Finished the Beach boys tonight. Still great.
_________________

Up thru episode 8 of 'Gokuaku Ganbo' and I still don't understand what it is these people are doing.

I noticed we haven't seen Odagiri Joe's character in the last few episodes. He was in it early on as some kind of crooked cop that helped them but he seems to have disappeared.

Started watching:

Border (w/Oguri Shun) - So far so good.

Team - Keishichou Tokubetsu Hannin Sousahonbu - Not bad, but not great.

Smoking Gun (w/Katori Shingo) - So far liking this one the most.

White Lab (Kitamura Kazuki & Wakui Emi) - Mmmm, only seen 1 ep so gonna give it a little more time.

Hanasaki Mai Ga Damettenai (Anne & Kamiyama Takaya) - mostly want to see what's going on between Karashima (Enoki Takaaki) & Shinto (Namase Katsuhisa)

& Keji 110kg 2 - I like Ishizuka Hidehiko, so sue me.
_________________

^ Imoto-chan sighting...!

Genki desu ka?

Oniichan, ohisashiburi! Genki desu yo!

How have you been? Busy with work? Keeping up with the dramas?
_________________

Rinrin wrote:

Oniichan, ohisashiburi! Genki desu yo! How have you been? Busy with work? Keeping up with the dramas?

Not keeping up with the dramas fast enough, unfortunately... Got a bit of a backlog.

gaijinmark wrote:

Up thru episode 8 of 'Gokuaku Ganbo' and I still don't understand what it is these people are doing. I noticed we haven't seen Odagiri Joe's character in the last few episodes. He was in it early on as some kind of crooked cop that helped them but he seems to have disappeared.

Might be because Odagiri Joe is actually in another drama showing on TV Tokyo called River's Edge Ookawabata Tanteisha. I think his part might be a little bigger in that drama, but small enough he can appear in both dramas?

Not really sure as I haven't seen either drama yet, but I was thinking that might be the reason why Odagiri Joe is not showing up so often.
_________________

bmwracer wrote:

Not keeping up with the dramas fast enough, unfortunately... Got a bit of a backlog.

Ah well, I have faith that you will use your "super oniichan powers" for good and catch up very soon!
_________________

Rinrin wrote:

Ah well, I have faith that you will use your "super oniichan powers" for good and catch up very soon!

LOL.

Oh, Check your PM.

Rinrin wrote:

Might be because Odagiri Joe is actually in another drama showing on TV Tokyo called River's Edge Ookawabata Tanteisha. I think his part might be a little bigger in that drama, but small enough he can appear in both dramas?

He's also in 'Alice no Toge' so he's trying to juggle three at once. Maybe it's because his wife just had another baby and he needs the extra cash.

There have other actors doubling up this Spring season. Namase Katsuhisa is in both 'MOZU' and 'Hanasaki Mai'. And Yuki Uchida is in 'Zoku.Saigo Kara' and 'Gunshi Kanbei'. Probably a good thing. The more real actors there are the less chance of a role being wasted on an idol.

Just finished Jiken Kyuumei ~ IMAT no Kiseki, a tanpatsu featuring Tamaki Hiroshi as a doctor. Hot stuff, I'd take him in scrubs any day Tanaka Kei was pretty good too, I hadn't realised he was the same nerdy young doc in Doctor X.

Also watched Hoshi Hitotsu no Yoru, pretty interesting look at an oddball friendship. It's been a while since I watched Watanabe Ken in anything, but it was a good match-up with the younger Tamaki Hiroshi.
_________________

Watched the first two episodes of 'Tsuma wa Kunoichi, Saishusho": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1954.htm

Set in the Edo period, so far we've had ninjas, sword fights, a princess with an attitude and even though it's a serious drama the second episode was pretty funny.

With Somegoro Ichikawa it might make you nostalgic for back when taigas used to have a real actor in the lead which hasn't happened in over ten years. Plus, an ending theme by Masayoshi Yamazaki.

Edit: This is actually the second series. The first, "Tsuma wa, Kunoichi" aired in the Spring of 2013. There's enough flashbacks that you could probably watch the second series and get the gist of it, but you're better off watching the first one first. It's very good also.

Up thru episode 9 of "MOZU". Pretty dark and depressing, but well done.

There was a major hole in the plot during episode 9:

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

When Shingai breaks out of jail how come nobody bothered to call the trio guarding Muroi that he was on the loose? It was pretty obvious that's the first place he'd go to try and kill him so why not give them a heads up?

There's been some complaining in the Japanese press about all the smoking Hidetoshi Nishijima's character Kuraki is doing. There's a scene in the beginning of episode 9 where's he standing on a roof in the rain and damned if he didn't light up a cigarette in the rain!!

Up thru episode 8 of "Hanasaki Mai". I cannot figure out why this is getting such great ratings.

It's not bad but really only just above average IMO. I guess Anne has more fanboys than I thought.

Episode 9 of "Zoku Saigo Kara, , ,". I thought the first one was good but I think the sequel might be even better.

Just finished Long Goodbye. Utterly brilliant!

antspace wrote:

Just finished Long Goodbye. Utterly brilliant!

I liked that one a lot as well. They did a great job transferring the setting from Los Angeles to 1950's Tokyo. I really liked the mood they set. And they were more true to Chandler's novel than in the Robert Altman movie. In the movie, Marlowe (Masuzawa) ends of killing Terry Lennox (Harada).

Finished "MOZU" season 1. Season 2 starts tonight in Japan. Well done, good performances, pretty heavy on the blood and violence though.

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

There was one moment of suspending reality in the final episode. When Shingai is impaled on that thing in the airport, unless his arms are about 10 feet long there's no way he can extricate himself from that, but somehow he managed to do it.

Kuraki and Akeboshi still haven't found the answers to what they're looking for hence, a season 2.

Episode 10 of "Zoku Saigo Kara". I'm torn between thinking they should stop with 2 seasons while they're way ahead or try for a 3rd season.

Miss Pilot, just finished episode 8. This is fairly average except for Aibu Saki who really excelled at playing serious, mature, introverted characters. She was great in this, I kind of wish the series is about her character instead.


Gokuaku Ganbo. Was following this until about episode 7 but I lost interest. This series doesn't appear to be about anything or anyone in particular, may be it's trying to tell too many stories together and ended up saying too little about any of the characters.


Zoku Saigo Kara, up to episode 6. This is really good, just as entertaining as the first series. The scenes between Chiaki and Wahei were the highlights and just as enjoyable as in the first one.