Okitegami Kyoko no Bibouroku

Aragaki Yui as Okitegami Kyoko

Just started watching the new Aragaki Yui/Okada Masaki  detective drama "Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku" (Kyoko Okitegami's Memorandum), and MAN is it FUN! This drama tells the story of a detective named Okitegami Kyouko who has a condition where her memories are reset whenever she falls asleep...so it is IMPERATIVE when she's investigating a case that she SOLVE it before the day is done!

 Kyoko is hired to investigate a theft accusation by a man named Yakusuke Kakushidate (Masaki Okada ) who may be the unluckiest fellow in Japan- when he goes to school birds flying by poop on his head, when he goes for a job interview, a meteor crashes in front of him, and whenever there is something missing, he is always the one suspected!

And so when an important SD card disappears from the manager's desk,  poor Kakushidate is naturally the one blamed! Lucky for him, Kyoko is on the case! Once she arrives, introduces herself and tells everyone about her strange malady, she turns into a pro investigator and becomes the coolest, level headed person there! 

For things she has to remember for more than one day, she writes them on her body (MEMENTO style) but for everything else, it's a problem that must be solved before she goes home for the day!! Neat, organized and thorough, despite the urgency of the hour, it's actually really relaxing and soothing watching her go through the clues with such care and clarity...

 Such a big fan of Yui "Gakky" Aragaki, especially when she's in playful and imaginative ones like this, and her role of Okitegami Kyoko is another fun one! CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE EPISODES!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

A Song To Make You Smile: "Odoru Pompokorin" by BB Queens

I was watching BB Queens performing their wonderfully catchy song “Odoru Pompokorin” (ending theme song for the classic and everlasting "Chibi Maruko-chan's first series) on the great old "Yoru No Hit Studio" show, and suddenly wondered, "Hey, just how successful WAS this single when it actually came out?" 

 I knew the song had some popularity (just by watching Chisato Moritaka, Akina Nakamori and CoCo all onstage and singing along with BB Queens for a genki performance on an old Music Station clued me in to the song's endearment) but I wanted to know how MUCH! Time to go onto wikipedia nd do some studying...

Chisato Moritaka, Rieko Miura & Erika Haneda of CoCo, Akina Nakamori
dance the Pompokorin with BB Queens in background

MAN, what a surprise- Odoru Pompokorin (Dance the Pompokorin) was #1 Song of 1990, 1990's Record Taisho Song Winner AND it was a Certified Gold seller?! WOW… this was truly THE POWER OF CHIBI MARUKO-CHAN!

Sing Along with BB Queens!PA PA PARAPPA!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

When Marnie Was There

Just watched the latest (and possibly last?) film from Studio Ghibli, the sweet and melancholy "When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Marnie)and I really loved it- The tale of a girl named Anna who befriends an ethereal girl namd Marnie living in a seemingly abandoned house on a lake is already as dreamlike as they come, and when you add the flourish of Studio Ghibli's wonderfully mesmerizing and mystical scenes, it becomes nothing short of spellbinding!

 I had a bit of a dilemma deciding if I was going to watch the Japanese version or the English one. Usually, of course, I go straight for the Japan one, but I really like Hailee "True Grit" Steinfeld and wanted to see it with her voicing. I knew that whichever I watched first would end up as the "real" version for me , so in the end, the voices of Kasumi Arimasu, Nanako Matsushima and Hitomi Kuroki beat out Hailee Steinfeld, and it was the Nihongo version I watched!
PS: Reading up on the movie, I found out that all these years, I've been pronouncing Stdio Ghibli's name incorrectly- It's not GIB-lee, but rather JIB-lee!! Well, better later than never, LOL
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Legends Of Otomejuku: The Lovely Ms. Rieko Miura!

Rieko Miura

Just finished wrapping up the highly enjoyable mystery drama “ Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso” and while I loved Ishihara Satomi and AKB48 alumna Yuko Oshima in it, the one actress that I took particular notice of was Rieko Miura. As you all know, CoCo was the gateway drug that first got me into J-pop, j-dramas and everything else Japan related, and at the center of it was a big fascination with the adorable anime-voiced princess, MS. Miura Rikeo herself!

Reiko in her adorable CoCo Days circa 1991

 While I watched her in it, it impressed me how far she’d come since her early acting days when Coco had just broken up…the first thing I remember seeing her in was an episode of 1996’s “Mokuyo no Kaidan” show with SMAP’s Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (back then BOTH of them were just starting out dabbling in acting) I was so thrilled at seeing her in a show, for the Rieko Miura fan back then, it was a real EVENT!

Mokuyo No Kaidan (1996)

with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi in Mokuyo no Kaidan (1996)

 From there I saw her in shows like TABLOID and the NHK Asadora AGRI, but you know, back then, she always still seemed like “Reiko from CoCo in a show” … I’m trying to remember when it was when she crossed over from being an IDOL and transformed into a bonafide ACTRESS, and for me, it was when she appeared in GALCIR. She was so great as the dorky wife of the local shopkeeper, and when she revealed her beautiful persona underneath, that was an added bonus- I got to see her be goofy AND sexy! But more than that, I somehow felt that she was finally  “Rieko Miura, Actress (trivia: she used to be an idol!)” and all her roles from then on proved me right!

The Dark and Dorkier sides of Rieko in GALCIR (2006) above and below:

 She strengthened her acting chops in a terrific supporting role in the Misaki Ito/Kyoko Fukada comedy “Yama Onna Kabe Onna “ , it was here that I truly realized she had made the transition from "girl" to "woman". Man, she was so good in this role as the seasoned senior manager of the store, really like the mother hen taking care of both Misaki and Kyoko!

With Fukada Kyoko In Yama Onna Kabe Onna (2007)

After this show, they FINALLY gave Reiko her own drama with her as the lead actress. The show was called “Suite 10”, and I was so excited and couldn't wait to watch it! Unfortunately, no channel picked it up here so I never got to see it! ARGH!

Suite 10 (2008)

To date, even with the advent of the internet and J-drama sharing sites, I’ve still never found someone who had the show, so it's still on my wishlist! I'm not sure how this drama fared during its initial airing, but to date, this remains Reiko's only lead actress drama..
.The next drama I saw her in was the Yusuke Kamiji /Aya Ueto drama “Celeb Bimbo Monogatari” where she honed what would become THE signature Reiko Miura role: The Eccentric, Melodramatic and Extremely Beautiful Woman!

with Ueto Aya in Celeb to Binbo Taro (2008)

with Kazama Morio in Celeb to Binbo Taro

 It was this character you'd see her bring out in shows like the aforementioned Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso, sleek, sly and sexy! Like I said, I really loved her performance in this show as the sultry Agent S, marvelling at how she became this strong, confident actress, seemingly right before my eyes!

wi Shosuke Tanihara in Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso (2010)

She could still revert back to playing the sweet and innocent girls if she wanted to, as evidenced in shows like MASSUGU NA OTOKO and UTSUKUSHII RINJIN, where she played more homey, down to earth roles. By this point, I was so confident in Rieko’s success as an actress, that seeing her in these, I simply thought, “huh, Reiko’s in this…” then I stepped back and thought to myself, “you know, ten years ago, you would be flipping out with excitement that Reiko was in a show!” It made me happy that she was so firmly entrenched in the drama biz that I could take her appearances for granted!

with Misako Uno in Massugu No Otoko (2010)

with Dan Rei in Utsukushii Rinjin (2011)

Koko Ga Uwasa no El Palacio (2011)

While not as successful as Hiromi Nagasaku from her sister Pony Canyon group RIBBON, Reiko has managed to stay a relative consistent mainstay in dramas, especially when playing the older femme-fatale vixen types, much to my approval! 

with Sawajiri Erika in First Class (2014)

Recent dramas from her include the Rena Tanaka drama “Utsukushiki Wana” as well as the Erika Sawajiri drama “FIRST CLASS”, and she’s still there playing sharp witted and beautiful women, roles that prove that the cute little genki girl from CoCo TOTALLY had what it takes! Here's to your continued success!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Price Of Procrastination

My just-purchased Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso DVD Set

I’d originally downloaded the Satomi Ishihara/Shosuke Tanihara drama “Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso” back in 2010, but for one reason or another, I only watched up to episode 4 before getting distracted by some of the other shows on at the time.
 I always meant to get back to watch it, but there always seemed to be SOME other thing to take care of, some new show to watch or some new CD to listen to, so it wasn’t until just this month, a long FIVE (gasp!) years later, that I dug it back out and began watching it again!

  Since it had been so long, I started watching the drama again from the first episode, and WOW, I’d forgotten how GREAT the show was! The tale of a girl who is a celebrity television psychic, but in real life just a bright girl with a keen eye for observation and figuring out what’s going on, this was the beginnings of the Satomi Ishihara we know now, where she was both beautiful and elegant and yet utterly goofy and spazzy, and as a HUGE Satomi Ishihara fan, I ate it up!
 So I was cruising along watching it, and it was then that I discovered a horrible fact- when I had initially downloaded all the episodes, I burned them all off onto a disc, but didn’t bother checking to make sure all of them played…YES, I was to find that on the disc, episodes 5, 6 AND the final, episode 9 were all CORRUPTED and would only play a little bit before shutting down. ARGH!

CRAP! Gahh, it had been SO LONG since I’d acquired the drama files, would any of the places I downloaded the shows from initially still HAVE it? Well, after nights of searching, I was to find that EACH and EVERY ONE of the forums I went to gave me links to uploading servers that were long since dead. The show was simply too old.
 Cursing myself for waiting so long to watch the show, my next option was to get it from those J-Drama DVD sites which I HATE doing if I can avoid it (they aren't genuine products and the subbing is engrisshy)- There was this one particular J-Drama place where I’d purchased stuff from before because I desperately wanted Hotaru No Hikaru on actual DVDs instead of just MP4 files, but the translations were so awful that I didn't buy much more from them.
 With Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso though, I already HAD the subtitles, and all I needed were the avi files… I went back onto that Jdrama site, saw that they had the Satomi Ishihara drama, tried to log in to purchase it…and found that my account had long since been deactivated for inactivity! Grrr, and they still send me so much spam mail!!!  IF MY ACCOUNT IS DEACTIVATED THEN STOP SENDING ME SO MUCH JUNKMAIL! 
Sigh, looks like I had to find the drama somewhere else! Cd Japan?

Getting a “real” copy off of CDJapan cost a whopping 157.79 not counting shipping which was like WAY too high for me (but OOOH, look at how freaking BEAUTIFUL that DVD Box Set is) and so I went onto Amazon to see what they had to offer over there...

They were selling it, but it was some weird Taiwanese(?) looking version for 49.98 which was cheaper but still way above my price range, so on a whim I checked to see if anyone on ebay was selling it cheaper! No one was selling the real thing  but I WAS able to locate someone selling a Chinese knockoff DVD for only 15 bucks, all region and shipping included! I was desperate and the price was right, so I grabbed it, and just today, the package came in- (It's the picture you see at the top of this post!) I Spent the early part of the day ripping the corrupted episodes to MP4 so they’d play with the srt subtitle files, and so far I’m already in the middle of watching those episodes that have eluded me and am on my way to the final chapter! Yatta!
Moral of the Story: Watch your Dramas as soon as possible, kids! You never know when something might happen to prevent you from enjoying them later on down the road!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Hotei Tomoyasu's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity"

As most Film Buffs know, Quentin Tarantino's "KILL BILL" movies are an ode to Asian Action Cinema of the Golden Age, and besides getting many of the stars of those flicks to participate in it, another one of its great tools is its use of powerful soundtrack songs (like "Urami Bushi" from the classic Meiko Kaji film "Lady Snowblood") and by far the most KICK-BUTT, EPIC song utilized MUST be the instrumental "Battle Without Honor or Humanity"" by the Fiction Samurai himself, Rock N Roller HOTEI TOMOYASU!

 The song was originally written for a Japanese Yakuza movie called "Another Battle" starring Hotei Tomoyasu himself (along with Etsushi Tokokawa), but I'll be damned if this song hasn't taken on a life of its own, much like Ennio Morricone's "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" soundtrack" expands beyond the movie into total cinema consciousness!!
Just came across an absolutely incredible LIVE performance of Hotei doing the song at a huge arena, the only venue fitting for such a powerful song, and Oh my GOSH, he blows the doors down on this one!!!

Holy HELL, doesn't this song just make you want to grab your samurai sword and go totally mental?!
(Be careful of that Chiaki Kuriyama chick, though...girl has a mean right arm...)
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The 90's Were an Incredible Time!

Princess Princess with Hikaru Genji behind

So I was watching an old video from 1992 of Princess Princess on the J-Pop Music Show "Music Station" where the girls had come on to promote their new song "Pilot Ni Naritakute". During their interview I noticed Hikaru Genji sitting behind them, and then I looked at the OTHER artists on those bleachers... WOW, Willya look at all of that freakin' TALENT there! Chisato Moritaka, Chage and Aska...

Behind Kaori you can see Pretty Chisato Moritaka ...

(Judging by the dress, was Chisato going to sing Ame?)

Chage and Aska laughing it up in the sidelines...

Nakayama Miho, Kudoh Shizuka, and...?

Also Miho Nakayama, Shizuka Kudoh and Seiko Matsuda!!!!

Also on the bill but not pictured here is Akina Nakamori!

Man, the 90's will always be,for ME at least, the GREATEST J-pop era EVER!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Crush Of The Day: Kato Ai

  I've been meaning to watch the old classic drama "Ikebukuro West Gate Park" for some time now, but FINALLY got around to it a few weeks ago. This is an old drama from around 2000 and was one of Nagase Tomoya's first "yankee thug" roles, albeit one where he's still more of a child delinquent punk.

Wakana Sakai,Ai Kato,Nagase Tomoya,Ryuta Sato,Tomohisa Yamashita

Wakana Sakai and Ai Kato

Anyway, there were two girls in his "gang", one of them I immediately recognized as Wakana "Moko" Sakai, but the other girl, though she looked REALLY familiar, I just couldn't place. her. She looked like Matsumoto Megumi in "Seiga No Koushin, but nawww...I didn't think it was her. Then I thought- Rosa Kato? No. Suzuki An? Mayyyybbbbbeeeee....  Then it hit me- Holy crap, this was a very young Ai Kato!

 There was this episode on the old tokusatsu superhero show KIKAIDA where Dark Robot Blue Beetle sees Dr, Komyoji and they show the faces of all the different Dark Professors going through the Monster's mind til he lands on Komyoji and yells "It's KOMYOJI!"

Blue Beetle: "Hey, This Guard looks Familiar..."

Scrolling Through his Robot Memory Bank

I had to laugh because that's JUST what it felt like when I was running through all those teenage girls in my head. I thought it was too funny not to share on twitter, and then I had this (slightly paraphrased here for clarity) conversation with Tanikaze:

Zdorama said:

Watching an old drama and COULDNT figure who the girl was. I hadda go thru my mind DARK ROBOT BLUE-BEETLE style to figure out it was Ai Kato

Tanikaze said:

 OTAKU!!! Man, Blue Beetle was sloooowwww... My next question: who were the previous two women who transitioned/henshin'ed into Kato Ai??

Zdorama said:

Matsumoto Megumi. Then Kato Rosa. Then Suzuki An. And then finally Kato Ai!

Tanikaze said:

BTW I never thought Kato Ai was all that pretty, way back when. But the older she got... kinda grew on me.

Zdorama said:

Must say that since I didn't recognize who she was for a good 30 minutes of the show , it’s clear she hasn't stood out for me before

Tanikaze said:

Fair enuff. I used to think she looked like Okada Junichi in drag.

Zdorama said:

That's an image thats gonna be hard to shake...

Tanikaze said:

Sorry. I always thought she looked so... manly.

So we had a good laugh over that. But I gotta say though, the more I watched the show, the cuter Ai Kato got, and by episode 4 I had to ask myself, Crap, am I developing a crush of her after all that? LOL, all that joking BACKFIRED on me!

Me: "Am I starting to LIKE Ai Kato?"

"Hmmmm, she is really starting to seem pretty freaking adorable..."

Oh Yeah, I was really starting to dig Ai, and it helped that she was playing an extremely adorable girl, as the wide-eyed and innocent Hikaru, she stood for everything innocent in Ikebukuro, from the get go she has been in love with Makoto (Nagase Tomoya) but he’s too dense treat her properly and spends most of her time being heartbroken. Man, makes you wanna scoop her up and hug her!

Yep, She's a Cutie-Pie.

Of course, there was more to Hikaru than what she let on (a whole LOT more, it later turned out) but it was her naive baby-girl talking sweet side that really GOT me!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Make Sure You Have a Fire Extinguisher, Everyone!

Have you all seen this video going around of this Japanese Live Streamer who burns down his whole room while demonstrating the new Matchstrike Lighter? Haven't seen such unbelievably bad choices attending to a fire since Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau!

He had on the "text to voice" option for his commentors,  which made the blaze even more surreal as the androgynous robot voices began telling him "Ushiro, Ushiro" (Behind You, Behind You!!!) Egads, after I watched this, I went directly to my kitchen to make sure my fire extinguisher was there and in order! You may never need it, but if you are EVER in a situation like THIS GUY, you'll be SO glad you HAD ONE!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

First "Siren" Reactions

Looking forward to the upcoming Kimura Fumino crime drama SIREN and-NO FUMINO NO WHY DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT NO JUST NO!!!! Oooh, wait, Nanao's in this drama, too? AWWWWWYEAHHHHHHHH
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Selfie Skillz

"Her Selfie Game is Strong"

Almost insane how proficient these high school girls are with their phones when it comes to taking that perfect selfie! 
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Singles: CoCo/ Equal Romance

Although Azusa Senou may be just about my favorite member of CoCo, I have to say that IMHO, the definitive live performance of the girls’1989 debut song ‘EQUAL Romance” just HAS to be the 4-member version (after Azusa had left the group) on the 1993 DELUXE EDITION concert! 
  When you listen to the CD single track, it is mostly Azusa’s voice that holds it all together so you’d think that any performance without her couldn’t have worked, but by the time they were doing it in 1993, the sheer energy of the girls MADE the song!
As it was their debut single, most of the early performances of the girls doing Equal Romance  in 1989 are rather stiff, with everyone concentrating very hard on remembering their lines, their dance moves and looking cute, prim and proper! A good example is this nice if very subdued performance on Paradise GoGo:

By this point of Deluxe Edition, however, Equal Romance had become CoCo’s signature song which they always saved for the closing of their shows, and it was a performance that everyone amped up for, the fans, the band musicians and especially the girls themselves, happily and passionately singing, those old rigid dance moves practically thrown out in favor of running, cheering and jumping, MAN, so strong was this 1993 version that Pony Canyon decided to BEGIN the concert video with it! Yes, they took the END of the show and used it as the OPENING!
At first it seemed jarring to begin watching a Concert Video and jump RIGHT into the ending song, but once you watched it and saw how powerful the performance was, you understood as the curtains came down on a huge crescendo of an ending and then the beginning credits came on, starting the show!
It’s THIS performance that I hold above all others as THE performance of Equal Romance!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com