Catch The Rainbow with "Nijiiro Karute"

 Mitsuki Takahata stars as Masora Kureno, a gifted physician who loves her job as a doctor in the big city. But when she is stricken by a disease that makes her unable to perform at her top skill, she is let go from her job.

For the next few weeks Kureno wanders aimlessly, wondering what she should do with her life, when she meets a friendly man named Kirigatani (Ken Mitsuishi) visiting from a small village to promote his town’s produce.

Looking up the tiny village online, Kureno is excited to find that the town is looking for a doctor! Keeping her malady a secret, she applies for the job and is immediately accepted!

She makes the long journey to the small village, not sure of what to expect. But once there, she is met with open arms! She meets with the friendly if eccentric townsfolk of the town, including Midorikawa (Mizuno Miki), Kirigatani's wife (Nishida Naomi) and Yukino (Adachi Yumi) among others.

She is also introduced to her new medical partners, the odd surgeon Asagi Saku (Iura Arata) and stoic nurse Aoyama Taiyo (Kitamura Takumi) and led to her new clinic, an old school repurposed as the town’s medical center. Despite the place’s run-down appearance, Masora instantly falls in love with the place and happily decides to stay!! 

The town has long been hoping for a doctor to make his or her residence here, and she is instantly taken in my them. And it isn’t long before Kureno is able to show the townsfolk what she can do!

Done in the vein of Harassment Game or Napoleon No Mura where someone from Tokyo moves in to a small community and the lessons each can learn from each other, this has all the makings of another great feel-good drama!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Quick J-Drama Update!

 Just a quick update on the J-dramas I'm watching right now...

Right now my favorite drama HAS to be the Ayase Haruka/Issei Takahashi thriller  "Tengoku No Jigoku”, the crime drama where a serial killer and the determined detective bent on capturing him switch bodies.

Wasn’t too sure I was going to believe the actors in their new personas, but WOW, after just one episode, I was able to see Takahashi as Ayase and Ayas as Takahashi! Kudos for both of them for doing such a great job!

Throw in an incredibly twisting plot of Cat-and-mouse between the tow misplaced people and the law, that keeps you guessing,and i’m on the edge of my seat throughout! Can’t even BEGIN to guess how this one will all wrap up!

Still at the halfway mark for the awesome mystery “Kiken Na Venus”. It is slow going regarding subtitles for the Yuriko Yoshitaka drama, but whenever they DO upload a new episode, it reminds me why I wait with bated breath for each chapter!

A gripping story of a diabolical family fighting over a fortune which they will happily kill each other for, with the mysterious  Kaede and the estranged son Hakuro (Tsumabuki Satoshi ) caught in the middle!

Another incredible Yuriko Yoshitaka performance which once again remind sme why I love her so much.

Three episodes in to the Fuka Koshiba drama “Mokomi” about an odd girl who speaks to inatimate objects and her attempt to grow out of her introverted shell. SO far a good drama though much more melancholy than I was expecting from such an eccentric set-up.

Fuka is a darling as usual as the shy Mokomi,  I wish that there was a way for them to show how wonderful she is without having to paint the others in a bad light, especially the Mom, who I fell they are really unfairly painting as a nagging tyrant when she seems to truly worry about everyone’s well-being.

Also halfway through "Koisuru no Haha", which, as I said in a previous post, I like mostly for the Yoshino Kimura storyline. The Yoshida Yo storyline of a section chief having an affair with a young charge in her department is OK, but I REALLY can’t stand the Risa Naka character.

We’ll see where this one goes.

Still watching the drama “Shitteru Wife”, which, though it started off promising, has become a very frustrating affair. The plot of a guy who is unhappy in his marriage and then goes back in time to change things sounds interesting enough, but MAN, Okura’s character of Kenzaki has GOT to be the most unlikeable, selfish JERK ever put to screen!

This is a guy who bemoans his marriage to Mio (Alice Hirose) while leaving her to deal with a part time job, two squealing kids AND a Mother with dementia, all so he can sleep in and play video games.

He always wished he’d married his dream girl Sayaka (Miori Takimoto) instead, and when a chance miracle happens and he is able to go back in time and marry her, instead of loving her, he decides he wants Mio after all…and spends his time making SAYAKA miserable instead!

When he realizes he is stuck, Kenzaki gives a half assed attempt to make it work with  Sayaka, but he still ends up lying to her, ignoring her and leaving her alone so he can be with Mio.

 And of course, instead of reflecting on it, the drama starts painting SAYAKA as the evil, manipulative b*tch, so you can root against her. Great.

I REALLY can’t stand the way Kenzaki is treating Sayaka. VERY frustrating to watch, right now I am hanging on SOLELY for the wonderful Alice Hirose goodness and hoping this show smartens up.

In other news, I’ve finished up Beshari Gurashi, the Manzai Comedy drama which was OK, I guess. Seems like every episode where the duo begins to make headway, there’s yet another lame reason for them to fight, til I was just waiting for them to get on with it.

Also finished up Toshi No Sakon, and though my earlier gush about the show might have you thinking i’d be singing its praises, sadly, after episode 3, it drastically changed its style, focusing not on the couple but Maiko’s arrogant and slimy boy friends who want nothing more than to break them up, Thought it would be only for one episode but this lasted for the REST OF THE SERIES. Really ended on a bummer of a note.

Oh Well.  We've got a whole SLEW of new dramas coming up...hope these end up being winners!!!

The Return Of The Hazardous Housewife

 Oooh, I just found out that they are making a MOVIE for the 2017 Ayase Haruka drama "Okusama wa, Tori Atsukai Chui" which will follow directly from the show's dramatic cliffhanger conclusion!

Mmm, seems it's set for release this coming March,,,wonder how long it will be til I am able to see it!

Koisuru Hahatachi~Mothers In Love

 About halfway through the 2020 romance drama “Koisuru Hahatachi~Mothers In Love”  about three different women who, in the middle of raising their high-school sons, discover new romances outside of their stable married lives.

Yoshino Kimura plays An Ishiwatari, a woman whose husband mysteriously disappears and is later found to have embezzled money from his workplace to escape with his mistress.

While trying to deal with this, she meet Takumi Saiki (Kotaro Koizumi), the husband of the mistress. He also is dealing with the weight of their significant others’ affairs, and in time the two get close.

Yo Yoshida plays Yuko Hayashi, a highly succesful Ad executive with a stay-at home husband who has left work to focus on his (admittedly piddling) writing career. At work, one of her young underlings Akasaka (Hayato Isomura), becomes attracted to Hayashi’s  elegant and mature aura and begins making a play for her.

Riisa Naka play Mari Kanbara, a spritely mother of three who finds out her husband Shigeki (Reo Tamaoki) is having an affair behind her back with a canny lawyer in his firm, Noriko Yamashita (the always devilishly seductive Misato Morita in yet another sexy role), even as she is being wooed by a famous rakugo star (Sadao Abe).

As the three women’s songs go to the same school, the mothers meet from time to time and begin to seek out each other for advice and friendship. This is the story of the turning point in their lives and how each of them deals with it.

Gotta say, at the halfway point, I’m only really interested in Kimura Yoshino’s story. She’s the most sympathetic out of the three and the one I want most to experience happiness.

The yoshida Yo story is OK but I don’t like the guy that much- an arrogant and pushy guy that has NO PROBLEM ruining Yuko’s life if he can have her. But Yuko seems turned on by this, maybe this is a female secret fantasy and that as a guy I just don’t “Get?”

I REALLY don’t like Risa Naka’s story. Not only do I not find her romance with Abe Sadao believable in the least, but she turns on her friends when they try to help her.

At first I thought the drama was going to be about how these three women have each others’ backs and together they can get through anything, but it seems like they only show that when it is convenient...When Mari accuses An of “laughing at her behind her back” i was waiting for a scene where she apologized to An or at least acknowledged her harsh judgement, but it went RIGHT to the three meeting up like nothing. Mehhhh.....

As long as the Yoshino Kimura storyline entertains I will continue to watch. It’s been awhile since I have seen her in a likeable and warm role. The recent shows that I’ve seen her in like Jimi Ni Sugoi , Boku no Yabai Tsuma and Miss Devil she’s been such a morose personality…nice to see her play a character whom I like instantly again.

My, seems like just the other day I was seeing her for the first time in “Riso No Joshi”!!

PS: Is “Coco Every” a real Convenience Store chain in Japan? I thought it was a made-up business for “Kono Koi Atatamemasuka” , but Kimura’s character An cites it as a favorite place to get food?

So is Coco Every real, or is this just a nod from one TBS show to another?