Oda Yuji and Nakajima Yuto in "Suits"

Another show I’m enjoying right now is the Yuji Oda/Yut0 Nakajima Drama  “Suits” (based on the wildly successful USA series of the same name).

Suits tells the story of a young man named Daiki Suzuki who is gifted with fantastic memory and immaculate studying skills but has sadly been squandering them making a living as a guy who takes admissions tests for people as well as other shady dealings.

While fleeing from the law in a job gone wrong, he ends up hiding in the law offices of Shogo Kai (Oda) whom just happens to be screening applicants looking for a junior partner. 

Taking his bemused secretary's advice, Kai gives Suzuki an interview, and realizing Suzuki’s skills, Kai, hires him, with the caveat that he pose as a full-fledged lawyer while he uses him to help with cases. 

 

So far, such a great little drama with intriguing characters I love and Oh MAN, is this show filled with the most BEAUTIFUL of BABES, including the luscious Anne Nakamura as  Oda’s trusty Secretary Kayako Tamai...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuko Araki as Suzuki’s love interest, the stoic and efficient Makoto Hijirisawa...

 

 

 

 

adorable Mio Imada as Suzuki’s hometown friend Sari Tanimoto...

 

 

annnnd…..DRUMROLL:

The Original SWEETIE of SASS herself, the mighty HONAMI SUZUKI!

 

Oh Man, did I love her back in the day, and she’s still lookin’ as freakin’ fine as ever!
She's always carried an air of class and contempt about her, and her role as Kai's calculating Employer Chika Yukimura  suits her so well!

 

 

 

 

She and Oda Yuji played romantic partners in love and work in the seminal 1991 drama “Tokyo Love Story” and it's awesome seeing them back together again!! Both Actors have come quite a way since that early drama! They were both so innocent and wide-eyed:

 

 

 

 

 

Though they've grown into much more cynical characters, these two can still spar along with with the best of them and their dialog is always cutting and gripping as they try to get the best of each other! 

 

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Hoping Someone Will Pick This One Up....

If some kind fansubbing team would pick up the new Yui Aragaki/Ryuhei Matsuda drama “Kemono ni Narenai Watashitachi”, I would be their best friend forever! (remember when you was a kid and this was the only currency you had to barter with? LOL)

I've already attempted to watch episode 1 stone cold untranslated, and though I had the gist of what was going on, my head was hurting halfway through!!! Tasukette O Kudasai!!!!

Pink Ranger for Sale!

Got a heads up on a wonderful collectible for Tokusatsu fans of the 70's, a framed and autographed picture of HIMITSU SENTAI GORANGER's "Pink Ranger" authorized by the Queen of Sentai HERSELF, Miss Risa "Peggy Matsuyama" Komaki!!

Man, what I would have given to have acquired this  back in the day! Easily one of my very first "Crush Of the Day" actresses (though I woulda been in 4th grade at the time!), there was a time when my life was ALL ABOUT swooning over the delectable Pink Ranger!

I remember when these 4x6 sized 5 Rangers cards came out and having to trade my friend a bunch of 'em for his "Momo-Ranger" card. I remember scotch taping it to the wall on the side of my bed and gazing lovingly at is before I drifted off to sleep each night!

Funny, 'cause though I was in love with Risa Komaki, the card was of Pink Ranger in her outfit, and I'm not even 100% sure it was a GIRL in that getup!

Nice to see Miss Komaki looking as lovely as ever, and note the nice touch of the pink hearts pattern design on her dress!!

Bidding starts at ¥60,000 ($576) so act now!

http://one-jp.com/lot/r274105688

Haruki Murakami's "Killing Commendatore"

Just started reading the brand-spanking new release of Japanese Author Haurki Murakami’s latest book KILLING COMMENDATORE, and so far it is sooooo, soooo intriguing!!!

Killing Commendatore tells the story of a recently divorced Portrait painter whom takes up residence at a famous painter’s empty house in the mountains, and, upon getting there, proceeds to have the most surreal and life-altering situations happen to him.

It follows all the usual Murakami tropes (Classical Music, Whiskey, Cheating Husbands, etc), but somehow this one really touches on the subject of loss, and though I’m only around 200 pages in, I come away from it in such a melancholy mood!

Can’t wait to get back to it!

On The BORDER

I'd downloaded the Television Special "Border Shoudou" purely on the fact that it starred Haru and only after securing subs for it did I discover there was an entire series which preceded it! I immediately went back and grabbed not only the whole 9 episode series, but the Shokuzai SP as well!

Border tells the story of a police Detective named Ishikawa Ango (Oguri Shun) who gets shot in the head during a perimeter search during a homicide.  

 He survives, but the bullet is lodged in his head in a precarious position so they leave it in. He seems to be healing alright, but while resting outside on the court, he spies a little girl standing in the ourtyard.

 

 He doesn't think too much of it til later, back inside the hospital, when he sees a pair of grieving parents lamenting the loss of their daughter. In the mother's arms is the same teddy bear. Strange, but merely coincidence?

 

 Soon fully rested, Ishikawa is soon back on the force and is in time to cover a family homicide. While walking the perimeter, he comes across a most peculiar girl staring at the windows to the house.

 Come to find out she is Higa Mika, the forensic doctor assigned to the case and she is an odd character, indeed, speaking in cold monotone with a no-nonsense style.

 But she is perceptive, and like Ishikawa, feels something dark about the case.

 Going inside, Ishikawa and the team make a quick scan of the room and examine the murdered bodies.

 The rest of the men leave, and it's here Ishikawa receives another vision, THIS time, the husband and wife whom lie dead right before him!

 The ghostly apparitions tell him to please catch the man who murdered them, and Ishikawa doesn't know if he's hallucinating or really seeing the spirits.

 During the autopsy, Ishikawa marvels at Higa's immaculate skills, and wonders if she might be the person he can talk to about his strange visions.

 

 Using clues Higa has extracted from the dead bodies (as well as testimony from the ghostly victims themselves), Ishikawa manages to track down the killer and put him way.

 Such a great ensemble cast and an intriguing story- and MAN, Haru has GOT to be the coolest Forensic Doc EVER!!!

I'm two episodes in to the series and I gotta say, MAN! What took me so LONG to watch this??? It's so freakin' GOOD!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Duty, Now For The Future: Fun Futuristic Antics in "Mirai-San"

Just started watching the wildly wacky hijinks of Rena "Amachan" Nounen's new mini-drama "Mirai-san" about a rambunctious (if hilariously lazy) schoolgirl of the near-future who uses her older brother's inventions to get out of doing work, getting into trouble, etc...SO FUNNY!

Rena Nounen is in top form here, freaking out so spastically it's like you're watching a manga character come to life! Reminds me of Shida Mirai (no pun intended) on speed!

too bad this series is only a mere 5 episodes, I could watch these forever!!!

Miss Devil 終わり

I’d been dying to watch the drama “Miss Devil” starring the always svelte and gorgeous Nanao ever since I watched its very, first episode. Despite having to watch it un-subbed, I liked it a lot and was hoping some team would pick it up.

Well, that time finally came and I was able to get the entire series translated, and OH MAN, did it deliver! I loved, loved, LOVED this drama!!!

 At once reminding me of the Keiko Kitagawa drama “Ie Uru Onna” with its “strong female lead who is a genius at her job but lacking social skills”, the story of Miss Devil tells the tale of a cutthroat Human Resources Agent whose specialty is going to an ailing company and ruthlessly cutting out all the unnecessary workers by laying them off and advising them to turn in their resignations (thus the evil nickname)…

 

But as she vets out the ne’er do wells and the foot-draggers in the company, we realize there is a darker side to the insurance company that Tsubaki is trying to uncover!

 Nanao was simply AWESOME in this role, as we’ve seen from many, many shows, she has the flair for playing both pretty working girls AND psychotic killers, and the role of HR Rep Mako Tsubaki is a combination of BOTH!

Already pretty, I love how they accent her coldness by giving her heavy black mascara around her eyes and an almost white foundation, giving her an immediate startling and ghoulishly striking look, LOL!

  Very interesting storyline, but I think the thing that really MAKES this show is the dynamic between the cold and calculating Mako Tsubaki and her naive but hard-working and good-hearted underling Saito (Sexy Zone’s Shori Sato)…their interactions are fun as heck!!

 From the beginning they are butting heads- Nanano’s ruthless method of eliminating new hires in order to weed out the excess has Saito shaking his head, and when he is finally forced to choose one of his fellow peers in the room to axe, he cheekily chooses HER!
 He doesn’t get his wish, and must face her “evil eye” as she leaves the meeting (such a hilarious reaction from Saito, I kept rewinding this scene over and over, LOLOLOL)…

…But Saito’s troubles are only beginning, for when he is assigned to his department, he is utterly petrified to discover that Ms. Tsubaki is going to be his immediate supervisor!!!
With Saito firmly under her thumb, Mako gives Saito the business, forcing him to attend different departments each week and having to choose an employee to fire!!! And yet, despite her acidic demeanor, Saito learns to respect and even admire Ms. Tsubaki, and she in turn reveals a side of her no one knows about. Simply brilliant partnering!!

Once I started watching this show, I just couldn’t stop and only by sheer will did I manage to stretch it out to three days, and, having just finished the last episode, I can safely say that Miss Devil is once of the most enjoyable dramas I’ve recently seen!!!

Takane No Hana 終わり

I was quite taken by this Satomi Ishihara drama with its classic take of the rich-socialite girl who falls for the kind, humble and poor man (A twist on Satomi’s drama Rich Man, Poor Woman!) and it’s backdrop of the refined world of Flower Arranging was a fresh, new take on it!

 Satomi stunned as usual with her portrayal as the beautiful, elegant Momo Tsukushima, add in the sincere performance by Kazunobu Mineta as the guy-with-the-heart-of-gold suitor Naaoto Kazama and you had all the makings of another “Summer Snow” (Hey, that was set in a bicycle repair shop, too!) romance!

Gotta say though, this drama was as topsy turvy as riding a bicycle without training wheels  with all the plots, sub-plots, make-ups and ALL the myriad BREAK-UPS (frankly this was, in my opinion, Satomi’s most cruel and callous drama character ever!) but throughout it all, you never stopped caring about the people in the story, and in the end, Takane No Hana left me with characters who will stay with me for a long time!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Bittersweet Conclusion

The D-Addicts Subtitles Forum is set to close down soon, but it is going out on a sweet note as the last two subtitles I downloaded from the thread were the final episodes of the Ayase Haruka show “Gibo To Musume No Blues” and the Haru romcom “Survival Wedding”, both of which ended up being absolutely wonderful, charming  dramas!

With the shutdown of the D-Addicts Sub forum, I’m really not sure where I’ll be able to get my translations from, and until such an avenue opens up, looks like I won’t be having so very much to post about in the coming months…

Guess it’s time to dust off the 100+ Dramas I’ve collected over the years and never got around to watching/finishing!

EDIT: Just heard that the Subtitle forums may REMAIN, albeit as a Members Only Forum!!! Crossing fingers that this holds true!!!!!

Ack, Another Blow to J-Drama Fandom!

Awhile ago Fans of J-dramas took a hit when d-addicts announced it was dropping its j-drama torrent section, and sadly, today it announced that they were soon to phase out their SUBTITLE section as well!

Understandable since they're taking so much flak from copyright holders, etc, but DAMN, I don't rightly know where I'm gonna be getting my subtitles from now! Fortunately I'm still a member of a few outlying subtitle groups out there, but for everything else....
edit:
Looks like they're keeping the subtitle section for now!!!