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I am a fan of Katori Shingo and there were references to this show in an episode of SMAP X SMAP so I knew I had to watch it. As you should know by now, it took me a long time to get through this series, even though it's only 11 episodes. There just wasn't anything to make me want to watch it. Yes, I loved the playful teachings of Zen (Katori, Taro (Matsuoka), and Ken (Kato) but it wasn't enough. I'm glad I watched it. I think it would have been better if it was a little longer.
I don't normally watch depressing dramas. However, I am a big fan of Fukada Kyoko so I wanted to watch some of her older works.
To be honest, I'm not really sure where to begin this review. While the show did have some very emotionally moving pieces, there were so many wrong parts that didn't make the show, as a whole, worth watching. Masaki is 17 years old, which puts her in the 'selfish teenager' age group. Throughout the entire show, everything she does is nothing but selfish acts. Even when she claims she is thinking about someone else's well-being (mostly in the "I'm such a burden!" sense), that's not the truth. The worst part is that Kamisama isn't Masaki's story. It's Keigo's.
I'm sure that tons of people will protest that fact. But, if you have watched the show, think about it. Masaki rarely does anything in the entire series. Everything she does is a reaction to Keigo. Kamisama is the story of Keigo learning how to love again after the death of his previous lover. Masaki is just the path he takes to get there.
Taking that into account, it is a very good story. Unfortunately, the writers decided to focus on Masaki and her plight with HIV. I know that the story takes place in the late 90s and things have changed a ton since then. However, HIV was discovered in the early 80s. In the show, they treat the disease like it is a brand new illness. The writers also do an awful job at showing how much time has progressed in the series. While we know that Masaki was in high school in episode one and there is a THREE YEARS LATER in episode nine, there isn't anything in any of the other episodes to show us how much time has passed. Characters are always referencing how little time Masaki has left to live but there are few signs showing how long she lived.
At the end, I wouldn't recommend watching Kamisama. Maybe if you feel like watching something super sad, it might fill the void. Just keep in mind that the show has a very slow pace and there is a lot of crap to put up with before you get to the final episode, which is sadly the best part of the whole series.
I've never read the Paradise Kiss manga. Nor have I watched the anime. However, I heard good things about the series and, since I like Kitagawa Keiko, I decided to give it a try.
Hayasaka (nicknamed "Caroline") is an interesting character. She goes from a life where she is forced into doing things her mother wants to a life where she does the things she wants. Watching her grow as she is pushed into maturity by Koizumi (nicknamed "George") is a lot like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon. Of course, this isn't overlooked. There are butterflies everywhere.
Luckily, both Kitagawa and Mukai do an amazing job as the lead characters. My only peeve is that Yamamoto's character is listed as a main character, yet little is done with him. He is there in the beginning as Hayasaka's love interest but then it disappointingly goes nowhere. His character could have been cut from the film with no real consequence.
As a whole, I enjoyed the movie. It was a nice story and it does make me want to watch the anime. (Sorry, I don't read a lot of manga.) I just wish there was a little more meat to the story.
The only reason I watched this show is because I have never seen a drama starring Inagaki Goro and I wanted to see what his acting was like. Since this is a comedy, I can forgive the blatant over-acting. It actually goes with the theme of the show quite well. Sadly, it is my beloved Koyuki's character that is difficult to swallow. The writers tried to make the main characters very different people. Norimichi is a responsible clean freak while Ritsuko is an irresponsible slob. When I say slob, I don't mean she is a little messy. If Norimichi doesn't clean up, their apartment is almost floor-to-ceiling trash. While I understand that it is supposed to show how different they are, I really don't think anyone could put up with Ritsuko's sloppy ways. However, in the end, I was interested to see whether they would get divorced or stay together. I'm just glad there isn't a sequel.
I heard a lot of good things about Yankee-kun to Megane-chan so I decided to give it a try. Thankfully, the series lived up to the rumors. Both Narimiya and Naka performed their roles beautifully. Not only did they handle the comedy bits well, they also had great chemistry together and pulled off the drama aspects too. I was a little disappointed in some of the secondary characters, but they are secondary so it doesn't detract from the series as a whole.
This is a definite must-watch.
I absolutely loved the first season of Boss so I was looking forward to the second season. For the most part, it didn't let me down. The only part I didn't like was Kimoto's "banishment." While they tried to replace her with two characters, it just wasn't the same. Granted, I would love to see Kurohara Rika become Kimoto's protege of sorts. That would be a pretty awesome spin-off.
My favorite part of the series is that it is a detective series but it keeps humor in their lives as well. It's not all stuffy or anything. I am really looking forward to news of a third season.
This show both annoyed and amused me. Parts of it were absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, most of the beginning episodes are terrible. Also, the show could have ended at episode 7 with no problems. Instead, they dragged it on for another four episodes. The ending was still surprising and funny but it seemed tacked on. Would I watch it again? No. But I'm definitely going to try to track down more of Matsuoka's dramas!
Kawamura Tamaki gets rejected from every job except one. A customer service representative for a travel agency. Basically, she answers the phones and hands out complimentary tissues to passers-by. When her boss tells her that, as a new hire, she needs to learn everything, she mistakenly takes a task as a tour guide. Kawamura receives rave reviews from the customers and, as a result, gets a promotion. One of the perks of her new job is a company cell phone. Shortly after receiving her phone, she bumps into the company's number one employee, Tamaki Saori, and accidentally ends up switching phones with the woman. The company president thinks he is calling Saori to present a tour to an important foreign company when he is actually talking to Tamaki. Tamaki, thinking that he really is calling her, takes on the task.
Saori, on her wedding day, sees an old boyfriend, Kusaba Fumiya (Okada Yoshinori), and spends a majority of the day in her bridal gown running after him. Okada, as a representative for the foreign company, thinks he is supposed to have a business meeting with Saori instead of Tamaki. It all comes to a head when Saori arrives, still in her wedding dress, at the agency and the president rushes her off to the conference room to hold the presentation. Tamaki, knowing that the foreigners will be bored with the current presentation, shows up with a brand new one featuring photos from tour guide, Inoue (Gekidan). Saori hands the reins over to Tamaki, whose presentation is a smashing success. In the end, Saori gets married to her fiance and is about to have a baby, while Tamaki takes over many of Saori's tasks in the company.
With only two episodes, I figured Chance! would either be amazingly awesome or completely awful. Luckily, it is not awful. Horikita Maki plays the clumsy newbie very well. There wasn't a single moment where I didn't believe her circumstances, no matter how unlikely they were. Kuroki Meisa's character, Tamaki Saori, is very important to the story but she spends most of it running around in a wedding dress. Though, I suppose, we don't really need to know a lot about her since the story is all about Kawamura Tamaki. Fortunately, comic genius Gekidan Hitori is along for the ride as tour guide Inoue. Despite being a very short show, I found it extremely enjoyable. This is definitely something you should watch.
I was definitely excited when I heard that Shun, Mao, and Hiroki were doing a drama together. They are so awesome. Considering it had the "Dolittle" title, I expected some sort of animal talking thing. There wasn't any. It's simply a nickname because Tottori is good with animals and his name kinda sounds like Dolittle. Ah, well. Onto the review:
I have to admit that, for the most part, I enjoyed the series. It took me a long time to warm up to Tottori but, if you pay close attention, you can see that he's an ass because he cares for the animals so much. He thinks that their human caretakers are idiots and, most of the time, he's right. In one episode, a girl allowed her ferret to run free in the house. The ferret chewed on her slippers, swallowed some rubber and almost died. Yet the girl refused to take responsibility for it and when the ferret was well enough to go home.....yup, she let him run free again and the ferret got sick again. It wasn't until the ferret almost died a second time that she realized her selfishness. So, yeah, I felt that he had every right to be an ass to her.
On the other side, you have Hanabishi. He is very popular and works well with people. Yet he can't overcome a past trauma, stopping him from being able to operate. He does get along with Tottori so I'm not sure why the two of them didn't form a partnership. Hanabishi could diagnose the problem and deal with the customer, while Tottori operated and cared for the animals. I think that if they joined forces, they could have been way more successful than they would be separately. Instead, Hanabishi keeps shipping animals off secretly to Tottori's clinic to be operated on. The whole thing kinda makes me want to bang my head on the table.
Tajima is right in the middle of this. In the first episode, Tottori heals her prized horse. She can't afford his fee so, after failing to get hired for any of the jobs she applied for, she goes to work for him to pay off the debt. During her tenure at the clinic, she finds her purpose in life. Of all of the characters, she is the one that grows the most throughout the series. To be honest, without her, the show wouldn't have been nearly as good. There is a hint of romance between her and Tottori but not enough to overwhelm the series. At the end, I was glad that she realized that she wanted to go to school to become an animal nurse.
As a whole, the show is a little slow. There are a variety of animal patients so it was nice to see them work on more than just dogs and cats. However, there is a ton of politicking going on. That part annoyed me. Everyone was all "Let's help the animals!" but then would stop something because it was against an agenda. Granted, that is how things can be in real life. But this is a television show. It's not supposed to be too real!
Anyway, if you can look past Tottori's arrogance and Hanabishi's want to please everyone, it's a decent series. It's more about conservation and helping animals than it is about the humans. The best part is that it's different from most of the other shows I've watched lately. It was refreshing.
I was really hoping for some real closure with this movie. The boys would make it to Koshien and we'd see them kick everyone's butts in the tournament. Alas, we don't get to see that. We see the boys make it to Koshien but then the movie skips to their graduation. We never really find out how they performed.
That doesn't mean it was a bad movie. The two new characters, Akahoshi Shoji and Hamanaka Taiyo, are great additions to the cast. Without them, I think the movie would have felt repetitive since the team pretty much does the same thing over and over. I also enjoyed the actual graduation of the senior players. It was extremely heartwarming. There was more than one tear that came to my eye.
If you watched the drama, then you should watch this. It won't give you a ton of closure, but you will get some. However, if the drama wasn't your cup of tea, then you should be fine skipping this entirely.