My Love From the Stars, J-Drama Version!

 As someone who rather liked the original Korean “You Who Came From the Stars”  with Soohyun Kim and the saucy  Jihyun Jun, (which I gushed about here), I was very interested to hear they were making this Japanese version starring Sota Fukushi and Mizuki Yamamoto as the respective main leads!

400 years ago the man now named Mitsuru Higashiyama (Sota Fukushi) beamed down to earth where he met and interacted with a young girl named Kiyo.  Due to a certain incident, he missed the ship back which would not be back for another 400 years! 

 Since then he has since been biding his time, settling into the human way of living until the ship comes around again that will take him back to his homeworld! In this particular century, he's chosen the profession as  a teacher at a college.

Mizuki Yamamoto stars as Tsubaki Sasahara, a hard-headed but very popular actress with a larger-than life attitude and a mouth to match! She always gives her best at work, but as she’s brash and scatterbrained about things, she’s usually the laughingstock of the media, making her even more outspoken!

As the story begins, fate has somehow placed both Mitsuru AND Tsubaki together as neighbors in a High-rise apartment complex, and whenever they cross paths, Tsubaki’s abrasive and larger than life personality against Mitsuru’s stern and conservative outlook creates some very dynamic conversations!!!

At the moment, both have no significant other in their lives, and there’s a reason why:
There’s an overshadowing backstory haunting Mitsuru, of a young girl named Kiyo (Natsuki Deguchi) he met when he first beamed down- something tragic has happened to her, and he’s been lamenting his loss ever since, and has never cared for another.

One day about 17 years ago, Mitsuru had a strange premonition of a young girl that looked just like Kiyo getting killed in a street accident. Using his vision as a guide, he races to the site of the accident and saves her before she can be hurt.

 Little does Mitsuru know that this young girl he saved would grow up to be the obnoxious actress Tsubaki living next door to him!

And as for Tsubaki, though she doesn’t remember the face of the man who rescued her, it’s he that she’s been in love with for her whole life and has been rejecting marriage proposals from suitors such as Hiroya Uwajima (Asuka Kudo) because of it.

The two bickering neighbors have no idea that they are secretly the ones they’ve been longing for all these years, and as their personalities clash, things get even MORE heated!

With Mitsuru’s unhuman sensitive hearing, he can’t sleep when Tsubaki releases stress by yowling songs at the tip of her lungs, and adding further to the fact that she’s just returned to School and has found out HE’s gonna be her new teacher, ya just KNOW things are GONNA GET INTERESTING!

And as all these things are happening, the fated spaceship that is set to to take Mitsuru back home is set to arrive in just a few months! What will happen within that short time!
Also along for the ride are Haruka Kinami in a wonderfully snarky role as Tsubaki’s chief rival Reiko Bando...

Haruka Fukuhara as the sweet and gentle Yukino Tsuji

and Asuka Kudo and Tsubasa Imai as the Uwajima Brothers…

Also Ken Mitsuishi as Kurachi, Mitsuru’s only Earth friend- a lawyer he worked with in what appears to be the mid 1950’s. Now very old, he still meets up with Mitsuru to talk, and is quite saddened to her that his friend will soon be making the trip back.

This going to be a 10 episode treatment of a 21 episode show, and I’m curious how they’re going to tackle it. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and it’s really great! I seems very much like what I remember from the original show, yet it’s been so long since I’ve seen it that it’s like watching it all over again fresh!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Tokusatsu GaGaGa, Ojisan Version

 Oji Mitsutaka (Hidekazu Mashima) is a successful and “kakkoi” businessman for a design firm who is loved and respected by his underlings and fellow co-workers.

Though his subordinates Rio (Miu Tomita) and Miki (Ayu Manaka) rely on jewelry, trinkets and idols to give them strength through their work days, they don’t think that their cool superior would have any use for such stuff!

But what they don’t know is that Mitsutaka is secretly in love with cute things, in particular a Pikachu-esque character named Pagtaro whom he obsesses over, collecting every toy, concession and plushie he can get his hands on!

Yes, Oji Mitsutaka is a secret otaku for all things cute, and just like Fuka Koshiba’s character of Kano Nakamura in the wonderful “Tokustatsu GaGaGa”, he has to hide his love of the genre, sneaking around to get his treasures, and just like Kano, has the same woes trying to get those elusive collectible toys from the vending machines, peeking around til the kids are gone to tiptoe over and take his chances!

When confronted by a guy (Tsubasa Imai) who sees him cradling his toys, he defensively says “It…it’s for a nephew!!” before fleeing the scene in shame!

And JUST Like Fuka, who had a panic attack cleaning up her obsession-draped apartment when her strict Mother was coming to visit, Mitsutaka has a similar meltdown when he finds his nephew Masumi (Taiyu Fujiwara) is set to arrive at his doorstep!!!

 

Besides all of these troubles, Mitsutaka also has to deal with a fussy co-worker named Wataru Naruto (Renn Kiriyama) who sneers at baubles like toys and idol paraphernalia, saying it clutters the workspace and invites laziness.

 But when push comes to shove, Mitsutaka’s love of all things cute and squishy win out and he stands up against him, saying that such things can only benefit the individual, garnering much applause and love from his dedicated subordinates!!!

As an almost carbon-copy of the Fuka Koshiba show, it goes without saying how wonderfully WACKY this drama is, and as I watch it, it makes me want to go back and watch Fuka in action again! Guess that’s what Youkai Share House is for!