Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de #9 & #10 [Final]

Ratings (Kanto) :

#9   [15.2%]

#10 [15.4%]

Average: 15.9%

My Ratings : #9 4.5/5 || #10  4.5/5 = 4.08 (avg)

I like this two-part episodes' case...

(man.. I seem to like cases with family secrets involved lately XD)

Oh Kageyama... I think he got really distracted because he lost the baseball bet :D

First we had him deduced wrongly (though this is caused by another surprising factor *spoiler*).

Then he became a murder suspect (ending of eps 9).

And...  he was arrested... by Kazamatsuri lol

Reiko, on the other hand, had fun with all the chances she had to tease Kageyama instead XD

Oh... I think it's cute that she still believes in Santa Claus :D 

& me... laughed a lot watching Kazamatsuri XD

kind of disappointed that he didn't get to know Shourei-san's real identity

but.. Merry Kazamatsuri indeed. XD

I don't have much to say really because I enjoyed these two episodes.

I still think my favourite character is Kageyama because I always love a Sherlock... if only the focus was given more to him... *wishful* well..not that I like to watch Sho act that much.. anyway...

Kitagawa was a pain a watch. I'm going to stay away from her works in the near future for a while.. Honestly, I love seeing her [appearance]...  I think she's beautiful but she is not a good actress. Beauty alone is not enough if you're acting.. especially as the lead. I know some people don't care about this & even praised her performance(?) but I'm one of those who couldn't let this pass (just because she's cute etc) once I see this fact.. it will bug me for the rest of the series.

Thank goodness for Shiina Kippei.. Well, I wouldn't consider he balanced all the badness out completely but it was reassuring that at least one of casts can really act. Kazamatsuri was annoying in the first few episodes but I grew to love his character (who always had surprising luck/miracles lol).. random: in these two final episodes, I started thinking he might have used Inspector Clouseau (I just watched the Steve Martin's version few days ago) as a reference lol

That "See you soon" in end is really suspicious.. should be referring to DVD release, right? I shudder to think of the possibility of a sequel (X_X) *dnrw*

Three doramas reviewed loosely ... I feel accomplished..because I can't seem to finish reviewing Kurosagi & Code Blue in the past... lol.. Well I didn't include summaries & screencaps because obviously I'm lazy... I used to review like this (on Friendster) for ProDai & Galileo (which was re-posted here).. rather than a review, it's more like "what I think of this episode" thing... oh well.. different people, different style :P

I look forward to next season doramas~~~

..and Ohno's "Mou Yuukai nante Shinai" on Jan 3rd (yes...I had to say it) which I definitely could not watch real-time because I have Linear Algebra final exam the next day. Will try to watch it in the weekend because I would be burning with curiosity (=major distraction) if I don't. XD

Kaseifu no Mita #9-11 [Final]

Ratings (Kanto) :

#9   [27.6%]

#10 [28.6%]

#11 [40.0%]  (!!!!!)

Average: 24.8%

My Rating :  #9 4.5/5 || #10 4.5/5 || #11 5/5 = 4.44 (avg)

The 9th episode was a balanced episode between comedic and serious moments IMO.. Mita quitted the Asuda Family and... worked for the annoying neighbour next door. It was like a slap in the face (for some weird reasons, I cringed watching Kii-chan at school & Mita appeared to take Tsubasa-kun home). The reason why Mita is so ready to take orders - even impossible ones - was revealed in this episode... The children knew about it and stopped her in time. & for the first time, Mita lost her composure and got mad with them. They reminded her that she didn't have to do all these and begged her to return to them on her free will.

And Mita is back in the 10th episode... & it was decided on her free will.  Mita was beside herself in this episode. She's becoming more human XD .. Anyway.. I love the scene where the children appeared at the amusement park to like... save Mita. They insisted on her to stop buying family set food, sit, & left those food untouched until the closing time. I thought it was sweet that they said they'll eat those food if she ever return there again :')  Another thing that amused me was the father's priceless look when Urara told him that she fell in love with him lol

I'm starting to see that in the end, it's not just about knowing the truth about father's affair (and reluctance to being a father), or mother's death or Mita's background... it's how they choose to move on with life after knowing all that. I love how this dorama emphasizes on that matter without covering the darkness of the those truths. It's like... yes, yes, it's hard to understand why it happened, it's complicated, it's upsetting... but you are still alive anyway... you're responsible to keep on being alive...& to live your life to the fullest.

After watching the 11th episode, I kind of understand why the rating was 40%... GOSH. What an eventful episode. I cried and cried again... Best scene would be the moment Mita finally smiled again *just thinking about it made me want to cry again*. Such beautiful moment & great performance by Matsushima-san. I was so happy that some of the characters hugged her... I was like "Please hug her, Arumi-san. Please hug her for me"  & they hugged <3... and Kii-chan too. Now I kind of wish to see Matsushima-san & Miyu-chan act as mother and daughter XD .. I love how this episode was more to the bright side, bringing people back together and - depending on how you see it - promising happy endings to those who deserved it. 

I want to believe that human relationships can be that beautiful... that you don't have to be family or relatives to understand others' pain... & don't doubt it when it happened & when people could support each other even though they are clearly strangers. And of course, we could think of it logically ourselves about what should & shouldn't been done.. but once in a while we want to hear it from someone else's mouth to really convince ourselves to do what we are supposed to do. I always think that advice works better this way. Like most of us who would not listen to our own advice unless it's repeated to us by another person... another voice that isn't ours.

Perfect ending is perfect.

HUNTER #9 & #10 [Final]

Ratings (Kanto) :

#9 [10.9%]

#10 [11.5%]

Average: 11.0%

My Ratings : #9 3.8/5 || #10 4/5 = 3.74 (avg)

In the 9th episode, the dorama seem to have a change in atmosphere... it's like watching a movie sequel of a popular dorama (e.g HanaDan & Trick). It wasn't really bad, I just thought it was weird.

Initially, I thought I would hate Akane... but I ended up liking her character anyway. It was even better after the reason of her disappearance was revealed. I think she's my second favourite character in this dorama (despite her lack of appearances in some episodes) after Gondo <3

Speaking of Gondo... I got to see a different side to him in these two conclusion episodes.. which was pretty cool. (I almost wish that this dorama was about him XD... but fret not.. he's in a Lucky Seven spin-off four-episode dorama which I'm so totally going to watch <3)

It was clever of them to make use of the internet to spread about what they know. I was kind of amused about the video site (fictional I think).. as the video plays, comments would appear on the video itself. Interesting feature to play with..to be honest, if it really exists (but must have an option to turn it off :P).

Pretty mundane episodes really... but most of HUNTER episodes weren't any better either. Sometimes I think it's the combination... like when the case was interesting, the casts' performances weren't that great & vice versa... worst.. maybe the problem relies on the regular characters? Hmm.. that's what I get from watching an episode a week..

I'll try watching this again - marathon-style this time - and make a recap later.

NazoDi, Kaseifu, HUNTER #8

Ratings (Kanto) :
FTV Tues 9pm || NazoDi #8 [15.4%]
NTV Wed 10pm || Kaseifu #8 [29.6%]
FTV Tues 10pm || HUNTER #8 [11.3%]

My Ratings : NazoDi 4.5/5 || Kaseifu 5/5 || Hunter 4.5/5

Hunter... not much to say really but I enjoyed this episode... :)  Rather than being the hunters this time, Machiko-san was the one hunted by her husband. Turn out the husband was more of a verbal abuser *shakes head disapprovingly*. 

Gondo was really funny in the beginning!... he was singing happily, which I take as a sign that he's recovered. Ah...really wish there are more of his scenes!

It actually bugs me from the beginning about what Rei's sister is up to... running away like that, leaving her daughter behind... & now it seems she has become a murder suspect (& wanted)?! I can't wait to watch the conclusion to Akane's mysterious disappearance.

Episode 8 of Kaseifu had the highest rating so far... In this episode, Mita finally talked about her past. And with that, she quits being the housekeeper for the family. I feel like hugging her when she talked from beginning to end of her background, still slightly in her dull robotic way, while the family listened... I think the family wanted to hug her too when she finished :/

This was Mita's episode. The character had more visible changes... she's more vocal than before (the scene at the hospital)... As the family getting on nicely with each other, the focus moved to Mita. I don't know what it would be but I'm hoping for a happy ending for Mita too... (I'm taking the I-want-everyone-to-be-happy stand when I watch this :P)..& it seems from this episode, it should be seeing her smile again.

Lol at the beginning dream... that was so random (but it gave Yui the idea that Mita might not have always been that way...)


Moving on to NazoDi... Kitagawa was less annoying in this episode, part of it was because I was busy recognizing the side characters :P (totally seen them before lol)... Many funny moments. Including Kazamatsuri XD (as usual).. Kageyama had his own funny moments XD (caught being at ease at filming set while re-enacting a  scene from the dorama)... & Reiko in the beginning lol.. But ah. The case this time... a sad love story (part of the blame goes to stupid Reiko).  *sigh* I actually wanted to see the scene she gave the love letter though because I'm curious of the boy's reaction...

Mou Yuukai nante Shinai [Progress]

Doing this post for fun.. :D
It's going to be like a diary with links~

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Cast :

Ohno Satoshi  

Aragaki Yui (11/29)   

Sato Ryuta  

Kanjiya Shihori  

Takashima Masahiro (12/14)              Yasuda Shota (12/8-9)  

Narimiya Hiroki   

Kimura Ryo (12/15)                 Emoto Tokio (12/16)

Yamaguchi Sayaka (12/16)    

Takahashi Katsumi  

Kaname Jun (11/29)  

Kitaoji Kinya

[*names are arranged according to the cast list from the official site]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Others:
[*names found from the correlation chart from the official site]
Namase Katsuhisa, Takenaka Naoto, Tanaka Kei, Ukaji Takashi, Tanaka Yoji, Sasaki Sumie, Kuge Kokoro, Nakao Akiyoshi & Watanabe Ikkei. (12/27)


Special Appearances : 

Sakurai Sho (12/6)  

Matsumoto Jun (12/6)  

Oficial Site: http://www.fujitv.co.jp/yukai/index.html

Original Story (novel): Higashigawa Tokuya (Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de)
Scriptwriter: Furuya Kazunao (Shiawase ni Narou yo, Mei-chan no Shitsuji)
Music: Segawa Eishi
Project Planner 企画 (?): Narikawa Hiroaki (Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de, Strawberry Night, Zettai Reido), Takizawa Koichiro
Producer: Takamaru Masataka (Strawberry Night, Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji), Emori Hiroko (Strawberry Night, 1 Litre of Tears)
Director: Sato Yuichi (Strawberry Night, Saigo no Yakusoku, Water Boys)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11/15
Announcement of Ohno's New Year dorama SP. Other casts: Sato Ryuta, Kanjiya Shihori, Narimiya Hiroki, Takahashi Katsumi & Kitaoji Kinya.
[Link to post in this blog // News article on FTV site].

11/28
Filming started/Crank In.
[News link]

11/29
Mezamashi report.
Other casts revealed : Aragaki Yui and Kaname Jun.
Airing Date revealed : January 3rd, 2012.
[Tokyohive // News article on FTV site]

12/5
Saw some filming photos (I think) via Tumblr.
[My Reblogged Link // tsuri confirmed it's for this SP]

12/6
News on Sho & MatsuJun's guest appearances as their respective characters from their doramas (NazoDi & Lucky Seven).
[ Article from Oricon // Trans by momoedgewood // Tokyohive]

12/8-9
Saw tweets saying Kanjani8's Yasuda Shota & Ohkura Tadayoshi will appear on this SP (seems confirmed for Yasuda only as it's stated in the media section at their official site// Actually originally the site was updated with Ohkura included but now his name had been removed *I think it was just a mistake in typing in the updates on the site*).

12/10
Sho's Otonoha - mentioned a bit about his filming experience as his NazoDi character in "Mou Yuukai nante Shinai".
[Loose translation by Yamakaze067@LJ // Translation by lujba@LJ]

Found some magazine scans (I think) of the filming of the SP from my tumblr dashboard.
[Reblogged photos : Here, here, here (Ohno & Aragaki Yui) & here (Ohno). ]

12/13
Found some Ohno's filming photos via Tumblr. [Reblogged photo]

12/14
It seems like "Mou Yuukai nante Shinai" team will be joining VSA New Year SP only for the "Rolling Coin Tower" game on the airing date.
Team members : Ohno Satoshi, Sato Ryuta, Narimiya Hiroki, Yasuda Shota & Takashima Masahiro. [Link]

12/15
Kimura Ryo will also appear in this SP. He mentioned about filming in two blog entries dated 11 & 12 December. [Loose translation by Yamakaze067@LJ]

12/16
Official site opened. http://www.fujitv.co.jp/yukai/index.html

Full cast list (from official site). New names on the list:... Emoto Tokio & Yamaguchi Sayaka.

12/21
The official site was updated with story and message sections. [Yamakaze067@LJ's trans]

I had helped editing the DramaWiki for Mou Yuukai nante Shinai so that people who reached there will see an updated wiki *it's been a while XD*... Still lacking their characters name though (that would be a bit tricky because I'm not sure about the kanji names)

12/26
Official site updated with interview section and a correlation chart. I see new characters! Namase Katsuhisa & Takenaka Naoto??? <3... & Ohno's photo with bandages!!! XD.
[Yamakaze067@LJ's trans for Ohno's interview]

12/27
New look at the official site.

Updated DramaWiki's cast list. These new names are minor characters (sort of like cameo/recurring characters I guess) because they only appear in the correlation chart : Namase Katsuhisa, Takenaka Naoto, Tanaka Kei, Ukaji Takashi, Tanaka Yoji, Sasaki Sumie, Kuge Kokoro, Nakao Akiyoshi & Watanabe Ikkei.

Seems like a promo clip were shown (Fuku Arashi campaign). I've reblogged the caps here.
You can watch the 5-second clip here.

12/28
Found another magazine scan via Tumblr. [Reblogged photos]

Found another promo clip (more scenes/Second half is from "Lucky Seven") via Twitter.
*fangirl mode* 大野 <3 KYAAAAAAAAAAAA~~~! XD

12/30
Just saw this Dec 26th (JST) tweet :

『もう誘拐なんてしない』クランクアップ。 #aragakiyui #gakky
— lespros_suzu (@lespros_suzu) 

Seems like the crank up (meaning: filming has wrapped up) was on that day. Will make sure of this again after the DVD is released. :)



1/3 (2012)
Airing date. Fuji TV, 21:00-23:30 JST.


1/4
Rating : 13.7%

I managed to watch (but not properly) real-time & fangirled about it on LJ lol. Pretty interesting & kind of refreshing...? The dorama SP has this retro feeling to it (which explains the retro-ish poster they have). It was a bit slow in the beginning (but maybe it's just me.. I'm not really fond of Kanjiya's acting) but the climax was great - you should at least try to watch until the end if it's your first viewing~.

Surprisingly, Ohno and Aragaki has chemistry.. they were cute to see together. I kind of like their interaction.. but I might be biased, as it's been a while since I saw Ohno acting a character with potential girlfriend by his side.. XD. 2012, please don't fail me.. let Ohno be in a new renzoku dorama XD~


1/9
(I did my review post for this here.)

4/14
DVD & Blu-ray's release date is July 7th.

NazoDi, Kaseifu, HUNTER #7

Ratings (Kanto) :

FTV Tues 9pm || NazoDi #7 [15.1%]

NTV Wed 10pm || Kaseifu #7 [23.5%]

FTV Tues 10pm || HUNTER #7 [8.8%]

My Ratings : NazoDi 4/5 || Kaseifu 5/5 || Hunter 4.3/5

HUNTER's 7th episode was Gondo's episode. There weren't much Rei x Gondo scenes though... only in the beginning (which just further my interest seeing them as a pair) :D... Somewhat an interesting episode... OH! Fukikoshi Mitsuru guested in this episode. Superb performance *amazed*. 

Gondo wasn't like his usual self. I find it a bit unconvincing how he came to associate himself Emi/Risa. I think this is because I don't know the character that well to know that he's capable of doing this... It can't be helped, right... he didn't have many scenes in the previous episodes... 

Also, the bounty huntresses started talking about quitting... & in the next episode, Machiko's husband appears???

The [accidental] stabbing in the end took place at the same filming location for Maou <3! XD

It's the place Hideo died/final showdown between Naruse & Serizawa~

Kaseifu... iya... this was a great episode! 

I think too much.. Girlfriend was only sad/disappointed about his new [ex-]boyfriend..she wasn't going to kill herself or anything.. she told father though that she wants to get back together. 

Asuda family finally reunited... Cried more watching the second half ... 

Father wants to try again...his family forgives him... He told girlfriend that he wants to marry her & want her to be the mother for his children. Of course, she didn't accept... 

The children got more curious about Mita's background especially after she told them she killed her husband & son in the previous episode. Oh, yeah.. I'm glad Yui is back to her old self.. (& the actress seems to be relieved too 'cos I noticed her acting is back to natural again :D)

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother watching NazoDi... both its lead actors aren't that good in acting... the cases were interesting but they were nothing special that would make you really go "OH!" *sigh* Iya...it's because I'm writing this review, I guess.. I don't really want to give my opinions (even if I hated the dorama) without finishing them. I would want to remain positive and give the dorama a chance until the final episode..

Kazamatsuri was fun to watch (again) XD.. His reactions to people who gave him erm.. not-so-nice feedbacks regarding his family business's produced cars were hilarious. Of course, the fact that Kageyama arranged for the whole case to be recorded on cameras (with the power of Hosho group) so that Miss Reiko (who is recovering from a back sprain) would not miss anything was also funny... *I think it's Kageyama himself who wanted to XD* Is that even allowed in the real world...? lol 

But that Kazamatsuri loves camera so much.. so I get to watch him do more funny things from the front (he interacts with the cameramen too much XD) .. I suspected it's the hatmaker all along :P but I didn't have any logical explanations (only I thought it's weird that a hat didn't have its own box, so maybe he's the culprit this time??--like that.. oh lol) to put things together like Kageyama did. 

From previous episodes, I said I don't think Kitagawa is lady-like for this character but she sure could pull of the spoilt bitchy side of a lady with money & power. 

Again, it made me think... (-.-") What's the point of her working as a police detective?

p/s: Just watched Gantz (both parts)... I didn't think that I would cry at the ending, but at the Ferris wheel scene, I did... it was so sad. & I totally predicted correctly what Kurono chose to do XD... now I'm interested to read the manga. 

       Random thought: Has Kanata Hongo always been overacting like this, or just for this particular super annoying character? 

       Random thought 2: Now I'm convinced that Yoshitaka can only act these kind of characters... It's really annoying the way she whines, because it was really some effortless acting (if you can call that acting) on her side, like it's already part of her personality. But I might still consider watching her other works... because somewhat I think her range isn't just this much.. I just have to find one that where her character isn't [hopefully] whining all the time.

NazoDi, Kaseifu, HUNTER #6

Ratings (Kanto) :
FTV Tues 9pm || NazoDi #6 [14.9%]
NTV Wed 10pm || Kaseifu #6 [23.4%]
FTV Tues 10pm || HUNTER #6 [10.2%]

My Ratings : NazoDi 4/5 || Kaseifu 4/5 || Hunter 3/5

A Jun-centric episode for Hunter... Not a fan of the character or the actress (-_-")... decent episode, I guess. Am I the only person who's a bit annoyed by the way Yonekura-san got wide-eyed erm.. at some scenes? Does she do this for her other characters? It's becoming like a generic expression of hers (in this dorama) when she's angry, annoyed or surprised... or combination of any of these three... it looks unnatural sometimes...

Next episode seems to revolve around my favourite pair... <3

And Kaseifu~ Grgghhh.. Yui was so, so, so annoying in the first half of the episode! I thought: "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH HER???" Just like previous episodes, since this character have a bit of temporarily(?) personality change, the actress' acting style seem to change a bit... (or maybe it's only me nit-picking on things :D) .. maybe she couldn't bring herself to like the changes her character (therefore can't understand her character well?) went through which made her act not so natural.. It was restrained at times, like she's trying too hard... And GAH. *goes back to the character* Yui tried to kill herself (& then she chickened out after she ordered Mita to kill her (-_-"))! I got mad at this point, thinking that she's taking her family problems too far.. like a first-world problem kind of thing? What the heck? Fortunately, Mita made her realised this... like having a home and family that loves her.. Seeing the ending scene about bedsheets made me think, maybe... maybe the character change was becauseYui blamed herself for not appreciating the things her mother do for her... especially when she somewhat could have prevented her death if only she listened more to her mother's worries...

Yui finally wants to forgive her father... as long as father shows that they are important to him. A chance! A chance to return to his children and live as a family again. BUT.. that scene in the end could ruin this chance... ex-girlfriend called father again. She seems to be at the top of a building... maybe she already knew that her new boyfriend was only toying with her..thus wants to kill herself??? EHHH?

Another decent episode for NazoDi... though I'm loving every Kazamatsuri moments in this episode :D Episode 4 indeed has improved a bit of my impression of him... & I saw cats! Black and white cats! Kageyama dotting on a cat! lol... OH! and Kazamatsuri getting stomachache because he ate cat's food :P... The murder case was pretty worthless.. I mean.. the murderer was stupid to think the victim is a threat to his family (he really thought highly of himself, huh)... actually the victim wasn't even thinking about him anymore...

Oh yeah... it seems the director for this episode is more to the comedy side?? :P



p/s: Aragaki Yui is the heroine of Ohno's New Year Dorama SP!!!!! I'm happy not because I like seeing her act, but because finally, Ohno has someone famous playing as the female lead in his dorama (though it's only tanpatsu)... Wasn't she the VIP guest on Himitsu who liked Ohno's  pretty venous arms (*edit* not muscular... I remembered wrongly, that was Kanjiya Shihori.. I think~) ??? lol lucky her! she gets to stare at them again/more during filming~ :P
Got a better gist of the story... I'm hopeful (for what, I don't know :P)~ Somewhat I think Aragaki will learn much from seeing Ohno's acting.. *biased fan here XD*

p/s2: Garo : Makai Senki 最高！Kouga x Kaoru 最高！:D So obviously I've already re-watched and watched anything new before the new series... lol.. I love how the world in Garo is being expanded to include new characters like Makai Priests and other kinds of Makai Knights... & also new kinds of Horrors..  Hmmm... I'm kind of suspicious of Leo-kun who works with Kouga...