Eyeyore wrote:

Speaking of Kaseifu no Mita, Yukawa Kazuhiko has churn out Gisou no Fuufu. I love the cast but dread the signature eerieness in Yukawa's scripts.

Watched episode 1. Like you said, good cast but the last scene bothered me.

Also watched episode 1 of "Okashi no Ie":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2104.htm

You can always expect some weirdness anytime Odagiri Joe is involved but his character is rarely boring. Plus it's got Machiko Ono she's always good as well.

gaijinmark wrote:

If this "Aibou" has been like all the others Sorimachi will have a pretty good sized part in it. As to why he took it, as you know he's married to Nanako Matsushima and a friend of mine in Japan was saying that ever since "Kasefu no Mita" which got huge ratings, over 40%, people have been looking at Sorimachi more as Nanako Matsushima's husband and not much as actor. The thinking is because "Aibou" always gets a big audience (18.4% rating for episode 1) he's using this to try and kick-start his career.

That's a bit sad about Sorimachi being "just" Nanako's husband. He's a decent actor but maybe he hasn't had many great scripts or something. Hopefully Aibou 14 will do the trick for him. I dunno, I never understood why Kaseifu no Mita was so popular even though I finished the whole thing.

Started Karei naru Ichizoku. Quite a few powerhouse actors in this family drama, which is fairly interesting. I like that it's set in Kobe and generally Kansai, really like the area. Kimura Takuya looks really good in it though, and I'm happy Nakamura Toru is in it even though his role is an ambitious jerk, haha.
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I think i will just stick with Angel Heart and Otona Joshi this season. Otona Joshi seems to bring me back to the 90s......would be nice to watch it wrap up in snow like Over Time and Last Christmas.

Kaseifu no Mita and Queen's Classroom are too gothic for my liking......I will wait for the full run before deciding to continue with Gisou no Fuufu

ashley juggs wrote:

Watched ep1 of "Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni". Not a big fan of the "terminal illness" scenario, but I'll watch anything with Karina in it.

Watched the first two episodes. Karina's doing her best but it doesn't look good. I wish she'd stop looking at her hand like it's going to fall off at any moment. Mieko Harada is driving me crazy as Karina's mom. I want her to shut up and go away and I'm not even related to her! Kyoko Enami plays her standard rich/high society/don't even look at me I'm so much better than you type that she usually plays. I think I've seen that kimono before.

The only positives are Ryohei Suzuki who I really liked in "Tenno no Ryoriban" and Naho Toda showed up in episode two as the second doctor. I think the last time I saw her was in "Jin". It's been a long time.

Up thru episode 2 of "Gisou no Fuufu". Episode 2 was a lot better than episode 1. There were some laugh out loud moments. They need to do a spin off about Hiro's aunt and her cousins. That family is crazy.

Also watched episode 2 of "Okashi no Ie". It's a late night drama, the episodes only run 20 minutes so while not great it is entertaining which is more than you can say for a lot of dramas. There was a little reunion of the "Shinsengumi" taiga. Tatsuya Fujiwara showed up as one of Odagiri Joe's old classmates.

Finished Karei naru Ichizoku, and it was okay but could have been better. Couldn't really relate to any of the characters and a couple of them were pretty stupid by the end. The court scene was kinda facepalmy.

Started episode 1 of Tamiou and laughed my head off. It's great to see Endo Kenichi headlining a drama and he was fantastic from the get-go. I hope this gets better and better.
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gaijinmark wrote:

I think the last time I saw her was in "Jin". It's been a long time.

JIN is the last great drama I watched and it�fs been indeed a long time. Since then I�fve watched a little more than a dozen dramas, mostly based on comments on this thread, but only finished two or three. Has the age of great Japanese dramas ended? When I look at the top 100 dramas on this site, the list hasn�ft changed since the late 2000s. I don't see any recent entries. It looks as though the fans have grown bored and moved on with their lives. Or moved on to Korean dramas.
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Waldo T wrote:

JIN is the last great drama I watched and it�fs been indeed a long time. Since then I�fve watched a little more than a dozen dramas, mostly based on comments on this thread, but only finished two or three.

You mean somebody actually reads my posts?! I'm going to have to be a lot more careful about what I write!

Up thru episode 4 of "Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni". I guess its not all that bad as "terminal illness" dramas go. I'm only still watching because of Karina. She's already had her one absolute stinkbomb drama with "Dirty Mama". There's no way it can be as bad as that was. (I hope )

Watched episodes 2 & 3 of "Shitamachi Rocket":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.2101.htm

This drama was written by the same guy that wrote "Hanzawa Naoki" and "Roosevelt Game". It's pretty much the same, little guy vs. big guy, lots of overacting, screaming, pounding on tables, etc.

At least that's how it was for episode 1 but they toned it down quite a bit in episodes 2 & 3. Although there is one scene near the end of episode 2 with the bankers that's almost laugh out loud bad because of the overacting.

All of these dramas have gotten real good ratings in Japan and I wondered why because honestly I wasn't a real big fan of "Hanzawa Naoki" or "Roosevelt Game". But the other day I was watching "Kabuki Kool" on NHK and Somegoro Ichikawa said that the little guy taking out the big guy plot has been popular in Kabuki for a long time. I guess it's just a carryover from that.

Watched Asa ga Kita episode 1-8 last night and today.

Did not like the beginning as much as I expected. Writing felt a bit average, not much material in week 1, relied rather heavily on the cast to carry the drama so far. Miyazaki Aoi still looks very young, her character is different but her role is a lot like Atsuhime.

I think I watched another jdorama or two, but cannot remember now.

xploring wrote:

Watched Asa ga Kita episode 1-8 last night and today. Did not like the beginning as much as I expected. Writing felt a bit average, not much material in week 1, relied rather heavily on the cast to carry the drama so far. Miyazaki Aoi still looks very young, her character is different but her role is a lot like Atsuhime.

I finished episodes 1-6 and found the child actors endearing. I guess they're just setting the scene in these early episodes, but agree that the drama is relying a lot on the cast at this moment. Didn't like having Tamaki Hiroshi appearing so early on given the big age gap between Shinjiro and Asa, and it just made me a tad uncomfortable. Theme song is nice and cheery for now (can't guarantee I won't get sick of it after a few weeks).
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玉木宏、藤木直人、佐藤健

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Watching a mid nineties drama Chef. Have a weakness for these cooking miracle chefs. glad the picture quality isn't too bad.
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^ Evie sighting!

bmwracer wrote:

^ Evie sighting!

So nice to check in with you, Beem!

Been missing my drama time recently.
On my second disc of Chef.

http://jdorama.com/drama.53.htm

Its light but supposedly he has a dark secret.

And we started Toshiie To Matsu again. My fourth time round. Some things just get better each time.
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Trade or Distro
It's all good!

Check out my drama trade list: http://www.freewebs.com/evendrama/

On episode 4 of "Gisou no Fuufu". It's gotten better as its gone along, episode 4 was the best one so far. Ikki Sawamura is channeling his super gung-ho security guard character from "Shomuni 2" only now he's a super gung-ho gay kindergarden vice principal.

Episode 5 of "Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni" standard terminal illness/overbearing mother-in-law trying to run her sons life plot. And Mieko Harada as Karina's mom is one of the most irritating characters I've seen in a long time. Karina needs to hit her in the head with a shovel. Plus, at the end of a couple episodes we've seen Harada looking at a picture of her and Kenichi Endo (Karina's father) but we only see half the picture which means there's a BIG SECRET yet to be revealed.

And episode 4 of "Shitamchi Rocket". The overacting has returned but somehow our heroes manage to foil the bad guys again.

Up to episode 6 of "Okashi no Ie". There's no real plot here. Every episode is just about Odagiri Joe, his Grandmothers sweets shop and their friends. Riko Narumi showed up for episode 5 and the last 10 minutes of episode 6 was some of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen in any drama ever.

Episode 6 of "Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni". Found out the BIG SECRET. I couldn't tell by her expression if Karina was upset about the BIG SECRET or because she was stuck in this drama. It's probably not as bad as I'm making it sound. Just all the standard cliched characters. Nothing really new here.

Episode 6 of "Gisou no Fuufu". It's turning out pretty good. Especially Ikki Sawamura who has been great.

Konkatsu Deka - I thought I was wasting my time watching a dumb blonde detective show (remember Remote?) It wasn't as bad after all. Thoughtfully written and neat ending.

Asa ga Kita week 4. Progressing nicely and rather engaging, which is a good sign since this is my first asadora and I want to keep watching. Haru is doing a surprisingly decent job as Asa and on the whole, cast and acting have been solid.
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Catching up on "Shitamachi Rocket". Nothing new here, it you liked "Hanzawa Naoki" or "Roosevelt Game" you'll like this. If not, then you won't. The thing is the main plot is about dirty, crooked business dealings. I noticed one of the sponsors is Toshiba who just got hit with a $60 million dollar fine for "creative" accounting practices. Is this life imitating art or art imitating life?

Finished "Shokuzai":http://www.jdorama.com/drama.1725.htm

Definitely not a happy drama, but like most WOWOW dramas well done and good job by all the actors.
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