Kami no Shizuku神の雫 – Release Jan 09

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Japan Drama Story:
Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 is the son of the famous wine critic. Despite from the famous wine critic family, Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 hates wine and did not go along well with his father. One day Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 was informed about the death of his father and a will that is left behind. Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 must compete with Tomine Issei (Tanabe Seiichi) 田辺誠一 to solve the wine identify puzzles in order to inherit the fortune of wine collection from his father. Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 has no interest in the fortune but the intention of his father. In order to understand his father, he has no choice but to accept the challenge.

Feelings and comments:
This drama is all about wine. If you’re interested to learn more about wine, this drama might just be the right one for you. There will also be lots of French speaking scenes, not to mention all those poems and descriptions on how the wine tastes too. In some ways, this drama might be boring to certain people.
In order to get to know a person, perhaps the best way is to go into their world and experience the same thing they did, especially people that are famous in arts, singing, acting, managing, royalty, designing and many more. We can’t really understand what they are thinking unless we place ourselves in their position.
One thing that impressed me is that the wine identifies puzzles is able to connect the wine with facts of life. Some part of it might over expressing it but it really does make sense.

Things that caught my eyes:
No doubt wine is the most eye capturing scenes but there are couple of things that I have to say. Kanzaki Shizuku (Kamenashi Kazuya) 亀梨和也 likes to say “wake up, Bacchus (God of Wine)” before drinking the wine. Tomine Issei (Tanabe Seiichi) 田辺誠一 likes to roar after tasting the wine.

Japan Drama Rating:
Nice to watch. You’ll probably like this drama unless you hate wine.

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Original Soundtrack

Drama Theme Song: ONE DROP by KAT-TUN

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Meitantei no Okite名探偵の掟 – Release April 09

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Japan Drama Story:
Tenkaichi Daigoro (Matsuda Shota) 松田翔太 is a famous private investigator. Whenever crime happens, he will be there. Okawara Banzo (Kimura Yuichi) 木村祐一 is a high ranking police detective and Fujii Mana (Kashii Yu) 香椎由宇 is a rookie police detective that is under his guidance. Together 3 of them created a story of a famous private investigator. Each episode features a crime story with a typical trick of a detective story.

Feelings and comments:
This is definitely a strange detective drama. The story basically is making fun with the typical detective story instead of telling the detective story. You basically don’t have to think how the crimes go because there is no logic behind it. The only thing that you might learned from this drama is how a detective story written and the rules to write them. This is supposed to be a funny and humor story but sadly the jokes are just too cold.
Although the so call famous private investigator Tenkaichi Daigoro (Matsuda Shota) 松田翔太 did not solve mostly of the crimes but he actually found out some other information. Perhaps the most normal person in this drama is Fujii Mana (Kashii Yu) 香椎由宇.

Things that caught my eyes:
The special door that allows the characters to enter and discuss about the story is unique, but that’s just crazy. Instead my attention was drawn towards Tenkaichi Daigoro (Matsuda Shota) 松田翔太’s Nike shoes.

Japan Drama Rating:
Fan of Matsuda Shota (松田翔太) and Kashii Yu (香椎由宇) should watch it. This drama looks more like a comedy rather than a detective story.

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Drama Theme Song: Fighting Pose no Uta by Baba Toshihide

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Triangleトライアングル – Release Jan 09

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Japan Drama Story:
A 10 year old girl was killed back in 1984. The murderer was not found and the case remains unsolved until now. A man name Goda Ryoji (Eguchi Yosuke) 江口洋介 seems to have some connection with this case. He used to be a doctor but later become an international police. One day Goda Ryoji (Eguchi Yosuke) 江口洋介 disguised as personal tour guide for a girl name Sachi (Hirosue Ryoko) 広末涼子 in France. Sachi (Hirosue Ryoko) 広末涼子 seems to has some connection with the unsolved case too. As Goda Ryoji (Eguchi Yosuke) 江口洋介transferred himself back to Japan police department, a colleague name Kuroki Shun (Inagaki Goro) 稲垣吾郎 received a mysterious call informing that the case (The 1984 10 year old girl murder case) hasn’t end…yet.

Feelings and comments:
The drama looks more like a mystery suspense story then a detective story. The question of “Who kill the little girl?” always surrounded the whole story. As it’s a unsolved murder case, it gets complicated as time goes by. The script of the drama is well written in a sense that it makes you wonder everybody is a suspect. It just seems like every characters have some secrets that connect to the unsolved murder case.
There are so many people died in murder cases in the world every single minute as we speak. There are also a lot of people died in the frequent natural disaster lately. We don’t actually feel the impact unless our loves one involved. It just takes a death of a person close by, either murdered or died of natural disaster to change our life completely. Honestly I don’t think we can understand the feelings unless we experience the lost of loves one ourselves. Perhaps the best way is to imagine and think “What if…” Only then we might start to do what we can to help those that involved in the unfortunate tragedy, Instead of just having thoughts of “Doesn’t concern me…”

Things that caught my eyes:
The scene and each clips of the drama is well connected, It makes you suspect there are some untold secrets behind. The drama really did a good job in fooling our eyes.

Japan Drama Rating:
Worth watching. You just can’t stop until you finish the whole series.

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Original Soundtrack

Drama Theme Song: Sayonara wa Iwanai by Oda Kazumasa

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Akai Ito赤い糸 – Release Dec 08

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Japan Drama Story:
It is said that fate brings couple together. If both of them are meant to be each other, there will be an invisible red string that connects them together. Takemiya Mei (Minamisawa Nao) 南沢奈央 and Nishino Atsushi (Mizobata Junpei) 溝端淳平 both birthday is on the same date 29th February. Both of them celebrates birthday once every four years. Every since they were young, they keep on bumping into each other. It’s like both of them are meant for each other. Still both of them keep on separated as life is full of obstacles. Even with all the pain, suffer and problems, they still connects and love each other.

Feelings and comments:
Once in a while we get to watch great love story drama from Japan, and this is one of them. Akai ito is base on one of the bestselling novels in Japan 2007. All the casts in this drama is new and young. The things that capture the heart of the viewers are the story, song and wonderful script. There are basically two parts of this love story, movie version and drama version. You may choose to skip the movie version and jump right into the drama version as that’s the main complete story. If you already watch the drama version, don’t bother to watch the movie version.
Do you believe in fate? According to legend, an invisible red string connects those that are meant to be together. That’s basically what’s this love story is about. The thin red string will be stretch, bend and twisted but it will never break. That’s just a way to say that no matter how tough life is, the couple will still be together at the end. I suppose only couples that love each other can feel the existence of the red string. Ever incidents that happened in life have reasons. Either good or bad, these are the things that create the person that we are now.

Things that caught my eyes:
The theme song is one of the best love songs that I ever heard. The pictures shown at the end of every episode is nicely captured. Be sure to take a look, especially the pictures of all the couples. These couples are standing side by side but are separated by a distance of a person. It just seems like they are connected by the red string.

Japan Drama Rating:
Worth watching. This is another beautiful love story base on a bestselling novel. The script is nicely written. The scene is beautifully captured and the song is great.

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Original Soundtrack

Drama Theme Song: 366 Nichi by HY

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Love Shuffleラブシャッフル – Release Jan 09

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Japan Drama Story:
Four couples decided to get together and shuffle their partners to find out their true love. This is the game suggested by the psychiatrist name Kikuta Masato (Tanihara Shosuke) 谷原章介 when he and three other apartment neighbors stuck in the elevator during a power failure. The three other neighbors are Aizawa Airu (Karina) 香里奈, Usami Kei (Tamaki Hiroshi) 玉木宏 and Sera Ojiro (Matsuda Shota) 松田翔太. All of them have some trouble with their current relationship. They hope to find solution and answer to their problem by shuffle their partners with each other.

Feelings and comments:
This drama mainly focuses on the interaction of the 8 main casts. There are 4 men and 4 women. You can just feel the different chemistry when they are pair differently. The first thing that you’ll witness is their definition of love is totally different. This drama sure makes a good lesson in teaching what love is. There seems to have 3 different type of relationship. First is the lover type where romantic feeling comes in. Second is the husband type where security and kids come in. The third one is friendship type where you are able to open your heart and have conversation about anything. Perhaps there may be a lot more different ways to love a person. You just have to find the kind of love that suits you.
We don’t actually have to try this “Love shuffle” method of find true love. All we have to do is go out there and meet people. The effect is just the same. Part of the process to find true love is to find ourselves first. That means understand who we really are and what we actually need and hope for.

Things that caught my eyes:
The corridor right in front of the elevator seems to be a nice place to hang out. It looks more like a living room for having breakfast and supper. It’s one way to hang out with your neighbors without showing them your room. If you’re able to get friendly neighbors, perhaps you can hang out with them that way.

Japan Drama Rating:
Nice to watch. It just feels like taking a lesson about love. The game of love is always interesting because the results are unexpected and surprising.

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Original Soundtrack

Drama Theme Song: Fantasy by Earth, Wind & Fire

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Atashinchi no Danshiアタシんちの男子 – Release April 09

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Japan Drama Story:
Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希 is a “homeless” that lives in the park and takes her bath in net café. Her mother died when she was young and her father ran away leaving a huge debt. One day as Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希was chase by the debt collector, she was rescue by a rich man name Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄. Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄 offers to settle all her debt, in return she has to become his wife for one month. As soon as Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希 signs the agreement, she found herself stuck with an old man with only a month to live. Plus, the agreement that she signed includes other details that acquired her to become mother of Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄’s sons for three month. There are six of them and each of them has different personality which doesn’t get along well.

Feelings and comments:
This drama is all about homeless and family. It started out with Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希as a homeless girl with huge amount of debts and ended up with a big family of six members. There are a lot of crazy jokes and scenario but all stress on the important of family. There is couple of things that I think is well said and important. First of all blood line related is not necessary important in justifying as family. There are a lot of families with bloodline related but still act as strangers and killing each other because of money. Sometimes friends are closer compare to family members. I suppose we considered it family when group of people help each other and experience life, work, fun or worst time together. Another thing is the place call funfair. I use to think funfair is a place where the whole families can have fun. Turns out it’s a place for families to hang out and discover different faces or identities that mom and dad never expose within busy days. Perhaps that‘s the fun and treasure that kids are looking for when visiting funfair.

Things that caught my eyes:
The crazy invention and the mansion is the most interesting part in this drama. It must be fun to have those inventions around. The mansion might not be a good place to live but it sure is a fun place to hang out. By the way, the six guys always in sauna with just towels on.

Japan Drama Rating:
Fun to watch. There are a lot of crazy stuffs in the drama. It’s good for a laugh.

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Original Soundtrack

Drama Theme Song: Infinity by GIRL NEXT DOOR

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Arifureta Kisekiありふれた奇跡 – Release Jan 09

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Japan Drama Story:
Nakashiro Kana (Nakama Yukie) 仲間由紀恵 met Tasaki Shota (Kase Ryo) 加瀬亮 when both of them sense a middle age man - Fujimoto Makoto (Jinnai Takanori) 陣内孝則 trying to commit suicide. Both of them successfully prevent Fujimoto Makoto (Jinnai Takanori) 陣内孝則 from jumping over the running train. The fact that both of them are able to sense the suicidal intention is because they too used to think of suicide. It’s a strange way for both of them to meet and they instantly generate good feelings with each other. They started to email each other and sometimes dated. They were able to help each other on curing their deep wounded heart. When they started to see each other, their relationship began to trigger conflicts between both their families. That’s because both families wanted the best for them and hopes that they can be happy.

Feelings and comments:
I have to say this drama is a bit depressing at the beginning. Most of the time it’s just about the expression of dark depression feelings and that covers almost half of the drama. The drama only starts to show a bit of sun light when the couple started to make their relationship work out. It just feels that everybody in the drama is trouble by something and most of the time they are depress with it. Still they are able to find happiness within they busy ordinary life.
It doesn’t matter if you’re happy or not, life has to go on. Sometimes we just can’t hope too much. Learning to accept what is available for you and satisfied with it might just be the way towards happiness. We cannot have everything goes as what we plan, but the effort might just enough to have most of them done. We just have to cherish what we have.
Miracles exist within life because we do not know what lies in front of us. We might just meet the one that we love any place, any time or any situation. As long as we keep on living our life, there is still hope that we’ll find happiness.
The story of this drama is simple but the acting is a bit difficult. It’s not easy to bring out the depression and fear towards life on screen. I think both main casts Nakama Yukie (仲間由紀恵) and Kase Ryo (加瀬亮) did a very good job in bring out the feelings within. Perhaps their experience and long acting career helps present this ordinary drama a miracle one.

Things that caught my eyes:
The title of this story is ordinary miracles. Not a surprise that everything in this drama is ordinary, including their occupation, life style and the people around. Finding each other in this ordinary world might just be the miracle. Thus I caught nothing with my eyes but I do feel the miracle.

Japan Drama Rating:
Interesting to watch, but it’s a bit depressing. It’s about how people deal with life after their painful tragic. The best cure is love and meeting the right people. This drama is able to present it nicely. By the way it’s a happy ending.

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Drama Theme Song: Dreams Are More Precious by Enya

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