This is a 37 Year Old Woman's Calendar

I can see by Kyoko Fukada's latest calendar for 2020 that age ain't nothin but a number and that she's going to continue getting hotter and HOTTER as the years go by!

A Christmas Gift to Myself: Some Asami Tadokoro Cheesecake!

I’ve always had a crush on Nanase Natsumi ever since I first saw her turn as the adorkably adorable mom Asami Tadokoro in the Pokka Poka series which I began watching during its second season through to the third (and then later with the help of trading, the first season as well!)

Nanase with Yuichi Haba and Yuu Kamiwaki 

As the wonderfully scatterbrained but big hearted Mom Asami, Nanase was THE star of the show for me, and I remember even going to Japan Video and renting one of her movies just because she was in it (and even though it had no subtitles and I was hopelessly lost!)

It wasn’t until later that I discovered Nanase had released one of those ubiquitous WANI BOOKS Idol/Model photobooks in 1989, and after seeing her for so long as the sweet Mom in Pokka Poka, it was a shock seeing her doing idol-ly cheesecake pics, but was something that I noted that I was going to have to track down one of these days!

The photobook pictorial was called “LOOSE”, and every once in awhile I would think about it and look up prices on the shashinshuu, and while the prices were all very affordable, I kept putting it off.

Someone had recently uploaded the entire series of the Rena Tanaka drama “Haken No Oscar” from 2009, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Nanase in an episode as one of the main character’s wife!

 with Rena Tanaka and the gang

 wi Karen Miyama

Oh my gosh, she was so pretty, and even though her role was fairly small, it jumpstarted my desire to pick up her shashinshuu, and I located one online for a very affordable price! I was just about to make up my mind to finally drop the change and pick it up, and as if to give me that little added PUSH, who should appear on the latest episode on the Nanao drama 4 Punkan No Marigold but Ms. Natsumi herself, and this time it's HER in the patient bed...

This was CLEARLY a SIGN and I put in the order THAT NIGHT!!

The photobook came in a few days and I wasted no time digging in to that Nanase Natsumi cheesecake goodness! The opening shots were just what I’d hoped it would be- a VERY cute, cute, CUTE Nanase  in a variety of girly, lacy outfits and I was thoroughly enjoying myself…

Then, I looked closer and began to realize- HEY, these shots are WAY more RISQUE than I’d thought! With a dress that just barely covered up her goods, this was past PG-13! WHOA, this is getting GOOD! LOL!

The next shots confirmed what I thought I saw- she was clearly letting it ALL hang out and as I turned page after page, I was presented with Nanase in ALL her GLORIOUS natural goodness!!! Just FANTASTIC!!!

Dayum, Can’t BELIVE it took me THIS LONG to pick it up…!!!!

Mada Kekkon Dekinai Otoko: Kuyashii!

When I first heard the synopsis for Mada Kekkon Dekinai Otoko and found out they'd written out Yui Natsukawa's character and basically voided the ending for the series that had made it one of my top faves, I was extremely irked and irritated. They'd taken one of the most touching and wonderful conclusions to any drama and basically did a Thor/Jane Foster (where an aloof Thor tells Loki "it was a mutual dumping" to explain why Natalie Portman had been written out of the series, despite the fact of their love being the main point of the first movie)...

They'd basically wiped all three main characters out of the series and replaced them with three all-new women to once again go on the merry-go-round of dealing with Abe's eccentricities, and I was inclined to pass on the new show until I read that Yoshida Yo was going to be one of the three new ladies. Yo Yoshida!

In my heart, I KNEW that Yoshida Yo going up against Abe was going to be an amazing drama to watch and so I HAD to check it out!
Well, there was a reason I loved the first one so much, and even in this sequel, the three things that “made” the show for me as still here: the warm characters, engaging dialog and zany plots. In many ways this drama feels more like a soft reboot than a sequel proper. I mean, there ARE things that have advanced, but for the most of it, it’s like it’s totally re-creating the same set-up as before:
There’s the older professional woman with Yo Yoshida as a lawyer (replacing Yui Natsukawa’s Doctor role) and just like Natsukawa’s character, he is constantly bothering and annoying her while at the same time intriguing her.

 

We have another young wide eyed and innocent girl living next door to Kuwano, the adorable Saki Tonami (Mai Fukagawa), and though she ’s spooked by the odd Kuwano, JUST like the first series, she starts becoming more and more dependent on him...and perhaps even becoming attracted to him?

Then there’s the Izumi Inamori character of Yuki Okano, who, though not really much like Reiko Takashima’s character, still takes the place as the middle character who is aggravated and yet sympathetic to Kuwano’s antics...She's the one whom seems most attracted to Kuwano (and him to her, so there's that...).

with able assistant Rumi (Mion) in the background....

I think the thing that made me feel most like this was a remake was when they shoved the three ladies together as best friends. It seemed organic in the first series, but in this one I felt like they would not have much in common and were put together “just because”. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes are still funny, but I couldn’t help but remember all the similar scenes with Natsukawa, Takashima and Kuninaka spying on Kuwano and making fun of his nuttiness...

Aside from the three main ladies, the rest of the cast from the first season has returned, and the scenes showing the gang at the workplace are always fun to see, such as Eiji (Takashi Tsukamoto), who was once Kuwano’s underling, now a full partner in the company, and new employees such as Yuta(Atsushi Arai), Sakurako (Miyu Sahiki) Eiko (Atsuko Anami), and the incomparable Nao as Shiori!

 Haha, trust me, these scenes are as funny as they look!

Kuwano’s family is back too, and once again it is nice to see former CoCo princess Reiko Miura again in her role as Kuwano’s ever-suffering younger sister Keiko.

  Mitsuko Kusabue is back as Kuwano’s Mom and we have cute Yuna Taira as Yumi, Keiko’s daughter, who finds her eccentric uncle entertaining to say the least!

As I said before, the main reason I watched this was for Yo Yoshida, and oh boy, she’s so good in this drama. Really like an extension on her smart and savvy lawyer character Reiko Baba  form HERO2, in my opinion she’s the show’s main character (if there can be such a thing) because almost everything is an action or reaction to Kuwano’s interference!

And I mentioned how happy I was to see actress NAO here.  She stole my heart in the drama Anata No Ban Desu with her adorable shenanigans, and she is JUST as cute here!
The show is so slapstick that she is given many opportunities to show off her spazzy facial reactions, some of which I’ve captured here.

Just looking at them has got me cracking up again!

So YEAH, as VEXING as it is to say, the show continues to be one of the most well-written and hilarious dramas out there, and I HAVE to admit that it's easily one of the BEST shows on right now!

DAMMIT how I HATE to admit that! I felt like Linus in the old PEANUTS strip when his favorite teacher Miss Othmar leaves, and out of principle he tries to hate the new teacher, but she's so nice that he sadly thinks “My memories of Miss Othmar are going up in chalk dust!” as she selects him to pound erasers, LOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com