Dr. Asura おわり

Wakana Matsumoto in "Dr. Asura"

 The “Medical Drama with the Genius Surgeon” is surely one of Japan’s most enduring and popular tropes and follow such an unwavering formula that many episodes could be interchanges between shows with nary a hitch!

Despite their similarities, there are some medical dramas which strike me as mundane-and others which dazzle me and keep me on the edge of my seat, and I’ve concluded that it all comes down to the charisma and passion of the actor/actress/team who are are playing the lead role(s). It’s THEY who are responsible for my interest and involvement with the stories, and so it was with Wakana Matsumoto as the titular character and the terrific ensemble cast in the highly entertaining DR. ASURA, which kept the show as a “must see” for me this season!

From its first episode all the way to its very intriguing last, this drama kept me thoroughly entertained, holding my breath through its intense operating sequences and wiping away the tears during some of its more touching and inspiring passages!! 

Wakana Matsumoto has moved WAY up on my list of favorite actresses, and I'll definitely be keeping a lookout for what projects she decides to do next!!

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

The Once and Future Koyuki Kato

Queen of Tutors in the House: Koyuki in SKY CASTLE

Though I know that the Kyoko Koizumi drama Renai Kekkon no Rule aired sometime back, it did not truly hit home how long ago it was until I saw pretty actress Koyuki in it and saw how doggone YOUNG she looked in it! Nowadays, Koyuki is a veritable household name among great Japanese actresses, and besides all the movies and drama series, we've been seeing her every week in the awesome "Sky Castle" as the COLD and COMMANDING Ayaka Kujo, the genius tutor from hell!

Such a powerful character that you're just WAITING for her to make her appearance in each episode, eager to see what she will be planning NEXT!

So used to seeing her as this tough "Cool Beauty", I was rightly knocked out when I re-watched Renai Kekkon No Rule and saw her again- As I recounted in my blogpost when Koyuki was "Crush of The Day", Renai Kekkon no Rule was the very FIRST drama I EVER saw her in back in 1997, and OH! Did she knock my SOCKS off! Slight, waifish, wide-eyed and innocent, THIS Koyuki was a far cry from the dominating characters she would play later in her career, and she simply stole my heart!!

Koyuki in 1997 "Renai Kekkon No Rule"

In the drama she played the role of Haruka Hayashi, sweet and naive fiancee of Yosuke Utsunomiya (Takashi Kashiwabara), a young businessman who nonetheless has his eyes set on Asako Nakajima (Koizumi) instead. Thus Koyuki spends most of the drama getting her heart broken by him over and over, and all I could think was “IS THIS GUY BLIND?” LOL

Dealing with an aloof fiance in Takashi Kashiwabara...

Throughout the show you're rooting for her to get her man (besides, we all know that Kashiwabara isn't good for Kyoko Koizumi's character anyway!) Sadly in this very early role of hers, Koyuki is destined to be only the “unrequited love” character in the show!

MAN, who on EARTH could leave a girl like that heartbroken on the street, I dunno...of course the next week she's back trying to get him to commit once more...LOL, only in dramas would a girl like this have to FIGHT so much to get her guy!

I remember gushing about her to her to naysaying friends who kept telling me: “She’s Too Thin!” or “She has Too Much Makeup!”, though it was obvious to ME that Koyuki was just about as perfect as you could get!

I WILL say about the "too much makeup" comment that while I personally don't think she's got too much makeup on, her eye makeup is certainly different from how she looks now. Her whole eye-shape looks different...or maybe it's just we're not used to such unabashed enthusiasm from her!

Always a treat to go back and revisit these classic dramas and see our favorite stars back when they were just starting out and had no idea the great successes that were to come for them!

Koyuki is one that certainly deserves it!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogpsot.com