Friday, April 26, 2019

Mukai no Bazuru Kazoku (My Family Goes Viral!)

Akari Kagari (Rio Uchida) is a young girl living at home with her Mother, Father and Younger Brother. on the surface they seem like your average happy family, but inside they do not socialize with each other at all, only retreating to their own respective activities.
Akari has a job working as a cafe Manager where she deals with the ups and downs of the job, from bad commuting, lazy co-workers and rude customers.
In one such instance, a customer gets mad because wait help girl Momo (Sara Ogawa) keeps ignoring him in favor of younger , more attractive men, and then laughs when he can’t pronounce the menu item.
As manager, it is up to Akari to go over and apologize and smooth things over. What she doesn’t know is that a customer is recording the whole episode and uploads it online for laughs.
That evening, her brother shows her that the video of her apologizing has gone viral.
She is surprised but is only concerned that the online netizens aren’t getting angry at her. “Naw, just making fun of the old guy,” Brother says. But that’s only for now.
When Akari returns to work the next morning, she is puzzled to find a crowd outside the cafe doors. Seems after she’d checked out the viral video of her, the comments turned from making fun of the guy and commenting on how cute the manager is. Akari HERSELF has become a viral sensation!
From that day the cafe is swamped with fans and onlookers who want to see and take pictures with her. She abides it at first but it soon becomes overwhelming and she wishes things would go back to normal.
There is ONE customer whom Akari will always have time for, Ryota Minato (Jin Shirasu) the guy that she’s secretly in love with and considers her “Shining Prince!”
She is floored when he asks her out for dinner, however, it’s only to give advice on a friend’s new restaurant. Or is it?
For over the meal, it is clear the Ryota really admires Akari, telling her that he’s had his eye on her for awhile. And the reason? He tells her it’s because of her super-positive attitude and the fact that she is always calm and never complains like some do on SNS and the like.
This stuns Akari, not only because she’s surprised he sees her this way…but also the fact that she has a burning secret: she has “another” personality to her!! When her problems become too much, Akari goes to a discreet locker and retrieves a certain costume.
With this in hand, she goes to the Karaoke Room, locks herself in, sets her phone to "record"...and becomes a mad demon who calls out and vents on ALL the things and people who have given her crap that day giving them the NAMAHAGE CHOP!!!
And once she’s raged it all, she uploads it to her humble, secret video site! This is her catharsis for her problems each day, and as long as no one knows about it, where’s the harm?
But with this possible budding romance between her and Ryota, Akari must make some decisions on whether or not she can continue with this “negative” side of hers.
She wishes she could just give it all up for the guy she likes…but with her disjointed family and the burden of her internet fame to deal with, she’s not sure if she can do it without SOME kind out emotional outlet!!!
Man, I was very excited to hear of a new Rio Uchida drama starting! As you all know, I love her very much, and she is just radiant here, super charismatic and lovable as the cluelessly addled Akari!
Also, bonus points for having sexy Saki Takaoka as Akari’s  Mother who has a Youtube Cooking Channel where the guys who watch are there to check her out more than any lessons they might learn!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Thursday, April 18, 2019

In Anticipation of Video Girl Mai....

With the announcement of a new Denei Shojo drama about to be picked up with “Video Girl Mai” set to air, I thought I’d better hurry and watch the original series so I would be all caught up when it began! So over the weekend I crash-coursed both the original Video Girl Ai series and its 2018 Special and finished ‘em both up in few days…
Hmmm, it was an okay if slightly draggy and meandering romance story, but Nanase Nishino simply dazzled as the adorable Ai, the Video Girl who exists to make your dreams come true!
Shuhei Nomura stars as Sho, a shy and introverted guy who secretly loves his classmate Nanami (Marie Iitoyo) who in turn secretly likes their colleague Tomoaki (Hiroya Shimizu)
The three work together on video projects while at the same time keeping their feelings in check.
One night fretting over his love of Nanami, Sho hears a bump coming from the closet of his Uncle's house where he's been staying. Upon inspection, he finds an old VHS Idol tape and, intrigued, puts it in the vintage player.
He's taken by the impishly adorable girl in the screen who tells him she's there to make his dreams come true. But what he cannot imagine is when the girl extends her hand out...and EMERGES FROM THE SCREEN!
Once there, she makes it clear that she is there to make his dreams come true- but how will the shy Sho deal with trying to woo Nanami with a wild and rambunctious magical girl LIVING with him?
Yes, if it sounds like a twisted soap opera, that’s exactly what it was. the first few episodes were fun and zany as Sho dealt with having a secret video girl living with him...
 ...but somehow once it got past the 4th or 5th episode, it became a rather dreary affair of love triangles, unrequited love and deception.
Man, what is it with these kind of shows. They take a fantastic situation and always manage to turn them into the most cliched and mundane teen romance fluff. It almost doesn't even matter that Ai came from a VHS tape, she could just have easily been a girl from out of town who has to move to the United Staes in a few months.
Truth be told, I had the same problem with the Risa Naka movie “The Girl Who leapt thru Time”, a fantastic sci-fi set-up with a girl appearing from the future to a budding sci-fi writer, which you would have thought would lead to some amazing stories but ends up being just your usual “I love her but I cannot confess” tropes….
Here’s hoping the 2019 Mai series is more bright!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com