rambles & mumbles...

Fall season is here and it looks like everybody just gear up the whole year for this season. Arama listed down the whole list: http://aramajapan.com/news/tvmovie/dramas/upcoming-fall-jdoramas-2014/10829

which one will you watch?
Me? I'm thinking of watching:
Nobunaga Concerto ~ Oguri Shun + Mukai Osamu... yeah, watching
Suteki na Sen Taxi ~ Takeuchi Yutaka... yep
Kyou wa Kaisha Yasumimase ~ Ayase Haruka, Fukushi Shota, Tamaki Hiroshi... yeah, definitely watching... lately.. this older ladies vs younger boys are in again?
Gomen ne Seishun ~ Nishikido Ryo... but the theme... will drop if turn up boring
MOZU season 2 ~ YES!!! no matter how mind boggling it'll be, I'll watch!
Doctor X season 3 ~ YES!!! 'Watashi wa shippaishinai no de' is back
Massan ~ How often we get drama on interracial marriage?
Sayonara Watashi ~ Fujiki is in it... so this is in the list. Suspect it'll go like Hirugao.
Kauka Bouraku ~ This looks like a big drama, I hope it's something similar to Hanzawa Naoki in terms of excitement
Akka ~ Another serious drama... same expectation as Kauka Bouraku

still in the thinking box:
Subete ga F ni Naru ~ It has Ayano Go, but why it has Takei Emi...
Dear Sister ~ Not really a fan of Matsushita Nao, but it has Ishihara Satomi... TV why you're so cruel???
Onna wa Sore wo Yurusanai ~ The story looks interesting... but Mizobata Junpei is not a ikemen pull factor enough for me
Kurofuku Monogatari ~ Josei manga material... will see how it goes...

.... seirously!!! This much??? I don't think I'll finish by the time it's Winter season....

Season Zero is actually part of the promotional gimmicks for Yamapi's movie 'Kinkyori Renai' based on the manga with the same title. I love the manga. The plot is compact and the characters have lots of layers, which means... I'm quite concerned on how Yamapi going to pull off Haruka's layered emotions for the movie. Haruka is just a freaking complicated dude. So, here, in this drama, we have a glimpse on how Yamapi look like as Haruka...


Kakkoii, Yes, Eye candy, Yes, English? (he's supposed to be an English teacher here), OK quite good.

Closed up?


Hmmm... Why oh why, sigh... at this rate I'm concerned that the Juniors in the drama going to outshine the main star on the movie because...


Look at the gaze, the glare (as if looks can kill!) of these kids... these juniors can act *throw confetti*
I like the kid with the short hair aka the poor boy who hopefully the drama is good enough to give him a match <3

So, I gather that Haruka is yeah, complicated... love his step sister in his teens, love his student in his adulthood, no wonder he's complicated... only in shojo manga!

And as a bonus, have some Arai's fan service!


*gosh, I feel like a pedobear LOL*

Anybody watching Hirugao???
XD XD XD, it's getting messed up by episode LOL.. I wonder in which episode all hell break loose!

But putting that aside, I love little moments when the drama pay attention to details..


And poor Sawa-chan with the babies pressure from MIL... it's like living in a pressure cooker and she deserves better! Plus the husband, can somebody punch him?? Clearly he has a pretty wife (hello!!! She's Ueto Aya) and she wants him, BUT... no, he likes to play hookie with the OL in his office, bastard!


And can we have a shout out for this ikemen uncle? He looks even better without that wet t-shirt LOL...

Yes, finally I managed to watch Harlock with subbed, not dubbed. Make sure to check whether it's dubbed or not before you purchase the tickets. But even if it's subbed, you'll find that the sub actually follows the English dub, which change all the names and that's quite annoying.

Like any other reviews out there, the movie is seriously visually attractive, you cannot expect less from Japanese to make such detailed constructed animation, be it 2D or 3D, whatever, your eyes are entertained and happy!

But, sadly the reviews stopped there, why? Because none of them really understand the story, and honestly, neither do I. Well, roughly you can understand the general story line, which is precisely what the trailer gives you. I find that this movie is made specially for the fans. Yes, they don't really care about general public, and just give things enough for general public to grasp, which is, well, the visual..

Then? What else to watch then? Well, if you pay enough attention, they made Harlock's & Yama's face actually similar to Oguri's & Haruma's. And I like the way all the casts voice over the movie, even the story is rather confusing (jumpy as any other complicated anime squeezed into a 2 hours movie), we still can catch the emotion part of the characters and the visual also shows it from the character's face expression.

Well, enjoy the trailer... see? Yama does look like Haruma, yes?

Watching this SP without sub because I was itchy hand. I mean, it's ikemen galore with Miura Haruma and Shirota Yu as leads, and the synopsis not really helping with the general storyline, which tickled my curiosity, and from the looks of it... it's one of those darker dramas, and I'm in!

This is one of dramas that I'd think would be fantastic if it was presented as a play, instead. The whole story flow really just focuses on the 2 main leads, and this drama put a good test on how well the leads perform their characters. The rest of supporting roles are literally just being there or being there. The story ould somehow o on even without the supporting.

And the acting performance? You'd definitly won't be disappointed. I saw Miura grows so much in Boku no Ita Jikan, but in here, it's like he's showing us more of what he's capable of. Keisuke character is very complex with all the troubled childhood, daddy showering expectations indirectly, plus a pretty girlfriend that other people are eyeing. This is like living in a pressure cooker, and we're seeing the chain of events of Keisuke being cooked in it. Miura delivers Keisuke brilliantly in my book with all the little details. The way he looks at Takano, fidgeting, staring, to the way he walks, all thought through.

What about Shirota? I don't really like his acting in Nou SP as Oda Nobunaga. I thought it's weird and overdone at some moments. But here, he delivers a solid menacing, intense and provocating, full of hatred Takano. This is like the upgrade version of his Satoshi in SPEC franchise. Nicely done, I'd say because we're in treat for lots of intense scenes between Keisuke and Takano.

The plot itself carries lots of building up catalyst factors to the major twist towards the end. Some scenes rather jumpy but they're remedied by the acting side

See how intense this is:

Meet ikemen A, Keisuke, does Miura use eye liner? The lower part of his eyes is always dark.


Meet ikemen B, who claims to know everything about A, Takano.


Ikemen A vs Ikemen B, who will prevail?

That's drama for you! And a good one at that!

Yowai... but before stick with that conclusion, allow me to list down my opinions...

I'm not excited about this Nino's drama since the beginning, and this is coming from a Nino drama fan. Firstly the topic is baseball, not a topic that I can say I have particular liking. I have no idea of baseball rules & games, only know that it has about 9 inning, that's it. My one and only experience of baseball is watching a Seattle Mariners game, saw Ichiro hit homerun while eating the hotdog and to be honest, the hotdog is more memorable. That's my relationship with baseball. This drama may feel and look different from people who understand baseball so I can't comment from the perspective whether the theme is interesting.

( I put in the cut in case people want to watch... )

Will I recommend this drama? Unless you're an avid baseball fan and Nino bias, I think you can pass this drama, unless you want to treat this as obligatory watching...

I seriously hope Nino's record is not tarnished that badly just because of this drama and people will still give him good drama and I'm still angry with the clear laziness of the producers.