Namiyo Kiite Kuru おわり

One from a few seasons back, Nami yo Kiite Kuru was always on my back burner and has FINALLY wrapped up, to GLORIOUS appeal! Gotta say, for a show that started out nutty (and, admittedly, sometimes irritating) as hell, I have to say how much this drama grew on me until the point where I just LOVE it to death!  Funny how a show can hit one way and then end up being one of your favorite shows of the season!!

 Fuka Koshiba excels as radio personality Minare and the individual episode stories are fun, but I think it's the development of Minare’s friendship/partnership with the AD Mizuho (played by Hara Nanoka) that really sold me on the show. Initially starting out as mere associates at the radio station, when Mizuho gets promoted to becoming Minare’s program director, they become really like partners in crime, so fun and rascally with each other!

The two have such distinct personalities: with Mizuho the soft spoken and thoughtful one and Minare the loudmouthed, brash fly-off-the-handle type they play quite well off each other, and as the show went along, Minare and Mizuho became almost like equal co-stars as they investigated each new topic for their night program, getting into all KINDS of shenanigans in the process!!!

Such a joy watching them interact each episode, and despite any differences they have, you can tell they really adore each other and it always puts a smile on my face when they unabashedly assert their love for each other!

A perfect example: Mato (Kazuki Kitamura) tells Minare she has to attend attitude meetings if she wants to keep the show afloat, to which she threatens to just axe the show. But Mizuho cries out against the news, to which Minare pleads her love for her no matter what!

LOLOL

In another one, they're going over a potential story, and Minare is shocked to find Mizuho becoming more and more devilish with her plans to nab a good story no matter the cost.

"I'm the rotten one...you're supposed to be the sweet one!" Minare cries as she hugs Mizuho, scared that she is turning into Mato as she becomes more responsible for her programs!

Such a FUN and SWEET pairing! It’s for this that when the drama inevitably ended, I was achingly missing them and wanting to drop in on them again! Such is the mark of great characters!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Tokumei! Keishichou Tokubetsu Kaikeigakari

 Another cute vehicle for the energetic Kanna Hashimoto, this time a drama in the flavor of the fun Mikako Tabe drama “Kore wa Keihi de Ochimasen!” where Tabe played an uptight company accountant who is a stickler for payment details, only in this one, Hashimoto plays expense accountant…to a Police Crime Department!

Times are tough for the Mancho Police Station, and everyone has been told that there will be severe cost-cutting in the budget. With that, they have dispatched clerk Madoka Hajime (Hashimoto) to the station. Madoka is a whiz with numbers, but not so much on personality, and once she gets started, she upsets everyone with her cold cost cutting edicts!

This is a particular thorn for investigator Tetsuro Yukawa (Ikki Sawamura). With his team including Todo (Marika Matsumoto), Otake (JP) Tsukimura (Kentaro Maeda) and Nakanishi (Satoshi Tokushige), money is a key element they need in order to properly conduct their investigations- even if the spending gets way too liberal and the arrests cause too much monetary damage!

In order to suss out what really needs to be spent and how much is being wasted, Hajime decides to tag along with the investigative team when the next murder occurs. But bad luck follows this girl around like a shadow, and she immediately causes trouble for Yukawa and his team when she sets off sprinklers right at the crime scene!

Madoka is admonished, but her supervisor Suga (Jiro Sato) knows she has that something special, and with his encouragement, tells her to help out the investigation in her own way. After all, he points out, helping solve the case early will save money, too! And so she makes up her mind to unofficially investigate the crime all by herself.

With only the knowledge she's learned from TV shows and her penchant for numbers as her guide, she takes off as a solo unit of her own...

 ...and as she and the rest of the Department will SOON come to know, her almost wizardry knowledge of numbers and sums will amazingly give her the boost she needs to tackle the case, even leading herself AHEAD of the actual squad!

And when things are all said and done, though the Investigative team insists they had the case well in hand without her, it cannot be denied that her insight CAN be of help!

Our dear "One Yen" may be validated by the team yet!!

A VERY fun show, with Kanna being as bubbly and spunky as ever, and I’m intrigued to see the imaginative ways they use her mathematical skills to solve problems. A feast for Kanna fans everywhere!

OOOH, and if THAT wasn't enough, the Opening Credits scene has the entire gang chasing a one-yen coin right down the Yume no Ohashi Bridge, that ubiquitous plaza front featured in so many shows, and one I’m particularly obsessed with!!!

One thing, though- I’m not too thrilled by the "twist" reveal at the end of the first episode- it’s like in Yankee Kun to Megane-Chan when they revealed that uber-dork Hana Adachi was actually an ex-yankee. You’d already fallen in love with her sincere quirkiness as a nerd and then it’s shown to be a front. Without saying more, I hope Tokumei doesn't follow this path!

Posted by zdorama @ zoramaagain.blogspot.com