The Oddest Coincidence...

So I had two programs set to enjoy this afternoon: this Sunday's podcast of eclectic NPR Radio Show "This American Life", and the latest subbed episode of the awesome Kyoko Suzuki/Yamada Ryosuke drama "Riso No Musuko". Though the two were about as different as you could get, a funny coincidence happened!

This week's This American Life's story was "Switched At Birth", the unnerving story of two girls who were switched at the Hospital when they were born, and how they and their mothers dealt with it when the thing came out 43 years later. (If you're interested, you can listen to it here.)

After that sad and rather poignant show, I REALLY needed something fun and zany to brighten back up my day, and of COURSE Riso No Musuko was the way to go! I immediately put that show on and settled in, but funnily enough, not even five minutes had passed before they unveiled the story of that week's episode:

EH?! HONTO KA? (Or, Rather, Are You Fo' Reals, Yo?!) It seems that (at least for today) I can't get AWAY from the subject! AHAHAHAHA

Anju Suzuki Lookin' Fine in Riso No Musuko

Pretty Anju Suzuki in Riso No Musuko

Gosh, I’ve always loved lovely Anju Suzuki from the first time I saw her doing her regular gig hosting the classic MUSIC FAIR Music Show, and have thrilled to her cuteness in various dramas over the years like COACH, Koi No Vacance and Sommelier, but I still couldn’t have been prepared for what my eyes beheld checking out the new drama RISO NO MUSUKO, in the time since I saw her last, Anju’s turned into this sexy, luscious older lady (dare I call her a MILF?), and I was just on the edge of my seat taking in her gorgeous glory!

Anju Doing Her Music Station Gig back in the day 

...and as Mitsuko Kobayashi in Riso No Musuko

 Riso No Musuko tells the story of Yamada Ryosuke as a Daichi, a son completely devoted to his mother Umi, (played with devilish glee by pretty Kyoka Suzuki) who has her onw secret agenda for rasing him with care his whole life- she means for him to be a huge success in life and take lavish care of her in later years… When Umi gets a job at the cafeteria of a tough delinquent High School, Daichi drops out of his prestigious Academy to enroll at HER school so he can keep tabs on her! Along the way, he makes friends with a boy named Kobayashi Koji, whose mother turns out to be none other than Ms. Anju Suzuki herself!

Mother And Son:Nakajima Yuto and Anju 

As the prim and proper mother Kobayashi Mitsuko, Anju balances the perfect line between Sexy and Classy- while Koji’s mother seems to be wuite calm and meek, there’s this underlying menace to her eyes, and as we soon see, is able to bare her claws and attack at the smallest signs of jealousy! As Koji relates to Daichi one night,”You Don’t Know How Scary My Mom Can Be!” Anju’s portryal in nothingless than a ravenous feline cougar!

Meooowr! Baring Claws: Anju Suzuki and Yamada Ryosuke

Really enjoying this show so far- though I tend to stay away from ANY dramas involving High School and their cliché-ridden students, somehow, this show remind me a bit of the Shida Mirai.Yamada Yu Comedy SEIGI NO MIKATA (especially the fun soundtrack) and I find myself cracking up throughout the show! 

Favorite J-Pop Singles: L<->R / Knocking On Your Door

Theme song for the extremely funny and heartfelt drama BOKURA NI AI O! (Give Us Love!!) starring Eguchi Yosuke, Takeda Shinji and Suzuki Anju (looking particularly yummy here!)

Eguchi runs a dilapidated rooming house filled with equally dilapidated boarders (among them the always quirky Kokubun Taichi of TOKIO!), but he find a goal to strive for when cutie stewardess Anju Suzuki and friends move into next door’s fancy hotel.

Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help picturing the opening credits for the show… so wacky, they've even got Eguchi and the gang lip-synching to the song, happily playing away on instruments and dancing as the credits rolled!

Arg, another song I tried once upon a time (very unsucessfully) to sing at karaoke...