Episode 1 of 'Alice no Toge'. Not good. At the end of the episode I was thinking, "Who wrote this thing??" Checked and it's Maki Takahashi. He also wrote 'Fuyu no Sakura' which was completely ruined by Masanobu Takashima's character, one of the most wacko over the top doctors ever.

Now in 'Alice no Toge', Takahashi has created a whole hospital full of them. Honestly, what doctor would say in the operating room in front of other doctors, "If you haven't killed three patients you're not a doctor yet." In the real world, any surgeon not operating in a combat zone that lost three patients would be in front of a medical board. By the end of the episode it looks like all the doctors in this hospital are that way, except of course, our heroine, and she might be the most psychotic of them all. It's not a good sign when Odagiri Joe, who has made a career out of playing strange characters is the most normal person.

I'm betting even money that at some point it will turn out Joe and Juri are related. Either cousins or long lost brother/sister. The only question is will we find out before or after they've had sex.

Edit: I forgot to add this director REALLY likes slow motion shots. The first episode runs almost an hour but without the slo-mo could have finished a lot sooner. I haven't seen this much slow motion since the Super Bowl.

^ I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but it sounds like a good dose of Suspension of Disbelief needs to be applied.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of detective dramas out this season?
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Watching 6 this season. First Class, Border, Alice no Toge, Shinigami-kun, Katemasu and Mozu.

I thought Alice no Toge and Maou are similar in some ways with the photos pasted all over the wall and the distribution of cards in envelopes. Storyline's pretty similar too, just different profession.

Watched the first episode of First Class earlier and it's pretty good to my surprise!

Eyeyore wrote:

Nezumi, Edo wo Hashiru - one kind of detective drama in period costume. Ep7......still as interesting.

I'm watching this drama , yes it's interesting.
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���{�Ȋw�Z�p��w������c���Y�̂Ȃ��x�X�g��s�����Ȃ��̂�_ Naze besto tsukusa nai no ka ?(Ueda Jiro)
Hiroshima Mon Amour- Alcatrazz

I had the (mis)fortune of watching bits of Ando Lloyd while flipping channels. Made me cringe a lot. Is it just me or does Kimutaku's dramas not quite cut it these days?
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junny wrote:

I had the (mis)fortune of watching bits of Ando Lloyd while flipping channels. Made me cringe a lot. Is it just me or does Kimutaku's dramas not quite cut it these days?

That was just a bad idea all the way around. Easily the worst Kimtaku drama ever. The one before that, 'Priceless' with Karina was very good.

Did anybody watch 'Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai'? The first episode got something like a 17.2 rating! I read the synopsis and it didn't sound all that great. I guess Anne's fanboys must have been out in force.

gaijinmark wrote:

Did anybody watch 'Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai'? The first episode got something like a 17.2 rating! I read the synopsis and it didn't sound all that great. I guess Anne's fanboys must have been out in force.

So I watched the first episode and all I can figure is that either it is the fanboys or people thought this would be a female version 'Hanzawa Naoki'. Which it isn't by a long way. It's okay but nothing great and it doesn't look like it has the potential to turn into something great.

WhiteHawk wrote:

Is it just me, or are there a lot of detective dramas out this season?

Yeah I also thought so. Recently, a lot of dorama with genre: crime, suspense, detective, police
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Watched Doctors 2 in one night. There's some good writing there (particularly the patient who refused operation). Sawamura Ikki really had me guessing his true intention in the second half. Don't remember much about the first series but this seems in some ways better.

I'm watching Zoku Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi, and taking a peek at Border. I tried Bitter Blood and Team, but... meh.
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WhiteHawk wrote:

I'm watching Zoku Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi

Watched the first episode as well. Usually not a big fan of sequels but they've brought back all the original cast and added Kyoko Hasegawa as the mother of Erina's boyfriend. (Another sign we're getting older when Hasegawa is cast as the mother of a teenager). We'll see how it goes.

gaijinmark wrote:

Watched the first episode as well. Usually not a big fan of sequels but they've brought back all the original cast and added Kyoko Hasegawa as the mother of Erina's boyfriend. (Another sign we're getting older when Hasegawa is cast as the mother of a teenager). We'll see how it goes.

Ya had ta go and remind me, didn't ya?





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Episode 1 of 'Gokuaku Ganbo'. I've always liked Machiko Ono and it's got a pretty good supporting cast, Kippei Shiina, Odagiri Joe. Tokokazu Miura runs around in a red 1980's Corvette with the worst hair dye job ever. This looks like it might be pretty good.

Btw, the synopsis they've got here isn't even remotely close to what this drama is about. Here's the right synopsis: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gokuaku_Ganbo

gaijinmark wrote:

So I watched the first episode and all I can figure is that either it is the fanboys or people thought this would be a female version 'Hanzawa Naoki'. Which it isn't by a long way. It's okay but nothing great and it doesn't look like it has the potential to turn into something great.

Episode 2 looks to be much better than the first episode.

creidesca wrote:

Episode 2 looks to be much better than the first episode.

Finished episode 2. Kind of the same formula, the boss tries to shift blame to his subordinate but this was an improvement over episode 1.

WhiteHawk wrote:

Ya had ta go and remind me, didn't ya?

Shikata ga nai, ne?

Watched episode 2. It looks like this might turn out pretty good. Basically a continuation of the first one. The Hasegawa/Nakai storyline is probably going to turn into "men and women can't just be friends".

Episode 2 of 'Gokuaku Ganbo'. This is going to be one of those everybody's trying to screw everybody else dramas (not literally, but businesswise). I'm sure it will get a lot more confusing as it goes along.

I have to admit these "don't never trust nobody" type plots are among my favorites.

I've added Silent Poor to my "watching" list.

Still have a couple of seasons of Before & After to catch up on too.
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Episode 1 of 'MOZU': http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1947.htm

I hate it when they make the first episode 90 minutes long!!!

Why not just make two 45 minute episodes? It took about three attempts before I was able to watch the whole thing.

But a great cast, looks like it will be pretty good.