Sei Ashina 1983-2020

 Shocked to hear the news that actress Sei Ashina took her life yesterday....As you all know I really liked her in the few dramas I was able to see her in.

First fell in love with her in the Nagase Tomoya drama "Kurokouchi" and minor parts in other shows like Ie Uru Onna, the Tsubasa Honda drama "Yuube wa Otanoshimi Deshita ne"and most recently, Theseus No Fune....Sadly, never got to see her in a leading project of her very own.

Like many girls I gush about here, Sei was a Kamen Rider alumnus, though I admit it was one of the many later ones that I have no knowledge of!  But it seems she was quite beloved by the fans in the role of Hime.

Man it seems so many people are leaving us these days. Not only have so many K-pop artists committed suicide lately, it seems Korean actress Inhye Oh also took her life yesterday... sad to hear how some people are struggling.

Geeks, Gyarus and Gamers

Yuube wa Otanoshimi Deshita ne is a short and sweet little drama of a girl RPG Gamer named Powder and a guy player named Goro who become best friends while playing Dragon Quest X online, though they'e never met.

It is when Goro needs a place to stay and Pow invites Goro to stay at his apartment and they meet face to face for the first time, that  they discover that Goro is a yankee-type girl named Miyako (Tsubasa Honda) and the girl is a shy and introverted guy named Takumi (Amane Okayama).

Though Takumi is stunned at the prospect of Goro being a girl and furthermore LIVING with him, Miyako takes it in stride, and if Takumi can get used to his kind online partner Goro as this loud, outspoken gyaru, this might be the start of a beautiful friendship!

Fairly predictable storyline but at 6 episodes long you can’t go wrong and it’s been a fun ride!

PS: Bonus points to the show for having pretty Sei Ashina as Miyako's supervisor Kuriyama. Nice to see her in every episode if only for a moment!

PS: I don’t know how but somehow I mixed up this drama with “Kono Koi wa Tsumi Na No Ka” and I thought the main girl was going to be played by AKB48 actress Yuka Oshima.So I’m watching the drama and I’m like, “That girl isn’t Yuka…in fact, it looks like Tsubasa Honda!” And indeed it was! LOL!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Oh! Those SEXY J-Drama Medical Examiners!

Maya Miki works while Shibasaki Kou and the gang look on sickly

When the Masaharu Fukuyama detective drama Galileo introduced Maya Miki as the Laboratory’s medical examiner Sakurako Jonouchi back in late 2007, I remember being knocked out at the concept of a pretty and stylish lady being in charge of the job’s more grisly aspects, happily detailing the injury reports and causes of death while absent mindedly munching on a mid-day lunch.

Though I don’t know if she was the first one who did this, she was the first one I ever saw, and it definitely affected my idea of what a cool character a forensic scientist could be!

I loved the idea of the “Pretty Pathologist” and it wasn’t long til I was treated to the arrival of “cool beauty” Michiko Kichise playing the sultry Reiko Narahashi in the 2009 Yuki Amami detective drama BOSS!

Like Maya Miki’s character of Jonouchi, Narahashi was a pretty female medical examiner dressed in flowery outfits who enjoyed discussing the bloody details of her autopsies while snacking on pastries, but unlike Maya Miki’s character, Kichise was the first to inject real sexiness into her role.  Watching her purr out her lines, “Damn She’s HOT!” was a constantly recurring thought going through my head!

Having opened the floodgates, the “sexy maneater Forensic scientist” became a popular role, and Yu Kashi took it to the next level as the femme fatale Machiko Sawa in the Tomoya Nagase/Ayame Gouriki drama Kurokouchi, a luscious creature who not only caught the attention of all the guys in the room, but took special interest in hitting on Seike (Gouriki) as well!

 Fr some reason Yu bowed out of the series after only a few episodes, but was replaced by the gorgeous Sei Ashina who wasted no time assuming the role of the sexy scientist who only gave Seike the autopsy information she wanted after a fair amount of getting hit on!

And now we have Itsuki Sagara as Meiko Soma, and from the get go she is all over Shigeaki Kato, slinking her luscious self up to him when all he wants is the information she has! So far Itsuki’s the best thing about this drama ( she was SO darn pretty in Nou ni Sumaho ga Umerareta) and it’s awesome to see her as a (albeit small) regular character on a show…and one that shows off her awesome assets!

Ahhh, those sexy medical examiners…when I die I can only hope that I’m dissected by anyone half as lovely as these ladies….

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Keiko Kitagawa's Sangenya Machi is Back!

Keiko Kitagawa as Machi Sangeya

Awww, just finished watching the Keiko Kitagawa drama “Ie Uru Onna” Special “Kaettekita Ie Uru Onna" and MAN, it reminded me just how doggone much I LOVE this drama and character!

Sometimes when a drama has a special it deviates from the original show and feels disconnected, (usually because the special comes such a long time after the original series), but with the Ie Uru Onna Special, they retained almost all of the show’s cast (the only one not returning is Yuko Araki, who is too busy taking on terrorists in CRISIS) and all the sets, and stepping into the show, it really felt like it just continued right where it left off!

  When we last saw Sangeya Machi and Crew, Sangenya (Kitagawa) and Section Chief Yashiro (Toru Nakamura) had left Teiko Real Estate and started their own business “Sachi Real Estate” in a small rural town.

Niwano (Kudo Asuka) has come to pay them a visit with a favor to ask: Seems a slump in sales has Teiko in a bind: They’ve been getting competition from rival agencies, and if they don’t get their sales up in two weeks, they are in danger of shutting down!

True, the lessons she’s taught to junior sales agents Niwano as well as Adachi (Chiba Yudai) and the others have made them better and more caring house-sellers, but when you’re in a crunch, you need to call in the big guns!

Though, true to form, the stunts Sangenya pulls and methods she uses always leave the rest of them scratching their heads…no one except her knows exactly what’s going on! In fact, most of the time, the other characters spend their time musing about just what it is that makes Sangenya Machi tick!

I had SUCH a fun time watching this show. My heart ached knowing it was only going to be this ONE special, but at least, given that this was a two-hour show, they gave us not one but THREE different house selling “cases” to solve, and each one was as captivating as an individual episode!

We had a fun, sweet and heartfelt story of a lonely old man (Shoufukutei Tsurube) who dreams of buying a duplex condo to live with his estranged daughter whom he hasn’t seen in years…

We had Jun Kaname as a father of a super-spoiled child actor who puts the house agents on the run with his brattish and unreasonable demands (who learns a thing or two about bossing people around from Sangenya!)…

We had beautiful Sei Ashina as a single mother with an extremely limited budget looking for an affordable home to buy, and we see Adachi trying his very best to fulfill her wishes…a possible romance as well?

 …and we even had adorable Seika Furuhata cameo-ing as a celebrity college student who needs not only a a house nearby her college but an additional, smaller house JUST for her dog!  Was really nice to see her- haven’t seen her since her super-pouting character in Karen Miyama’s “Ramen Daisuki Koizumi San”!

In each and every one of these cases Sangenya Machi is the woman we deserve and she does her utmost to get each home sold and give the clients what they want…or, more precisely, what they NEED!

I’m not sure how well this special did in the rankings, but I’m hoping that this serves as a springboard for even further episodes of Ie Uru Onna…maybe even a whole, second series???? Oh man, that would be HEAVEN!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com