Thanks for letting me know! I watched episode 2 today at lunch, and it was as good as the first. This is the first work I've seen Kuroki Meisa in, and I like her depiction of this character so far. Are there any other specific parts she's had that you'd suggest?

Not trying to say anything bad about her, she's just an OK actress. I've seen a few of her dramas but not all.

There's another rom-com called One-Pound Gospel / Ichi Pondo no Fukuin 1ポンドの福音.

This one about a boxer who falls in love with a nun! Quite good, this.

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/1_Pound_no_Fukuin

For a more serious role, you may wanna try watch Jiu / ジウ-警視庁特殊犯捜査係

This is about her as a bad ass policewoman. I haven't finished watching this yet. Probably hints at how (not-so) interesting the storyline is - the captivating ones would make me watch the entire series in one shot!

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Jiu

Her other stuff that I have seen have been films. She had a minor role in the two Crows Zero films, and she was pretty good in Andalucia Megami no Hofuku and the live action version of Space Battleship Yamato with Kimura Takuya (she plays Yuki Mori!).

She was in Lupin III but that's a film from August of this year - so, I haven't found a subbed version of it to view yet.

Hope that's enough of a heads up!

Thanks for the info

Another question for the general populace:

Has anyone watched Ando Lloyd?  I'm really interested because it pairs up Kimura Takuya and Shibasaki Kou again as the leads, just like they were in the 2003 drama Good Luck! which was one of the most successful TV dramas ever with like a 30%+ viewership. Also, Oshima Yuko plays in a supporting role.

saldiven wrote:Thanks for the info

Another question for the general populace:

Has anyone watched Ando Lloyd?  I'm really interested because it pairs up Kimura Takuya and Shibasaki Kou again as the leads, just like they were in the 2003 drama Good Luck! which was one of the most successful TV dramas ever with like a 30%+ viewership. Also, Oshima Yuko plays in a supporting role.

Planning to watch it after Samurai High School and GTO season 2, speaking of Kimura Takuya my most favorite Jdorama of him is Love Generation it's just unfortunate that there is no oficial dvds beacuse of some rumored dispute among the producer and writers, the only material available is in VHS quality

Let me know about Samurai High; I haven't seen that one.

I really liked the GTO Season 2 series, though. The themes are a little more serious than in season 1, but Onizuka tackles them in exactly the same way: head on. I thought it was good.

finished "The Liar and his Lover" great movie and music

I finally got around to watching Buzzer Beat! over the weekend. I had for some reason been resisting watching it; probably because I'm not really interested in basketball.

Fortunately for me, basketball was really only a backdrop for the story. There were only a few parts where actual basketball featured significantly. Primarily, it was a light drama with a happy ending for everyone involved, for the most part. I understand why it's highly rated on review sites. It wasn't anything super special, but it hit every point this kind of series is supposed to hit. There was good chemistry between the male and female lead. And, one of my favorite actresses, Maya Miki, played a supporting role. She's been playing important, older supporting female roles in stuff for a long time now, and I've really become a fan (she was also the strict trainer in Attention Please!, if you've seen that one).

Also, I watched Konkatsu. It was ok. The only reason I really liked it was because Ueto Aya played the female lead, and I really like her acting. The premise is a bit silly (a man has to pretend to be married, or at least planning on being married, to qualify for a specific government job; high jinks ensue), but it was kind of cute and had some funny moments. Ueto is by far the best performer in the series.

Lastly, I watched Boku dake no Madonna. I primarily watched it because I kind of like Hasegawa Kyoko; I enjoyed her work in Dragon Zakura and Oishii Proposal, so gave this one a shot. Her character in this one is totally different than in any of the other stuff I've seen. In fact, her appearance in this series showed a far more glamorous and beautiful side to her. She's normally an attractive woman, but her depiction in this series was just arresting. Again, it's a nice, light romance with a bit of an unrealistic premise that all seems to work itself out into making sense by the end of the series. It had an excellent ending, though not as strong that of Stand Up! or Orange Days (best ending ever, IMO).

Gave a few more a try over the weekend.



The first one was Moto Kare (2003). I decided to watch this one because it brought Domoto Tsuhoshi and Hirosue Ryoko back together as the leads; if you don't recognize the names, they were quite good together as the leads of Summer Snow from 2000. While Summer Snow was one of those dramas I absolutely loathe watching (I'll never understand how people derive entertainment from such sad stories), Moto Kare was a little bit more realistic and had a somewhat bitter-sweet ending. The premise is about a young man in his first job out of college and starting a new relationship with a sweet, beautiful young woman. Out of nowhere, the young man's ex-girlfriend from two years ago shows up because she's working for an associated company. It's kind of a typical love-triangle story, but it is well acted, and the characters are all pretty sympathetic. It's sad that not everyone could end up happy at the end. Domoto's character struggles the whole series with trying to do what he thinks is the right thing, but being pulled in a lot of different directions.



Secondly, I watched the first episode of Around 40 (2008). My interest was piqued because the lead actress is Amami Yuk, the diabolical teacher from The Queen's Classroom, and the male lead is Fujiki Naohito, the male lead from Hotaru no Hikari. I only watched the first episode, and it seemed like it would end up being ok, but it didn't really grab me. I'm sure I'll get around to watching the next 2-3 episodes, and then I'll have a better handle on the direction the story is going. I like to feel that the acting will be strong from these two based upon the performances I've seen from them in the past.



Lastly, I started watching Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu (2011) yesterday. My primary reason for watching was my interest in seeing Oshima Yuko (of AKB48 fame) performing in a serious part. My only real experience in watching her on TV is from variety shows, so I was curious to see her work as an actual actress. The best way I can describe this series is like a more realistic and less glamorous version of *oooops bad word detected* and the City. Three girls who are single and unlucky in love (for various reasons) decide to rent a house together while they slowly try to get control of their respective love lives. The characters are all pretty individual and relatable, and the male characters go the full range from admirable to despicable. I've only been through 3.5 episodes so far, but I'm happy with how it's gone. The characters seem fairly complex with reasonable amounts of development. You can see how they all have multiple different motivations and concerns, rather than being merely 2-dimensional characters. In any case, I have not been disappointed by my original motivation for watching the series. Oshima's character in this series is quite different from that she portrays on variety shows and what she used to show in AKB events. Her character in this series is very serious-minded, innocent to the point of being naïve, dedicated and idealistic; not the always smiling, dimpled jokester of the idol world.


{Edit: I can't believe the filter bleeped out the first word in the SitC title...seriously? In case people were wondering what I was talking about, it's this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/ }

I finished watching Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu.  (BTW, the title means Why I Can't Find Love or something like that.)

I liked it overall. It didn't have a nice, warm, fuzzy ending where everyone ended up living happily ever after. In fact, only one of the three main character women even ended up in a budding relationship. I think it was fairly realistic in looking at how life can get in the way of finding that "perfect someone." Each of the three characters grew and learned important lessons about relationships through the series. So, while the story didn't have a true happy ending, it was pleasant, still.

Also, Oshima Yuko did a great job in this series. I was very pleased with her performance. It makes me want even more to get back to tracking down English subbed versions of Ando Lloyd online, since Oshima plays a supporting role to Shibasaki Kou (my favorite actress) in that series.

Yesterday, I started watching Samurai High. So far, it's pretty hilarious. I watched ep 3 before coming to work this morning, and have enjoyed everything so far. The lead actor, Miura Haruma, played Kazama Ren in Gokusen 3. I'm enjoying his performance well enough that I plan on checking out some more of his performances in the future.

The Love Story track is really good. It's a very sad song, though.

i start watching Deka Wanko...this drama is amazing...

If you like Deka Wanko, check out Yasuko to Kenji. Tabe Mikako plays the main character in both of those dramas. I actually found her character in Yasuko to Kenji to be more relatable. Also, one of the important actresses is Hirosue Ryoko, who has starred in a bunch of good dramas (Summer Snow, Moto Kare, Slow Dance, Galileo, Mr. Brain, Legal High, etc.). Lastly, Yasuko to Kenji is one of Kojima Haruna's (from AKB48) earlier acting jobs in a supporting role, and she does a good job of portraying the spoiled "princess" type character.

Gokusen, enough said. I absolutely love it.

I've just saw Samurai High School.... Amazing

Joshua10red wrote:I've just saw Samurai High School.... Amazing

I watched it a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it, too. Miura Haruma was solid in the lead roll, which isn't surprising considering how well he did in series like Last Cinderella and Gokusen 3. The two supporting characters had good actors, too.  Shirota Yu played in the GTO 2012 remake and 2014 series, and was an antagonist in Hana Kimi. Anne was the female lead in Kasuka no Kanajo (which I loved). Over all, it's a pretty decent story that's elevated because of the quality of the actors involved.

I just saw "Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu 2012 ". It`s the movie where Scandal`s song "Happy collector" was used. I started watching, and...after 2 mins.....Happy Collector..... A beautiful love story. Emi Takei and Tori Matsuzaka are a beautiful couple. The movie was funny from the beginning ..both having the same name. At the end i start to cry when Hibino was waiting in the Christmas Eve for Kyota , saying that if he don`t come she will let him go forever.And just when she drops the necklaces Kyota gave her, he arrive.

Another movie i saw was " The Kirishima Thing". I was watching only because Ai Hashimoto was in the movie.The film itself is not that special, but there’s something about the atmosphere that’s really strange here and makes this one of the best films set in high school I’ve seen.  It opens very mysterious with a lot of scenes getting repeated from a couple of different viewpoints, as the film keeps following other characters in the same time period.

Now i will watch Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Inferno 2014.

Oh, I watched that movie last weekend, but I saw it under the English name, "Love for Beginners." You're right, it was a well paced out movie. I really liked Emi Takei in that role. I'm already scouting out a couple of other drama series where she acted to check out in the future:  The Weather Girl Knows, Clinic on the Sea, and Senryokugai Sosakan.

saldiven wrote:If you like Deka Wanko, check out Yasuko to Kenji.

I love that drama! The yanki bits were a bit OTT but I still loved it, especially when Hirosue Ryoko does it - I've only seen her in serious roles like in Okuribito, so it was a right hoot watching her do that snarl when she gets cheesed off.

I see that you appear to like Hirosue Ryoko's stuff - have you seen her in Starman~Kono Hoshi no Koi? It's an OK drama but endearing nonetheless.

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Starman_Kono_Hoshi_no_Koi

No, I haven't seen that one.

One question before I watch it: Is the ending miserable where characters end up dead or abandoned? Totally not interested in watching those kinds of dramas. Real life is miserable enough; I want my entertainment to have a happy ending.

saldiven wrote:No, I haven't seen that one.

One question before I watch it: Is the ending miserable where characters end up dead or abandoned? Totally not interested in watching those kinds of dramas. Real life is miserable enough; I want my entertainment to have a happy ending.

Oh, there is death in the drama...

In my post above, I did describe it as endearing as opposed to heart wrenching. Even though dramawiki didn't categorise it as such, I'd personally put it in the rom-com category. Of sorts. ^^

I didn't realize what I was getting into when I watched Summer Snow, and I've been careful about researching dramas before I watch them ever since.

I just can't find any enjoyment in feeling miserable at the end of multiple hours of watching a series.

Started watching Shitsuren Chocolatier yesterday. The lead actor is Matsumoto Jun, who always does a good job. I'm about halfway through the series, and it's good so far.

The day-dream sequences are hilarious.

saldiven wrote:Started watching Shitsuren Chocolatier yesterday. The lead actor is Matsumoto Jun, who always does a good job. I'm about halfway through the series, and it's good so far.

The day-dream sequences are hilarious.

i`ve wanted to watch this drama, but i don`t have enough space in my pc to download the 1080p version..yet....now i download another drama with Jun Matsumoto "Kimi wa Petto"

Anyway...now i start watching "Zenkai Girl (Full Throttle Girl)" with Aragaki Yui and Nishikido Ryo. This love story is amazing.... i can`t wait to see what happens next....ep 5 now watching

I don't know if the website is available in your location, but check out Dramacool.tv.

It's a site that streams massive amounts of dramas and movies from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. You can search by country, genre, and year of production. The streaming quality is comparable to youtube; it's not 1080p, but it's decent, and free. There are no in-stream commercials (other than those built into the original production), and the only advertising is what is on the base page itself. Honestly, I don't know how the site actually makes money or how they've gotten the rights to the incredibly extensive library of shows they have, but I'm not complaining. Most everything has English sub-titles, but some occasional shows haven't had the sub-titles finished yet and are only available in the original. I'm using that site so much recently that I'm considering canceling my cable television subscription entirely....