Uchi no Musume wa Kareshi ga Dekinai

Miho Kanno and Minami Hamabe return in a wonderful new Mother/Daughter drama with "Uchi no Musume wa Kareshi ga Dekinai"!!

Aoi Minase (Miho Kanno) is an eccentric Romance Novelist who is on the downward slope of her success. “The era of Aoi Minase may be over!” she laments as her latest serialization gets cancelled and her long standing literary agent quits, only to be replaced by a younger guy.

Aoi’s last serial was a murder mystery, something she was not too succesful with, and they tell her her last chance is to go back to the romance books she was so well known for.

But for a Single Mother long out of the love game, she just doesn’t have the spirit in her to write any more romantic stories.

This concerns her introverted and studious teenage daughter Sora, who besides being her Mom’s closest ally, has been taking care of the finances and bookkeeping for the two. Aoi’s extravagant style of living, in glorious apartments and stylish clothes and meals has to go, but Aoi just cannot shrug off the rich and famous lifestyle she has been leading!

This causes clashes between the two, and whenever they need time to cool off, they always go down to the taiyaki shop run by Gon-chan (Ikki Sawamura) and his father (Masatoshi Nakamura) Besides being the place where the young Sora works, Gon has been Aoi’s friend since they were in elementary school. Somehow they always help the mother and daughter smooth things over.

A chance encounter with an “Ikemen” guy (Keisuke Higashi) where Sora has stumbled with her coffee while looking at the sky, gives her her first brush with interest in the opposite sex. Sora’s life has been an otaku obsession of manga and BL stories, but for the first time she thinks a guy’s attractive!

And so it is that when Mom Aoi confesses she has absolutely no idea of what to write for her last career-saving novel, Sora puts herself up for sacrifice, telling her, “You can write about ME! I will go out, fall in love and start a relationship! Surely THAT will give you some ideas?”

A STINNED Aoi, who has always thought her frumpy daughter would NEVER get a boyfriend, LEAPS at the idea and they make a pact!

Things seem to be off on a smooth launch, but when Aoi goes in to see a physical therapist about her “frozen shoulder’ problems, it happens to be the same guy that Sora was interested in…and MOM falls for him, too! This will SURELY throw a wrench in the Mom and Daughter’s plans!!!

I mentioned it before, but it is still a SHOCK to see actresses whom I’d primarily known for teenage roles start doing parental roles, and I confess it is still hard for me to see Miho Kanno as Minami’s Mother! But they are both GREAT here, especially Minami, whom is quickly becoming one of my BIG favorite young actresses!!!!

Can't wait to see more!!!

“ The Diary of A 38-Year-Old Divorcee Who Has Tried a Dating App”

 38sai Batsuichi Dokushin Onna ga Matching Apuri wo Yattemita Kekka Nikki

“ The Diary of the 38-year-old Divorcee who has Tried a Dating App”

Pretty Sayaka Yamaguchi stars as Chiaki Matsumoto, a 38 year old divorcee who, as she approaches 40, is hoping to recapture some of the youth she has lost.

Lamenting to her best friend Rika (Machida Marie)about how sad it is that she only loved one man her entire life, Rika recommends a dating app where she candip her toes back into the dating scene.

Not a minute has gone by when Chiaki is inundated with various replies. Seems she is a hot commodity, but when she ventures out on her first date with a young college guy, he seems detached and cheap. At first chalking it up to the age gap, she realizes that this cad only wanted to hook up for easy sex.

With the mind now of all the different expectations the matches have of her, Chiaki dives back in with caution, and after meeting a gentle natured boy who happily wants to spend time with her as a friend, she goes all-in with this dating app scene!

 In time, she really gets into the swing of things,making the most of the dating app and enjoying the thrill of spending time with a new, exciting fella each day!

Even her friend Rika and her boss are amazed at her success, but Chiaki confesses that she only ever dates these guys platonically, spending the days and evening with them but coming home alone.

So it is that Chiaki is beside herself in confusion when she winds up waking up naked in a bed with a boy whom she has spent the night with! And to show what a light-hearted and FUN show this is, Syaka thinks to herself, “How did I get into this predicament?” She's about to go through it in her head, but adds, “First things first, let me put my panties on.” LOLOLOL!

I must say, after seeing Sayaka playing so many crazy, cold-hearted and psychotic women lately, it was nice to see her going back to her “pretty woman” roles!

I already mentioned in my Alice Hirose post about how much a femme fatale I think Sayaka can be when she really sets her mind on it, and here we have her in the wonderfully cliched but eternally enduring “Beautiful Girl who doesn’t know how beautiful she is” character~!

So awesome seeing how radiant she looks all dolled up for her various dates, each with its own different feel, from classy to scholarly, sweet to sassy!

And OOHHH, that lingerie-clad ending credits, oh my heart....

And if taht wasn’t enough, we ALSO have the return of good ol’ loveable Aiko Sato, an actress I liked very much back in the day but haven’t seen hide nor hair of her in YEARS! So nice to see her again!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoraamagain.blogspot.com

The Spritely Saya Hiyama

 
A week ago someone uploaded an edited clip of a very cute and enthusiastic Weather Girl happily chirping about learning Shogi until she got an earthquake alert in which she immediately shifted from a giggly girl to a serious and stoic reporter. So drastic was her transformation that the clip immediately went viral, sending the video counts up into the millions!

She was so cute and charming that I had to learn more about her, and the uploader was eager to share the info! Her name is Saya Hiyama who, as a regular face on the Japan Weather News Channel, had given way to hundreds of cute clips of hers in various situations!

Like the other hundreds of new fans of hers, I dove down the rabbit hole and spend a good time watching all of her clips, all featuring Saya’s adorable expressions. Some fun clips include this one here where she is talking about her earrings. She is talking about the color…and then the camera zooms in on her ear, making her gasp in surprise!

One of my FAVORITE clips is this one where the texture and collar of the outfit makes it seems like Saya is wearing a t-shirt for her broadcast, and people begin good-naturedly teasing her that she is wearing pajamas! She tried in vain to show and explain that it is in fact a proper, stylish dress, but the comments keep calling it pajamas, LOL!

Since then I’ve tuned into her antics every day!

Tenshi Ni Request Wo

Shugo Shimada (Yosuke Eguchi) is a down-and-out ex-policeman running a detective agency with his assistant Akari Kojima (Moka Kamishiraishi). Haunted by demons of his past, Shugo isn’t motivated and the bills are piling up, so when a mysterious benefactor named Kazuko Sato (Mitsuko Baisho) shows up and offers to sponsor them if they will use their skills to grant an ailing friend’s last wish, they cautiously accept.

With a brand new traveling van gifted to them by the generous Sato as well as an on-site nurse Haruki Teramoto (Jun Shison), they set out with the patient to try and fulfil her dying wishes.

And while they use their detective skills and moxie to get to the bottom of their clients’ requests, they find strength in themselves and Shugo even finds it in himself to heal the old wounds plaguing him.

At a mere 5 episodes, Tenshi ni Request Wo was a fine way to spend an afternoon!
PS: Call me crazy, I didn’t realize that Moka and Mone Kamishiraishi were two different actresses until i watched this. As I’m also watching Mone’s drama “Oh My Boss”, it struck me taht the girl in Tenshi Request didn’t really look like Mone. Checking credits, I found that this was Moka, Mone’s sister, whom I’d already seem in dramas like Gibo to Musume No Blues!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Kome Kome Club “Kimi Ga Iru Dakede”

 I first fell in love with the classic Kome Kome Club song “Kimi ga iru Dakede” as the wonderful intro to the 1992 drama “Sugao No Mama De”starring Narumi Yasuda and Akina Nakamori. The tale of the two different-as-can-be friends always opened with the winsome song, and I particularly love  the way the song ended, with Yumiko and Kana holding hands against a sunset as Kome Kome Club lead singer Tatsuya Ishii crooned out the final lines “Whaoooh~True Heart…Whaoooh~True Heart…!”

After seeing them perform the song live on a music show (I think it was Pop Jam) I loved the song so much that I just HAD to get a copy of it for myself! But I was in for a SHOCK when I discovered that the official released version of the song did NOT end on that magical “Whaoooh~True Heart”, but instead jumped into a refrain and then faded out on a La-la-la chorus! WHAAA!

I have to tell you: I.WAS.CRUSHED. This was the second time this happened to me, as Eguchi Yosuke’s theme song for his drama Kekkon Shiyouyo “Traveling Boy” did the SAME thing! I was robbed of that perfect, pure ending and given a la la la fade out! NoOOOOooooo....

In time I did get more or less used to it, as the song itself is one of Kome Kome Club’s very best songs ever, and as a consolation of sorts, I realized that I could always hear the “drama” version ending of the song…whenever Kome Kome Club performed the song LIVE on TV programs! Because while the official single version faded out, the drama one had a proper ending, making it  a NATURAL to do onstage!

Over the years I've managed to get ahold of a few great renditions of the song by the K2C gang, but there was ONE performance that PARTICULARLY tickled me: A short version of the song on MUSIC FAIR with Tatsuya Ishii and actress-turned-singer Takako Matsu!

The premise of Music fair was to take two different artists, have them sing their classics, and then have the two acts collaborate on a few tunes. One of the ones they picked was Kimi ga Iru Dakede, and what a SWEET little rendition it was! Takako’s gentle voice perfectly contrasts with Ishii’s huge vocal, and when they swell up to that perfect “True Heart” ending I could have DIED!

In past years I’d tried to find that old VHS tape with the performance of Takako Matsu and Tatsuya Ishii, but could not locate it. Then, just the other day, i thought, “I wonder if anyone uploaded the performance to youtube?” Crossing my fingers I logged it on, and was THRILLED to see it there, clear as crystal…and as WONDERFUL as I remembered it!

Check It Out!

I would remark to my friend Golden later that if it had been the whole song, it would have been one of my favorite live performances EVER, sadly it was part of a greater medley in the show and as such was only given a verse and a chorus. But it was THIS performance that propelled Kimi ga Iru Dake De to become one of my all-time BIG faves from the group!

Kyoko Fukada All Year Long March-April

Since Kyoko Fukada's team has done the dirty trick usually reserved for wall calendars of putting TWO months per picture, we get her picture twice, so do enjoy this increment's installment for the months of March-April!

Your Monthly Keiko! March 2021

Keiko For the Month of March!