Taking on "Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon" at Last!

Ryoko Yonekura as the titular Dr.X/Michiko Daimon

 After a good 20+ years on, I’m FINALLY tuning in to the long-running “Doctor X” Series, and many would say it’s about time!  For some unknown reason or another, I've always been slightly off-put by actress Ryoko Yonekura, which is odd since I’ve liked her in just about every drama I’ve seen her in- (especially Seikei Bijin which is a big fave)- Maybe it was being constantly told by overzealous fans how cool, beautiful, and badass she was, but somehow it got to the point where every time I saw a new show with Yonekura, I’d think, “Meh, not her again…”

Such was my frame of mind when her new series “Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon” debuted in 2012. Seeing her in yet another “Cool Beauty who is also a Badass” role, I immediately passed on it, and even as the show became more and more prolific over the years and harder to ignore, I’ve still resisted checking it out!

It was only in recent years, after falling in love with similar medical shows featuring standoffish “I Never Fail” Surgeons, like in “Get Ready”, “Dr. Chocolate” and most notably of all, the Wakana Matsumoto “Dr. Asura” (which REALLY seemed like a Dr.X clone) , that I felt it was time to give the ORIGINAL drama a try!

Looking it up, I have to say that even though I’ve known that was a long-running series, I was still a little surprised to find that DoctorX had SEVEN seasons, plus special, movie, and even spinoff series, and while I had no intention of watching ‘em ALL, I did ultimately decide to give the first season a chance!

Well, the character of “Michiko Daimon” was indeed a real Ryoko Yonekura prototype for sure, but I GOTTA say, I was entertained from the VERY beginning and had to laugh at all the entirely comic-like arrogance she showed, even as she dazzled with her amazing operating-room orchestrations!

Each episode was as good as the one before, and soon I even began to anticipate coming home from work and watching the next episode, as if I was watching it in “real time”, and by the halfway mark found I really adored this character, fantastic as she may be! 

The show got better and better as it went on, and I gotta tell you, the final episode arc was as gripping and EXCITING as anything I’d ever seen-VERY powerful and dramatic, I was on the edge of my seat it was so damn GOOD!!!

Sure, all the usual medical drama tropes are here- the confrontational patients, the argumentative and stand-offish other doctors (Masanobu Katsumura, Kosuke Suzuki) , the wide-eyed newbie who looks on in awe (Kei Tanaka)…the seasoned veteran who slowly sides with the hero's methods and becomes a silent partner of sorts (Yuki Uchida)....

...and of COURSE, the corrupt Hospital Board of Directors! Yes, EVERY Hospital drama MUST have corrupt Board of Directors, and as a rule, must eat steak at meetings - J-Dramas ALWAYS have the rich and corrupt eating steak to show how greedy and selfish they are!

YES, the drama is full of cliches and a heap of predictability too...But yet somehow it all WORKS, in no small part due to the efforts of Ryoko Yonekura whom I grudgingly admit really has the charisma to pull off the hard headed outspoken narcissistic genius Daimon Michiko into a likable character and makes you root for her and cheer her on to succeed! This is a STELLAR vehicle which seems just made for her; to paraphrase director Jack Wolz in the Godfather- "The part is perfect for her- It'll make her a big star!"  And indeed, it does... I really, really loved Doctor X! 

Funny, reading up on fan opinions online afterwards, I found people’s ideas of which were the good seasons and weak ones really varied, with most citing season one as the weakest, with the writers still discovering who the characters really were, and some saying the later seasons lose its way into repetitiveness. But for me, MAN, if season one is the bottom and can only go up, then I guess I’ve just GOTTA see more!

Ironic that after all these years of avoiding this series, only NOW am I getting into it, right when lead actress Ryoko Yonekura is calling it quits on the series and begging off doing any more, wanting to do things outside of the Michiko Daimon role- the Doctor X Movie says it’s the “FINAL” and though who knows how much water THAT statement holds, it really seems I’m coming in at the last minute to the festivities! Oh well, better LATE than NEVER!

Now I’ve got some SERIOUS catching up to do…!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Seiko Matsuda "Rock'n Rouge"

Though I've a penchant for Seiko's 90's album releases (as that was the era I first discovered her), I do have a certain attachment to some of her early singles, especially from the '83-'84 era, and among them one big fave is her 1984 single "Rock'n Rouge"!
I recently came across this video of Seiko appearing on the legendary show "Yoru no Hit Studio" giving a live performance of Rock'n Rouge , and I dunno, maybe it's being so used to modern artists with all their electronic editing and pitch correcting, but I was BLOWN AWAY by how awesome her voice was- she really hit all those hooks, sustained it wonderfully,  and belted it right outta the park!

Additionally, I must say that her vibe was just sparkling- besides looking adorable as heck, she looks SO happy singing here, really a true "joy of performing"! And as an added bonus, I love how the song wraps up- in the single, the song fades out after the brass horn refrains, but in this live performance they craft an actual finish which gives it an extra zing!

Seiko had done an oldies medley at the 2019 Kohaku  which did include Rock'n Rouge, but I was sorely bummed when it only got two lines, so wonderful to see the Yoru no HIT Studio performance and hear the song in its "fuller" form! (Yes, I know it's still shortened from the actual 45, but ya know what I mean!)

BTW, the video is upscaled with AI, a new trend I've been seeing more and more of lately, and while artificial enhancing is generally frowned upon, I really love what these techs have been able to do, especially with the earlier 80s and 90's stuff...just great!

YIPS Back on my Viewing Schedule!

Bakarhythm and Shinohara Ryoko in YIPS

After being dropped by its initial subbing team back in 2024, the Bakarhythm/Ryoko Shinohara crime drama YIPS is happily being subbed by a new group and after all this time,  I'm finally going to be able to check it out! And so far, it's been GREAT!

In sports there is an ailment called YIPS, those cases when an athlete suddenly psychologically loses the ability to do some move or action anymore, and this drama tells the story of two people suffering from a similar psychosis. There is Toru Morino (Bakarhythm), a police detective who, after years of being lauded as the genius ace of the department who always cracks his cases, suddenly finding him unable to properly do his job due to the overwhelming expectations laid upon him.

And then there is Miko Kuroba (Ryoko Shinohara), a famous crime novelist who, after years of penning best seller after best seller, is faced with the same crippling burden of over-expectation for her new work, and when she sits at her desk, finds herself unable to come up with a single idea.

By chance the two characters end up at a popular new spa, and while they ming their own business at first, Morino instantly recognizes Kuroba and begins pestering her with questions about her new novel, and why her last few were so mediocre. How Rude!

Through his words, Kuroba realizes this guy has been criticizing her works on social media under an alias, and calls him out! While they immediately begin to bicker and get on each others' nerves, it is cut short when they discover a dead body floating in the spa pool nearby!

As a mystery writer, Kuroba is thrilled to be witness to such a crime, gushing "This is the first time seeing a real life corpse!" to the detective heading the case, the pompadour coiffed Sakai (Ryosuke Mikata). But Morino seems determined to keep out of it, perplexing her, until he reveals his position as a detective and his malady of being psychologically unable to complete his investigations.

It's here that Kuroba comes up with the novel idea for them to pool together their efforts- she'll help him with his shortcomings in the investigation, and she'll use the knowledge she gains from the case to get out of her book writing slump!

With two such opposite characters (Kuroba an outspoken loudmouth and Morino a mumbly recluse), you'd think this partnership can't last, but what do you know, they really compliment each other, and make signifiant headway into the crime- including zeroing in on cutie-pie guest of the week Reina Triendl as their main suspect....

Yes, when these two put their heads together, it seems they can crack any case! And with some success, they may even get over their self-imposed YIPS syndromes and get back to their jobs in earnest!

I was initially drawn to this drama for the Bakarhythm connection, however it's not a Bakarhythm-scripted show this time, and rather one he's simply co-starring in. Nonetheless it's fun and he and Shinohara are GREAT together!!!  This will be a drama well worth the long WAIT!

Favorite J-Pop Songs: Miho Nakayama: "Title", Revisited!!

 Awhile ago I had gushed about the Miho Nakayama song ”Title”, an album-only track off her excellent 1994  release “Pure White” and, upon seeing the songwriting credited to “To Be Continued”, wondered if they were the same group featuring Kohki Okada/Taka Sato/Tomosuke Goto. WELL, perusing the awesome GENERASIA page recently, I found a footnote to that Miho Nakayama song which noted that not only was it INDEED that selfsame To Be Continued that wrote it, they had actually covered it themselves, on their 1994 album “Beyond The Light”!!!

For some reason, their version was called “Ashita E No ACCENT”, a fitting name since that was the recurring chorus line in both versions, wonder why Miho’s one was called “Title”. In any case, I HAD to hear it, and I have to say that BOTH versions are pretty darn GREAT!!

As some of you know, “Title” was the very first song I knew from Miho Nakayama, heck, one of the very first J-Pop songs I ever knew PERIOD, and I am HUGELY sentimentally attached to it. Even today the strains of the chorus take me back to those golden days of early J-Pop discovery!!

MAN, I still can't believe this wasn't a SINGLE for Miho, I think it woulda rocked the charts at least as much as the album's actual single release "Sea Paradise  OL no Hanran"!

PS: Ironically enough, the first song I ever knew from To Be Continued, (given to me on a mix tape by the same guy who gave me the Miho one), was ALSO a non-single, album-only track, the awesome HOLIDAY (from their album Music-a-Holic), another favorite J-Pop single I've got to write about someday as well!!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Tokiko Kato: "Bara Iro no Handkerchief"

 By mid-1996, I was completely immersed in all things J-Pop and picked up two J-Pop compilations, Sony Records “Complete CF Songbook” and “TV-CF Songbook”” two terrific albums which introduced me to a whole new bunch of musical artists and songs, including acts like Rie Miyazawa, MISATO, NOKKO, Masatoshi Ono, and Ruriko Kuboh, and of whom had songs on it that would eventually become all-time favorites of mine!

Among all the pop/rock tracks, however, was a decidedly NON poppy song, a gentle vocal ballad called “Bara Iro No Handkerchief” and, though not the style of J-pop I was currently into, really caught my ear and had me replaying it over and over! 

The artist was a woman named Tokiko Kato, and though I did not know it at the time, was (and still is) a legendary vocalist in Japan of Diva-like status for her powerful and moving songs. All I knew was  that I could not get the song out of my head and though it didn’t fit in with my usual J-pop songs and I probably wouldn’t be blasting it at work, still had to tack it on the end of a mix tape so I could listen to it on my walk home!

Eventually I made a definitive mix compilation culling my favorite tracks from those two CD collections, beginning with the explosive “Otoko” by Ruriko Kuboh, down through songs like “Hitosuji Ni Narenai“ by Kome Kome Club, "Totteoki No Toki" Seishiro Kusunose, “Akai Hana” by Rie Miyazawa and others, and for its album closer was, yes,  Tokiko’s “Bara Iro no Handkerchief” , a PERFECT conclusion, and it always left me feeling in a melancholoy mood every time I listened to the tape!

I was just listening to the said J-Pop mix tape, and upon hearing Bara iro No handkerchief again, just got goosebumps listening to it…it’s so darn great! Sombre and soothing, like a cool night wind…

Must say that I had no idea back then that those two Sony Music CD compilations would have such an everlasting impact on my J-pop music experience...two albums well worth their price!!!