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Winter 2014 Drama Review
Hmm... I rarely post anything lately... work & stress piling up, and worse part... I've been coughing over the past 1.5 month... non stop T__T. Diagnosed ranging from acute bronchitis, throat infection to allergy (I think this is the correct one) and now I'm on inhaler (like those people having asthma, except I don't have asthma but it helps to suppress the urge to cough until some point). Supposedly to be on this inhaler for 2 weeks and cross finger this will be the last of it, am tired of taking 2 days MC and busy coughing and not doing anything but coughing and now... sneezing and the worst part, eating lozenges until my tongue numbs. Feel sorry for my taste buds because it's either orange flavor or the indescribable disgusting flavor called mint.
Well, aside from all those RL ranting and T__T or -__-" moments (tons of these), Winter 2014 dramaland just passed by... not so eventful, unfortunately. I did watched more than I thought, well, I thought I watch only 2, but turned out I watched more! However, there're lots of interesting SPs to check out. Part of the reason why I don't follow the drama in consistent manner is the subs... somehow either they're non existence or super slow. I've been contemplated to just screw the sub and watch without it, but then it'll be very unproductive to later rewatch the whole batch when the subs are out. Sometimes I caved in but sometimes I just... wait persistently until some good souls out there sub them.
Without further ado, these are what I watched :D...
Boku no Ita Jikan ~ For those who have watched 1L Tears, you are familiar with the illness called ALS. This is one of those drama. Sounds depressing and for a moment I kind of scared to continue this drama as it's just so sad and what happened to Takuto, the main character, is just so pitiful. From the outside Takuto seems like to have everything but only at the surface. This drama is a journey that Takuto went through in gaining more things to be treasured while he lost his physical abilities one by one. Heartwarming, tear jerking experiences are to be expected but all are presented with a nice phase and the ending is not so painfully heartbreaking like 1L Tears. Miura Haruma was beautiful in here. Takuto's loneliness, sadness, fear, worries... are all projected with the right amount of emotion, not over and he made me bowl my heart out all the way to epi 5. Though sad, it's still a heartwarming drama in the end, so don't give up watching it!
Dr. DMAT ~ Yet another drama similar to Code Blue. As we're moving ahead, apparently J-drama gets the hang of making the bloody accident scene more bloody and real. So real until I cringe when I watch some of the scene. Foretunately they still don't make such scenes as a priority and instead focus on the pretty Hibiki sensei. I like the story line because Hibiki sensei character grows along the way as well as the other character. Ohkura's acting is quite good too, so overall is a pleasant drama and some tear jerker moments. The drama really likes to torture Hibiki sensei character, wreck his emotion upside down with all his loses. All and all to make him the best DMAT doctor in town. As the nurse Hasegawa stated he's the doctor who can shoulder the burden. But I wonder whether it's really a fair burden and worth all those sacrifice that Hibiki made. Check it out and judge it for yourself.
Kinkyu Torishirabeshitsu ~ Another police drama, slightly different than the usual detective category. This one focus on the interrogation process. Not sure if there's such team in the real life, but, that's fine. Amami Yuki is the lead role as BOSS but not BOSS character because she's not the boss and she's a single mother now. So, since the drama is about interrogation, there's not much physical action, but more on the mental manipulation side. The first few episode is more on the introduction and character building, with some random cases. Things just picking up from the middle of the series and when it does, the plot moves quite fast. I like Amami's character in here, she has the BOSS toughness, but she also has the feminine side of her and the love for her late husband. It's interesting to wonder whether her being emotional during the interrogation is she's really speaking from her heart or it's her tactic to break the suspect.
S - Saigo No Keikan ~ And... yes, another police drama. It's Mukai's and Ayano Go's, so that's why. But I think this is one drama where Mukai is the lead and it's not boring! Probably here, Mukai's character, Ichigo, is different character from the usual cool and kakkoi dude. Ichigo is more like a boke character in the drama while Ayano's Iori is the cool one. Both has similar past on how they lost their loved ones, but their approach to incident scene. Ichigo's determination to ensure that nobody dies irks Iori but as the drama progress, will it affect Iori? I haven't finished watching this one to be honest, though I'm very curious about that guy who beat up Tsuchiya Anna's character. But I persevere because watching it without subs means I'll lost some of the dialogues due to my limited nihongo. Nevertheless, this drama is interesting.
Shitsuren Chocolatier ~ I anticipated this drama because the plot is unusual. It's rare that we have a J-drama where the lead guy is kind of an asshole and the lead girl is a bitch. Half of the series was good as it follows the manga, meaning the plot is fast, and all the screw ups built up, until it all breaks loose towards the end and the drama doesn't have the manga to refer to since the manga hasn't ended yet, and that's where it all went down. Don't get me wrong, Matsujun's acting as Shota is splendid and you want to curse Ishihara Satomi's Saeko for playing Shota under her little finger but you can't really hate her when you look into her life and her point of view. Beautiful chocolates, cakes, and plenty of ikemen definitely won't hurt your eyes either. So what's wrong then? I like the drama... except for the ending. It seriously sucks and doesn't do any justice to the good job that they've done from the beginning episodes. The drama staff tried to be politically correct and doesn't dare to take the risk as the manga hasn't ended but they have to end the series, so we have the neither here nor there ending T__T. But do watch Arashi's Bittersweet Music Station performance to make up for it. I hate the PV, it's pretty but ultra boring, so yeah...
Gunshi Kanbee ~ I follow this drama sporadically because there's no sub T__T. Taiga drama is somehow always beautiful and full of history. But it requires lots of concentration and brain power to translate when I'm watching this. You'll see various Okada expression here, he's doing a good job so far as Kanbee. And plus, you have Ikuta Toma in here too, so double yey, and it'll be triple if there's sub.
And we have tons of SPs ^__^
Nemuri no Mori ~ I think this is part of the Shinzanmono franchise, though I don't do much research about this series. We have Abe-san as the detective and we have the tear jerker case too. This is typical of Shinzanmono. Interesting to follow and don't forget some tissues. We have Ishihara Satomi (again) as the protagonist. She's been everywhere lately and her acting here will make you bawl too.
HAMU ~ While I don't really fancy his latest drama of being a nezumi (thief), I like his SP. Takky doning black hair means business. It's a detective drama but more focus on terrorism. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details as I watch this without sub, but in a gist it's not boring at all and I wonder whether the boss is actually the bad guy or not (I seriously need subs for this). Plus, we have HSJ's Takaki Yuya as the programmer and I almost didn't recognize him at all here.
Kagi no Kakatta Heya SP ~ the much over hype series plus now, SP. The whole plot is the same as the drama series, only it's longer and more complicated. Enomoto is back and now opens his own shop. He's selling locks and his shop looks dodgy as hell. The rest of the regular character is the same, so nothing much. To add more sugar, we have Fujiki as the antagonist. Other than that, nothing much actually. To me, this is more like the obligatory watch with nothing new to expect, just another series, with longer duration. Kind of a let down, but can't expect much as the drama theme is around the locked room mysteries.
Miyamoto Musashi ~ The rare moment where Kimutaku is on an SP, not a drama. Many say that this SP is served to redeem his reputation as rating king, but looking at the rating... hmmm... BUT, don't let the rating shoo you away from this drama. Kimutaku's acting here is really good, much better compare to his regular rom com drama (I like Ando Lloyd, so I take this one out from his rom com category). To make this drama more appealing, we have Matsuda Shota, and lots of ikemen, plus beautiful scenes, beautiful costumes. Not sure about the history part, but I like what I see and your eyes are definitely entertained.
San Oku En Jiken ~ Apparently this drama is based on a true story. The conclusion of the drama is the same as the history, but the drama offer another theory to the history. Lots of big names in this drama, but I watch it because Tegoshi is in it and his hair is black. Where else can you see him donning a black hair nowadays? His role here is as the antagonist and he's quite convincing considering how little his drama resume is. Considering this drama is all about seriousness and history, it's not boring at all, and you'd always get curious on what's the next step that Takeda (the protagonist) will take.
Well, aside from all those RL ranting and T__T or -__-" moments (tons of these), Winter 2014 dramaland just passed by... not so eventful, unfortunately. I did watched more than I thought, well, I thought I watch only 2, but turned out I watched more! However, there're lots of interesting SPs to check out. Part of the reason why I don't follow the drama in consistent manner is the subs... somehow either they're non existence or super slow. I've been contemplated to just screw the sub and watch without it, but then it'll be very unproductive to later rewatch the whole batch when the subs are out. Sometimes I caved in but sometimes I just... wait persistently until some good souls out there sub them.
Without further ado, these are what I watched :D...
Boku no Ita Jikan ~ For those who have watched 1L Tears, you are familiar with the illness called ALS. This is one of those drama. Sounds depressing and for a moment I kind of scared to continue this drama as it's just so sad and what happened to Takuto, the main character, is just so pitiful. From the outside Takuto seems like to have everything but only at the surface. This drama is a journey that Takuto went through in gaining more things to be treasured while he lost his physical abilities one by one. Heartwarming, tear jerking experiences are to be expected but all are presented with a nice phase and the ending is not so painfully heartbreaking like 1L Tears. Miura Haruma was beautiful in here. Takuto's loneliness, sadness, fear, worries... are all projected with the right amount of emotion, not over and he made me bowl my heart out all the way to epi 5. Though sad, it's still a heartwarming drama in the end, so don't give up watching it!
Dr. DMAT ~ Yet another drama similar to Code Blue. As we're moving ahead, apparently J-drama gets the hang of making the bloody accident scene more bloody and real. So real until I cringe when I watch some of the scene. Foretunately they still don't make such scenes as a priority and instead focus on the pretty Hibiki sensei. I like the story line because Hibiki sensei character grows along the way as well as the other character. Ohkura's acting is quite good too, so overall is a pleasant drama and some tear jerker moments. The drama really likes to torture Hibiki sensei character, wreck his emotion upside down with all his loses. All and all to make him the best DMAT doctor in town. As the nurse Hasegawa stated he's the doctor who can shoulder the burden. But I wonder whether it's really a fair burden and worth all those sacrifice that Hibiki made. Check it out and judge it for yourself.
Kinkyu Torishirabeshitsu ~ Another police drama, slightly different than the usual detective category. This one focus on the interrogation process. Not sure if there's such team in the real life, but, that's fine. Amami Yuki is the lead role as BOSS but not BOSS character because she's not the boss and she's a single mother now. So, since the drama is about interrogation, there's not much physical action, but more on the mental manipulation side. The first few episode is more on the introduction and character building, with some random cases. Things just picking up from the middle of the series and when it does, the plot moves quite fast. I like Amami's character in here, she has the BOSS toughness, but she also has the feminine side of her and the love for her late husband. It's interesting to wonder whether her being emotional during the interrogation is she's really speaking from her heart or it's her tactic to break the suspect.
S - Saigo No Keikan ~ And... yes, another police drama. It's Mukai's and Ayano Go's, so that's why. But I think this is one drama where Mukai is the lead and it's not boring! Probably here, Mukai's character, Ichigo, is different character from the usual cool and kakkoi dude. Ichigo is more like a boke character in the drama while Ayano's Iori is the cool one. Both has similar past on how they lost their loved ones, but their approach to incident scene. Ichigo's determination to ensure that nobody dies irks Iori but as the drama progress, will it affect Iori? I haven't finished watching this one to be honest, though I'm very curious about that guy who beat up Tsuchiya Anna's character. But I persevere because watching it without subs means I'll lost some of the dialogues due to my limited nihongo. Nevertheless, this drama is interesting.
Shitsuren Chocolatier ~ I anticipated this drama because the plot is unusual. It's rare that we have a J-drama where the lead guy is kind of an asshole and the lead girl is a bitch. Half of the series was good as it follows the manga, meaning the plot is fast, and all the screw ups built up, until it all breaks loose towards the end and the drama doesn't have the manga to refer to since the manga hasn't ended yet, and that's where it all went down. Don't get me wrong, Matsujun's acting as Shota is splendid and you want to curse Ishihara Satomi's Saeko for playing Shota under her little finger but you can't really hate her when you look into her life and her point of view. Beautiful chocolates, cakes, and plenty of ikemen definitely won't hurt your eyes either. So what's wrong then? I like the drama... except for the ending. It seriously sucks and doesn't do any justice to the good job that they've done from the beginning episodes. The drama staff tried to be politically correct and doesn't dare to take the risk as the manga hasn't ended but they have to end the series, so we have the neither here nor there ending T__T. But do watch Arashi's Bittersweet Music Station performance to make up for it. I hate the PV, it's pretty but ultra boring, so yeah...
Gunshi Kanbee ~ I follow this drama sporadically because there's no sub T__T. Taiga drama is somehow always beautiful and full of history. But it requires lots of concentration and brain power to translate when I'm watching this. You'll see various Okada expression here, he's doing a good job so far as Kanbee. And plus, you have Ikuta Toma in here too, so double yey, and it'll be triple if there's sub.
And we have tons of SPs ^__^
Nemuri no Mori ~ I think this is part of the Shinzanmono franchise, though I don't do much research about this series. We have Abe-san as the detective and we have the tear jerker case too. This is typical of Shinzanmono. Interesting to follow and don't forget some tissues. We have Ishihara Satomi (again) as the protagonist. She's been everywhere lately and her acting here will make you bawl too.
HAMU ~ While I don't really fancy his latest drama of being a nezumi (thief), I like his SP. Takky doning black hair means business. It's a detective drama but more focus on terrorism. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details as I watch this without sub, but in a gist it's not boring at all and I wonder whether the boss is actually the bad guy or not (I seriously need subs for this). Plus, we have HSJ's Takaki Yuya as the programmer and I almost didn't recognize him at all here.
Kagi no Kakatta Heya SP ~ the much over hype series plus now, SP. The whole plot is the same as the drama series, only it's longer and more complicated. Enomoto is back and now opens his own shop. He's selling locks and his shop looks dodgy as hell. The rest of the regular character is the same, so nothing much. To add more sugar, we have Fujiki as the antagonist. Other than that, nothing much actually. To me, this is more like the obligatory watch with nothing new to expect, just another series, with longer duration. Kind of a let down, but can't expect much as the drama theme is around the locked room mysteries.
Miyamoto Musashi ~ The rare moment where Kimutaku is on an SP, not a drama. Many say that this SP is served to redeem his reputation as rating king, but looking at the rating... hmmm... BUT, don't let the rating shoo you away from this drama. Kimutaku's acting here is really good, much better compare to his regular rom com drama (I like Ando Lloyd, so I take this one out from his rom com category). To make this drama more appealing, we have Matsuda Shota, and lots of ikemen, plus beautiful scenes, beautiful costumes. Not sure about the history part, but I like what I see and your eyes are definitely entertained.
San Oku En Jiken ~ Apparently this drama is based on a true story. The conclusion of the drama is the same as the history, but the drama offer another theory to the history. Lots of big names in this drama, but I watch it because Tegoshi is in it and his hair is black. Where else can you see him donning a black hair nowadays? His role here is as the antagonist and he's quite convincing considering how little his drama resume is. Considering this drama is all about seriousness and history, it's not boring at all, and you'd always get curious on what's the next step that Takeda (the protagonist) will take.