Undercover Angel: "Watashi no Moratte~Tsuioku Hen~"

Goki Maeda and Sayu Kubota

Just caught the first episode of Watashi no Moratte~Tsuioku Hen~, a new supernatural romcom, and so far it's a real scream, no pun intended! 

Our story:

Natsumi Morikawa (Sayu Kubota) is a clumsy but good-natured girl who nonetheless feels out of place in every situation she is in. When we meet her, she is being let go from her measly coffee shop job, but things are about to get worse!

Ryouei Ichijo (Goki Maeda) is a corporate man who is in the middle of investigating corruption in the company he works for, and is about to expose the truth. But there are those who want him silenced and will do anything to achieve it!

That night, a dejected Natsumi is still stinging from her job firing, and unwittingly walks right under a loose Daruma fixture…which snaps off and falls right on top of her head, sending her to the hospital in a coma!

(LOL, Cutest death EVER!)

At the same time, Ryouei is driving home in his car after confiding to his trusted co-worker that he has the evidence he needs to move forward with the corruption investigation. At that moment his car fails and crashes, sending HIM into a coma as well!

While their bodies languish in hospital beds, their spiritual forms are up in the in-between. Not much is known about that otherworldly purgatory that lies between life and death, but for whatever reason, a deal is made there between the two recently departed people, and a few days later, Natsumi miraculously awakens from her coma!

Seemingly none the worse for the wear and n0t realizing how close she came to eternal damnation, she lackadaisily checks out, and once out of the hospital, goes straight to a bar with her friend Miyabi (Aoi Yoshikura) to get drunk and complain about getting fired. How is she going to pay off her college debts,  she grumbles...but there is a bigger problem on the horizon...

Going home, Natsumi is terrified to find a man inside of her apartment, and even MORE shocked to find he is in an ethereal, non-tangible form. Not exactly a GHOST per se,  he is  bound to Natsumi, and he explains why.

Sitting her down, Ryohei tells her what transpired in that purgatory (told cutely with hand puppets, LOL)...  Both he and Natsumi were sent to the in-between together, and when the Grim Reaper there allows ONE of them to return to life, Ryouei impresses him by asking him to let Natsumi go back. So impressed is he that he allows Ryouei to return as well, albeit in this ghostly form which ONLY Natsumi can see!

Since her return to life is due to the kindness of Ryouei, she feels compelled to help him, but what he asks of her may be more than she can handle: he wants Natsumi to JOIN his company as a new employee and, once inside, begin investigating who might have been the one who tried to MURDER him!

The poor bewildered girl doesn't know if she can pull off such a stunt, but she feels obligated to help him (the salary that comes with the job doesn't hurt either!). Luckily, Ryouei's sister Kanae (Mai Tezuka) is in charge of Company Operations and, with the help of Ryouei’s ghostly advice guiding Natsumi through the interview, passes the test and is successfully hired!

Now all that's left to do is get to know the ins and outs of the company and the people within and expose the truth! And perhaps while working this task, Natsumi will find a place where she really belongs and a confidence in herself she's never had before!

I've liked Sayu Kubota ever since seeing her as Yosuke Sugino's office love interest in "Boku No Neechan" (not to mention her turn as the eccentric roomie Suzu in "Hamaru Otoko ni Keritai Onna", but this is the first time I'm seeing her as the female LEAD of a show, and I'm totally loving it! She's a natural for the scatterbrained role of Natsumi and I feel we'll finally see her shine!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Momoko Tanabe Gets the Tables Turned on Her in “Iyashi no Otonari-san ni wa Himitsu ga Aru”

 Through most of her career, pretty actress Momoko Tanabe has been playing the more deceptive characters that turn out to be back-stabbing and unbalanced individuals, like in the recent “Yugure ni te Wo Tsunagu”, and, perhaps most famously, as Keiko Kitagawa’s adversary for Eita’s affections in “Rikokatsu”!

And now in her very FIRST lead starring role, Momoko gets a psycho stalker of her very OWN in the new drama “Iyashi no Otonari-san ni wa Himitsu ga aru!”

Momoko plays Fujiko Yomogida, a sincere but severely put-upon office worker, one of those whom everyone in the department takes advantage of, piling job after job onto her, all of which she meekly accepts. 

This kind of treatment can really grind a girl down!

with co-worker Manami (Nako Yabuki)

To make matter worse, Fujiko's been feeling like someone is following her when leaving work, and at home she hears strange bumps and noises , as if someone is lurking around the corners.

Just when it seems it has become too much for even her to handle, a beacon if light comes to her in the form of a new next door neighbor named Soma Nishina (Yuta Koseki), who introduces himself that night!

Unlike her Company superiors, Nishina is kind, supportive and understanding, and though they have just met, Fujiko finds she can relax around him and as they become closer, begins to see him as someone she can tell her problems to and relieve her pent up stress!

Going back to her room after another enlightening talk, Fujiko thinks she's found a kindred soul!

BUT....what she DOESN’T know is that this guy is hardly a stranger to her. Nishina is a STALKER of the highest degree and has been OBSESSIVELY spying on her for YEARS, following her every move and taking photos and videos of her, all of which cover his manic-obsessed apartment walls!!!

Just WHERE can a relationship like this go? And what are Nishina’s true intentions? I can hardly believe he’s actually as creepy as they make him out to be, simply for the fat that I find it hard to believe they’d write a rom-com around something so serious as a stalker following a young woman and infiltrating her life.? But I guess we’ll see!

Must say it's wonderful to see Momoko Tanabe finally getting a starring vehicle of her very own, even if it's a girl being put upon by a psycho! In any case, it’s hardly something that Momoko  hasn’t had experience with, since SHE’S  been the manic obsessed individual most times in the past! 

It alllllllll comes around, LOL!