Satomi Ishihara..and Much More!

Originally tuned into the drama 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made (From Five To Nine) for Satomi Ishihara, but ended up staying for the various OTHER assortment of lovely young ladies that made up the show! Some of you may recall I started watching this awhile back but it was so wacky I put it on hold for a bit...Well I finally got around to resuming it and I think I've found the proverbial Silver Lining- there's LOTS to love in this drama!

 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made tells the tale of a young monk named Hoshikawa Takane (Yamashita Tomohisa) who falls in love with an English language teacher named Sakuraba Junko. They first met when she accidentally spilled a bowl of ashes onto his head during a ceremony, (LOL) and then, through various circumstances, the two met once again in a forced omiai of sorts. Upon seeing her and her vitality for life, Hoshikawa becomes completely entranced by her… but Junko is a career motivated woman and isn’t the least bit interested in him and his proposal to make her his temple bride! He then resolves to use any means to win her over and make her his bride, whether by following her around, becoming one of her students, or even abducting her and locking her away in the temple! (Daheck?)

 Gotta say that for a comedy, the overbearingly Stalkerish shenanigans Yamapi repeatedly pulled on Junko really rubbed me the wrong way and for the most part I found myself more irritated than entertained with their story. Happily, however, 5ji Kara 9 Ji Made was filled with other beautiful girls with their own stories, and it was THESE girls and THEIR tales that kept me coming back each episode!

 First off there was the sassy n sexy Makoto Kiyomiya. Wooo, so pretty, I knew I’d seen her before but just couldn’t place it. I even wondered if it was Ai Otsuka for a while there. Finally giving up and checking up on the dramawiki stats, I was pleasantly surprised to find this gal was none other than Saeko, a girl I’ve loved in other dramas as far back as Dragon Zakura! Makoto spends the show balancing between chasing after an unreturned love interest and being chased herself by a high school student!

  Momoe Yamabuchi: Probably my favorite character on the show!! Momoe (Rin Takanashi)  is a shy and introverted girl who is secretly (and hilariously) into Yaoi Manga (for those who don’t know, that comics of the “Boy Love” variety) and becomes involved with popular ladies man Arthur (played with his usual aplomb by Hayami Mokokichi) when he catches her with her beloved fetish comics. From there it was THEIR storyline that had me most interested!

Part of me wishes they made a whole separate drama of these two- the cool, popular guy who’s intrigued by the shy mousey girl who runs away from him whenever he comes near. He teases her about her comics, but you know he’s interested as well! And why not-she’s such an adorkable sweetie, you really love her as soon as you meet her! Fave scenes have GOT to be when she has Junko over at her house and you see her nerdy world and how spazzy she really is- so cute, even Junko has to smile!

And then there’s Ran Ino… DAMN, what a breathtaking BEAUTY! With such golden, exotic features I thought I had seen Jessica Alba reborn as a shojo manga character; my jaw dropped upon seeing her and after the first episode, I had to run online to find out just who this gal WAS! 

Turns out this fine actress was named Anne Nakamura, a sexy model who had heretofore only done sporadic acting. I made a mission to find her gravure work and Holy HELL, her online bikini pictures featuring that supple body and gorgeous face are simply to DIE for! What.A. Freaking.BABE!

  And if THAT wasn’t all, why, we’ve even got pretty Miyu Yoshimoto (last seen by me in the Kimura Takuya drama "I’m Home" as the secretive secretary Takanashi Yua) in the VERY clichéd role of “the perfect girl-that-the-mother-wants-her-son-to-marry” Ashikaga Kaori!  Cliched true, but my, so very nice to look at!

Ahahaha, yep, these gals and their storylines will keep me in it for the long haul!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

ドラゴン桜 と 夜王 : おわり

Saeko, Aragaki Yui, Yamapi, Nao Akiyoshi, Masami Nagasawa and Teppei

Well, after 11 weeks, two of my favorite shows have finally come to an end, and that general empty feeling in your heart that comes  whenever you get too attached to these dramas has arrived! That leaves only ATSUHIME to fulfill my weekly dose of japanese dramas, and even that show won't be on forever!

  Both shows closed as well as could be expected, NIGHT KING was about right on target with a very solid ending, but I really wished we could have seen more of the kids from Dragon Zakura AFTER the Tokyo University exams. I just didn't want to leave them!

A thought, though: I wonder if Dragon Zakura and Yaoh's last episodes were actually an hour-and-a-half (as most j-doramas are) and KIKU squeezed them into hour brackets. Both shows went slightly over an hour, and if I'm not mistaken, Dragon Zakura had only ONE commercial break! That would make for more than the standard 45 minute drama...

Matsuoka with Kitamura Kazuki, Karina

That's all fine and dandy, but I can't help worry that they might have cut stuff out to made this timeframe work. Especially in the Dragon Zakura scenes with Yamapi and Masami....seemed like there was more, and I even think I heard a snippet of dialog start as it abruptly cut to the next scene! I guess I'll have to rent a copy of the last episode somewhere to be sure. ????

The clincher was that since both shows ran a few minutes over an hour, my DVD (which was set to SP and would fit only two hours of stuff) cut off RIGHT as the ending song to Night King ended. For a milli-second, I brethed a sigh of releif: "I Whew! JUST MADE IT! Then to my horror, there was MORE after the song! Just a 20 second afterword kind of thing, but CRAP! So technically, I'm missing the "end" of Yaoh!

In the immortal words of...Kanjani 8! "Maa sorya shouganai"