pingpong Title: Ping Pong Release date: 7/20/02 Genre: Sports comedy Cast: Kubozuka Yosuke, Arata, Sam Lee, Nakamura Shido, Okura Koji, Takenaka Naoto, Natsuki Mari Plot: Peco (Kubozuka), a really good table tennis player, meets his match against a player from China (Lee), but there is another talented player Peco must face. Will he meet the challenge or give up his lifelong dream of being the world's best table tennis player? What is good: Kubozuka Yosuke once again pulls off an amazing character. What is bad: I can't think of anything that really detracts from the movie. Letter rating: A Overall: I really love Kubozuka's acting and his skills shine here. The rest of the cast supports him well, even though I did find myself giggling a little bit about all the drama that takes place around ping pong. This is definitely a movie that every jdorama lover should watch at least once.

Title: Nodame Cantabile Broadcast date: 10/16/06 - 12/25/06 Genre: Romantic Comedy Number of episodes: 11 Cast: Ueno Juri, Tamaki Hiroshi, Eita, Koide Keisuke, Takenaka Naoto Plot: Noda Megumi, despite her extremely unusual behavior, is a piano prodigy. However, she wants to become a kindergarten teacher. Chiaki Shinichi is a musical perfectionist and Nodame's (Noda's nickname) next door neighbor. Nodame falls madly in love with Chiaki but can he ever accept someone as strange as this girl? What is good: Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi both shine in their respective roles as Nodame and Chiaki What is bad: There wasn't anything particularly bad about the show. Letter rating: A Overall: From the first episode, I was hooked on this series. Besides having a good mix of comedic and romantic moments, there was some really good classical music. My favorite moment was when the S-Oke performed "Rhapsody in Blue." This is the first time that I have seen Ueno Juri (Nodame) and Tamaki Hiroshi (Chiaki) perform and, I must admit, I was impressed by their acting abilities. There are quite a few sight gags that require a lot from the actor. Both of them pulled it off very well. I'm looking forward to watching the specials as soon as I can.