The Summer Season for 2024 is wrapping up, and this time there were quite a few shows I managed to catch! These are the ones I've completed, ranked in order of how much I liked them, as well as a brief summation of my thoughts...
Classmate no Joshi, Zenin Sukideshita
9/10
A late-addition to my Summer Season schedule, this drama about a bumbling but sincere young writer named Edamatsu (a hilarious Subaru Kimura) reminiscing about his childhood crushes as he tries to track down the person who may have written the story he plagiarized for his own novel simply CHARMED me throughout! Such a sweet and touching show, especially the flashback scenes of Edamatsu as a boy going through his various adventures and mishaps with the female classmates of whom he always seemed to hopelessly fall in love with!
Also a really nice role for pretty actress Yua Shinkawa as the determined editor Katayama, who is always on hand to encourage Edamatsu and praise his stories! Seen quite a few dramas of hers and this might be her most sweet and likeable role yet!
Billion x School
8/10
Have never been a fan of the 'troubled students" school drama set-up , however "Billion School" took all those cliches and treated them with a fresh new approach, making the old and tired chestnuts fun and interesting to watch!
Telling the story of a genius young man named Rei Kagami (Ryosuke Yamada) who wants to observe a typical class and use the information he gets teaching them to feed his upcoming AI Teacher program TEACH (Yumi Adachi) , his outspoken and arrogant ways skewed the old "kind and caring teacher" trope and you had to sit back and see how he was going to solve the problem of the week with his intellect, his innovative gadgets, and of course his insightful sidekick assistant teacher Serizawa (Haruka Kinami)!
Rojo no Ruka
8/10
8/10
Another late addition to my summer season schedule, this took me by surprise with how easily it grabbed my interest from the beginning and never let go for the entire run! A VERY dark and moody story of an orphaned little girl who loses her older sister in a natural disaster, and the small but important steps in her life she takes as she grows up to an adult. We are with her as she goes through friendships, tragedies and victories as we follow her journey to become a musician and find her voice.
This was an episodic drama based on a cinematic film starring the same cast, in which they were allowed to 'flesh out" the story and characters over 9 episodes, a very interesting concept that I wish more great movies would do!
No Activity 2
8/10
The entire wacky team from the Metropolitan Police Department of NO ACTIVITY is back, and as usual, they're up to their unhinged and eccentric ways, haphazardly handling situations in the most crazy and unprofessional methods, yet somehow always managing to stay ahead of the bad guys and unwittingly solving their cases!
Not that the cases even matter- with this self-centered and callous bunch, it's the journey more than the destination, and best part is taking a back seat to enjoy their colorful interactions with not only each other but everyone who happens to cross their paths, whether it be civilians, fellow officers or even the bad guys!
Densetsu no Head Sho
8/10
Lighthearted, fun and wacky comedy drama about a meek and much-bullied boy named Tatsuhito Yamada who suddenly finds himself in charge of the town’s wildest delinquent gangs when their leader is taken ill and he is placed as his "Double".
Honestly, even I'm surprised at how much I really liked this one- with its very teenybopper sensibilities, this was another more fit for a Nickelodeon TV show than a J-drama, but it had so much heart, and the use of the weak twin/rough twin morif kept each episode entertaining throughout!
Otto no Katei wo Kowasu Made
7/10
I'll say ONE thing for the scattershot and uneven "Otto no Katei wo Kowasu Made"- I was NEVER bored! The story of a woman (Marika Matsumoto in a virtual tour-de-force!) who, when she finds out her husband has been cheating on her and is only married to her for her inheritance and decides to extract revenge on he and his other family, was as over-the top and overly melodramatic as you'd expect, but BOY was it entertaining going through it! Not gonna lie, every episode ended with me dying to see what came next, and they even managed a satisfying wrap-up! Not many dramas can land an end but this one did just fine, making me say to myself by the show's conclusion, "Huh! That was pretty good!"
Umi No Hajimari
7/10
Aw man, I had such high hopes for this drama when it began. The story of a young man who, upon his ex-girlfriend’s passing and finding out he has a young daughter by her, had so many avenues and opportunities to explore, however by the halfway point I began to realize it was going to be one of those meandering kind of shows where everyone is in a constant melancholic daze struggling with ‘feelings”, and MAN, they just WOULD NOT STOP blaming the guy for supposedly “abandoning” his child, even though he had NO SAY in the matter whatsoever. Down to the second to last episode they were still making him out to be the unreliable deadbeat, and I kept waiting for a vindication that never came!
For most of the show's airing it was my favorite drama, and there were certainly many sweet and touching moments, sadly by its conclusion it ultimately became an "also ran for" me....
Watashi Moratte Tsuioku Hen
7/10
When fans of the 2021 sci-fi flick DUNE went to go see it inthe theaters, many were rightfully surprised to find they had been sitting through part ONE of the movie, with a whole 'nother as yet to be released movie coming up to conclude event. WELL, gotta say that's EXACTLY what happened with Watashi Moratte Tsuioku Hen, a drama about a girl and a ghostly partner trying to solve the mystery of their would-be murders which ended on a cliffhanger and was announced to be continued in a drama called "Watashi wo Moratte: Koiji Hen"! ARGH! Fortunately, the subbers of the first picked up the sequel, so it looks like more Sayu Kubota goodness to come!
Warau Matryoshka
7/10
I have mentioned before how I try to avoid these political kind of shows where most of the dialog is the characters rattling off people and places and they run from place to place, and sure enough, I spend most of my time confused as to who they were talking about and had to constantly go back and re-check names! A complicated drama like this usually gets a pass by me, however, I found Warau Matryoshka so interesting, and even though it was hard keeping up, I always found myself dying to see what would happen next!
Elpis
7/10
A drama from last year, the much-praised ELPIS with Masami Nagasawa and Gordon Maeda as two news journalists who get attached to a man set to be executed for a crime that it seems he did not commit. Was an interesting enough if, very predictable and basic premise, I only wish the two leads weren’t so damn wishy-washy throughout the show- it seemed like they either were manically obsessed with the case, giving up in despair, or flat out ignoring it, switching over and over, you never knew which character you were going to get in any given scene!
Kanzen Muzai
7/10
Psychological thriller regarding a convicted serial killer who claims innocence and ends up being represented by one of the killer's victims herself, this drama kept everyone guessing as to the convicted felon's motives, as well as the original police detectives who put him away, and even the lawyers themselves. A drama I was RELIEVED to find was a "mystery" drama that didn't end up with the same old cliches most crime dramas like this are ridden with nowadays!
Awesome acting from all, especially Alice Hirose as the lawyer caught between doing what's right and her own personal beliefs.
Onsha no Midareta Shimasu
7/10
"What is your Opinion of Affairs?" the drama asks, and if it doesn't involve anyone around them, a job's position is to simply look the other way. But when the affair begins cause trouble to the employees, something must be done! Really enjoyed most of this drama with Hirona Yamazaki as a woman hired as an "Office-Affair Ender" whose goes onsite undercover to various businesses, seek out the problem and with the use of her partners and her own beauty and savvy, exposes and extracts the offending parties in a most satisfying fashion!
Only drawback is that at the beginning of each story, you have to watch all the all the troubles the co-workers have to deal with dealing with the weaselly cheaters, so aggravating to sit through!
Furitsumore Kodoku na Shi yo
6/10
A drama that began with an intriguing story of a serial killer of abused runaway children, the first half was very compelling, with the detectives doing all they can to connect the dots and track down the insane perpetrator, however by the second half, it seemed that every episode they seemingly "caught" the bad guy, only to reveal that the REAL killer is someone else, a bait-and-switch that really began to annoy me. By the show's actual conclusion, they had "faked me out" so much that I did not even care who the true villain was, just wanted to get it over with!
Saionji-san wa Kaji wo Shinai
6/10
The story of a businesswoman who takes in a man and his young daughter and proceed to create a "Fake Family" sounds like a trope we've heard a million times, and indeed this was an entirely by-the -numbers drama, its sole saving grace is Wakana Matsumoto, who effortlessly and SWEETLY charms throughout the show with her portrayal of the sincere, positive and hard-working Itsuki Saionji. I only wish this had more of a story than the main leads finding every reason to NOT be together, very frustrating to sit through each episode as they play the "she loves me she loves me not" game back and forth...They really stretched the "Romance Denial" cliche into 11 episodes, oh my.
Ichiban Sukina Hana
6/10
Story of four individuals (Mikako Yabe, Kohei Matsushita, Kamio Fugu, Mio Imada) who rarely get along with others, who find solace in the house of one them, a place where they can be themselves and are accepted for who they are and what they believe. A warm and chummy show, with likeable characters, however I did feel that they kind of ran out of story to tell by the second half and maybe the show could have been shorter? Seemed a bit...meandering towards the end there.
Maruhi no Mitsuko
6/10
For a drama that began with an almost surreal sense of magical-realism, by the show's latter half, this tale of a lowly caretaker who, through the help of a mysterious makeover artist and works her way up to the top of a huge corporation, sadly became just another predictable and cliched business drama.
Sky Castle
6/10
A drama about a series of rich Physicians' Families living in the fantastic affluent gated community SKY CASTLE, who will do anything to further their own successes in both work and for the educational future of their children, even if it resorts to cutthroat tactics!
For a drama that started off strong and compelling, it sure got zany and ridiculous in the middle there, with the characters doing the most outrageous and unbelievable things! By the end, it was hard to take seriously!
Mountain Doctor
5/10
A drama that came out just about the same time as the Tomohisa Yamashita drama "Blue Moment", both of these copied the "Code Blue" blueprint of taking the medics out of the hospital and into remote terrains, but aside from the locations of the accidents and the type of injuries, followed a mostly basic Doctor/Hospital drama...There were a few interesting cases here and there, but it was REALLY irritating the way they kept having the main character get yelled at and blamed for every choice he makes by everyone around him. "It's YOUR Fault!" they screech over and over, til I had to just tune out the noise.
Geeks: Keisatsusho no Henjintachi
5/10
Mayu Matsuoka, Minami Tanaka and Karen Takizawa as three self-professed "geeks" working in various departments of the Police Precinct. Had hopes for this one, sadly I must say that I found that during most of the cases I was bored and the eventual solutions felt also fairly mundane. I wish they focused more on the girls' supposed "geeky" hobbies, I thought it was going to factor in to their methods of solving the cases, alas for the most part they were just like any other standard characters...
Nichiyo no Yoru Gurai wa…
5/10
Story of three girls from completely different backgrounds who meet thru a comedy duo travel tour and create an unlikely friendship.There for each other thru hard times, their bond is intensified when they jointly win the grand prize in a raffle and suddenly have the money to make their dreams come true.
A story with likable main characters, only wish I didn't have to sit through all the scenes with the horrible parents doing everything they can to ruin their childrens' lives...every time the selfish adults appeared, I felt the need to watch the show in double and even triple speed just to get through them.
Aoshima Kun wa Ijiwaru
5/10
Another drama with those arrogant "tsundere" male leads that I absolutely loathe- conceited, brash and rude, and of course the female lead can't HELP but fall madly in love despite his attitude and treatment of her.
"We hate each other but secretly love each other", "The lazy Subordinate who gives the boss all her work", the "I Love You So I Have to Dump You"...Cliches, Cliches, Cliches...all the tropes I dislike, I don't know HOW I got through this! Like "Coffee and Vanilla" or "Love Rerun" and the like, this kind of story is really outside of my wheelhouse, however, I HAD to see it for Anne Nakamura, who remains as lovely and charming as ever...
WELL, that about wraps it up for THIS round of dramas for the season...one can only wonder what will be coming up NEXT!
