Satomi Ishihara is Back in Full Bloom with “Jimi Ni Sugoi”!!

Satomi Ishihara is BACK!

Just finished watching the first episode of the new Satomi Ishihara drama Jimi ni Sugoi~Koetsu Garu Kono Etsuko (Simpleness is Great!! Copy Editing Girl Kono Etsuko), and I already love, love, LOVE it!!!

Satomi Ishihara as Etsuko Kono

 Jimi Ni Sugoi tells the tale of a pretty young fashionable woman named Kono Etsuko who has dreamed all her life of becoming an editor for her favorite fashion magazine Lassy, unfortunately the company isn’t ever hiring new editors and it has been a solid six times since graduating that Etsuko has come in interviewing for a spot with the publishers with no luck! 

This time however, Etsuko manages to strike a chord with Shoon Takeyama, (the always fun and goofy Goro Kishitani) the head of the proofreading department, when she asks him where he got his unusual necktie pin. Such a strange girl, he thinks, but at least he'll remember her! Etsuko leaves crossing her fingers that the seventh time will be the charm!
When Etsuko gets the call from the company that evening telling her she’s been hired, she is in seventh heaven! She strides in to work the next day beaming with charisma and confidence, ready to meet the team...

A Dream Come True!

Finally at Lassy!

Here I am!

"Who IS this chick?"

...but she is rudely awakened when she finds that she HASN'T been hired for the fashion editing room at ALL...but the dour and drab dungeon of the company’s PROOFREADING department!

Etsuko finds her REAL department...

...the Proofreading Section!

Flabbergasted, she tells Takeyama that there must be SOME kind of mistake because she applied for  the FASHION section, but Takeyama reminds her that, as they said in the interview, they’re just not hiring for that department…

Takeyama (Goro Kishitani) explaining things.

But when he noticed that her name, Kouno Etsuko, sounded an awful lot like “proofreader” (Ko-etsu), Takeyama took it as a sign…and hired her for his own section! LOL!

Your name means you were MADE for this job!

Not Funny

After snickering at his own joke, Takeyama tells her that, while the Proofreading Section isn’t what she hoped for, with proper motivation she can work her way up in the company until she gets the position she really wants. Giving in, Etsuko decides to make the best of it, planning on staying there for only as long as it takes to get promoted and get out of there!
The proofreading team themselves are not impressed with Etsuko’s flashy and outspoken demeanor, and are even less impressed by her proofreading skills!

Fujiwa (Noriko Eguchi) training Etsuko

Fujiwa Rion (Noriko Eguchi) is in charge of training Etsuko but after a headache inducing first day, she tells Takeyama that she doesn't think this dizzy girl is up to the task.

Takeyama tells her the story of his necktie pin- how Etsuko pointed it out and how he saw her later that day  investigating about it in a store, and tells her to give her a chance because this is a girl who notices details and will investigate questions until she gets the correct answers. And so begins Etsuko’s career as a magazine Proofreader!

Etsuko seriously applying herself

Boss tells her she must do things her own way.

Besides having to deal with her fellow proofreaders, Etsuko must also go up against the editors of the manuscripts they are given to correct, and almost immediately she butts heads with an editor named Hachiro Kaizuka (Munetaka Aoki). She doesn’t think much of her section, but when she sees him belittling the crew and making light of their work, she finds herself defending the proofreaders and verbally assaulting the man, calling him “tako” in front of everyone! Unfortunately for her, this is a higher up whom she will be dealing with on an almost regular basis, and can make things difficult for her!

Kaizuka belittling Yoneoka (Masato Wada)

Etsuko can't Keep Quiet!

...and who is THIS girl?

Mind your manners...TAKO!

Takeyama runs in to introduce the people to each other.

She does have a couple of friends she can rely on, one is a girl named Toyoko Morio (Tsubasa Honda), a fellow employee who is an old classmate who happens to work for the very Fashion Editing Section Estuko covets....

Toyoko Morio (Tsubasa Honda)

...and Cecil Imai, a cute and naive girl working as the company’s receptionist, (played by the squeakily adorable Rika Adachi), who immediately adheres herself to Etsuko’s side as her best buddy. Such a sweetie!!!

Above and Below: Yuri (Marie Soda) and Cecil (Rika Adachi)

 Together these two become friends Etsuko can have over for drinks where she can get drunk and "let it all out", passing out by the end of the night, LOL!

Etsuko also has the utmost support from the boss of the Okazuya she’s living above,who treats her much like a father (in fact, I first thought it WAS her father, their relationship is just like Anne and Ren Osugi in Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai) as well as all the neighborhood regulars. They love and cherish her and do anything they can to help her get ahead!

Boss Oda (Hiromasa Taguchi) and the boys get Etsuko a gift!

A clearly touched Etsuko knows she is cared for.

There is also a sub-plot regarding Morio and her work- she’s tasked with looking for a new model for the company and sets her sights on a boy she saw online named Yukito Orihara (Masaki Suda).

"That's the look I've been looking for"

Orihara ( Masaki Suda): No interest in Modeling.

When she meets him, however, he has no desire to model but when he loses his job and then gets an eviction notice from his apartment, he changes his mind and agrees to work for her. The following day, he accidentally bumps into Etsuko who is literally AND figuratively knocked off her feet, it is LOVE at first sight! But as Morio seems to also show interest in this guy, I see some love triangles ahead…

One scene that really killed me and I laughed out LOUD was this scene where Etsuko is hobbling home, cheery and a bit tipsy over champagne when she spies an “Editor’s Bag” that she’s had her eyes on on sale.  She goes over and reads the details, but she is SO immersed in her job that before you know it, she’s taken out her editing pen and “proofread” the sale sign! LOLOL~!!!

 

MAN, i’m enjoying this drama so MUCH! As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Satomi Ishihara already, and her character of Etsuko Kouno is so bright, optimistic, sassy and charming, I fell in love with her before even 5 minutes had passed!!! She’s one of those quirky characters who dresses very casually at home but dresses up in five star STYLE when out on the town or at work, and the show does this very cute thing where after each scene is completed, a magazine spread pops up with Satomi as a model modelling the outfit! Not since “Hotaru No Hikari” have I seen a show care so much about the characters’ wonderful clothing, and I LOVE it!

Like shows such as “Underwear” or even “Ie Uru Onna”, the  show is very dense with actual facts and information about its business. Whereas Underwear introduced you to the world of Lingerie Designing and Ie uru Onna taught you the fundamentals about real estate, Jimi Ni Sugoi teaches you about proofreading, the procedures, the implementation and the research points of the job, and it is a thrill to see Etsuko not only learning the ropes, but finding she has a passion for it as well!

A fun, properly intriguing drama showing a dazzling Satomi Ishihara at her very best, this IS Satomi Ishihara in Full Bloom!

"The food is so yummy!"

"But who was that guy I bumped into?"

"Really, Sempai, he didn't seem that special to me."

Oh well...back to eating!!!! LOLOL

PS: An added bonus is the opening song to Jimi No Sugoi sung by a girl named CHAY which I immediately recognized as the awesome Yumi Arai (Matsutoya) song “12-gatsu No Ame” off her incredible “Misslim” Album! What a nice surprise!!! Looks like this show is off to a GREAT START and I can't wait to see MORE!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Executive Crush Status: Kyoko Fukada

I’ve mentioned many, many times before on this blog about how the first time I’d ever seen actress Kyoko Fukada was way back when she was just starting out as a gravure model. My friend Golden was a subscriber to a few idol magazines and I was over at his house when he was sorting out his most recent pull. Taking out the latest issue of BOMB Magazine, I was awestruck by the pretty young girl on the cover. I did a double take and, flipping through the magazine and taking in the sight of  the girl’s lusciously curvy body and cute features, told my friend, “MAN, this girl is so freaking PRETTY!” He dismissed my comment, saying “ALL the girls in these magazines are pretty!”, to which I had to shake my head and say, “No, this girl has something EXTRA! This girl is going to be HUGE!”

As you may have guessed, that girl was Kyoko Fukada, and after seeing Golden’s issue, I ran down to Iwase Books to see if they still had a copy of the issue so I could pick one up too, but I was far too late. 

 From then on, I made it a point to check the latest issues of BOMB every time I visited one of the (at the time) many Japanese bookstores, and I was ecstatic when I walked into Iwase Books a few months later and saw that the latest issue of BOMB had ONCE AGAIN graced its cover with the alluring image of the wondrous Kyoko Fukada:

YES!!! I immediately snatched the issue up and was simply beside myself, I finally had a BOMB with Kyoko Fukada all to myself!!  And just like that other issue, it was just filled with bikini-rrific pictures of Kyoko as well as new information about her!

It was a great time to be a Kyoko Fukada fan- besides her great new pictorials , she was finally becoming known in Japanese Dramas like “News Na Onna” and the awesome “Kamisama Mou Sukoshidake”! It seems my predictions for her becoming a hit were right on the money!

Above and below: Kamisama Mou Sukoshidake

To Heart~Koi Ni Shinitai

 By the time she starred in Oni no Sumika and the terrific Domoto Tsuyoshi-led “To Heart”, I had fallen completely and helplessly in LOVE with her,  and as a huge, huge fan was trying to get my hands on any TV shows and specials she appeared on. I was such a fan that I even made it a point to purchase her VHS video magazine set “For Me” and “To Me’:

Kyoko Fukada Video Magazines "For Me" and "To Me"

Admittedly, after seeing how luscious Kyoko’s photo shoots were, with her pleasingly plump, curvy bikini-clad body filling up the pages, these “artsy” NON-BIKINI video clips were VERY disappointing (do NOT trust those bikini pics on the VHS clamshell packaging, it AIN’T gonna happen in this set!),  but I took it as a sign that she was finally a successful actress and was moving away from her cheesecake beginnings.

Strawberry On The Shortcake

Otousan

Shiawase Ni Naritai

And a success she was! From there she would appear in a wwhole bunch of great dramas...Besides Kamisama Mou Sukoshidake and To Heart, there followed a whole slew of other great shows she’d appear in: Strawberry On The Shortcake, Otousan, Shiawase No Naritai and Karei Naru SPY, among others...

Kareinaru SPY

with Nagase Tomoya in Karei Naru SPY 

Fugou Keigi

with Misaki Ito in Yama Onna Kabe Onna

Even today Kyoko still rocks the drama and movie world as one of the most popular actresses out there! And it's funny, no matter how old she gets, she still manages to pull off the cutest and sweetest roles ever, in shows like Massugu Na Otoko and the recent "Please Love The Useless Me!

Massugu Na Otoko

Please Love The Useless Me

And we can't forget her appearances in fun movies like her gothic lolita masterpiece Kamikaze Girls and the uber-wacky Sakurai Sho led "Yatterman!

Kamikaze Girls

As Doronjo in Yatterman

She had truly arrived!f you’ve been reading my Kyoko Fukada blogposts in recent years, you’ll know how delighted I was when a now grown and mature Kyoko decided to go back to her luscious cheesecake roots and began releasing new photobooks filled with the most salacious pulchritude, NOW, besides those hip-and-boob hugging bikinis, Kyoko has also moved on to the drool-inducing world of sexy lingerie shoots! And oh MAN did I love ‘em!!!Sexy, Sexy, SEXY!!!

   I had just purchased one of Kyoko’s more recent photobooks “Down To Earth” and “Un-Touch”, and was reminiscing with friends about how I first got into Kyoko Fukada. “I can still remember the cover of that BOMB magazine the first time I ever saw her,” I mused. “She was wearing this red plaid bikini on the cover and she looked sooooo FINE!” I sighed and talked about how I never quite got over missing out on that issue, and told him it would be a dream come true if I ever found it again.

   A quick search on Yahoo Japan’s auction site, and I was stunned to come face-to-face with that wonderful cover that stole my heart all those years ago! “Holy CRAP YES!!!” I gushed. “THAT”S THE ONE!!!” Ohhhh MAN, if only there was a way to easily bid on stuff from Japan auctions! 

   Just then, another friend chimed in and told me that he regularly purchased items from the Yahoo Japan and, when he had accumulated a decent amount of items, he'd  have his friend (living in Japan) mail it all in one big package over to him in the states. “If you want, I can bid on that for you and have the magazine shipped over with the rest of my purchases.”, he offered, and I wasted no time saying a big “HELL YEAH!”. He quickly bid and won the magazine for me!

  After that, it was just a matter of waiting for his purchases to build up to enough to mail out, and Hallelujah, just this weekend we met up with him and he handed me my Holy Grail of Kyoko Fukada goodness-That June 1998 copy of BOMB!!!

OH MY GOSH, it was just as stunning and beautiful as I remembered and even NOW I can STILL see that “Something Special” I saw in her all those years ago. Of course, it’s a shock to realize how doggone YOUNG Kyoko looks in these pics, as I’m totally used to the vibrant and sexy WOMAN of today, nut flipping through the pages of that 1998 BOMB and it takes me back to those good old days of Kyoko Fukada discovery!

Can't believe it's now been over 17 years since Kyoko Fukada first came into my life as she's still just as relevant and important to me as she ever was back then! And I'm sure there will be LOTS MORE coming from her in the future as well! VIVA KYOKO FUKADA!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

It's A GREAT Time To Be A J-Drama Fan!

The Hippocratic Oath

Ahhhh, with new dramas coming out from Keiko Kitagawa, Yui Aragaki AND Satomi Ishihara ALL within this past week's time, I can safely say that it's an AWESOME time to be watching J-dramas! Keiko started things off with her new medical mystery drama "Hippocrates No Chikai (The Hippocratic Oath)" this past Sunday, followed immediately by Satomi Ishihara's cute Fashion drama "Jimi ni Sugoi! Kouetsu Girl Kouno Etsuko (Pretty Proofreader-Simpleness is Great! Copy Editing Girl Etsuko Kono)"...

Pretty Proofreader

...and finally, Yui Aragaki's "Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu~ We Got Married As a Job!" is set to air this coming Monday!!!

We Got Married As A Job

Now to pray to the majestic English Subtitling Gods in all their Glory....Pleeeze pick up these shows!!!!! LOL! I'll be crossing my fingers!!!
EDIT: Yatta, looks like Menimienaimono Subs are planning on picking up Jimi ni Sugoi!! Whoooo! Only TWO more dramas to go!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Suizokukan Girl

Mayu Matsuoka as Yuka, the titular Suizokukan (Aquarium) Girl

Just started watching Suizokukan Girl, but I GOTTA say I’m having a hard time getting into it....  You know how the cliche goes with “New girl joins an establishment but the head employee doesn’t respect her and wants her to quit, but they end up being romantically involved”? Well, the cliche is alive and well in this drama! Yes, I already saw a bit of that cliche in the Mirei Kiritani drama Sukina Hito ga Iru Koto, but MAN, the main guy in Suizokukan Girl (Kenta Kiritani) is SUCH an unbelievable JERK to the main girl Yuka (Mayu Matsuoka) I can barely watch it!

Suizokukan Girl (Aquarium Girl) tells the tale of, you guessed it, a girl who gets demoted from her posh office job down to working at the company's Aquarium. And of course, when she gets there, the people there all don't like her and give her a hard time. She is given an ultimatum- if she can't identify the dolphins and get them to eat from her hand, she has to quit. But with everyone against her, how will she ever persevere?

At least in the Mirei Kiritani show, the "head guy who hates the main girl" seemed to genuinely think she didn’t care about the restaurant, and once he did, he began to warm to her. But in Suizokukan Girl, this guy yells at her even when the other employees are teaching her!  If they hand her a fish, he comes out and yells "don't touch the fish with those hands!" When an employee invites Yuka to pet the dolphin he runs out and says "Don't come down here!” Plus, everybody, even the other employees, acts like Yuka's an idiot for not knowing things even though it's her first day in an Aquarium environment!!

 Too bad, because I like the main character very much, Mayu Matsuoka is hands-down adorable in her role as the addled, klutzy but sweet and good-hearted Yuka. Very, very cute.

But i don’t know if I can take much more of this one-dimensional bullying, not only by her new aquarium employees, but her ex-boss and ex-boyfriend  too! This poor girl, she’s got every possible cliche against her!

But WAIT! Hold the Presses!!! WELL! What do you know, it looks like Yuka’s best friend Kumiko Koshiba is being played by none other than…RIKA ADACHI!

Well! that’s a horse of a different color! looks Like I’ll have to stick around and see what’s up after all! LOL

"Zdorama said he'll continue watching the show as long as I'm in it."

"They hung up."

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

New Utada Hikaru Album "Fantome" Arrives Today!!!

New Utada Hikaru Release FANTOME!!!

Awwww, got a SWEET surprise in the mail today, the LONG awaited and highly anticipated new release from Utada Hikaru!!! As you all know, Hikki decided to take a hiatus from activities after her last US Release album "This Is The One" waaaaaay back in 2010, and aside from a few bonus songs on her last Greatest Hits package we haven't heard anything from her! Until Now!
As you may recall, I was only a casual listener of Hikaru's until she came down to Hawaii promoting This Is The One, and I loved the concert, her performances and songs so much that I immediately became a HUGE fan, devouring all of her singles and albums, and as I got to know her songs I fell in love and more and more with her and her music! First Love, Distance, deep River, Ultra blue, these have all gone on to become much beloved tacks for me, and her last Japanese album "Heart Station" has become one of my fave J-pop albums of all time! 
During Hikki's hiatus we did get four really great songs from her which were included on her second Greatest Hits collection, but I've always been waiting for her official return to music, and with this latest Japanese release, we have arrived!!! Can't wait to dig into this album, but I'm gonna save it for this weekend when I can listen to it while cruising the town at night for maximum effect (Okay, I might cheat and sneak a snippet or two in the meantime!) and appreciate it to the maximum!
Kind of funny, when I initially pre-ordered the album from CD Japan (still the first and best choice for all my J-pop goodies!), they had posted up tow different images for Hikki's Fantome album:

At the time looking at it, I said to myself, "Gee, I hope the cover is that color one...looks a lot prettier than that serious looking black and white job." Well, as you can see, my wish twas not to be, happily, the color picture (and a LOT more besdies!) WERE included int he glossy photobooklet within! WHEW!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Better Catch Up On My Aya Ueto

If any of you had perused my J-drama watching list (conveniently posted up at the "My Drama List" site) you might have noticed that among the few dramas on my "on-hold" list was the Aya Ueto/ Michiko Kichise drama "Hirugao".
 Though I love both lead actresses, I found it to be an extremely frustrating drama to watch because the way Aya 's character Sawa just blindly follows along with Kichise's 'bad influence" girl Rikako's shady shenanigans had me screaming at the screen "why is she so dumb?!" as she keeps getting into trouble after obeying whatever incriminating situation she's put into, and after just one episode I just couldn't work up interest to watch any more.
I was very surprised to read in SANSPO that the first project Aya Ueto will be tackling since her eturn to acting (after taking time out to have a child) will be the filming of a MOVIE sequel to the Hirugao series! WHAAA! I had no IDEA that that show was successful enough to warrant a film treatment!

Looking at the rating charts for the series and realizing it pulled a decent 13.85 average Kanto rating, I'm thinking it might be in my best interest to give the drama another chance! After all, I already took the time to GET the whole series and it's been just sitting in a folder on a harddrive so it wouldn't take any more effort than making time to check it out again!
Hmmm, OK, dug the drama up and uploaded it to my desktop. I'm going to be going once more into the fray....

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com