A Sculpture Mystery Solved

 Got the identification of yet another classic J-drama Deja-Vu hot spot solved, and through the most intersting of ways! Redditor spellbunny was in Japan, walking around Shinjuku when they came upon a sculpture that they INSTANTLY recognized- It was the sculpture where hapless otaku Tsuyoshi (Atsushi Ito) meets up with his dream date Saori (Misaki Ito) in the TV adaptation of the classic Densha Otoko story!

Posting “Any Densha Otoko fans recognize this spot? I was wandering around Shinjuku and randomly found this spot and was AMAZED!!!” Spellbunny’s thread was filled with other excited Densha Otoko fans who also immediately recognized the sculpture as that pivotal place in the drama!

Below: Atsushi Ito and Misaki Ito in Densha Otoko at the sculpture

Well, as for me, I ALSO immediately recognized the statue...but not because of Densha Otoko (which at the time  I admit that I had not seen!), but through two OTHER dramas that it appeared in: the popular NHK asadora Churasan with Ryoko Kuninaka...

...and the wacky Yume Wo Kanaeru Zo with Asami Mizukawa!

Some of you may even remember me posting about it waaaaay back in 2010, where I wondered if it was some "famous statue or something", LOL!  I had no idea, but I wouldn’t find out what the sculpture was until some 15 years later!!

It was in spellbunny’s reddit thread that redditor RedditEduUndergrad2  finally identified the piece and place for us, linking the googlemaps coordinates to the Shinjuku Monolith Building and leading us to that corner with that sculpture! WOW! 

Continuing on, RedditEduUndergrad2 continued:

“The area around Tocho/Tokyo Metroplitan Govt Building is a very popular area to film. Probably because of it's proximity to the Shinjuku train station making it easy for staff to get to and the number of hotels for stars and guests. The area directly around Tocho also has a very wide path with long streets and not a lot of foot traffic most of the time.”

And that’s how a random reddit comment uncovered another J-drama Deja-Vu mystery location for me!! The things you can learn via the jdrama community continues!

Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Dear My Baby: Watashi ga Anata wo Shihai suru Made

Keiko Yoshikawa (Yuki Matsushita) is a passionate and driven talent manager who has just been unceremoniously dumped by her latest star Reina just as she attains super-stardom, leaving her feeling betrayed and discarded by someone she has cared for with all her heart over the years.

Stumbling the streets in despair after the news, she bumps into a young man whom she immediately sees as star-making material, and, forgetting her sadness, jumps at the chance of discovering and nurturing a new talent! Below: Life has no meaning anymore!

...or DOES it?

A chance encounter in the street

Yoshikawa expressing her desire to sign him and make him a star.

He's on board!

His name is Takuto Moriyama (Kota Nomura), and as a guy who has dealt with abandonment issues all his life, warms to the kind and appreciable words from Yoshikawa’s mouth. He shyly agrees to become her new protege, and within weeks is on his way! But he will find that he may have gotten himself into a situation he can’t get out of: For as passionate as Keiko is about making him a star, her over-the-top possessiveness with him will be greater and, perhaps due to her earlier betrayal, will seek to keep and control every single aspect of his life in the days to come!!

At first, Yoshikawa makes good on her word to get Takuto in the door. And though he doesn't seem to have much actual talent, she stays by him and coaches him mercilessly every day, wanting him to be the best he can be for his auditions...

 However, when the casting agents and directors don't warm up to Takuto, we see that Yoshikawa can be dangerous and aggressive in getting her way, using favors, psychological tricks and even flat out BLACKMAIL to force the agencies to hire her new charge. Underhanded and conniving, she ALWAYS gets her way!!

Though Takuto is too naive to see how unhinged Yoshikawa can be at first, outsiders can tell what’s going on right away and try to warn him. One person who really shows concern for him is actress Miyu Nagumo (Yurika Nakamura), Takuto's female co-star in the drama they are in together. She takes a shine to him and eventually becomes his safe harbor away from Yoshikawa’s talons.

And as Miyu and Takuto’s relationship deepens from co-stars to perhaps something more, so does Yoshikawa’s OBSESSIVE grip on him, creating tensions that continue to build up until its' inevitable explosion….

HAHAHA, oh MY, I do LOVE an over-the top stalker story, and at the halfway mark DEAR MY BABY is checking off all the boxes! Utterly fantastical and entirely predicable in its storylines, it's nonetheless one of the most ENTERTAINING shows on right now!!

PS: I also love how loveable Yuki Matsushita has been making a new career playing these crazy stalker-y Mom figures- you all may remember her turn as Fuka Koshiba’s possessive mommy in “Tokusatsu Ga Ga Ga”, and here we have her turned up to 11!!!!

GOTTA see what happens NEXT!!!!

The Disruptor Strikes Again

DO I REALLY have to sit by and watch this guy derail the career of yet ANOTHER actress that I really love? Christ, first time with Meisa Kuroki was such a blow, but reading the new headlines, this time with with Alice Hirose, I just feel... disappointment.

2012 Headlines:

My reaction then:

2025 Headlines:

My reaction now:

Sigh. Maybe I'm jumping the gun and it's all just rumors. Or heck, maybe they'll be good for each other and there won't be any adverse effects on Alice's career, I.E. knocking her up like he did Meisa Kuroki and having her withdraw from activities....

Exactly what Patty says. Good Grief.

Wakana Matsumoto is "Dr. Asura"

Generally speaking from my limited observations, J-drama medical series tend to fall into two camps: one where the show is more grounded in real-life (so to speak) where it’s mostly about gifted surgeons with a strong sense of doing what is right, (think shows like Radiation House, Fragile, Lady Davinci no Shindan, Unnatural, etc), and then there are the ones which feel more like sci/fi super-hero thrillers, with quirky physicians boasting almost superhuman medical abilities (Get Ready, Dr. White, even the charming Doctor Chocolate)...

And now we have the spirited “Dr. Asura” which seems to be mostly of the latter style, featuring the brooding Shura Anno (played with deadpan delivery by the svelte Wakana Matsumoto) who has an almost preternatural sense when it comes to the patients she sees in the Emergency Room of a struggling Hospital!

She can sense any malady a patient may have- simply by sight, smell and/or their actions and she even knows when a new admission is on its way even before the telephone can ring! And her skills in almost any field of surgery is unsurpassed- even performing TWO operations at ONCE!

Dealing with the injured at the scene of a horrific accident along with her newbie subordinate Yakushiji (Masaya Sano), they must think on their feet as they meet unexpected challenges...

Beautiful, calculated and always cool, in the end, the obsessed Dr. Asura and her team always gets the job done! But there is a dark past fueling Anno's determination, and the operating room victories are always bittersweet. Thanks are rarely given and indeed unwanted. The patient's well being  and recovery is her only desire.

As is natural for ALL Japanese medical dramas though, the real problems aren’t the emergencies that come their way or the complications the patients bring with them, but (of COURSE), those corrupt hospital heads, all crooked and up to (seemingly) no good, and it’s up to Asura Sensei to defy them all! 

Nagisa Katahira

Atsuro Watabe

Seiichi Tanabe (with Worst Haircut of the Season)

Yoshiyoshi Arakawa

Koyuki

Shiro Sano as the big bad hospital director Fudo

Checked this one out for the charismatic Wakana Matsumoto and she’s a real dream in the front seat of this drama- really like her character and despite the show’s many cliches, is somehow quite fun to sit back and watch! Watching Dr. Asura,  it almost seems like they’re setting this series up to be the next generation’s “Doctor X”! 

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com