Happy Halloween from Kasumi Arimura and the Gang in "Nee-San No Koibito"

Was just musing about how there were so few Japanese Halloween related things to post in October, and then happened to come across the new drama “Nee-san No Koibito” which was just FULL of Halloweeny Jack-O-Lantern goodness!

Nee-San No Koibito follows the story of a young woman who works in a Crafts and Hardware Store, and if you've even been to one, you know full well that it is a PERFECT place to have the backdrop of the Autumn Season!

Nee-San No Koibito tells story of a young woman named Momoko Adachi (Kasumi Arimura, simply radiant here) who has been taking care of her three younger brothers Kazuki (Kaito Takahashi), Yuki (Wataru Hyuga), and Tomoki (Ryoka Minamide) even since her parents passed away at a young age.

Despite her past, Momoko is a bright, cheerful and hard-working girl beloved by her manager Hinako Ichihara (Eiko Koike) and co-workers alike! She is diligent in her work, and she is destined to meet the man of her future through this job…

Manato Yoshioka (Kento Hayashi, FINALLY back to playing more gentle characters) is an affable guy working as a Cargo deliveryman under the care of Satoshi Takada (Naohito Fujiki). And of course, one of their main stops is T's Crafts and Home, the very same warehouse that Momoko works at!!!

He is a thoughtful person and thought little gestures (like repairing a broken trinket), he manages to make a nice impression with the wide-eyed Momoko!

All that orangey Halloween wonderment aside, Nee-san no Koibito seems like your average romance drama, but with character you like well enough that you’re willing to take a ride with them!

Bonus points for special appearance by Emi Wakui as Manato’s clingy old Mother (yes, she playing old mothers now, who would have EVER thunk it)...

As well as picking actress NAO for Momoko’s best friend Miyuki Hamano... As you all know, Nao has real experience playing the best friend of the main characters for some time now, LOL. Truthfully, I’m ready to see her in some starring vehicle, but for now it's nice to see here here….

Will continue to see where this drama is heading!

PS: Went looking up Halloween in Japan, and now I can see why I don't see much of in in Nihongo stuff. Apparently it's only recently that they've been embracing the holiday, and even them, only the costume part (you know Japan is Koo-Koo for Cosplay), and not so much the whole "Trick or Treat" and Jack 'o' Lantern thing...

Hmm, The more you know!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Wild Anne Nakamura Appeared!

Anne Nakamura in Otousan to Yobasete

If you recall my earlier blogpost about the Satomi ishihara drama 5 Ji Kara 9 Ji Made, you'll remember that I was head over heels infatuated with luscious gravure-model-turned-actress Anne Nakamura, and I was PLEASANTLY surprised, when watching the new Misako  Renbutsu drama Otousan to Yobasete, to see her appearing in the role of Hanazawa Kiichiro's (Atsuro Watabe) secretary Kiwa Aikawa!!

Sultry Secretary Kiwa Aikawa

with Atsuro Watabe

Oooh, Anne is looking so lovely here, unfortunately, she doesn't get an awful lot of individual face screentime, as Hanazawa's Secretary, most of her scenes are shot together with Atsuro Watabe, Can't wait to see her character get fleshed out more...

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's not like she's doing any major roles yet, but just give it time hopefully we'll be seeing even more of her! After all, it wasn't so long ago that even Misako Renbutsu herself was playing only bit roles, now look at her, all grown up and headlining dramas of her own!

PS, I can never quite get used to the young actresses of yesteryear now playing older mothers in dramas, like Kyoka Suzuki and Anju Suzuki in Riso No Musuko, Takako Tokiwa in Tonbi, and now we have 90's  cutie Emi Wakui playing Misako's Mama!

Atsuro Watabe and Emi Wakui as the aging parents

Emi Wakui and Misako Renbutsu as Mother and Daughter

Emi Wakui in Imouto Yo back in 1994

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Fine Art of the J-Drama Ending Credits

Nakama Yukie in Gokusen's Ending Credits

American Culture TV Sitcom fans know well the power of a good, catchy theme song, and it’s even been proved that the songs for shows like Gilligans Island and Brady Bunch were more than just the jingles that played during the cast and crew listings- it’s a HUGE part of what MADE the show!
  Sadly, by the 90’s, TV shows began to adopt a disturbing trend of  disposing of the lengthy theme songs altogether and began to replace them with shorter sound bites of music and began running the cast credits during the show’s undercrawl in an effort to minimize screentime for more advertising slots. Understandable but still a bummer for the Pop Culture fanatic!

 Fortunately, it was JUST at this time that I began watching Japanese dramas, and it was here I found that the opening and closing tunes were very much alive, and in fact still treated as an important component to the shows they were promoting. Not only were songs written and recorded by artists specifically for the show, but the clips and images running during the song are just as beautifully crafted and magnificently put together as the drama itself!

Case in point: Just the other night I was going through an old harddrive of J-drama stuff, and came across the ending song for Yukie Nakama’s wildly successful drama “Gokusen” in MP4 format. Remembering how much I liked the theme song “Feel Your Breeze” by V6, I clicked on it, and I have to say, watching the song play with the set images rushing by of teacher “Yankumi” playing Kick the Can with her students gave me goosebumps, and then when it got to the chorus of the song, I remembered that it always played at the scene where she’s holding the can up and running from her students, PERFECTLY matching the song, and I have to say, watching this made me tear up with emotion, it gave me SUCH a warm feeling!

After it ended it made me remember that the ending song for the old Emi Wakui drama “Pure”, which featured the song “Namonaki Uta”, ALSO employed this style of affixing a certain phrase of the song with a set image, in the case of Pure, the Rickenbacker Guitar chiming into the chorus was ALWAYS set to the image of Emi tossing an armful of feathers into the air at the same moment each time, til the viewer found he was always waiting for it!

Wakui Emi in Pure's Ending Credits

  I then began to try and remember other shows with favorite ending credits and in fact, MANY of them have already been uploaded and talked about here, including the aforementioned Pure with Mr. Children’s “Namonaki Uta”, Okane Ga Nai with “Over The Trouble” by Oda Yuji, NAOMI’s ending “Girls Be Ambitious” by True Kiss Destination, Masahiko Kondo's "Ai Wa Hitotsu" from the crazy drama Stalker~Sasou-Onna, "Himawari" by Sugar for the drama Shiawase Ni Naritai, and the incredible Shomuni ending "Sunaona Mamade" by IZAM with Astral Love! 
     Others I've still to do write ups for eventually are credits for shows like Tengoku Ni Ichiban Chikai Otoko featuring TOKIO's "Oh! Heaven", KinKi Kids' "To Heart" from the Domoto Tsuyoshi drama of the same name, and probably much more I can't recall right now!

Fukada Kyoko and Domoto Tsuyoshi in To Heart End Credits

And for ending credits that are simply heartbreaking to watch, try  "Only Human" by K from the drama One Litre No Namida, Seija No Koshin's "Ito" by Miyuki Nakajima or Yutaka Ozaki's "Oh My Little Girl" from the morose Konoyo No Hate!
     Though most of the J-drama ending credits I highly regard are from the era I was watching them most vivaciously (mid 90’s to 00’s), show like the aforementioned Gokusen prove that they’re still on top of the game! In fact, thinking now, later shows like Yaoh with TOKIO's "Mr. Traveling Man", "Orange Range's "Kimi Station" from Loss:Time:Life, Oda Kazumasa's "Sayonara Wa Iwanai" from Triangle, and "Wonderful Life" by &G from Boku To Kanojyo to Kanojyo no Ikiru Michi are just as powerful, and even the Horikita Maki drama Hanazakari Kimitachi e ending song with Ai Otsuka’s “Peach” gives me the same sense of warmth and wonder!

I’ve been watching J-dramas for a good 20+ years now , and I think I can positively state that when it comes to the sacred thing known as the ending song credits, those folks have REALLY elevated it to an ARTFORM!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Double Face 偽装警察編

Kagawa Teruyuki and Nishijima Hidetoshi in "Double Face"

Watching the Kagawa Teruyuki/Nishijima Hidetoshi TV Movie “Double Face~Giso Keisatsu Hen”, I was to realize two things, One: This movie was yet another remake of the highly successful 2002 Hong Kong Crime Movie “Infernal Affairs”, and Two: this was the movie that Aoi Yu cut her lovely long locks for!

  Getting past THAT trifle was a bit hard for me, but once I did, I was treated to a helluva movie! Awesome acting cast, with Kagawa, Nishijima, Aoi, Wakui Emi, Kohinata Fumiyo among others, and intense directing, several scenes had me on the edge of my seat!!! Everyone was great here, Kagawa in particular excelling as the weaselly, conflicted Takayama , the kind of character Kagawa is famous for playing!

Kagawa Teruyuki

Nishijima Hidetoshi

Kohinata Fumiyo

Wakui Emi

Aoi Yu

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Mouichido Kimi Ni Propose

Just finished bawling my eyes out after watching the first episode of the new drama Mouichido Kimi Ni Propose, a result that was totally unsurprising and completely expected; When You’ve got a romantic tearjerker of a man who has to win the love of his wife all over again after she loses her memory, what other kind of result could there be?

I went in, and was lovin’ every minute of it!Been awhile since I saw such a straight-forward romance story, but I decided to check it out because this one had all the feel of those good old shows from what I consider the “golden age” of j-dramas, the late eighties to the mid-nineties, indeed, the drama even STARS two of the greatest actors from that era, the incredible Takenouchi Yutaka and Wakui Emi!

Such a thrill to see these greats still giving command performances for us, the humble j-drama watching public!  These two are in a handful of maybe ten actors that I consider the reason I began watching j-dramas in the first place and I find a kind of comfort still  being able to sit back and enjoy them even now! Keep up the terrific work!