Tadaima!

So, we finished Saigo and really enjoyed it. We watched the first season
and the special, but not season two yet but we plan to do so. It was a compelling and very sweet show with some complex characters. It wasn't among my absolute favorite j-dramas, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.

We tried Nodame Cantible...just 15 minutes or so. Sacrilege, I know, I'm sorry. But we just couldn't get into it at all--it just felt very stylized and we didn't feel like it was connecting with us. We'll try it again in the future, I think, and in the meantime please feel free to tell me how wrong we were.

I think we'll be trying Searchin' for my Polestar next. That was recommended on a list by a blogger who loved two of our favorites, Orange Days and Late Blooming Sunflower. (In fact, it was because of her LBS love that we tried out her recommendation of Orange Days.)

junny wrote:

Yay panda! Glad you enjoyed Love Shuffle! Which storyline(s) and couple(s) did you enjoy watching most? LOL, I like how you labelled Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi as "deer man drama with Love Sha star" Said Love Sha star is also in Nodame Cantabile Of your list, other than the ones I recommended in a previous post, I think Saikou no Rikon is a decent watch but the characters require quite a bit of patience. The drama didn't quite grab me as I thought it would, and I think more could have been done re plot and characterisation. Nevertheless, it does have rather witty dialogue and is pretty slice-of-life. I see you have a couple of Kimutaku dramas, so I'd recommend two more: Hero and Long Vacation. Hero is a legal drama (with doses of comedy) and has a winning combination in Kimutaku and Matsu Takako (who also appear in Love Generation, where Matsu's character was more annoying), and a great supporting cast. Long Vacation is a classic and one of the best rom-coms out there. Beach Boys is also worth a go - two guys meet at a beach and embark on a journey to find their dreams.

Yay, panda! My favorite Love-Sha couples were definitely the photog and
patient and even more so, Kei and Ai Ai. Tara-chans! The jokes and
cleverness were just constantly coming at the viewer, but the show had the
ability to deftly change from serious to funny and back again on a dime. I
really loved that show, and it gives me a new appreciation for Eternal
Flame and Fantasy, too. Say it ain't so. Joe! What a sweet show, I really
dug it a ton.

I will gladly add Long Vacation, Saikou no Rikon, Hero, and Beach Boys to the list. Thank you so much.

gaijinmark wrote:

junny already mentioned 'Long Vacation'. Another Tomoko Yamaguchi drama that doesn't get nearly enough credit is 'Sweet Home'. She and her husband move into a new neighborhood and try to get their son in the "right" school. I thought it was hilarious. There is one school drama you might want to try: "Medaka". It's about a night school with adults trying to finish their education so you don't have to deal with the usual teenagers with hormonal issues.

Sweet Home and Medaka. Roger that! Thank you, Mark!

joykimlee wrote:

According to your first post, you have the same likes and dislikes in a drama as me. My recommended must watch from your list: 1) Nodame Cantabile (simply superb and addictive) 2) Satorare (reminiscing Mel Gibson's What Women Want) 3) Hotaru no Hikari (simply hilarious and cute relationship) My recommended drop from your list: 1) Tiger & Dragon (was difficult for me to understand dark humour) 2) Tatta no Hitotsu Koi (was draggy n sloppy for me) 3) Flower Shop w/t Roses (excellent actors esp. the kid, but it's oh so slow) My recommended dramas not on your list: 1) Osen (beautiful lead in kimono cooking delicious traditional Japanese dishes) 2) All Kimura Takuya dramas except Tsuki no Koibito (a disgrace to his resume) 3) 1 Litre of Tears (I hate tearjerkers, but this converted me from k to jdramas)

In my original post on the previous page, I did mention Osen

I really enjoyed Osen a great deal. It's not my absolute favorite dorama I've watched but it was really compelling...it just ended on a bit of an ambiguous note for my tastes (no pun intended).

What are some of your favorite Kimura Takuya dramas?

I did try Nodame and I just could not get into it at all. It was too...stylized? for my tastes. I know a lot of people love it so I will have to give it another try sometime, but I didn't want to force it right now.

I'm getting a lot of recommendations to try Hotaru so I will need to try that soon.

Satorare sounds right up my alley. I actually have only seen the Chinese remake of What Women Want, which I really thought was a great film.

--

Thanks again, all for the recommendations, I appreciate it immensely!

I'm very slowly working on finally picking up some Japanese, so: domo arigato gozaimasu. Dewa matta!

maxcriden wrote:

We tried Nodame Cantible...just 15 minutes or so. Sacrilege, I know, I'm sorry. But we just couldn't get into it at all--it just felt very stylized and we didn't feel like it was connecting with us. We'll try it again in the future, I think, and in the meantime please feel free to tell me how wrong we were. I think we'll be trying Searchin' for my Polestar next. What are some of your favorite Kimura Takuya dramas?

A) I don't think you were wrong about Nodame. Like I may have mentioned earlier it's one of a handful of dramas that I couldn't even finish.

B) Oh Yes!! "Searching For My Polestar" (aka Tentai Kanzoku) is one of my all time favorites! Can't believe it slipped my mind. Probably Manami Konishi's best performance IMO.

C) Kimtaku dramas: "Gift" although it's kind of dark and might not be something you'd like. "Priceless" he's teamed up with Karina from "Love Shuffle" and Kiichi Nakai from "Saigo Kara". "Beautiful Life" is very good but it's depressing as well.

maxcriden wrote:

We tried Nodame Cantible...just 15 minutes or so. Sacrilege, I know, I'm sorry. But we just couldn't get into it at all--it just felt very stylized and we didn't feel like it was connecting with us. We'll try it again in the future, I think, and in the meantime please feel free to tell me how wrong we were.

Ahh, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. The production made a conscious decision to have it manga-fied, so I think once you get past that, it can be very enjoyable and even endearing. The music was a definite plus, but the chemistry between the leads was wonderful, not to mention Tamaki Hiroshi looked much healthier than he did in Love Shuffle. But as you said, don't force it I had to take two tries before I fell in love with Love Shuffle But I am glad you liked Kei and Ai-ai!

Hope you're enjoying the rest of the recs!
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Konbanwa! We've started Hotaru no Hikari, and are four episodes in after an evening of lots of j-drama watching. It's really good so far! We both like it a lot. I don't think we absolutely love it--yet--but it's very fun and plenty compelling. (What happened to watching Polestar first? See below!)

gaijinmark wrote:

A) I don't think you were wrong about Nodame. Like I may have mentioned earlier it's one of a handful of dramas that I couldn't even finish. B) Oh Yes!! "Searching For My Polestar" (aka Tentai Kanzoku) is one of my all time favorites! Can't believe it slipped my mind. Probably Manami Konishi's best performance IMO. C) Kimtaku dramas: "Gift" although it's kind of dark and might not be something you'd like. "Priceless" he's teamed up with Karina from "Love Shuffle" and Kiichi Nakai from "Saigo Kara". "Beautiful Life" is very good but it's depressing as well.

Thank you for the recommendations! "Priceless" just came across my radar earlier today for the first time so I think I would like that.

As for Polestar--and Satorare--I couldn't find either on any streaming sources. ;__; I was really hoping to watch both of those but no dice on either front...I found the first episode but didn't want to watch it if I wasn't going to be able to find the rest. I was really surprised neither were on GoodDrama or Drama.net. Any ideas?

BTW, as for depressing/dark doramas--I'm okay with these, as long as they...hmm, I don't want to be spoiled, but I want them to end in satisfying (and hopefully happy) ways. But if they can't end in a happy way, I want them to be satisfying enough, you know? So if Gift and Beautiful Life are satisfying in their conclusions, that works for me. (Are they?)

(Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you all about a few other shows--)

I know Mother and Woman are written by the same person. Do those end satisfyingly? We tried Woman but it was a bit dark, but if it has a satisfying conclusion, I'm for trying that again. Same with trying Mother, although if I understand correctly that's even darker.

How about the guy from Freeter--he's in some dorama where he grows up with siblings who have some extensive revenge scheme? What's that one like?

Let's see...we tried one very briefly that's about people using Twitter but the subtitle font was this bright red and white eyesore...is that one pretty good?

Thanks again.

junny wrote:

Ahh, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. The production made a conscious decision to have it manga-fied, so I think once you get past that, it can be very enjoyable and even endearing. The music was a definite plus, but the chemistry between the leads was wonderful, not to mention Tamaki Hiroshi looked much healthier than he did in Love Shuffle. But as you said, don't force it I had to take two tries before I fell in love with Love Shuffle But I am glad you liked Kei and Ai-ai! Hope you're enjoying the rest of the recs!

junny, I am so going to make sure we try Nodame again. I cannot beLIEVE that is actually the same actor from Love Sha. Wowza. I really had to look hard to see the resemblance.

Thank you as well for all of your thoughts and recommendations!

maxcriden wrote:

junny, I am so going to make sure we try Nodame again. I cannot beLIEVE that is actually the same actor from Love Sha. Wowza. I really had to look hard to see the resemblance.

Between 2007 and 2010, Tamaki Hiroshi lost a lot of weight, in part to prepare for a movie role in 2009 where he was really gaunt. You can already see the difference if you watch Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi (2008). He's always been slim, but Nodame in 2006 was "healthy" for him, as is anything post 2010 (see Kekkon Shinai in 2012, and the currently airing Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu, where he's positively smouldering )

Tamaki is actually most well-known for his Chiaki senpai role in Nodame Cantabile, heh. He gets a fair number of meta jokes about Chiaki in his later works.

Glad you're enjoying Hotaru no Hikari, there's also a season 2 and a movie. Fujiki Naohito, who is the boss in Hotaru, was also in Love Revolution (which is also recommended!).

Sakamoto Yuji, who wrote Mother and Woman, also wrote Saikou no Rikon and Soredemo, Ikite Yuku (haven't seen Soredemo, but it's critically acclaimed... and seems to be pretty heavy). He also wrote Top Caster, which is pretty hilarious with its newsroom hijinks (also has Tamaki, in a very goofy role, along with two other Love Sha pals in Matsuda Shota and Tanihara Shosuke), and the romantic tearjerker Itoshi Kimi e - both are recommended!
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maxcriden wrote:

BTW, as for depressing/dark doramas--I'm okay with these, as long as they...hmm, I don't want to be spoiled, but I want them to end in satisfying (and hopefully happy) ways. But if they can't end in a happy way, I want them to be satisfying enough, you know? So if Gift and Beautiful Life are satisfying in their conclusions, that works for me. (Are they?)

"Gift" starts out with Kimura in a closet after he got the crap beat out of him and he can't remember the last three years. Turns out during that time he was involved with some gangster/yakuza types. So he was not a nice person and there are some fight scenes and violence, but ultimately it does have a good ending. Plus there was just such a great cast in this. I was looking at some of the comments and it looks like this was a drama people either loved or hated.

With "Beautiful Life" in the first episode when Kimura and Tokiwa meet you already get a pretty good idea of how it's going to turn out. Maybe depressing was the wrong word, maybe sad would have been better. But I thought the ending was a positive one.

Quote:

I know Mother and Woman are written by the same person. Do those end satisfyingly? We tried Woman but it was a bit dark, but if it has a satisfying conclusion, I'm for trying that again. Same with trying Mother, although if I understand correctly that's even darker.

I don't know if I'd call them dark. Intense might be a better word. The ending of "Woman" was a little confusing to me. Either the director was playing games with us or I wasn't paying attention.

"Mother" does not have what I would call a "warm fuzzy" ending but I think you should try it anyway, if for no other reason than to see Mana Ashida. You won't believe she's only six years old.

Since "Tentai Kanzoku" isn't available you might try "Hito ni Yasashiku":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.685.htm

Basically it's a Japanese version of "Three Men and a Baby".

Only two episodes of Hotaru left in Season 2. The twists and turns in this second season have been especially painful, haha. I thought it was rough enough wondering if Kai and Sai would get together in Orange Days, and Seno-san creeping his way toward the naive and unworldly Hotaru is just kind of excruciating to watch. It's a great show though. (BouCHO!)

junny wrote:

Between 2007 and 2010, Tamaki Hiroshi lost a lot of weight, in part to prepare for a movie role in 2009 where he was really gaunt. You can already see the difference if you watch Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi (2008). He's always been slim, but Nodame in 2006 was "healthy" for him, as is anything post 2010 (see Kekkon Shinai in 2012, and the currently airing Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu, where he's positively smouldering )

Sakamoto-san seems pretty prolific! I've been tentatively interested in checking out Saikou no Rikon but haven't gotten to it yet as I feel like it's not going to be the normal, romantic dorama we usually watch. It's on our radar, though. I know a lot of people were really into it. Also, thanks for the info about Tamaki. I think you might be his number one fan, I saw your blog

gaijinmark wrote:

Since "Tentai Kanzoku" isn't available you might try "Hito ni Yasashiku":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.685.htm Basically it's a Japanese version of "Three Men and a Baby".

Thanks for the continued recommendations! I still want to find Tentai Kanzoku but I will keep Hito ni Yasashiku in mind as well, for sure. Beautiful Life sounds like a good dorama but also a tearjerker so I will have to mentally prepare to check that one out! Thank you.

I'm not sure if this one was already mentioned, but a must watch is "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko" with Abe Hiroshi. My all time favorite J Drama.

Spider wrote:

I'm not sure if this one was already mentioned, but a must watch is "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko" with Abe Hiroshi. My all time favorite J Drama.

Oh, that's one of my absolute favorites. Thank you though!

So, just an update on our j-drama adventures. We finished S1 + 2 + the movie for Hotaru. Man, what a terrific show. I did find certain characters terribly grating, like Seno in S2, but I understood their purpose in the show (even if it was painfully difficult to watch Hotaru not understand for the longest time that Seno was inappropriate to her). Very good series, though. I really enjoyed it immensely and got a ton of laughter and heartfelt satisfaction out of it. It did end on a slight cliffhanger, though, in the movie, so I'm wondering if there are any plans or expectations for another series or movie?

We also just finished up Beautiful Life. My goodness. That show really broke us a bit last night, haha. We were both Whew. We pretty much knew what was coming but it still hurt to watch. It was a good show overall, though for Eriko Kitagawa's output I did prefer Orange Days overall.

Now to figure out what to try next from our list. Definitely something very light in comparison to Beautiful Life. Thinking of Muri no Renai, is that on the light/funny side? We still have to watch S2 of Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi but that's one we liked but didn't absolutely adore so it's not at the very top of the list at the moment.

maxcriden wrote:

Thinking of Muri no Renai, is that on the light/funny side?

Muri na Renai is really good... A terrific performance by Natsukawa Yui.

maxcriden wrote:

So, just an update on our j-drama adventures. We finished S1 + 2 + the movie for Hotaru. Man, what a terrific show. I did find certain characters terribly grating, like Seno in S2, but I understood their purpose in the show (even if it was painfully difficult to watch Hotaru not understand for the longest time that Seno was inappropriate to her). Very good series, though. I really enjoyed it immensely and got a ton of laughter and heartfelt satisfaction out of it. It did end on a slight cliffhanger, though, in the movie, so I'm wondering if there are any plans or expectations for another series or movie?

I may be in the minority, but I hope the Hotaru franchise ends at the movie. I was a bit tired of Hotaru getting squicky every time Buchou initiated anything remotely intimate. The funnies were wearing thin, so I think it's wise if they stop milking the series. Besides, Ayase Haruka needs to move on from doing roles along these lines (she's in a similar one for the currently airing Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu). And thanks for visiting my blog hope it didn't bore you, haha.

Two other Kitagawa Eriko works I recommend are Long Vacation and Over Time, not sure if you've watched either, but they're both 90s classics.
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bmwracer wrote:

Muri na Renai is really good... A terrific performance by Natsukawa Yui.

Ah man, she is *so* good in Kekkon Dekinai Otoko. I will be eager to check out the show then (when I can find it )

junny wrote:

I may be in the minority, but I hope the Hotaru franchise ends at the movie. I was a bit tired of Hotaru getting squicky every time Buchou initiated anything remotely intimate. The funnies were wearing thin, so I think it's wise if they stop milking the series. Besides, Ayase Haruka needs to move on from doing roles along these lines (she's in a similar one for the currently airing Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimasu). And thanks for visiting my blog hope it didn't bore you, haha. Two other Kitagawa Eriko works I recommend are Long Vacation and Over Time, not sure if you've watched either, but they're both 90s classics.

Oh no, I really enjoyed your blog a lot junny, and I've been checking it out since then. Kyou wa is on my radar but it's good to know it's very Hotaru-esque in terms of Ayase Haruka's character, so I won't watch it anytime soon. Long Vacation's on my list, too. Over Time I will add. Thanks!

--

BTW, looking back at the shows we've started and stopped:

operation love (time travel hs and wedding drama)
Konkatsu! (tonkatusu/rom com)
Sunao ni Narenakute
amachan (diver comidrama)
my boss my hero (25 y/o school yakuza)
nodame cantabile (music)
Saikou no Rikon (divorce dramedy)
Hito ni Yasashiku (three men and kid)

Any of these we were too hasty with? I keep reading rave reviews of Saikou and I just found the male protag (Eita) soooo grating. Was I way off base? What were we missing there?

Nodame we'll definitely try again at some point. Hito we tried an ep or so of earlier today and it was...eek. The characters were so loud and over the top, it was kind of headache-inducing to watch.

How do people like that Twitter drama (Sunao ni Narenakute), BTW? That's another Kitagawa one I believe.

Thanks all!

maxcriden wrote:

Nodame we'll definitely try again at some point. Hito we tried an ep or so of earlier today and it was...eek. The characters were so loud and over the top, it was kind of headache-inducing to watch.

Yeah, some people had problems with the slapstick and boisterous characters, but underneath it all, you'll find a surprisingly well-developed drama, IMO... I wasn't initially enamored with the drama myself, but when I stuck it out, it's become one of my absolute favorite J-dramas... It just takes some patience.

bmwracer wrote:

Yeah, some people had problems with the slapstick and boisterous characters, but underneath it all, you'll find a surprisingly well-developed drama, IMO... I wasn't initially enamored with the drama myself, but when I stuck it out, it's become one of my absolute favorite J-dramas... It just takes some patience.

That's promising. We'll be sure to give it another shot. Thank you 'racer!

maxcriden wrote:

Oh no, I really enjoyed your blog a lot junny, and I've been checking it out since then. Kyou wa is on my radar but it's good to know it's very Hotaru-esque in terms of Ayase Haruka's character, so I won't watch it anytime soon. Long Vacation's on my list, too. Over Time I will add. Thanks! Any of these we were too hasty with? I keep reading rave reviews of Saikou and I just found the male protag (Eita) soooo grating. Was I way off base? What were we missing there?

Thanks again for your kind words about my blog! Well, Ayase's character in Kaisha isn't as silly as Hotaru, in that she's a bit more severe and schoolmarm-ish, but that in itself can be quite funny. Unfortunately, Kaisha is more about the romance between Ayase's character and a younger guy, so it is not very Hotaru-ish in that aspect. And also because Tamaki Hiroshi doesn't have a lot of screentime, which is a travesty

Edit with Hotaru trivia: Mukai Osamu (Seno) and Kuninaka Ryoko (Yuuka in season 1) are getting married

As for Saikou, I did not like it as much as others did. I also found Eita's Mitsuo very grating, and would have given up on the drama if I didn't like him so much in Nodame Cantabile. He did have wonderful chemistry with Ono Machiko, an actress I quite like (she is Yuka, Mitsuo's wife). I think a lot of people liked it for the rapid-fire witty dialogue, and it is generally quite funny. I felt it had a lot of potential which it ultimately didn't live up to.
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junny wrote:

Thanks again for your kind words about my blog! Well, Ayase's character in Kaisha isn't as silly as Hotaru, in that she's a bit more severe and schoolmarm-ish, but that in itself can be quite funny. Unfortunately, Kaisha is more about the romance between Ayase's character and a younger guy, so it is not very Hotaru-ish in that aspect. And also because Tamaki Hiroshi doesn't have a lot of screentime, which is a travesty Edit with Hotaru trivia: Mukai Osamu (Seno) and Kuninaka Ryoko (Yuuka in season 1) are getting married As for Saikou, I did not like it as much as others did. I also found Eita's Mitsuo very grating, and would have given up on the drama if I didn't like him so much in Nodame Cantabile. He did have wonderful chemistry with Ono Machiko, an actress I quite like (she is Yuka, Mitsuo's wife). I think a lot of people liked it for the rapid-fire witty dialogue, and it is generally quite funny. I felt it had a lot of potential which it ultimately didn't live up to.

Thanks for the info about Kaisha. It does at least sound like a bit of a different role for Ayase. She's good in Shikaotoko, too (almost done with ep. 3, digging it for sure), and her role isn't terribly too Hotaru-esque there, either, although it does have shades of that character (or I just have a hard time seeing her as not Hotaru since we devoured that series so recently).

That is neat about Mukai and Kuninaka getting married. They seem like a cute couple. Luckily--since they were two of the more grating Hotaru characters IMO!--I associate them foremost with their Osen and KDO roles, respectively!

Saikou is a bit of an odd show for sure. I'd be open to trying it again at some point I suppose since so many people love it but it just seemed so...cynical and unpleasant. I would hope it becomes more heartfelt as it goes on?

(Don't mind me. Still sad about Beautiful Life's ending. )

Mukai and Kuninaka were a couple in Hungry! Solid drama.

Eita's role in Saikou no Rikon was basically a japanese version of Woody Allen. Entertaining to many, but definitely a turn off for some.

I'm going to throw out these recommendations: Ruri no Shima, Yasashii Jikan, and Shinya Shokudo. Part of the reason they're interesting is that they're a very unusual type of show, at least to my American sensibilities. Instead of aiming for the usual entertainment sweet spots, they instead aim to be extremely chill and relaxing. These are shows to watch when you need to wind down, not to watch when you're bored. If de-stressing is what you want, though, these shows hit the mark like nothing else. Great stuff at the right time.

maxcriden, if you're still looking for something upbeat, I can't believe I forgot about this one, "Marumo no Okite": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1629.htm

The adult lead is Sadao Abe who is kind of a Japanese version of Jerry Lewis. Very loud, over the top, etc. I've never been a big fan of his, never been a big fan of Jerry Lewis either, but in this he was great. The real reason to watch it though is Mana Ashida. Japan has a lot of very good kid actors but she is by miles the best one.

And the theme song will be running thru your head for several weeks after your done watching it.

gaijinmark wrote:

maxcriden, if you're still looking for something upbeat, I can't believe I forgot about this one, "Marumo no Okite": http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1629.htm The adult lead is Sadao Abe who is kind of a Japanese version of Jerry Lewis. Very loud, over the top, etc. I've never been a big fan of his, never been a big fan of Jerry Lewis either, but in this he was great. The real reason to watch it though is Mana Ashida. Japan has a lot of very good kid actors but she is by miles the best one. And the theme song will be running thru your head for several weeks after your done watching it.

Thank you Mark! When I read this in one of the top comments:

"Good acting by all with a touching story and cute kids. Ashida Mana reminds me of how Ayase Haruka would be at 7 years old!"

I knew it should be a show for us to check out ASAP. So we will be sure to do so. Thanks!!

In the meantime, an update: let's see. We finished watching Beautiful Life and then we dove into Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi. My goodness, that was a great Tamaki role.

I really loved the interplay of mythology (which I usually find boring) with the characters' own actions and motivations. The scene where Tamaki tells his fellow teacher who he suspects of being the Fox Messenger that he is a deer man aka "horned male" OMG we were cracking up. There were a lot of hilarious and sweet, compelling moments in this show. Haruka Ayase and Tamaki were a good match and foil for one another. Kuranosuke Sasaki really impressed me as Shige-san. He had a lot of wisdom beyond his years as that character. Great show.

Now, we're watching At-Home Dad since it feels like it's been long enough since KDO that we can watch an Abe role without wishing it was just KDO or associating him too strongly with Kuwano-san. It's a terrific series so far. I can't believe I hadn't seen it recommended in more places online. Abe absolutely inhabits the role as Kazuyuki. The drama with the neighbors is consistently fascinating and compelling as well. The show has plenty of funny, sweet moments, too. The kids are hilarious. It's great to see the protagonist slowly grow and develop in a way that feels real. [/img]

maxcriden wrote:

we dove into Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi. My goodness, that was a great Tamaki role. I really loved the interplay of mythology (which I usually find boring) with the characters' own actions and motivations. The scene where Tamaki tells his fellow teacher who he suspects of being the Fox Messenger that he is a deer man aka "horned male" OMG we were cracking up. There were a lot of hilarious and sweet, compelling moments in this show. Haruka Ayase and Tamaki were a good match and foil for one another. Kuranosuke Sasaki really impressed me as Shige-san. He had a lot of wisdom beyond his years as that character. Great show.

Glad you enjoyed Shikaotoko! It's a real gem, isn't it? Tamaki was awesome in it and won an acting award for his role. The whole set-up was fantastic and intricate, I loved it too. I really liked Shige-san as well, and Nagaoka sensei was lovely as well. The kendo was sugoi.
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