"The Hot Spot" Entertains, "Brush Up Life" Endures!

 Still enjoying the wildly fun and entertaining Bakarhyhm sci-fi comedy THE HOT SPOT, about a woman who discovers that the senior clerk at the Hot Springs Hotel she works at is actually an alien!

HOTSPOT stars Mikako Ichikawa and Akihiro Kakuta as the respective woman and alien, but as far as the secondary cast goes, almost all of them are Bakaryhthm regulars: Kaho and Haruka Kinami are support characters, and with Sakura Ando appearing in episode 8, all three principle cast actresses of his awesome drama BRUSH UP LIFE have shown their faces here!

And that’s not ALL! Along with Sakura Ando, Haruka Kinami and Kaho we also had Mirai Shida, Toru Nomaguchi, Kayo Noro and Naoki Tanaka show up, ALL from Brush Up Life, and with two more episodes to go, who know WHO'S next?

Aw man, HOT SPOT has been so much fun, it's sad to realize it's going to be ending next week!

Sadly, the Apple+ sci-fi show SEVERANCE is ALSO set to end next week as well...what will I watch next????

Close Encounters of the Baka Kind: Bakarhythm Returns with "The Hot Spot"

Akihiro Kakuta and Mikako Ichikawa in THE HOT SPOT

Been enjoying the new drama THE HOT SPOT, about a woman working at a Hot Springs hotel who finds out her co-worker is an extraterrestrial alien of vaguely superhuman strengths, and to whom she uses to make her hectic job easier! 

Mikako Ichikawa stars as Kiyomi Endo, a sensible single mother of one, who spends her days as a matter of routine: Get up, make breakfast for her daughter, bicycle to work, do her duties at the front desk of the hotel, go home at 6 and make dinner for her daughter who comes home from cram school at 8. 

At the front desk with co-workers Isomura and Sawada (Kaho and Maki Sakai).

Manager Okuda (Naoki Tanaka)

It's a complicated job, but somebody's got to do it!

This all changes one day when, bicycling home from work, she accidentally swerves in front of an oncoming truck-and is saved by the swift speed of her senior at the hotel, Takahashi (Akihiro Kakuta). Stunned by this sudden outburst of strength, she is further confused when he implores her to not breathe a word of the heroic deed to anyone. Why?

This secrecy really piques Kiyomi’s curiosity and the next day at work, she keeps at him until he finally confesses a most unbelievable statement: that he is an ALIEN born to a human father and alien mother!  He'd rather no one know about his secret and asks her to PLEASE keep it to herself!

"An ALIEN?"

"An Alien."

"..."

At first thinking him off his rocker, with a few demonstrations of his “powers”, she is convinced, and at once realizes that someone with his gifts is JUST the kind of thing she needs to help her in her busy day at work dealing with all the multitudes of problems the front desk receives! 

"With these powers, you can help me with my customer service problem!"

"You might be overestimating what I can do..."

Nonetheless, the dynamic duo gamely tackle the problems, and whaddaya know- they succeed! Takahashi's alien powers might JUST be the thing to keep the staff's sanity at the Onsen!

Scriptwritten by the mad mind of BAKARHYTHM, this is yet another FUN drama in the vein of his slightly sci-fi comedies like Suteki Na Sen TAXI and the excellent BRUSH UP LIFE, full of zany dialog, wacky scenarios, kooky and chatty best friends, and of course, true HEART at the base of it all! 

Kiyomi and friends Minami and Hazuki (Kami Hiraiwa and Anne Suzuki)

Skeptical friends being introduced to the "Alien"

On the case!

From the beginning, this was the SOLE drama I was looking forward to this season, and so far it has been everything I’ve hoped for!!! Can’t wait to see more!!!

The Unhappy Divorcee: Takako Matsu in “Omameda Towako to Sannin no Motootto”

Just started watching the spritely drama “Omameda Towako to Sannin no Motootto”, the story of a thrice divorced woman and her three hapless ex-Husbands!

Takako Matsu is Towako Omameda, a career woman working in a Architect Design Firm. Though she is more than capable at her job and her associates respect her greatly, in her personal life, things aren't quite the same!

with Maryjun Takahashi

Once out of her workplace, things have a habit of just not going her way, and we find that Towako is a very unlucky sort of gal…When she passes by a row of bicycles, you just know she’s going to knock the first one over, resulting in a domino effect of ALL bikes crashing down! 

When opening a packet of soy sauce with her bento, the shoyu always ends up getting all over her nice white outfit instead of her food...

When she tries to adjust a loose screen on her window, the frame goes out into the street...

 ...and when she absent-mindedly strolls through a construction area, she isn’t surprised at all when she falls hip-deep into a muddy hole! That’s just the way things always work out for her!

She does have two bright spots in her life, a sunny and sensible young daughter named Uta (Hana Toyoshima) and a best friend Kagome (Mikako Ichikawa) with whom she can get drunk and talk her troubles over. 

Towako would love to get back out into the dating game, but besides her terrible luck, her three ex-husbands have a way of continually butting into her business, even inviting themselves over for drinks and conversations over meals! Somehow, she just cannot get these guys out of her life!

There’s third husband Shishin Nakamura (Masaki Okada), a man that unfortunately works with Towako in the same company as an adviser. Haughty and arrogant, Towako has to deal with his attitude on a daily basis!

Second ex-husband is Kotaro Sato (Akihiro Kakuta), an easy-going but weak-willed guy who always seems down on his luck but takes full advantage when he’s around Towako and friends!

So far, he's the one ex-husband I have a hard time ever seeing married to Towako.

And then there’s Hassaku Tanaka (Ryuhei Matsuda), Towako’s first husband and the father of Uta. A former company man, he now runs a restaurant, which Towako learns about when she discovers her daughter is still in touch with him.

 Out of all exes, he seems the most stable and Towako even finds herself drawn to him whenever she is down. Of course, seeing the two together, I instantly got "Quartet" vibes as it was like seeing Maki Maki and Beppu Tsukasa all over again! 

In fact, the writing style and direction of this drama reminds me a lot of that drama. In ways, it feels like an unofficial “sequel” of sorts- In fact, I think this is like what it would have been if Beppu and Maki married and got divorced!

So far a pretty fun and very likeable show though (of course) at times those ex-husbands become too much to deal with! And yet, even then, there is a lot of humor and witty writing to be had, and I feel this drama has the potential to become a big fave!!!

Looking forward to seeing where this one goes!