Yappari, I LOVE Doctor X!!!

I was completely taken off guard by how much I've been LOVING Doctor X Daimon Michiko since I succumbed to all those drama-advising posts thought the years and actually sat down check it out myself-

 Routine and formulaic and utilizing all the basic tropes of all the ubiquitous medical dramas out there, despite all those cliches of hospital procedure j-dramas,  Doctor X captivated me from the very start, and as I begin on Season 3, I have to give kudos where kudos are due- 

That darn Ryoko Yonekura! As you may recall, she was my biggest reason NOT to watch the series, but my GOSH is she TERRIFIC here as the svelte, smart and entirely BADASS Doctor Daimon Michiko! Fun, zany and charming, I really, really loved her here and am eager to continue on will ALL the latter Doctor X Series!

So amusing to me how much I've been loving the show after all my kicking and screaming about it. But when I wrapped Season 2 and found myself rating it a solid 10/10(! YES!) , I knew I jsut HAD to bow my head in defeat!

Doctor X for the win!

Now, back to even MORE Daimon Michiko!

Taking on "Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon" at Last!

Ryoko Yonekura as the titular Dr.X/Michiko Daimon

 After a good 10+ years on, I’m FINALLY tuning in to the long-running “Doctor X” Series, and many would say it’s about time!  For some unknown reason or another, I've always been slightly off-put by actress Ryoko Yonekura, which is odd since I’ve liked her in just about every drama I’ve seen her in- (especially Seikei Bijin which is a big fave)- Maybe it was being constantly told by overzealous fans how cool, beautiful, and badass she was, but somehow it got to the point where every time I saw a new show with Yonekura, I’d think, “Meh, not her again…”

Such was my frame of mind when her new series “Doctor X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon” debuted in 2012. Seeing her in yet another “Cool Beauty who is also a Badass” role, I immediately passed on it, and even as the show became more and more prolific over the years and harder to ignore, I’ve still resisted checking it out!

It was only in recent years, after falling in love with similar medical shows featuring standoffish “I Never Fail” Surgeons, like in “Get Ready”, “Dr. Chocolate” and most notably of all, the Wakana Matsumoto “Dr. Asura” (which REALLY seemed like a Dr.X clone) , that I felt it was time to give the ORIGINAL drama a try!

Looking it up, I have to say that even though I’ve known that was a long-running series, I was still a little surprised to find that DoctorX had SEVEN seasons, plus special, movie, and even spinoff series, and while I had no intention of watching ‘em ALL, I did ultimately decide to give the first season a chance!

Well, the character of “Michiko Daimon” was indeed a real Ryoko Yonekura prototype for sure, but I GOTTA say, I was entertained from the VERY beginning and had to laugh at all the entirely comic-like arrogance she showed, even as she dazzled with her amazing operating-room orchestrations!

Each episode was as good as the one before, and soon I even began to anticipate coming home from work and watching the next episode, as if I was watching it in “real time”, and by the halfway mark found I really adored this character, fantastic as she may be! 

The show got better and better as it went on, and I gotta tell you, the final episode arc was as gripping and EXCITING as anything I’d ever seen-VERY powerful and dramatic, I was on the edge of my seat it was so damn GOOD!!!

Sure, all the usual medical drama tropes are here- the confrontational patients, the argumentative and stand-offish other doctors (Masanobu Katsumura, Kosuke Suzuki) , the wide-eyed newbie who looks on in awe (Kei Tanaka)…the seasoned veteran who slowly sides with the hero's methods and becomes a silent partner of sorts (Yuki Uchida)....

...and of COURSE, the corrupt Hospital Board of Directors! Yes, EVERY Hospital drama MUST have corrupt Board of Directors, and as a rule, must eat steak at meetings - J-Dramas ALWAYS have the rich and corrupt eating steak to show how greedy and selfish they are!

YES, the drama is full of cliches and a heap of predictability too...But yet somehow it all WORKS, in no small part due to the efforts of Ryoko Yonekura whom I grudgingly admit really has the charisma to pull off the hard headed outspoken narcissistic genius Daimon Michiko into a likable character and makes you root for her and cheer her on to succeed! This is a STELLAR vehicle which seems just made for her; to paraphrase director Jack Wolz in the Godfather- "The part is perfect for her- It'll make her a big star!"  And indeed, it does... I really, really loved Doctor X! 

Funny, reading up on fan opinions online afterwards, I found people’s ideas of which were the good seasons and weak ones really varied, with most citing season one as the weakest, with the writers still discovering who the characters really were, and some saying the later seasons lose its way into repetitiveness. But for me, MAN, if season one is the bottom and can only go up, then I guess I’ve just GOTTA see more!

Ironic that after all these years of avoiding this series, only NOW am I getting into it, right when lead actress Ryoko Yonekura is calling it quits on the series and begging off doing any more, wanting to do things outside of the Michiko Daimon role- the Doctor X Movie says it’s the “FINAL” and though who knows how much water THAT statement holds, it really seems I’m coming in at the last minute to the festivities! Oh well, better LATE than NEVER!

Now I’ve got some SERIOUS catching up to do…!

Wrapping Up Some Unfinished Dramas

With my success last month of blowing through a WHOLE SMORGASBOARD of older dramas, I decided to try my luck and clear up a whole folder full of unfinished drama clutter!

Strawberry Night

 So I had downloaded the 2012 Strawberry Night Series and was quite confused as this was a sequel to a 2010 Special I hadn’t seen! I put this aside and figured I’d watch it

 SO! Just this past month I FINALLY got ahold of that very first SP and was stunned to find it was the SAME STORY as the Fumi Nikaido drama! Huh, I had no idea the Fumi show was a reboot! In any case, I did watch the SP and was now clear to finish up that original 2012 series!

Well, dove right in and WOW was it good! Yuko Takeuchi in one of her most compelling roles ever! So charismatic,cool, and driven, it's hard to believe they would even dream of rebooting the series with someone else. "Cause I love Fumi, but she ain't no Yuko Takeuchi! For THAT, there's ONLY ONE! 

BTW, it was a “Vampire Heaven” reunion in Episode 3 with BOTH Tsubasa Honda AND Aya Oomasa making appearances!

Jiu

Somehow even the combined efforts of two actresses I really love, Mikako Tabe and Meisa Kuroki, didn’t stop this drama from falling into that void of unfinished dramas for me!

Well, watching it again, the individual episodes have been entertaining enough, documenting both Tabe and Kuroki's characters individual journeys as they move up in the system of violent criminal apprehension...
Hunter~

 I've never warmed up to Ryoko Yonekura despite her being in some excellent dramas, but Mirei Kiritani was in this, so I picked it up anyway....

The story of a group of housewives who use their resources to become sleuths who track down fugitives for the rewards sounds like a fun premise, but somehow I lost interest with this one despite really loving Mirei Kiritani in it.

Well, we're picking it up again, and I have to say it's been a lot more engaging this time around! Enjoying the slapstick sensibility of the show a lot more- everyone's hilarious!

 When one of the ladies says, 'Hey, we kind of look like Goranger, don't we?", it tells you all you need to know about this show!

 Plus, it's been awhile since i've seen Mirei Kiritani in anything and its so nice to see her face again! Well worth finishing up this time!

Perfect Report

 I’ll be honest with you: I thought I’d FINISHED this drama up a long time ago- imagine my surprise looking in my folder of unfinished dramas and seeing this in there!

But it's a fun one to revisit, and  Yasuko Matsuyuki is as cool as ever, though I never quite believed Aibu Saki as the air-headed girly girl. Love the way Matsuyuki's character never calls anyone by their names, instead calling them "Fake Smile", Washed Up Old Man", etc, etc, so funny!

PS: I already mentioned how I don’t care for Keisuke Koide, and I have to see him play the SAME cliched uptight guy grudgingly assigned to work under an outspoken female leader on BOTH Perfect Report AND Strawberry Night!

GOLD

Geez, been so long since I dropped Gold that I completely forgot everything about this drama and had to start all over again from the beginning!

How long ago did I drop this? So long ago that it was before my Love Thang for Emi Takei! I think at the time I had only seen her in Otomen. Kind of funny watching it now and knowing her so well. Actually I was surprised how star-filled this drama was upon revisit! It’s an all-star cast!

Yuki Amami always seems to play the same kind of character, but I dunno, I really liked her character of Yuri Saotome who was very sympathetic despite them painting her as a stubborn hard-headed person. 

Also been awhile since I saw Masami Nagasawa in a role I like, her role of meek and spazzy Rika Niimura is a winner! Really enjoying this one second time around...

EDIT: Holy TOLEDO, was that drama great!When they say a dram a is “heartfelt”, this is what they’re talking about! Probably cried my eyes out in every episode! Gving this show a tentative 9.5 rating on MyDramaList even though I feel it's a solid 10/10!

PS: Loved everyone in this drama, but just HAD to find out who played the adorable girl Maiko Jindai who was matched with eldest son:

Turns out it’s Nao Minamisawa, the actress better known to me as Natsuki, one half of the Cafe Choice waitress duo in the excellent drama “Suteki Na Sen Taxi”!! Just one more reason to love this show!

Long Love Letter

And we DO mean LONG! My gosh, this drama has sat on my hard-drive for at LEAST 10 years and maybe more! 'Bout time I got around to finishing it!

By my recollection, I watched only two episodes of this before getting distracted with other shows. All I remembered was a school getting teleported to another place, and Takako Tokiwa as one of the teachers trying to take care of her students while dealing with it. But, man, re-watching it,  there was so much I didn’t remember-

 Like GOLD, I was astounded to see so many stars in the cast: Takayuki Yamada, Tomohisa Yamashita, Emi Suzuki, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and even Asami Mizukawa!! With Yosuke Kubozuka and Tokiwa as the perennial “leads’, this was an all-star cast!

 Gotta say though, this was s STRUGGLE to get through. A school teleported to a barren wasteland is one thing, but a class full of selfish, arrogant students (and teachers) all rebelling against order, hoarding goods for themselves, wasting water, wasting food and acting cocky throughout is NERVE wracking to watch!

 Sadly, it's not that this is BAD writing, because I KNOW that this is what would happen in REAL LIFE if something like this were to happen- (if COVID19 shows us ANYTHING, it's that some humans are very, very selfish and out for themselves!)- but JEEZ, I don't want to SIT through an entire drama of it!!!

Nagareboshi

 I always thought I had watched this drama, but at best I might have watched just the first few of them, because I don’t remember anything from this. I think I might have mixed it up with Suizokukan Girl???
Funny that I dropped this because it's actually quite a compelling story, following a kindhearted guy (Yutaka Takenouchi) whose sister needs a liver transplant and needs someone who can be a donor, and, after only arriving at dead ends, meets up with a suicidal and desperate girl (Aya Ueto), with the promise of financial reward, agrees to marry into his family and become his sister's donor...

 Finally finishing the drama, I gotta say: I REALLY loved it!!! A very turbulent drama with its ups and downs, but you hung on because you cared about the characters. Great scenes and AWESOME acting!

Takenouchi was usual low-key calm persona as usual, and Aya Ueto’s character was one of the best I’ve ever seen- every sweet, vulnerable, tough and sympathetic, all in one. Now I remember why there was such a buzz about her back in the day, she's so good in this.

Thank Goodness I made an effort to finish up this- would be so sad if somehow I cheated myself out of it and it ended up being unwatched forever!

This was another STELLAR Month of GREAT J-Drama catching up!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com