The Siren's Confession: "Siren no Zange"

 Yuko Araki stars as Takami Asakura, a determined reporter for a TV News channel called Afternoon Japan. Unfortunately, the program has been recently embroiled in a scandal regarding creating false crimes for ratings, and it is up to Asakura and her partner Taichi Satoya (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) to find the real stories and bring the channel back to respectability! 

They have a hard road ahead of them, with the Police Department blocking their investigations at every step- head Detective Kenji Kudo (Masanobu Takashima) has a particular hatred for the media, calling them vultures who prey on the victims for sensationalism.

And even as the News Station buts heads with the police, rival channels and reporters like Nanako Mishima (Rin Takanashi) always seemingly one step ahead of Asakura and Sotoya with the inside scoops.

When Satoya and Asakura break the rules and go investigating on their own, they stumble upon a huge lead over everyone else, concerning a brutal murder of a high school student.

 But it all blows up in their face and they find there may be a deeper secret beneath the crime they are investigating…

With botht he police and the press against them, it will take all their skills to break this case and expose the truth!

Hmmm, seems like Yuko Araki has been flexing her detective skills she honed in dramas like CRISIS and TRACE pretty well! Hard to believe this girl first started as a scatterbrained secretary in the Keiko Kitagawa drama "Ie Uru Onna"! Props to her!

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…!!!!