Real Clothes ~ リアル・クローズ

Heh... for the longest time I've been avoiding to watch this drama for no apparent reason. I can't really fathom what hinders me to watch it. The story line? The cast? I don't know, seriously. My friend watched it way back in 2009 and she raved about it because women plus clothing is a must watch to her dictionary. It's like this until... Strawberry Night. The first henchman of the ikemen detective task force caught my eyes because of his undying love for his boss (the eyes! the stare! the glare! OMG, how can it be less obvious LOL), and off course it leads to wiki (hail wiki!) and as usual his filmography or dramagraphy LOL. But that didn't make me dig into this drama right away, I still have my reservation about this drama and keep on delaying watching this until... the manga. One fine weekend I got bored and started browsing the manga website and came across Real Clothes manga (didn't even know this is from manga too). And all hell breaks loose.

To cut short, the SP follows the manga flow more closely compared to the drama. Both the drama and SP are actually starting from the same beginning, but that's the only similarities. Firstly Tabuchi in SP and drama are different. Nishijima Hidetoshi (yeah, he's the one from Strawberry Night) is Tabuchi in the drama, not the SP. So, it's up to you which Tabuchi that you'd like to see, especially for the entertaining those big bosses scene. Tabuchi in dominatrix cosplay (complete with the red minisuka and wig) or Tabuchi in just stocking, it's all up to you (either your eyes will hurt big time or you'll laugh your heart out).

But, what makes me watch the drama in a breezy? The good thing of old drama is that all episodes are in and you can watch it in one shot (or as many as possible until your eyes hurt and damn you still have to wake up early because you're still a salaryman/woman).

Firstly, off course the catch 'if you wear boring clothes, you'll live a boring life.' Yes, off course it's the clothes, who am I kidding, right? From high fashion to street fashion, Karina wears them all and looks cute in them. And, you'll marvel at how elegant Kuroki Hitomi can be (I like her from watching Tokyo Tower, she has the mysterious aura floating around and she's very pretty at her age). From the show Echizenya sure is a fantastic department store. I'm not sure about the standard level of Japanese department store (I only hang out at the basement of department store in Tokyo not Level 1 and above), but that's totally not the standard for other country. In Echizenya you just need to give a very abstract description of what you want and voila, the shop assistant will work hard to find the matching coordination to your liking. What a perfect shop! It's like you have an instant personal shopper with a great taste. And when you see how Jinbo buchou instructs her assistant to place needles for alteration, that's so pro and believable, and that's what my dream personal shopper would be. She'll choose the clothes for you, alter the clothes so that it's a perfect fit to your body line and... it looks fabulous for you! Off course it doesn't come cheap, but it's a dream for many women, and that's why we watch this kind of drama, to watch our dreams played out.

Oops, I forget to rattle about the story. Well, the story of Amano Kinue, a futon sales assistant in Echizenya who was transferred to the main floor of ladies clothing department. Not knowing any fashion sense, Kinue struggled to perform better in her new environment. However, with her cheery and hardworking personality, she overcomes any obstacles came upon her. Oh wait, where's the love story? We're talking about josei manga here, off course there will be a love story. Kinue already had a boy friend from the very first episode. Off course, it's quite predictable where it'll lead to, right? I mean, come on, hardworking girl, transferred to a new department, getting aspired with her hardworking and overachiever bosses, you know where this leads to. So, will Kinue find happiness at the end of the season?

Another point that I like from this drama, the characters are so colorful! Jinbo buchou is the scary boss but people are looking up to her and work their butt off to get her approval. Tabuchi is the equally scary boss under Jinbo buchou with nasty and obnoxious personality, not to mention... naughty. And... of course fashion industry is not complete without the she-man... Nicholin! He's damn cute and you know... as gay as he can be to please our eyes. Always tailing Jinbo buchou are her 2 overachiever and scarry assistants who can be bitchy (miao, cat fight!) and aggressive, yet always look pristine and professional. On the sales floor, we have the supporting casts, such as the quiet but feisty Ryo. You won't get bored with this drama, although you feel like punching Kinue's boyfriend, but you can't blame him for being that way either, he's just a normal every day boyfriend, who at the end of the day just want a normal everyday girlfriend as well. Oh no, did I spill the beans already? Well, it's an old drama, chances are everybody has watched it, except me :).

So, feeling ready to discover the world of fashion?

This is what I bought yesterday huehehe, cute ne? The red dress behind that boot is also mine haha...

Rich Man, Poor Woman ~ リッチマン、プアウーマン At First Glance

It feels like ages since the last time I watch a romance themed drama, well not that long, but you know with the rows of detective-themed drama... yeah, it's been ages. And yey for the new lovey dovey Getsu9 drama and this time it's Oguri Shun's turn to grace FujiTV's Getsu9. And from the first 2 episodes, I'm loving it! Is J-drama finally picking up K-drama formula minus the merry go round plots? We'll see in the next episodes to come, but for now, let's enjoy what this drama offers us...

The story? As the title suggests (yeah yeah yeah, the title not so damn creative and the story idea is not that original as well, but who cares? It's Oguri Shun!) we have the rich guy, Hyuga Toru, who is the up and coming dot com start up high flyer (hello Facebook/Google whichever replica) and roughly earn 60K$$ per hour (the subtitle says so!) and on the other side we have the poor Todai almost graduate student, Sawaki Chihiro, who's struggling to find a job. So, both are living in a totally different world, so how their path comes across each other? Well, like any other companies, Next Innovation is also opening themselves to the new hopeful university graduates to join their empire, and off course, Chihiro jumps to the bandwagon. But, alas, Toru, though genius in his own way, is a quite obnoxious personality (he has the right to be so, he's the big big big boss) and their first encounter well... not so good. So you have the main couple, but what about the rivals? Yes, this is a romance themed, off course it has to be a square love drama (love triangle is so in the past). We have Asahina siblings to haunt the main couple. The sister, Yoko, is a quite successful chef opening a restaurant next to the Next Innovation building. She obviously likes Toru from the very beginning, it's so obvious from the gestures etc. And, the brother, Kosuke, is Toru's partner in crime. Together with Toru, they created Next Innovation from the ... during their university time... sounds familiar? LOL, told you not that original, but did anyone care? It's Oguri Shun!

So where's the juice? Apart from being totally opposite in the bank account section, Toru and Chihiro is bipolar in terms of their memory. Toru despite being a genius, can't remember people's face and name, while Chihiro can remember... everything. But there's a catch in Toru's memory glitch, he remembers 1 name, Sawaki Chihiro. Why? and Why it's so coincidence that Chihiro is Sawaki Chihiro? Is it that coincidence? Or it's all planned? Stay tuned!

Now the characters... I like Chihiro a lot. She's timid but when pressed she's panicking and all she'll burst our the speedy words in chirpy sounds. It's cute and funny. Her off mode is totally zombie-ish, no energy at all. But she's earnestly a hardworking girl, just that has not really discovered what she wants to do with her life after graduation, aside from working. Toru on the other hand is breaming with confidence and charisma to the point of being an jackass. The close description is a Doumyouji who earned his own money, so I'd expect Toru to be... well more DoS LOL.. So far I've seen Toru scolding Chihiro like crazy just because she blurted out something unexpected after she saved his a$$, Doumyouji much? And an apology means awkwardly scolding Chihiro in public place with all eyes staring at them. OK, from this angle it's a total K-drama type of male lead. But hey, it's Oguri Shun (how many times I've mention this LOL). I hope to see some angst on Yoko and a battle between Toru and Yosuke... See, we've laid out what we want to see and hope the producing team grant us what we want :).

Last note, OST by Miwa, it's such a nice upbeat song to get the excitement on the happy moments. So, yay for rabu rabu Getsu9 drama!