some of you may know, I am a HUGE fan of the 2007 rakugo based drama “Tiger And Dragon, and when I read that the same Director (Fuminori Kaneko) and Cast (Nagase Tomoya, Nishida Toshiyuki, Arakawa Yosi, etc) were going to be in a new drama Ore No Ie No Hanashi, I couldn’t wait to see it....

Basic storyline is that Pro Wrestler (Nagase) comes from an established family of NOH players, one of which he had long since abandoned. He gives up his career when he hears his father (Nishida) is ailing and prepared to take over the family legacy. But with a fussy father, grumpy siblings  and a suspicious  caretaker (Erika Toda) seemingly  interested in his father for his inheritance, he has his hands full....

So far I can't say I've been overly thrilled by this drama... Far from the fun premise of a Pro Wrestler becoming a NOH performer, this is filled with a lot of morose moments and draggy plot points..Hope the show picks up soon!

The Devil Wears Prada, Japan Version

 The story of the meek assistant and the domineering boss is an oft used trope of dramas, yet “Oh! My Boss! Koi wa Bessatsu de!” manages to make it fun and interesting show, one which I couldn't stop watching!

Mone Kamishiraishi is the shy and reserved Nami Suzuki, a girl who has only come to Tokyo to follow her childhood crush, but by chance ends up working for a new Fashion Magazine as the harried assistant of the Devilishly demanding supervisor Reiko Horai.

From day one Nami is put to task answering to all of Horai’s demands, running back and forth with parcels, setting up meetings, calling cabs and of course getting her coffee first thing in the morning! Horai has been appointed to held the launch of a new fashion magazine and she intends to put everyone to work to achieve her goals!

Wehn Nami feels she can’t go on, a young man whom she has met by chance, a pro photographer named Junnosuke (Yuta Tamamori) is there to offer support and keep her going.

Indeed, she soon becomes charmed by this guy and when he asks her help in pretending to be his girlfriend to get his parents off his back about marriage proposals, she jumps at the chance!

And so begins Nami’s double life of playing girlfriend to the kind Junnosuke while at the same time juggling the crushing task of being Reiko Horai’s overwhelmed assistant! 

Mone Kamishiraishi is slowly becoming a new fave of mine with her sweet and innocent portrayals of the wide-eyed, naive girls in the big city!

Like her earlier character Nanase Sakura in the drama “Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo”, Mone completely captures the small-town girl dazzled by the bright lights off the big city whose sincerity wins over even the hardest of hearts!

Posted by Zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

"Anonymous"

 Also began watching “Anonymous: Keishicho ”Yubisatsujin” Taisakushitsu”, the Shingo Katori- led task force created to combat cyberbullying and other crimes through social media.

Along with Katori as Wataru Banjo, we also have his partner Usui Sakiyoshi (Nagisa Sekimizu), MEGUMI as the “Computer hacker” character Rinko Suganuma and Shinjiro Koshiyagi (Masanobu Katsumura) as the team coordinator. Together they track the people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet to do their crimes.

There is also a side plot about Banjo with his former partner, Kuraki (Shim Eun-Kyung) who, after a shooting, is hospitalized and unresponsive. i guess this is going to be the 'larger" story with individual cases peppering each episode.

So far, the show is seeming more like a “Zettai-Reido Lite” drama than a show with original merit, but folks online are giving Anonymous good reviews, so I’ll stick around and see where this goes….

PS: Nice to see Nagisa Sekimizu again!