Crush Of The Day: Sasaki Nozomi

Well, I have to say that I’ve been waiting for a vehicle like this for Sasaki Nozomi for quite a while! From the first time I saw her as Kyoko Fukada’s roommate in Massugu No Otoko, I’ve been wowed by her stunning good looks, but have only seen her playing small bit parts in the movies and dramas. I was always waiting to see Nozomi in her own starring show, and it looks like TENSHI NO KOI is the ticket!

Luscious Tenshi No Koi Poster

From just a glance at the Movie poster for Tenshi No Koi (with a very seductive Nozomi sitting naked on a bed with her dress around her waist) , you knew I was going to see this movie NO MATTER WHAT, and I would have been satisfied seeing even a mediocre movie just to see her in action, I was instead quite pleased to find a thoroughly enjoyable outing!

The tried and tested formulaic story of  “guy meets girl, girl and guy fall in love, then one is found to be dying of an illness” is an old clichéd tune for sure, but somehow, Nozomi’s sweet portrayal of  student by day/escort by night Rio is so adorably infectious you find that you don’t even care! You’re just happy to go along for the ride!

Rio and her Gang make for an interesting dynamic

Nozomi Brings on The Pout, Shosuke Tanihara behind

This movie reunites Nozomi with her "Handsome Suit" star Shosuke Tanihara, and comparing the two movies, it's amazing how much she's grown as an actress. Whereas Handsome Suit featured her mostly as a cute and ditsy supermodel with barely any lines of dialog, who would have thought that in only a few years, she'd be headlining her own movie with Tanihara!

Like I said, I’ve liked Nozomi for a while now, and just KNEW that once I got to see her in a movie or drama where she could show what she could do, I would fall MADLY in love with her, or at least madly in CRUSH of her! After seeing her as the smart, sexy and always straightforward girl, I finally felt like I got to “know” Nozomi more than the fly by night bit roles she’d been in before!

On Himitsu No Arashi-Chan's VIP ROOM

On Himitsu No Arashi-Chan's MANNEQUIN FIVE sgment

Besides a terrific guest spot on a recent Himitsu No Arashi-Chan VIP ROOM (as well as a spot on an episode of MANNEQUIN FIVE), I recently caught Nozomi in a guest part in the drama "Propose Kyodai", and as usual, she was her gorgeous self, bringing that beautiful smile (with those rosy, cherubic cheeks!) I've come to love with her! Would really like to see her in a drama of her own, but so far no one seems to have subbed "Dohyo Girl", dunno why, is Nozomi as a Sumo Wrestling coach too much of a stretch? AHAHAHA!

As Yukie in MASSUGU NA OTOKO

As Remi in THE HANDSOME SUIT

as Minami in PROPOSE KYODAI

Oooh, and one more tantalizing aspect of Nozomi Sasaki is her wonderful gravure model work, where we find the curvy Nozomi  is very generous when it comes to showing off her sexy self in a bikini! Oh Yes, this is good stuff...

Yes, Very, Very Good Stuff!

Thumbs Down on V.I.P. "Limousine" Format

I just have to go on record here and state how much I can’t STAND the new “VIP Limousine” that replaced the “VIP ROOM” segment in Himitsu No Arashi Chan. They took a beloved segment of mine and turned it into this boring and chop-socky thing that is hardly worth watching!

The original VIP ROOM segment would invite a special guest on the show, find interesting facts about them, and then create interesting projects related to those interests.

The VIP LIMOUSINE takes the guest on a field trip and goes to visit random places.

For example, in VIP ROOM, when they found out guest Toda Erika liked Gyoza, they brought in various types from all over Japan for her to try. Or when they found out Karina collected dolls, they brought in a whole collection of them for her to choose from.

In complete juxtaposition, in VIP LIMOUSINE, they find out that guest Ryoko Yonekura  did Ballet for 15 years, does pilates and yoga in her spare time and likes to drink sake…and then took her to a small town to play Vintage Video Games. WHY???? This has NOTHING to do with her! The guest could have been ANYONE!

Yonekura Ryoko wonders why she dressed up to come here.

And one of the great things about the VIP Room was also the fact that (for the most part)  the guests really treated it like a VIP occasion, and you got to see the female guests dressed in these beautiful, formal outfits that you’d usually never see. This is fine since they’re all just sitting down for an intimate talk, but in the VIP LIMOUSINE version, they took Ryoko Yonekura, all dressed very elegantly in a pretty gown and high heels, traipsing all over town, being bugged by screaming kids on the street, and finally finding herself overlooked as they talked about the latest shop’s wares. GRRR!

And ANOTHER thing that’s sorely missed is the LOSS OF GROUP INTERACTION. One thing that REALLY sucks about VIP LIMO is that there are never more than TWO members of Arashi on this thing, so the whole group dynamic is missing. Where you used to have all five boys listening and chiming in as they chatted with the guest, here you have two members basically reading off a script as they talk about the cool venues they’re going to visit. And unlike the plush VIP ROOM, that Limousine is cramped and the set seems thrown together sloppily, SOOOO Irritating!

VIP ROOM format

VIP Limousine format

My Final beef is the loss of the game at the end of the interview, where the girl guest will choose one of the five Arashi Boys as the one she’d like as her date, based on their interaction during her stay. In VIP LIMO, obviously they can’t do that since THE OTHER THREE GUYS AREN”E EVEN THERE, so they’ve replaced it with this “Grade the boys on how much you liked the VIP LIMO Date. How boring is THAT? As if anyone would give a low ranking, even if they had a crappy time! Pfffrt.

Oh MAN, I’m hoping and PRAYING that they’ve only creating this horrible thing because both Matsushima and Nakajima of OTHELLO (who’ve been the co-hosts and pretty much HEART of the show) are going to be away on leave, and once they’re available again, they’ll come back and FIX THIS FRICKING THING! Sigh, I’m so afraid how their absence is going to affect the other Himitsu No Arashi-Chan corners like Mannequin Five and Mote Dame Arashi…

Nakajima and Matsushima: OTHELLO

Adrift In Tokyo

Just watched a very good movie called TENTEN~Adrift In Tokyo, A comedic story about a Loan Shark Collector who offers one of his marks a million yen to pay off his debts if he'll accompany him on a walk of indeterminate time: "Could be days or even a month", he flatly states. Without much choice, the mark accepts the job, and over the course of days, the two men form a special bond as they experience life on the road together.

Odagiri Joe , Miura Tomokazu

The Loan collector is played with witty delight by Mr. Momoe Yamaguchi Miura Tomokazu, whose character of Fukuhara is a life-loving person, and his constant chattering about this and that is reminiscent of Charles Grodin in Midnight Run or Kazama Morio in Instant Numa! The hapless debt-ridden man he eventually employs as his road companion of sorts is played with glum moroseness by Odagiri Joe, here rocking the frizziest hairdo ever seen on an asian man! As Takemura, he's a young man who's always felt like luck hasn't been on his side. Abandoned by his parents at the age of 5, he's always looked at life as a series of let downs and broken promises. But through the course of their walk, he begins to see in Fukuhara the father figure he's longed for all his life.

Eventually Fukuhara lets Takemura in on the secret: He's accidentally killed his wife and is going to turn himself in at the Kasumigaseki Police Station at the end of their journey. At first not believing or caring, by the time they have arrived at the destination, he's not only come to believe it, but has come to find he cares for this man who's somehow given him a whole new outlook on life.

Don't Worry though, the Movie isn't as dark as all that, the story is played very lightly, and, like I mentioned earlier, is pretty much a comedy however you look at it. But the twist and turns the two men go through, the fun and interesting eateries, the fights and the late night-talks all add up to a very sincere and thought- provoking film.

At one point Fukuhara takes Takemura to meet a lady-friend of his named Makiko (played by the ever-stoic Koizumi Kyoko) where they can stay for a few days and it's here that Takemura meets her niece Fufumi, played by the excitably genki Yoshitaka Yuriko!

Koizumi Kyoko, Miura Tomokazu, Odagiri Joe, Yoshitaka Yuriko

 Fufumi's been led to believe that Fukuhara is Makiko's overseas husband, and to protect the illusion, Takemura suddenly finds himself pretending to be Makiko's SON! With the four of them sitting down to a wonderful home cooked meal one evening, for the first time in his life, Talemura finds himself feeling, "So, this is what a family feels like". A touching scene!

Miura Tomokazu, Yoshitaka Yuriko, Koizumi Kyoko, Odagiri Joe

And while We're at it, Special mention MUST be made of that ZANY Yoshitaka Yuriko! From the moment she enters, she's stealing the scenes, going off portraying her patented "Woman/Child" girly-girl, the kind that is sooooo cute and ditsy as to border on Mental incapacitation! With her one-of-a-kind high-pitched and scratchy voice, can ANYONE do this better than her? LOL!

Yoshitaka Yuriko

Crush Of The Day: Adachi Rika

Well, my interest in cute actress Rika Adachi has been pretty well documented here on the zdorama site ever since noticing her for the first time in GeGeGe No Nyobo, but for some reason, my interest in her has been increasing, and I've found that I’ve been spending most of my time looking for pictures of her online, to great success! Seems Rika's spent a good many years  doing the gravure thing, and  the awesome and eye-openingl scans that generous folks have been sharing have been only fueling my obsession!

Picture after picture, I found my attraction to her only increasing, but the best was yet to come when I finally got ahold of some of her VIDEOS! Far from the wide-eyed and demure girl I was expecting, DVDs like Kujira Tokidoki Uma and Maru Sankaku Heart showed me a sultry side of Rika that I'd never IMAGINED- With scene after scene of Rika rocking the skimpiest of bikinis, I was blown away by how sexy and RISQUE the videos were! Considering this was made by WANI BOOKS, whose idea of sexy was dressing Koizumi Kyoko in an eggplant suit,  these were clearly gravure idol videos for a new generation!

By the time I'd finished watching the videos, Rika had officially made the move from "Cute and Freshly Scrubbed" to "Hot, Sexy and Sassy", and I'd never look back again! Thanks to the shared efforts of everyone online, I'd become a full-blown Rika Adachi fanatic!

This is doubly amazing when you consider that though I initially fell in love with her in GeGeGe No Nyobo, I've hardly seen anything with her in it drama or movie-wise. She just hasn't been in that many things yet but now it's quite exciting to think of all the future projects she will be involved in as she gets older and becomes more well-known. Who knows, a Rika Adachi headlined show may be coming around sooner than we think! At least, we can pray! For now, I'll take the bit parts she's doing and of course all that gorgeous gravure goodness to see me through...!

PS: It was amazing to see so many pics of Ms. Adachi scanned from recent issues of compact Idol magazine BOMB. Back in the day, BOMB magazine was just about the best place to get pictorials of your favorite idol girls (it was there that I first set eyes on gals such as Anzai Hiroko, Fukada Kyoko, and unbelievably, Hamasaki Ayumi) and it was nice and reassuring to see that the sturdy magazine is still around! 

Bottoms Up!

I'm not a drinker and have never been one, so the idea of Cinco De Mayo has never had any real meaning for me, but for those of you who DO consider this a day to get hammered, I offer up this clip of cute Osen having a Sake drinking challenge with the Omikoshii Bearers at the Sennari Shrine Festival...

This clip ain't got NOTHIN to do with Cinco De Mayo, but MY does Aoi Yu look nice and toasty getting giddy off of her wonderful sake! She's sure to pay with another hangover the following morning (which I'm sure some of you may be experiencing yourselves!)

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Akiko / Happy Little Time

My obsession with obtaining as many live performances of Super Monkeys alumnae MAX led me to a whole new world of music shows, and one of the shows I began watching was a nifty little show called YORU MO HIT PARADE.  This was more like a variety show with various geinokai (with MAX being one of the regulars) taking turns singing the latest hits off the weekly charts.

The format allowed me to hear songs that I wouldn’t have normally come across, and I fell in love with a good many songs and artists once I saw the tune sung and performed by MAX and/or one of the other regulars or one of the featured guests.

On one such occasion, I was thrilled to see Rieko Miura (beloved princess of Pony Canyon idols CoCo) as a guest, and was even further amped when I saw that she’d be singing along with MAX! Being a huge fan of both CoCo AND Super Monkeys, this was like a crossing of two worlds!

The song that they were chosen to perform was a song called “Happy Little Time”, a new single from an artist known only by the first-named moniker AKIKO. This was a cool, funky little tune, and I fell in love with it instantly! Such a catchy song, and I have to say the excitement of watching Rieko sing with MAX made me rewind that tape over and over again, til I knew I just HAD to have the “real” single for myself!

Having only heard the Rieko Miura / MAX rendition of the song, I was completely blown away hearing AKIKO ‘s cool R&B vocals signing the song for the first time HOLY CRAP, now THIS was the way the song was MEANT to be sung! Happy Little Time quickly became my favorite single at the time, and it became to opening track for the cassette mixes I was making for friends and myself!

J-Drama Femme Fatale: Yashiro Minase

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve only ever been a “so-so” fan of the Haruma Miura spy thriller BLOODY MONDAY, but I’ve always stuck around because the show was simply CHOCK FULL OF BABES! With gals like Ashina Sei as beautiful Third-I agent Minami, Tomoka Kurokawa and Mina Fuji as girls in Falcon’s Life (or are they more than that…?) and gorgeous Michiko Kichise as secret agent/terrorist Orihara Maya, there was enough to keep me going however preposterous the plot!

And so, jumping in to Season Two(!) of Bloody Monday, and we’re already off to a MIGHTY FINE start, with the introduction of a new assassin/terrorist, Agent LADYBIRD. WOW, as soon as this bombshell came onto the screen, I was in, all chips! With devastating looks (and signature dragon- tattooed bustline) and ferocious/cold attitude this was ONE femme that was going to take me all the way to the end! Ooh, and have you ever seen an interrogation look so SEXY?!

We Will MAKE You TALK!

The babelicious model-cum-actress was a curvy dish by the name of Yashiro Minase, and going online I was THRILLED to find that she’d already made a name for herself in the world of gravure modeling, and I didn’t hesitate grabbin’ alla THOSE! 

To see her duked out in leather ‘n’ tattoos is fine, but seeing her in a skimpy BIKINI or LACY UNDERWEAR  is INFINITELY BETTER!!! Ah, but I digress...

To add even MORE flavor to the threat of Ladybird in Bloody Monday2, we are treated to the re-introduction of Michiko Kichise, and as the two killers go after the same targets, we are INEVITABLY treated to an explosive FEMME-FATALE FACE-OFF between the once and future Queens of Anarchy! Ooh, how I loved those scenes, loved ‘em so much that I was able to overlook the inescapable question of WHY these slick professional assassins are so LOUSY when it comes to actually killing the heroes they’ve been hired to murder! I mean, point blank in the chest and the victims manage to crawl away? Amazing…

OK, back to those Yashiro Minase Shashinshuus…Ahhh, it’s all better now….

A Happy Coincidence

  Still coming off my "Kimi Ni Todoke" high, I was pleasantly surprised to find that  in a cool coincidence, the fine folks over at Angeldevils Fansubs had just released cutie-pie Tabe Mikako's VIP Room Episode on Himistu No Arashi-Chan! They've been slowly subbing a lot of older Arashi episodes, and  what PERFECT TIMING to have this show to watch right after finishing Mikako-chan's latest movie!

Another super fun episode with those Arashi Boys: They found out that Mikako had a big love of okonomiyaki, so the guys each created a new dish for her to try, ultimately to announce the King Of Okonomiyaki when she selected the one she thought was the best!

Some of the dishes sounded tasty (Nino's Yokan one). some interesting (Aiba's Natto Rolls), and some fancy (Matsujun's Italian style), but YECH- Sho's escargot okonomiyaki? Chotto, Gomen PASS!