"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!!!

Brush Up Life おわり- Another Masterpiece from Bakarhythm!

Just wrapped up Brush Up life, the drama with the similar premise of Suteki Na Sen Taxi about a woman who, at death's door, is given the chance to be reborn and re-do her life all over again to "fix" her past missteps and choices, and, as expected, was simply and utterly AMAZING!

From the get go I was entertained by the way main character Asami Kondo (Sakura Ando) took on the task of reliving her life with the intention of getting good points for her inevitable afterlife, and af first the show was very wacky indeed! But as the show went on and the stakes got higher, what developed was an introspective and HEARTFELT drama, one that had me totally engaged and ENTHRALLED all the way to the end!!

Lots of opportunities for wackiness, but what really came through was the love of family and the power of friends and friendship, especially the kind you make when you are very young and carry with you throughout your entire lives. This show made a point of how precious these kinds of things are and are meant to be cherished and appreciated. 

As those who've seen Suteki Na sen Taxi's more sombre episodes, Bakarhythm has an impeccable talent for mixing the most outlandish ideas with some of the sweetest and touching moments, and Brush up life was yet another fine masterpiece!

With Brush up Life, I can safely say that he has become one of my all time favorite screenwriters, one whom I will gladly await upon each and any new projects he does! An A-PLUS from Me!!!!