Zdorama's Fun With Photoshop!

Nanao gets the Photoshop Treatment

Some of you may not know it, but each and every picture and screencap I post on my blog gets edited in Photoshop; cropped, brightened, color-corrected, and sharpened, before I paste ‘em up into my entries. Even when I share magazine scans that I’ve acquired from other sources, I usually take the time to perk them up before I post them, and though this is meticulous and sometimes very draining, I love seeing the scans at their very  best!

Age Harassment

Riso No Musuko

Sometimes when I’ve done a editing job that I’m particularly happy with, I save both the edited picture AND the un-edited one, and today I thought I’d share some that I’ve saved over the past few months!

Zenkai Girl

Kekkon Dekinai Otoko

Asuko March

Higanbana

Siren

Oishii Gohan

Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai

Long Vacation

Underwear (Atelier)

Yokai Ningen Bem

Mirai Nikki

Mirai Nikki

Renai Jidai 1

Renai Jidai

Renai Jidai

Renai Jidai

Rich Man, Poor Woman

Rich Man, Poor Woman

Rich Man, Poor Woman 

Summer Nude

Summer Nude

Summer Nude

Even the scans I’ve shared of K-pop beauties like f(x)’s Sulli and AOA’s Seolhyun have been slightly(or massively, depending on the pic) tweaked to get my desired effect, and some have even told me that my edited photos look more like the original source scan than the REAL scan!

Sulli, Cosmopolitan

Sulli, Cosmopolitan

Sulli, Cosmopolitan

f(x), High Cut

Seolhyun, Marie Claire

Seolhyun, Marie Claire

A couple of friends have told me they don’t like my photoshopping style, saying I make the photos look over-contrasted and un-natural looking, but when I post the images to accompany my blog entries, I want them to look as much like magazine pictorial captures as possible, so if they appear too saturated, so be it...As for me, I like how they look and since it’s my blog and the pics are accompanying MY writing, that’s how it’s going to stay, LOL!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

AOA Have Been Really Selling Seolhyun During Their “Good Luck” Promotions (And I’ve Been Buying!)

As I mentioned multiple times here, Choa has always been my AOA bias, with Hyejeong following a close second, but with Seolhyun’s surge in popularity in scene-stealing shows like Laws Of The Jungle, they’ve really dialed up her overall AOA presence and I’ve developed a newfound appreciation for her!

Besides all her CM and magazine pictorials (some of which I've talked about here), I knew she was really making her mark on the world when they made her the center of the “Good Luck” Video and Dance Choreography, and she’s even the very first image you see in the MV!

 True, even back in the day there were an awful lot of Seolhyun aficionados among us Ace Of Angels fans (or, ELVIS, as the fanbase is called) but back then I never really saw what they were gushing about. But now I can really see how pretty she is, and in the girls’ latest appearance on the awesome variety show “Weekly Idol (still, in my opinion, one of the VERY BEST ways to “get to know’ your favorite artists) it seemed to me that they’re grooming her to become the “Yoona” of the group, the gamine, doe-eyed and uber-feminine member of AOA. 

Just look at how she’s presented here and how she carries herself, VERY much in line with the way Miss Im always has…though of course, NO ONE can duplicate Yoona and her adorably goofy ways, but I like the way there are so many different personas in AOA and I'm totally on board the Seolhyun fan train now!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Hyeri Still My Girl's Day Bias

Hyeri on this past week's RUNNING MAN

There was a brief time when Hyeri was Korea's "it" girl and out there stealing everybody's hearts, but inevitably there came the backlash where people were tired of her cutesy antics, and I wasn't surprised when I saw a recent popularity poll ranking Girls Day biases and Hyeri came out dead last.

But ya know, I just caught Hyeri in a recent RUNNING MAN from a few weeks back, and I mean to tell you, she is STILL as freaking adorable as ever! 

She is still the giggly and squeaky girl that won my heart over all those years ago and still such a  joy to watch in action!From her Opening interactions with Jaesuk and Sukjin (where Jaesuk convinces Hyeri to pretend Sukjin came in first place), that patented eye-smile was simply beaming...

To her befuddled attempts at trying to navigate the journey using a map book (until Jaesuk laughed and said, "You'd better let me look at that, Hyeri, LOL"..

Her nailbiting moments at the brain-quiz up against a computer...

...and most hilariously, watching Hyeri trying to beat an automated machine trying to see who could pop the most balloons faster, oh my GOSH was this FUN to watch!

Yeah, Hyeri may have dropped out of the public's conscious as the gal of the moment, but for me she will always be the reason to keep up with Girl's Day! You GO, Girl!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Putting In My Sica Order!!!

Yes! Just put in my order for Jessica's very first Mini Album "With Love, J" which is due to release this coming Friday! Heard a couple of songs, "Fly" and "Love Me The Same" and they're both great! Looking forward to this new treasure!

Along the way I also ordered the new AOA album "Good Luck" which just dropped today! I chose the "Weekend" version because though the "Week" version they're in bathing suits, I like how they look more in the former. Plus I've always been a sucker for cute clothes on girls!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Book Off’s New Home

A few months back I mentioned that the “media” side of Shirokiya “Book-Off” had relocated to Ward Warehouse under the name “Connect”…Well, I happened to stride on by this weekend, and I found that since Shirokiya’s big move to the Food Court Side of Ala Moana Shopping Center, The Ward Connect had officially become a Book Off, complete with signage and banners! Very Cool! Time to shop for some movies!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships...Or At Least Packages of Curry, My Darling Emi Takei

Umeda Subway Station in Osaka Japan of pretty Emi Takei out there using her adorable ways of persuasion to promote JTB! As you may recall, she is JTB’s ambassador and they’re using her cute features to maximum effect!

While in Japan, also check out Emi's wonderfully adorable commercials, especially for Curry! It is really Emi’s Time right now!!!

Hee Hee, I just LOVE when she talks in that disarming nasally voice CHO KAWAII!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

An Uneven Murder Mystery with “Boku No Yabai Tsuma”

Hideaki Ito as Kohei Mochizuke

Yoshino Kimura as Maria Mochizuke

On paper, the new Hideaki Ito/Kimura Yoshino mystery “Boku No Yabai Tsuma” should really gripping and captivating me, but somehow, this drama is done so clunky, rather than being a nail biter, everyone in this drama seems so inept that I ended up getting irritated more than titillated. Boku No Yabai Tsuma tells the tale of a Man named Mochizuki Kohei (Ito) who plots to poison his wife Maria (Kimura) to inherit her fortune and be with his mistresses Kitasato Anna(Aibu) and comes home to find she has been kidnapped, at first elated that she is gone, the tables get turned when HE becomes the main suspect of her disappearance!

Secret Affair: Kohei and Anna (Saki Aibu)

The Poison to Do the Job...

In theory, this drama’s plot is a LOT like the highly excellent Elmore Leonard story “Life of Crime”, where a man’s wife is kidnapped and he’s informed that if he doesn’t pay them a million dollars they will kill her but the guy HATES his wife and is HOPING the kidnappers do away with her. 

Ryuta Sato plays a Homicide detective on the case of the kidnapped wife who is first to suspect Ito as the culprit, but even so, he’s not even doing a passable job in his sleuthing. At the crime scene, he sees two cocoa mugs in the sink, one is the wife’s and one is the husband’s, instead of thinking, GET DNA on this MUG, the LAST person to see the wife drank from it!”, HIS first thought is, “the husband’s acting fishy, let’s investigate him! Oh, and we’ve also got Sasaki Kuranosuke in another of his patently “what’s–this-guy-up-to” roles. 

Ryuta Sato

Hideaki Ito

Yoshino Kimura

Saki Aibu

Kuranosuke Sasaki

Ah well, we’ll see how far this drama goes. They’re starting to introduce the backstory that the wife had a side of her that the husband never knew, etc, etc and maybe this drama is going to go more along the route of GONE GIRL? If that’s the case, it might perk up the show, but so far I can only cross fingers!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com