Crush Of The Day: Kato Ai

  I've been meaning to watch the old classic drama "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" for some time now, but FINALLY got around to it a few weeks ago. This is an old drama from around 2000 and was one of Nagase Tomoya's first "yankee thug" roles, albeit one where he's still more of a child delinquent punk.

Wakana Sakai,Ai Kato,Nagase Tomoya,Ryuta Sato,Tomohisa Yamashita

Wakana Sakai and Ai Kato

Anyway, there were two girls in his "gang", one of them I immediately recognized as Wakana "Moko" Sakai, but the other girl, though she looked REALLY familiar, I just couldn't place. her. She looked like Matsumoto Megumi in "Seiga No Koushin, but nawww...I didn't think it was her. Then I thought- Rosa Kato? No. Suzuki An? Mayyyybbbbbeeeee....  Then it hit me- Holy crap, this was a very young Ai Kato!

 There was this episode on the old tokusatsu superhero show KIKAIDA where Dark Robot Blue Beetle sees Dr, Komyoji and they show the faces of all the different Dark Professors going through the Monster's mind til he lands on Komyoji and yells "It's KOMYOJI!"

Blue Beetle: "Hey, This Guard looks Familiar..."

Scrolling Through his Robot Memory Bank

I had to laugh because that's JUST what it felt like when I was running through all those teenage girls in my head. I thought it was too funny not to share on twitter, and then I had this (slightly paraphrased here for clarity) conversation with Tanikaze:

Zdorama said:

Watching an old drama and COULDNT figure who the girl was. I hadda go thru my mind DARK ROBOT BLUE-BEETLE style to figure out it was Ai Kato

Tanikaze said:

 OTAKU!!! Man, Blue Beetle was sloooowwww... My next question: who were the previous two women who transitioned/henshin'ed into Kato Ai??

Zdorama said:

Matsumoto Megumi. Then Kato Rosa. Then Suzuki An. And then finally Kato Ai!

Tanikaze said:

BTW I never thought Kato Ai was all that pretty, way back when. But the older she got... kinda grew on me.

Zdorama said:

Must say that since I didn't recognize who she was for a good 30 minutes of the show , it’s clear she hasn't stood out for me before

Tanikaze said:

Fair enuff. I used to think she looked like Okada Junichi in drag.

Zdorama said:

That's an image thats gonna be hard to shake...

Tanikaze said:

Sorry. I always thought she looked so... manly.

So we had a good laugh over that. But I gotta say though, the more I watched the show, the cuter Ai Kato got, and by episode 4 I had to ask myself, Crap, am I developing a crush of her after all that? LOL, all that joking BACKFIRED on me!

Me: "Am I starting to LIKE Ai Kato?"

"Hmmmm, she is really starting to seem pretty freaking adorable..."

Oh Yeah, I was really starting to dig Ai, and it helped that she was playing an extremely adorable girl, as the wide-eyed and innocent Hikaru, she stood for everything innocent in Ikebukuro, from the get go she has been in love with Makoto (Nagase Tomoya) but he’s too dense treat her properly and spends most of her time being heartbroken. Man, makes you wanna scoop her up and hug her!

Yep, She's a Cutie-Pie.

Of course, there was more to Hikaru than what she let on (a whole LOT more, it later turned out) but it was her naive baby-girl talking sweet side that really GOT me!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Majo Saiban Verdict: Meh.

Finally got around to finishing up the Toma Ikuta / Ishida Yuriko mystery / suspense drama MAJO SAIBAN, and I have to say that although the acting was pretty good and the direction kept me interested, the endless manipulation going back and forth of "She's a Witch-She's not a Witch" drove me crazy, and the drama's ultimately cliched ending made this drama such a disappointment!!!

In fact, the only thing that kept this show from being a complete waste of my time was Kutsuna Shiori who managed to be such a cutie despite playing the supremely emo-filled role of the Witch's troubled daughter Haruka..,Love this girl!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

All The Hot (1998) Young Idols

Tanaka Rena

Looking for some old paperwork, I came across this incredible 1998 pictorial I saved from some long-forgotten magazine featuring eight popular and up-and-coming Idols in a wonderfully beautifully shot spread! Flipping through the eight glossy pages, it was like INSTANT NATSUKASHII seeing all the familiar faces! Really didn't think it had been all that long ago til you see these gals so YOUNG!

Tomosaka Rie

Yada Akiko

Kato Ai

It’s sweet and pleasing to see that quite a few of these girls featured are still among us and have gone onto successful careers, mainstays like Tomosaka Rie, Kato Ai, and the recently gushed-about-here Yada Akiko are all still very much around, but wow, for some like Niiyama Chihara and Kamon Yoko (who were popular enough back then, and  so pretty!) you just have to wonder, “Whatever happened to them?!”

Niiyama Chiharu

Kamon Yoko

Hinagata Akiko

And though it was a kick to see such a YOUNG Rena Tanaka in there, no picture shocked me more than when I came across the newest idol in that article, a then bright and freshly scrubbed 16 year old KAZUE FUKIISHI! You know, seeing her in dramas like SCANDAL, and of course most recently in the Matsumoto Jun drama LUCKY SEVEN, I had NO IDEA that in my files I had idol pictures of her from back when she was first starting out!

Fukiishi Kazue

Keep Up the Good Work, Ladies! We’ll keep tuning in!