A Crush By Any Other Name

Though I’ve mentioned it before, it’s still a surprise when I remember that recent Crush Of The day Alice Hirose isn’t her real name, nor is her younger sister Suzu's! And stepping back, there are actually quite a few actresses I love going by stage names, and here are just a few of them!

Mayuko Oishii

Alice Hirose

Suzuka Oishii

Suzu Hirose

Aya Tademaru

Haruka Ayase

Kuniko Ishigami

Satomi Ishihara

Sayasa Matsuoka

Mirei Kiritani

Satsuki Shimabukuro

Meisa Kuroki

Tomoko Anzai

Misaki Ito

Keiko Mizukawa

Asami Mizukawa

Yu Natsui

Yu Aoi

Yuko Ishii

Yuko Araki

Riko Tsukamoto

Riko Narumi

And then of course, you have your actresses who go mononymously by their singular first names…

Haru Minami

Haru

Nanao Arai

Nanao

Karina Nose

Karina

Anne Watanabe

Anne (though recently she's been using her full name)

Well, these are just a few that I know off the top of my head, though I’m sure there are dozens more!

Kanako Munehiro/Sarina Suzuki

Another Aoi Yu

Issei Takahashi and Aoi Yu in Romance Doll

You would have thought a movie where beautiful Aoi Yu is hired by a Sex Doll company to make a mold of her bust (under the impression she is modeling for prosthetics) would be a fun and wacky romp!

Far from it, the movie Romance Doll is a rather sombre affair dealing with love and illness and all that melancholia...this was jsut like the old Doona Bae movie "Air Doll" where a guy's sex doll comes to life. I expected a whole lotta wacky hilariosity but got a seriously introspective movie instead.

 Such is Romance Doll!

Posted by zdorama@zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Delightful Divergence in Hello Harinezumi

Extreme Exorcist Aoi Yu!!!!

I was fairly excited about the detective drama “Hello Hari Nezumi” because at first it seemed to be a humorous and quirky show but it soon settled into a generic and cliched “Corrupt Businessmen and Politicians who Murder Innocent People” formula.

Truthfully after episode 3, I found the drama to be so boring that the folder on my desktop sat there untouched for WEEKS. It was only when I caught up to all my favorite shows and  was bored out of my mind did I reluctantly go back to trying out Hello Hari Nezumi….where I discovered an amazing and WONDERFUL thing:

Despite its earlier cases of deep dark murders and killings, the gritty and realistic feel of the show took a 180 degree TURN when the story of episode 4 turned out to be an wacky SUPERNATURAL case with a woman who claimed her house was being HAUNTED by an “OTHER MOTHER” being who visits her daughter while she is away at work...Coraline, where are you!

She hires Eita to investigate the goings on at the house, where he hooks up hidden cameras ready to capture what is happening during the days. Both Eita and the woman are shocked when his cameras record the girl interacting with an invisible party whom she identifies as “mother”… Even more shocking is when the girl asks the entity to carry her… and she is seen being lifted off the ground by invisible means! 

It was time to call in a paranormal expert, and it’s HERE where the show suddenly switched gears and became so darn interesting- for the Medium they call in was none other than AOI YU, here playing a highly eccentric, goofy and SPAZZY psychic consultant named Kawaii Setsuko!!

When she arrives, Eita voices his concerns that she is so young, expecting her to be one of those spooky and mysterious old crones a la POLTERGEIST, but she assures him that all mediums are regular people at heart and that she is the one for the job!

Oh my GOSH, the two bounce off each other so great- with Eita clearly out of his league when it comes to ghosts and ghouls, the easily frightened sleuth is set upon by the mischievous Kawaii, who teases him and startles him when EVER she can! Every time he tries to get serious with her, she bursts into song or giggles out some naughty joke she heard. What a CHARACTER!

As I watched the show,  I was SURE that the plot of the episode would eventually reveal that the supposed ghostly effects were no more than some elaborate CON put on by a bunch of thieves. But as the show progressed and they actually showed Kawaii battling the spirit with her incantations, I was like “Hold ON, this bakemono stuff is FOR REAL?” Ahahaha, I HAD to laugh- this grim and gritty detective show had entered X-FILES territory!

Aoi Yu steals EVERY scene in with her goofy ways and her character of Kawaii is perfectly balanced by her confidence of her powers and though she seems to treat everything lightly and pleasantly, when she is doing her investigating, she is as cool as they come! 

But jokes and silliness aside, this gal can be one TUFF old gal, bull-headedly barreling through the case (and using her odd powers to sense evil spirits,  read peoples minds and even FREEZE unwelcome busybodies with the WAVE of her HANDS!

 

When she's doing her sleuthing she dresses modestly, but when it comes time for the showdown against the naughty entity, she comes in FULL exorcist banishment priest ROBES, letting the viewer know that she came to KICK SOME SPIRITUAL BUTT!

Looking so awesome and cool, she barks to Eita, "Let's get this started!" , but being the same dizzy pixie we saw earlier, adds, “Hurry Up- I’m freezing…I’m not wearing anything under this!” LOLOLOL

The battle of Setsuko Kawaii versus the household demon was, to be frank, pretty unoriginal and heavily CGI ridden, but it was all the stuff that led UP to the showdown that really MADE these episodes for me!! I was DYING to see even MORE of Aoi Yu's kooky character!!

Ahhh, but it was all too fleeting, and after a wacky two parter story, by episode 6 it was back to corrupt politicians and murdered innocents as usual. Awwww, I'm hoping that she'll be back before the series ends...This character is TOO GOOD!

You know, one of the main reasons I tuned into this show was because Aoi Yu’s name was listed in the credits, but after the first episode, I completely forgot she was supposed to be in the drama! Such a surprise to see her in such a great role!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com