Notes on "Destiny"

Story of a girl named Kanade Nishimura whose Father suddenly and mysteriously committed suicide when she was in middle school. Because of this, she grew up as a shy and introverted person who shunned friendship, til she meets a group of friendly students who take her under their wing and accept her as one of their group!

Starring Satomi Ishihara in the lead role as Kanade, this is another cast of starts, with Kazuya Kamenashi as Masaki Nogi, Emma Miyazawa as Tomomi Mori, Minami Tanaka as Kaori Oikawa, and Yuma Yamato as Yuko Umeda....

This group will eventually bring Kanade out of her shell, and for the first time, will experience comradeship and bonding with others. "Let's be friends forever" one says, and they all agree!

Sadly, this will not last, and the partnership shatters when one of the group is killed in an accident. Moreover, one of them, Nogi, who was present at the scene of the accident, disappears after the funeral, seemingly never to be seen again....

Fast forward to the present day as Kanade is working as a lawyer for the Prosecuting Office. She seems content with the life and even has a romantic partner Takashi Okuda (Masanobu Ando).

But when she crosses paths with that same man who had disappeared from their lives after the time of the accident. And as she tries to discover where he has been and what he has done, the truth about not only the death of her college friend but of her own father’s suicide will come to light…

Only seen the first episode which mostly set-up the story without revealing much, but I dunno, this one doesn’t grab me at all. May be the slow pace and meandering style, but I found myself trailing off a few times during the show! Will watch a few more to see where this goes, but I’m already getting 100 Man Kai Ieba Yokatta vibes from this,  and THAT one was a dreary and dragged out murder mystery which I really had to slog through.  Nonetheless, it seems this one's already a HUGE hit, so MY lukewarm response is DEFINITELY in the minority... will love to be proved wrong in my initial analysis!

Posted by zdorama @zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Gossip: #Kanojo ga Shiritai Honto no 〇〇

 Ririko Seko (Haru Kuroki) is a no-nonsense clerk in the accounting department of a major publishing company. She is highly regarded by her superior Masaki Niwa (Masanobu Ando) not only for her diligent accounting, but for her keen eye in discovering discrepancies and untruths in the receipts the employees give her; with only few clues she can get to the truth of things like a determined detective!

So good at her job is Rikako that Niwa takes her out of accounting and gives her a NEW task: To be placed as the head of a dying online news site the company owns named CAMPHOR News, straighten the employees up and re-focus the site as a Gossip Column instead of the old cut-and-paste News Site they were…and get viewership UP!

As soon as she gets there, she immediately bumps heads with the staff, for one thing, these are all employees who have long since given up on their Media site being popular and lazily drag their feet and scoff. Adding the problem is Ririko’s cold and unfeeling way of addressing people and situations, seeing everything in black and white with no room for feelings to get in the way.

But it is this very intensity about her that the staff will discover makes her unique, and they learn that because of her unwavering adherence to facts, she is able to turn a mere “gossip rag” story into a REAL News piece, and make Camphor News the place where a reader can find the actual truth about things! And slowly, she begins to earn the respect of her so-called peers….

Along with Ririko, the Camphor Staff are:

Michiharu Nezu (Junpei Mizobata)

Makoto Ichimoto (Anna Ishii)

Shuto Shimouma (Shuhei Nomura)

and Seiji Kabatani (Toru Nomaguchi)

REALLY enjoying this one so far, Ririko is yet another wonderful role for the talented Ms. Kuroki. Quite a relief to see for myself because I had seen early buzz online about the show's low ratings and people saying Ririko is “an unlikeable character that rubs you the wrong way”…I absolutely did NOT feel that (though I suppose the other characters in the show were meant to) and in fact I found her quite sweet and naive, a character I wanted to know MORE about!!!

There is this scene of Ririko fighting the urge to take a picture of a cute kitty, and watching it, I felt the same feeling I got seeing her in “Mi Wo Tsukushi Ryoricho” and “Nagi No Oitoma”, slowly paced, no dialog, just the camera following this girl...

Already up to episode 3 and am looking forward to more!!!!!

A Few Good Men with Misako Renbutsu in “Riso No Otoko”

 Also been loosely watching the drama “Riso No Otoko~ The Ideal Man” starring Misako Renbutsu and Mina Fujii as two women going through the hoops and rings of romance as they make their way through a gaggle of guys in hopes of finding that one man who is truly for them!

Toko Komatsu (Renbutsu) is a hairdresser who is loved by her customers for her kind and caring ways. 

One day she is visited by her friend Marisa Azumi (Fujii), a Literary Editor, who has a favor to ask: to make her introverted client look presentable for his first big writer’s award.

A practical Hikkikomori, writer Mitsuyasu (Masanobu Ando) doesn't see the need  to get all dressed and cleaned up for an award, but he is won over by Toko’s positive attitude.

And so it is taht with a clip here and a cut there, Toko manages to deliver a spry and spiffy Mitsuyasu to the ceremony, just in time to accept his award! And along the way, he finds himself attracted to Toko….

Along the way Toko brushes with Keigo Shima (Ryosuke Mikata) , who happens to be a childhood friend of Toko’s. Keigo is an Editor working with Marisa and is delighted to see her at the ceremony. He tells Marisa that he and Toko are just friends, but you know when they say that, there’s a romance plot coming up…

There’s also a young art designer named Masami Takano (Toshiki Seto) working with the team who has a secret fancy for Marisa, and as the drama goes on, we will see how the five characters act and interact with each other in search of that “Special Someone”…

Been awhile since I've seen Mina Fujii in a starring role, and Misako renbutsu is always entertaining, we'll see where this one goes....