The Price Of Procrastination

My just-purchased Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso DVD Set

I’d originally downloaded the Satomi Ishihara/Shosuke Tanihara drama “Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso” back in 2010, but for one reason or another, I only watched up to episode 4 before getting distracted by some of the other shows on at the time.
 I always meant to get back to watch it, but there always seemed to be SOME other thing to take care of, some new show to watch or some new CD to listen to, so it wasn’t until just this month, a long FIVE (gasp!) years later, that I dug it back out and began watching it again!

  Since it had been so long, I started watching the drama again from the first episode, and WOW, I’d forgotten how GREAT the show was! The tale of a girl who is a celebrity television psychic, but in real life just a bright girl with a keen eye for observation and figuring out what’s going on, this was the beginnings of the Satomi Ishihara we know now, where she was both beautiful and elegant and yet utterly goofy and spazzy, and as a HUGE Satomi Ishihara fan, I ate it up!
 So I was cruising along watching it, and it was then that I discovered a horrible fact- when I had initially downloaded all the episodes, I burned them all off onto a disc, but didn’t bother checking to make sure all of them played…YES, I was to find that on the disc, episodes 5, 6 AND the final, episode 9 were all CORRUPTED and would only play a little bit before shutting down. ARGH!

CRAP! Gahh, it had been SO LONG since I’d acquired the drama files, would any of the places I downloaded the shows from initially still HAVE it? Well, after nights of searching, I was to find that EACH and EVERY ONE of the forums I went to gave me links to uploading servers that were long since dead. The show was simply too old.
 Cursing myself for waiting so long to watch the show, my next option was to get it from those J-Drama DVD sites which I HATE doing if I can avoid it (they aren't genuine products and the subbing is engrisshy)- There was this one particular J-Drama place where I’d purchased stuff from before because I desperately wanted Hotaru No Hikaru on actual DVDs instead of just MP4 files, but the translations were so awful that I didn't buy much more from them.
 With Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso though, I already HAD the subtitles, and all I needed were the avi files… I went back onto that Jdrama site, saw that they had the Satomi Ishihara drama, tried to log in to purchase it…and found that my account had long since been deactivated for inactivity! Grrr, and they still send me so much spam mail!!!  IF MY ACCOUNT IS DEACTIVATED THEN STOP SENDING ME SO MUCH JUNKMAIL! 
Sigh, looks like I had to find the drama somewhere else! Cd Japan?

Getting a “real” copy off of CDJapan cost a whopping 157.79 not counting shipping which was like WAY too high for me (but OOOH, look at how freaking BEAUTIFUL that DVD Box Set is) and so I went onto Amazon to see what they had to offer over there...

They were selling it, but it was some weird Taiwanese(?) looking version for 49.98 which was cheaper but still way above my price range, so on a whim I checked to see if anyone on ebay was selling it cheaper! No one was selling the real thing  but I WAS able to locate someone selling a Chinese knockoff DVD for only 15 bucks, all region and shipping included! I was desperate and the price was right, so I grabbed it, and just today, the package came in- (It's the picture you see at the top of this post!) I Spent the early part of the day ripping the corrupted episodes to MP4 so they’d play with the srt subtitle files, and so far I’m already in the middle of watching those episodes that have eluded me and am on my way to the final chapter! Yatta!
Moral of the Story: Watch your Dramas as soon as possible, kids! You never know when something might happen to prevent you from enjoying them later on down the road!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Hotei Tomoyasu's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity"

As most Film Buffs know, Quentin Tarantino's "KILL BILL" movies are an ode to Asian Action Cinema of the Golden Age, and besides getting many of the stars of those flicks to participate in it, another one of its great tools is its use of powerful soundtrack songs (like "Urami Bushi" from the classic Meiko Kaji film "Lady Snowblood") and by far the most KICK-BUTT, EPIC song utilized MUST be the instrumental "Battle Without Honor or Humanity"" by the Fiction Samurai himself, Rock N Roller HOTEI TOMOYASU!

 The song was originally written for a Japanese Yakuza movie called "Another Battle" starring Hotei Tomoyasu himself (along with Etsushi Tokokawa), but I'll be damned if this song hasn't taken on a life of its own, much like Ennio Morricone's "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" soundtrack" expands beyond the movie into total cinema consciousness!!
Just came across an absolutely incredible LIVE performance of Hotei doing the song at a huge arena, the only venue fitting for such a powerful song, and Oh my GOSH, he blows the doors down on this one!!!

Holy HELL, doesn't this song just make you want to grab your samurai sword and go totally mental?!
(Be careful of that Chiaki Kuriyama chick, though...girl has a mean right arm...)
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The 90's Were an Incredible Time!

Princess Princess with Hikaru Genji behind

So I was watching an old video from 1992 of Princess Princess on the J-Pop Music Show "Music Station" where the girls had come on to promote their new song "Pilot Ni Naritakute". During their interview I noticed Hikaru Genji sitting behind them, and then I looked at the OTHER artists on those bleachers... WOW, Willya look at all of that freakin' TALENT there! Chisato Moritaka, Chage and Aska...

Behind Kaori you can see Pretty Chisato Moritaka ...

(Judging by the dress, was Chisato going to sing Ame?)

Chage and Aska laughing it up in the sidelines...

Nakayama Miho, Kudoh Shizuka, and...?

Also Miho Nakayama, Shizuka Kudoh and Seiko Matsuda!!!!

Also on the bill but not pictured here is Akina Nakamori!

Man, the 90's will always be,for ME at least, the GREATEST J-pop era EVER!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Crush Of The Day: Kato Ai

  I've been meaning to watch the old classic drama "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" for some time now, but FINALLY got around to it a few weeks ago. This is an old drama from around 2000 and was one of Nagase Tomoya's first "yankee thug" roles, albeit one where he's still more of a child delinquent punk.

Wakana Sakai,Ai Kato,Nagase Tomoya,Ryuta Sato,Tomohisa Yamashita

Wakana Sakai and Ai Kato

Anyway, there were two girls in his "gang", one of them I immediately recognized as Wakana "Moko" Sakai, but the other girl, though she looked REALLY familiar, I just couldn't place. her. She looked like Matsumoto Megumi in "Seiga No Koushin, but nawww...I didn't think it was her. Then I thought- Rosa Kato? No. Suzuki An? Mayyyybbbbbeeeee....  Then it hit me- Holy crap, this was a very young Ai Kato!

 There was this episode on the old tokusatsu superhero show KIKAIDA where Dark Robot Blue Beetle sees Dr, Komyoji and they show the faces of all the different Dark Professors going through the Monster's mind til he lands on Komyoji and yells "It's KOMYOJI!"

Blue Beetle: "Hey, This Guard looks Familiar..."

Scrolling Through his Robot Memory Bank

I had to laugh because that's JUST what it felt like when I was running through all those teenage girls in my head. I thought it was too funny not to share on twitter, and then I had this (slightly paraphrased here for clarity) conversation with Tanikaze:

Zdorama said:

Watching an old drama and COULDNT figure who the girl was. I hadda go thru my mind DARK ROBOT BLUE-BEETLE style to figure out it was Ai Kato

Tanikaze said:

 OTAKU!!! Man, Blue Beetle was sloooowwww... My next question: who were the previous two women who transitioned/henshin'ed into Kato Ai??

Zdorama said:

Matsumoto Megumi. Then Kato Rosa. Then Suzuki An. And then finally Kato Ai!

Tanikaze said:

BTW I never thought Kato Ai was all that pretty, way back when. But the older she got... kinda grew on me.

Zdorama said:

Must say that since I didn't recognize who she was for a good 30 minutes of the show , it’s clear she hasn't stood out for me before

Tanikaze said:

Fair enuff. I used to think she looked like Okada Junichi in drag.

Zdorama said:

That's an image thats gonna be hard to shake...

Tanikaze said:

Sorry. I always thought she looked so... manly.

So we had a good laugh over that. But I gotta say though, the more I watched the show, the cuter Ai Kato got, and by episode 4 I had to ask myself, Crap, am I developing a crush of her after all that? LOL, all that joking BACKFIRED on me!

Me: "Am I starting to LIKE Ai Kato?"

"Hmmmm, she is really starting to seem pretty freaking adorable..."

Oh Yeah, I was really starting to dig Ai, and it helped that she was playing an extremely adorable girl, as the wide-eyed and innocent Hikaru, she stood for everything innocent in Ikebukuro, from the get go she has been in love with Makoto (Nagase Tomoya) but he’s too dense treat her properly and spends most of her time being heartbroken. Man, makes you wanna scoop her up and hug her!

Yep, She's a Cutie-Pie.

Of course, there was more to Hikaru than what she let on (a whole LOT more, it later turned out) but it was her naive baby-girl talking sweet side that really GOT me!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Make Sure You Have a Fire Extinguisher, Everyone!

Have you all seen this video going around of this Japanese Live Streamer who burns down his whole room while demonstrating the new Matchstrike Lighter? Haven't seen such unbelievably bad choices attending to a fire since Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau!

He had on the "text to voice" option for his commentors,  which made the blaze even more surreal as the androgynous robot voices began telling him "Ushiro, Ushiro" (Behind You, Behind You!!!) Egads, after I watched this, I went directly to my kitchen to make sure my fire extinguisher was there and in order! You may never need it, but if you are EVER in a situation like THIS GUY, you'll be SO glad you HAD ONE!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

First "Siren" Reactions

Looking forward to the upcoming Kimura Fumino crime drama SIREN and-NO FUMINO NO WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT NO JUST NO!!!! Oooh, wait, Nanao's in this drama, too? AWWWWWYEAHHHHHHHH
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Selfie Skillz

"Her Selfie Game is Strong"

Almost insane how proficient these high school girls are with their phones when it comes to taking that perfect selfie! 
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Singles: CoCo/ Equal Romance

Although Azusa Senou may be just about my favorite member of CoCo, I have to say that IMHO, the definitive live performance of the girls’1989 debut song ‘EQUAL Romance” just HAS to be the 4-member version (after Azusa had left the group) on the 1993 DELUXE EDITION concert! 
  When you listen to the CD single track, it is mostly Azusa’s voice that holds it all together so you’d think that any performance without her couldn’t have worked, but by the time they were doing it in 1993, the sheer energy of the girls MADE the song!
As it was their debut single, most of the early performances of the girls doing Equal Romance  in 1989 are rather stiff, with everyone concentrating very hard on remembering their lines, their dance moves and looking cute, prim and proper! A good example is this nice if very subdued performance on Paradise GoGo:

By this point of Deluxe Edition, however, Equal Romance had become CoCo’s signature song which they always saved for the closing of their shows, and it was a performance that everyone amped up for, the fans, the band musicians and especially the girls themselves, happily and passionately singing, those old rigid dance moves practically thrown out in favor of running, cheering and jumping, MAN, so strong was this 1993 version that Pony Canyon decided to BEGIN the concert video with it! Yes, they took the END of the show and used it as the OPENING!
At first it seemed jarring to begin watching a Concert Video and jump RIGHT into the ending song, but once you watched it and saw how powerful the performance was, you understood as the curtains came down on a huge crescendo of an ending and then the beginning credits came on, starting the show!
It’s THIS performance that I hold above all others as THE performance of Equal Romance!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Tanimura Yumi / Shinjiru Mono Ni Sukuwareru

I remember thinking, back years ago when I got Tokyo Policewoman Duo’s single “Hare Nochi Parade”, that I’d FINALLY acquired all the songs from my old J-pop cassette mixes in MP3 format (or, at least, the first four mixes which were pretty much responsible for educating me on all the latest songs and artists of the time!)… so I was quite surprised when, in a nostalgic mood, I dug up my old notes where I’d written down the track-listing for the collections, and, upon reading the songs for J-Pop Mix Four, saw Yumi Tanimura’s  Shinjiru Mono Ni Sukuwareru listed, and realized it had been years and YEARS since I’d heard it... I knew the ONLY reason that that could be was that I DIDN’T have it in MP3, despite my belief that I’d acquired everything already! 

Futilely I searched all my J-pop CD mixes and old hard drives in hopes that I somehow had it, but sure enough, my searches came up dry. ARGH! I DIDN'T HAVE THE YUMI TANIMURA SONG!!!
 I went online to my usual 80’s and 90’s  J-pop Fan forums to see if any of them had it but the only Yumi Tanimura albums they had went to dead links (I realized later that none of the albums they were sharing had the song, anyway, sigh) since it had been QUITE awhile since they'd uploaded 'em...
 I next sped down to Shirokiya’s Book Off to see if they had, if not the single or album, then at least a collection that had the song. Once again, NADA! Dejected, I slunk BACK to the internet, hoping SOMEONE had the song SOMEWHERE...and then I came across a wonderful 80's Jpop Site, and LO and BEHOLD, there it was- my Yumi Tanimura Holy Grail: Shinjiru Mono Ni Sukuwareru!!! I was on that in a FLASH! YATTA!

You know, listening to any of these songs from the old mixes brings back memories, but when you consider the last time I heard Yumi’s song was the last time I played the ACTUAL CASSETTE ITSELF,  the wall of emotion and nostalgia that hit me when I played Shinjiru Mono Ni Sukuwareru for the first time in so long just had me breaking out in goose bumps! MAN, I just kept playing it over and over again! 

Getting TOTALLY into it, I went onto Youtube to see if they had ANY live performances of Yumi Tanimura, and right there on the top of the sidebar was Yumi performing the song itself, Shinjiru Mono ni Sukuwareru, and OH MY GOD, IT WAS AWESOME!!! Yumi so pretty, her voice so beautiful and soothing;  just love her breathy style of singing and just love how she pushes through that final note!!!! SOOOO, SOOO much MEMORIES!!

You know, it's so cool that there are still so many fans and forums dedicated to sharing and promoting those golden greats of the 80s and 90's for new fans to discover and listen to!
Google translates Yumi's song Shinjiru Mono Ni Sukareru as "It Will Be Saved By Those Who Believe"...now, I don't know if that's an accurate translation or not, but for someone who spent the last week trying to get an old song and happily finding on a fan forum, I think the title in THIS CASE is TOTALLY APROPOS!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Kawashima Naomi

Kawashima Naomi

Saddened to hear about the passing of actress Naomi Kawashima today…Oh my gosh did I love her back in my early days of J-drama watching! During her heyday she was definitely one of the sexiest  and most gorgeous ladies in the J-drama scene; the very first j-drama proper I ever watched was the Higashiyama Noriyuki show “The Chef”, and her role as the Chef’s sultry arch-enemy Reiko Kitamura had my heart all a' thumpin’ in each and every episode! In fact, she was my primary motive for watching the show, I loved her THAT much!

As Sultry Reiko Kitamura in CHEF

With Higashiyama. Her Signature Line: "I...WILL...EAT...HIM!"

   Back in those days, Wani Books was the publisher that was releasing all the Shashinshuu that my favorite idols were putting out, and by perusing the catalogs that were inserted in the books, found that Naomi had released a VERY tantalizing photo book called “WOMAN”, and I knew I just HAD to have it! Took me a few years to locate a copy, but I’ve had it ever since and it’s always been placed proudly in my Shashinshuu collection!

Some of Naomi's more "modest" pics in WOMAN

 Ahhh, just took the book out again to scan some of these photos, and am just taken back, Man, what a WOMAN she was…So sad to lose someone so early in her life… Rest in peace, Naomi-san.

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

J-Drama Femme Fatales: Kang Jiyoung

Jiyoung as Irina Jelavic in ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM

Well, just got through watching the incredibly zany Yamada Ryosuke movie “Assassination Classroom”(Ansatsu Kyoshitsu), a movie about a class of misfit students that are recruited by the government to kill their teacher, an alien creature posing as an instructor who tells them that if they cannot successfully kill him before the end of the semester, he will destroy the earth... 

Yeah, the film was just about as silly as it sounds, but there was one BIG perk of watching it- throughout the show, they kept introducing new government assassins posing as transfer teachers and students, and among them was an extremely hot and sexy bombshell named “ Irina Jelavic”, played by pretty Jiyoung, she late of K-pop group KARA!

Man, when Irina came out with all GUNS ABLAZIN' I was all like WHOOO HOO check out this HOT, Kick-Butt Lady! Aww, too bad that once defeated by the Alien Teacher "Koro-Sensei", she spent most of the time sitting off to the side brooding impotently... No matter, she still looked sexy as hell!

"Must...KILL that Alien Teacher...SOMEHOW..."

One of the funnier aspects is this sultry teacher’s name,  Ms Jelavic.  Vic is pronounced “Vich”, and as you all know, since the “V” sound doesn’t roll off the Nihongo tongue very well, her students end up pronouncing her name slightly DIFFERENTLY! Hilarious scene where she’s trying to tell them the difference between her name…and what THEY’VE been calling her!

"You guys have been pronouncing it like THIS"

"It's pronounced like THIS!"

"VIC, you understand? VIC."

"It's pronounced Jela VIC!!"

But it’s all in fun as Ms. Jelavic’s sluttiness is pretty much the comedy relief in the show! I mean where else can the class have an overnight sleepover in the school and the teacher comes dressed in her Negligee? LOL

Sleepover Girl Talk will never be the same!

Damn, gotta say, when I first began watching Assassination Classroom, I didn’t even recognize her-  the blonde wig was an obvious throw-off, but additionally Jiyoung was probably the last actress I expected to see here…

 I guess I shouldn’t have been TOO surprised, though, since she played another little hottie in the equally crazy monster-in-the-classroom drama JIGOKU SENSEI NUBE! Mmmm, She’s been lookin’ HELLA fine!!!

Just a Girl and Her Gun

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com