An Aimi Satsukawa Slight Return

Oh, and one more thing about Gekiryuu ~ Watashi o Oboeteimasuka? that I just HAD to mention is that besides the awsome lead actors and actresses, the show's full of other familiar faces with folks like Morimoto Leo, Tanaka Misako and Kaku Chikaku , but the one that I was pretty pleased to see is the return of cutie Aimi Satsukawa, last seen by me as the wily model Mano in Going My Home, here playing an equally sexy (and just as caustic and emotionally unbalanced) young thang named Rumi!

So funny to see her playing such extravagant characters lately, especially when you consider the first time I saw her was as the very meek role of crazy Eriko Sato's nerdish little sister Kiyomi in Funuke Domo~ Show Some Love, You Losers! Now that's moving on up!
  Reading up on Aimi in her AsianMediaWiki stats, looks like she's been a busy gal since I last saw her!  Wait...she was in the Denjin Zabohga Movie, too? LOL, who woulda thunk it?!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Requiem For One Long Gone

Just started watching another dark and surreal drama with the new mystery Gekiryuu ~ Watashi O Oboetemasuka? starring Rena Tanaka, Kenta Kiritani, Ryoko Kuninaka, Tomosaka Rie and Koji Yamamoto.

Tanaka Rena as Misumi Keiko

Kiritani Kenta as Higashihagi Koji

Kuninaka Ryoko as Midohara Takako 

Yamamoto Koji as Sabashima Yutaka

Tomosaka Rie as Akiyoshi Miya

20 years ago, seven schoolmates took an excursion on a bus, and somewhere along the way, one of the girls named Fuyuha mysteriously disappeared and was never seen again. Fast forward to the present, and the remaining students have all grown up and moved on, til Fuyuha and her unexplained disappearance have all been mostly forgotten about. When we check in on the surviving students, we find that all of them have been living turbulent and troubled lives as adults, til one day fate seems to bring them all back together, and then one day one of the women gets a chilling email with one single line and signature: 

"Do You Remember Me?- Fuyuha."

As the colleagues reconnect and explore the strange emails they are all suddenly receiving from their supposedly long-departed friend, each is forced to examine the life they've been leading as they look back at their days of youth where everything was bright and optimistic, with their whole futures ahead of them.

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Wild KARA Sighting!

Haha, been enjoying all the celebrity guest appearances in the episodes of Galileo like Kiritani Mirei and Aoi Yu among others, but the gal that appeared on Episode 10 in cameo as a humble secretary was one that I just did not see coming! I was like, "Hey...that girl looks familiar....looks like....HARA!!!" LOLOL, made me laugh out loud!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

What Dreams May Come: The Haunting New Drama "Double Tone~Futari No Yumi"

Just started watching the incredibly haunting and melancholy drama Double Tone/Two Yumis, the strange tale of two women named Yumi, one a simple housewife and the other an up-and-coming designer, who uncannily see each others' lives play out in each others'  dreams.! At first only mildly curious about the dreams they've been having, their fates take a darker turn when they find out that the dream are not only real, but are separated by years... years in which one woman has apparently passed away! A J-drama with a decidedly David Lynchian twist!

The drama stars pretty actresses Nakagoshi Noriko (last seen by me in Lucky Seven, though I admittedly don't remember her) as designer Yumi Nakano and Kurotani Tomoko (who I hadn't seen since appearing as the ex-wife of  Takano Bucho in Hotaru No Hikari) as troubled housewife Yumi Tamura, two awesome actresses who make this show really something to watch!

Such a gripping and thought-provoking drama, I was crushed to find that this show is only going to be 6 episodes long, so rather more like a long movie than a drama proper, but perhaps that's all for the best...a very linear tale like this certainly doesn't need any unnecessary sub-plots or characters to get right to the heart of the situation!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Truth In Advertising with Jiyul

Jiyul wears a self-descriptive tank top t-shirt in an animated performance of “Bling Bling” that echoes my gushing sentiments about her exactly! 

At first I couldn't really see what the letters on her tank top spelled out,but soon enough Jiyul was posing in the perfect positions to read the lettering, and I just HAD to laugh at how PERFECT the words were!       

 Though I'm at the stage where I'm really loving each and every member soooo much, Jiyul is still the apple of my eye, and that shirt spelled out JUST what I was thinking at the time I watched this performance! Don't know exactly where she got such a perfect accessory, but you know what they say- if ya got it, flaunt it! Indeed:

Now that's some REAL truth in Advertising!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Part Two of my Dal★Shabet Obsession Arrives!!!

Got my SECOND shipment of DAL SHABET goods in today! Technically, they came in yesterday, but once again my working schedule was such that I’m never home when the mailman arrives so had to go pick it up at the post office this morning- but it was WELL worth it!

Dal Shabet Photobook "For DALing"

Got two awesome collectible Dal Shabet items, the first one being this GORGEOUS , THICK 250+ page Photobook called “For DALing”, which I think (judging by what I’ve seen online) was originally paired with the girls’ mini-album “Have, Don’t Have”; Unfortunately, by the time I got around to wanting it, the set had long since sold out and gone away, so I had to find someone selling the book by itself.  Such a Cool Book, featuring the girls in various locations and times, from their trip in New York...

To studio time recording the Have, Don’t Have album, shooting the Mr. Bang Bang MV as well as free time with the girls running around town shopping together! Man, this book was just chock FULL of new favorite pictures of the girls!

The other item I was thrilled to receive was what is SURE to become the centerpiece to my entire Dal Shabet collection- an autographed copy of their second mini-album PINK ROCKET, signed by all six of the (then) current members, Subin, Serri, Ayoung, Jiyul, Viki, and Kaeun! Paid a pretty penny for it, too, but when I saw it up for auction, I just HAD to have it!

Autographed Dal Shabet "Pink Rocket" album

  Going to now spend some time listening to the Pink Rocket CD while once again flipping through the Dal Shabet Photobook- Can’t wait til Part THREE of my Dal Shabet Shipment comes in! Updates Soon!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Stairwell Second-Sight

Don’t know how much this shows how much I love, love LOVED the first Yuusha Yoshihiko drama “Maou No Shiro”, especially the last story arc when they arrived in Tokyo and fell under Maou’s charms, but when I was watching the last episode of “Otenki Oneesan”, I IMMEDIATELY recognized the stairwell the detectives were standing in front of as the same set cutie Murasaki was acting in a spoof of “Dr. Jin", where Yoshihiko comes to talk her into rejoining the cause!

Detectives and Stairwell in "Otenki Oneesan"

and with Yamada Takayuki and Kinami Haruka in Yuusha Yoshihiko

Man, Now that I think about it, I wonder how many times I’ve seen that darn staircase and just never noticed it before?
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Otenki Oneesan 終わり

Emi Takei  as Haru in Otenki Oneesa

Ahhh, just finished watching the Emi Takei crime drama Otenki Oneesan tonight, and I have to say that it was quite an enjoyable romp! Individual episodes were your usual “Person-of-eccentric-abilities-solves-strange-crimes” formula, but by gosh, you really liked the characters, and the development of Haru as a person throughout the series was done so well! 

Of course, the main attraction for me was the amazing and beautiful Emi Takei who completely immersed herself in the mysterious Haru role, so much that I completely believed her character, but the supporting cast was also superb, especially the fun and witty gang at the "Bar Mitsuya" where Haru lived and they broke down the cases each evening.

Dan Mitsu, Sasaki Kuranosuke, Takei Emi and Okura Tadayoshi

Something about this show really touched me- very moody atmosphere and carefully crafted scenes which were very pleasing to the eye! The show had a very abruptly cut ending which makes me think they’re gearing up for a Special, which I would totally be up for! An abrupt but altogether satisfying ending to a really sweet and gently-paced series.

A wonderfully Moody drama

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Reading & Writing with Dal★Shabet

Up until this point in my K-pop fandom (nearly one and a half-years in), though I’ve picked up the meanings of the various and oft-repeated lines of dialog and phrases heard in songs and variety shows (Otokke, anyone?), when it came to understanding the Korean Hangul writing, it was simply beyond me.
   It wasn’t until Dal Shabet came along that I suddenly had an actual desire to read those strange characters written and wanted to make an actual effort to learn the characters- Seems that after watching Dal Shabet videos incessantly online, I found that I could easily recognize part of their name in Korean, which I identified as “a C followed by a kanji “to” and a number2”: 달. Feeling quite proud of myself for even recognizing THAT much, I began to want to know EXACTLY what each symbol meant, and so FINALLY after all this time, I went online and began to study the writing in earnest!
   Fortunately for a TOTAL Hangul newbie like myself, Korean culture is BIG TIME online, and I easily found a bunch of really great places which taught Hangul in easy-to-understand lessons! Using the instructions that taught the basic sounds attributed to each character, I learned enough that I began to experiment writing names on my own! I tried to write “Dal Shabet” using the lessons I’d learned and came up with this:

Well, that wasn’t quite right, as I was still learning the “breakdowns” of the language, (which words are identified as “uee” and which are ‘ooi”, etc) but after figuring some of it out (as well as the fact that the “s” sound is pronounced with a “t” if it’s at the end, I realized it was actually written like this:

But it was a start, and my next project was to try and spell all the Dal Shabet members names using the lessons I’d learned…to limited success- as you can see my original guesses written on the left had a few errors here and there (only Serri and Jiyul spelled without mistake)...After I checked my answers, I corrected the mistakes in red (on the right), but at least I understood what had been written wrong and WHY. I was learning! Not Bad!

  For my next lesson, I wanted to see if I could translate members names using only the written Hangul and my lessons. I decided to try and see if I could figure out all the APink members names, since, Eunji and Naeun aside, I didn't know any of the members. Finding a Hangul listing of the girls' names, I wrote out what I thought the Hangul spelled out (in blue) and when I was done, I checked the chart’s names listed and saw what I'd translated wasn't too far off what their names really were! Hey-those lessons work!

  Got a lot of studying and memorizing to do, but hopefully these lessons will “stick” and I’ll be able to better read things like Member and group names as well as the titles of the albums and songs I’m into! See what a whole lotta Dal Shabet Love can do for you? LOLOL! Nothing Drives Like Obsession!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

SNSD's "Love And Girls" Is Here!!!

Amidst all this Dal Shabet excitement a small package from CD Japan arrived with the latest Japan release from Girls Generation, and as usual, they remind me at once why they’re at the utmost TOP of my K-pop faves! Just a  few days ago I was telling a friend how SNSD was one of the few groups where I’ve loved each and every CD and Single they’ve put out, and their new single “Love and Girls” and its’ sweet “Lingua Franca” continues the awesome trend!!! Just PURE POP PERFECTION!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Part One of my Dal★Shabet Obsession Arrives!!!

Was a HAPPY DAY here when my Dal Shabet package arrived today!!! Ooooh, been waiting all week to dig into these goodies!!! As you can see in the above pic, I got Dal Shabet's "Bang Bang" Album, "their new "Be Ambitious" Mini-Album, and the "Have, Don't Have" Mini Album, which came along with a gorgeous colorful POSTER!!!

As far as bonus goodies, the Bang Bang album yielded the best- a clamshell hard box case, beautiful photobooklet, postcard and a cool KAEUN trading card! The Have, Don't Have album came with a trading card of cutie Ayoung, and the Be Ambitious album came with...nothing! LOL! Of course, each mini-album also came with beautiful gatefold digipaks, with built-in picture booklets, so that's something, and of course there's the MAIN thing- those wonderfully AWESEOME songs!!! I'm ripping them right now as we speak and can't wait to load 'em into the ipod and go for a spin!!!

Along with the Dal Shabet order I also got the first HelloVenus album which came with not one but TWO trading cards, of Alice and Yoonjo! I'd always liked their song "Venus" and since I've been liking them more and more recently, when I saw the vendor who was selling me my Dal Shabet stuff also had this album, I figured, what the heck!
   Anyway. I've got some listening to do, and hopefully in the next few weeks the SECOND HALF of my huge Dal Shabet Orders will be arriving! Can't Wait!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com