I'm a sucker for good Japanese mystery dramas, and it was therefore with pretty high expectations that I had started this "Gifted".
The premise was pretty interesting and the episodical structure much to my liking; I must confess not being a big fan of the endless "continuity" of many Western series, and it thusly was with a lot of apprehension that I kept watching when I noticed the underlying "subplot" and most of all when I found out a second season was already in the making. But I'm glad that my fears were not confirmed, as the aforementioned subplot involving Shiki-kun's mom's murder got nicely wrapped up so that the 2nd season can start by opening up a new chapter entirely.
The acting was OK, some of the cast (namely, Masuda and Izumi) were definitely better than the others imho.
Music and "packaging" were also good enough.

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I am a big fan of the typical Japanese "Mys-Com", the Mystery/Investigation dramas filled with various degrees of similarly typical Japanese humor and comedy, but in all fairness the genre has produced many dramas better than this "Shinso wa Mimi no Naka", which was, for me, quite a let down.
The leads are OK, Tsutsui is cute as pie and Ihara pretty funny, but I honestly really disliked the supporting characters played by Nakamura and Morinaga, and that didn't help.
The script was just "meh", the mystery part not particularly interesting, and the comedy part not particularly funny; add that the last episodes switched to a gloomier, darker atmosphere, and you'll understand why this didn't really work. Forgettable.

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I must confess that I started watching this with some caution, expecting it to be the Nth "NTR" ("netorare", affair/cheating) drama with tons of glamorizing and very little substance, but it wasn't anything like that, luckily!
Instead, at least for 3/4 of it (more on that in a jiff!), I had the very pleasant feeling of watching some brilliant, refined comedy from the 60s! (like, for example, the lovely "Adulterio all'italiana" - "Adultery Italian Style" - starring Nino Manfredi and Catherine Spaak).
The cast performed marvelously, with the sole exceptions of Konishi and Toyoda (but then again, I must say I really hated their characters, so there's that too), and with a standing ovation for Yamashita Mizuki (adorable AND talented, chapeau!).
The "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, etc.) is absolutely top-notch, and so is the beautiful music commentary.
So why am I not grading this a "perfect 10"?
(spoilers ahead, so if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading NOW ^___-)
Well, as briefly mentioned above, 3/4 of this series would indeed deserve the highest grade; but unfortunately, after that little masterpiece that's the 8th episode, they decided to do a terrible U-turn and switch from light, brilliant, überfunny comedy to a more realistic and horribly gloomy approach, royally shooting themselves in the foot, as far as I'm concerned.
Imho, this kind of stuff could only work as a comedy. Cheating ain't something funny at all, IRL, so the way to go (and they had done that exactly, and very well until episodes 9/10!) is to MAKE it funny by exaggerating the details and by AVOIDING realism! Instead the abrupt change of pace was disgraceful and almost ruined the whole thing. The ending didn't help either (again, IMHO!), as I had rooted for Yamashita of course, her character being so much better in any aspect (whereas the wife had been depicted as a sort of monodimensional caricature who spoke the whole time with an ultra-annoying anime-voice - BTW, I referenced that old Italian movie at the beginning of the review: well, if you want the audience to root for the wife, you have to write her character as the better one, as it was the case there!).
A possible explanation of the script's problems is that there were three different writers, and often that is detrimental to the script's consistency. Another reason, as it could be hinted by the very last line (that surprised "Ittekimasu? Tadaima...?!" muttered by the ML seems indeed to hint that the FL hasn't surrendered after all!) is that perhaps they wanted to leave the door open for a potential second season (and that almost invariably produces terrible endings!).
All in all, a pretty nice drama that could have been a masterpiece but missed the opportunity.
Anyway, I don't want to be too harsh so I'm still giving it a decent 8 (but if I ever rewatched this, I'd make sure to stop right after ep. 8 and go on imagining a different ending altogether!).

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Unoriginal and uninspiring

A short premise: I consider myself quite a romantic person, but I'm not a big fan of the "romance" genre, or rather, as I'm used to calling it, "what passes for romance these days"...^__^;
So, to give you an example, I think Kumada Rinka's "Marry Me" was a marvelous and truly romantic drama, whereas this "Manatsu no Cinderella" is just the Nth Déjà Vu Fair, (ab)using all the genre's clichés and then some (seriously, 5' into the last episode I thought to myself "The only thing missing is someone running desperately"...and bang! few minutes later, check! we got to see that one as well...), with the last straw being the ultra-lame dialogues (now, not every writer can be Michel Audiard, all right...but still, there's all kinds of shades between that and this....and this is just abysmally uninspiring).
Mixed performances from the cast (though if you're gonna watch it for Mori Nana, she won't let you down, I promise), a catchy-but-nothing-more-than-that OST and a pretty decent production value complete a package that doesn't get the passing grade.

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The plot is ridiculously poor. Quoting from an old review of mine: "...seems like it's been written for Dolph Lundgren.....heck, seems like it's been written BY Dolph Lundgren!".
The script is bad. And I mean really BAD. Walker-Texas-Ranger kind of bad. Random silly lines thrown together just as a fill-in inbetween random fighting scenes. Shallow as a poodle.
The acting is simply ABYSMAL. The only reason I've watched this is because Watanabe Miho is the FL. But to think that she's left Hinatazaka46 to act in....this...sorry, I can't find any polite word to describe this waste of bytes. And the acting level (except for Mihotan, of course) makes one wonder how the auditions have worked in this case...like, did they pick the WORST ones or what?!? >______________<
1/10 and only 'cause we can't use negative numbers.

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M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E !!!

If you, like me, are big fans of the typically Japanese "iyashikei" genre, chances are you'll totally *love* this "Izakaya Bottakuri", just as I did!
I must confess having become a bit tired of the whole "food drama" subgenre, as it has an unfortunate tendency to be terribly repetitive (in a nutshell: you show some food, the main characters stuff their faces with it, rinse&repeat), of course bar a few exceptions. But what we have here is much, much more than just a food drama! Sure, there's that aspect as well, but masterfully mixed with an incredible amount of humaneness, a relaxing atmosphere, beautifully written characters, some lovely music and a perfect "packaging". Fabulously written, directed, acted (they're all very good, but let me just name Katayama Moemi who's the very definition of "gorgeous" here!)...a true gem, highly recommended, folks!
Just to give you an idea of how much I've liked this: from now on, I'll have to add this small izakaya to the short list of fictional soothing places I'd really love to visit, alongside the adorable "Café Alpha" from "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" and the whole "Neo Venezia" from Amano Kozue's "Aqua/Aria" masterpiece! ^___-

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Third installment of the "...no Satsukyu" franchise, after "Arimura Kasumi no Satsukyu" and "Takeuchi Ryoma no Satsukyu", this "Kamiki Ryunosuke no Satsukyu" is, very simply put, just as good as its predecessors. It has the same (many!) strengths (a nice script that combines many elements, part dream, part quirkiness, part humor, etc. etc., to obtain an original mix; a truly artistic, never pretentiously artsy, approach; a great lead - needless to say!) and also the same weakness, namely, the varied quality of the episodes: alongside little masterpieces with really memorable scenes (I'll name but two: Narumi Riko's hilarious reference to "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" and the "Chinese" restaurant with the giant panda mascot!), there are also a coupla much weaker episodes, as it's alas inevitable in dramas like this one.
Add some nice music and a pretty good "packaging" and you get a recommended watch! ^___-
p.s. Can't wait to watch also the next installment starring Sugisaki Hana!

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I'm a sucker for classical music, but also for the "slice of life" and "iyashikei" genres, so I had great expectations from this "Shotengai no Pianist". I'm sorry to say that it was quite a let down, unfortunately.
The script had a lot of ups&downs; alongside some better episodes graced by a few very good scenes, there were also a lot of lesser quality episodes and way too many boring and/or silly scenes (to name but one detail: the "comic relief" scenes with the "two stooges" were of embarrassingly poor quality, ridiculous rather than funny).
The same rollercoaster quality also affected the cast performances: I really liked some of them (particularly Toda Naho, Yuki Mio and Kubota Maki - now, the comic relief scenes with the latter two were actually hilarious!) whereas I honestly disliked most of the male cast (not only the afore-mentioned "two stooges" but also the ML was not to my liking at all, sorry but I can't stand that kind of "monalisesque" expressions...a faint smile, a slight worry, the constant stare in the void...not my cup of tea! But then again, I'm not familiar with this actor so maybe he's actually good and here he was just following the script and the director's directions, who knows).
The music was not as good as I was expecting it to be, too many "inflationed" pieces whereas they could've used this opportunity to introduce some lesser known but wonderful ones instead).
All in all, it barely gets the passing grade, as far as I'm concerned.

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In all fairness, I had started this "Uketsuke no Jo" only because I'm a big fan of Tanabe Momoko, but I'll admit I wasn't expecting it to be anything really good...and the first episode was confirming me in that belief (that terrible spelling mistake - "TRANCEformation" - didn't help one bit!) but I'm glad I kept on watching, 'cause the drama built up pretty quickly after the 2st episode and by the end of it I was really glad I hadn't dropped it!
A very nice script (maybe not 100% perfect, OK, but it got close), very good performances by most of the cast (Tanabe Momoko of course, but also the ML did really well, and I really loved also Nishihara Aki and Triendl Reina!), some nice music and a totally decent production value complete the package. Give it a try, it might positively surprise you too!

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A drama that requires a lot of...dramamine!

It was honestly quite terrible, I must say. I would recommend it only to die-hard fans of any member of the cast (for example, the only reason I kept watching it until the end was that the adorable Hotta Mayu is in it ^_^;....)
The premise was nothing worth calling home about, but it could've been developed in a much better way, hadn't they chosen to be the Nth victim of the nefarious influence of "The Blair Witch Project".
Expect to get motion sickness from the hectic hand-held camera movements - this is indeed a drama that requires a lot of...dramamine!!! >___________<
Apart from Mayu-chan and the überfunny hunter character, the only other thing I've really, really liked was the music! Still, not enough to get the passing grade. 4/10

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I've watched this "Keshigomu wo Kureta Joshi wo Suki ni Natta" both for Fukuchi Momoko (whom I dearly remembered from "Joshikosei no Mudazukai") and for the light-but-interesting premise.
The script is mostly brilliant, the cast did a very good job, the music - albeit not being my cup of tea - is totally fine, and the production value as high as they come.
So why am I not rating this higher than 8? Why not a 10 or at least a 9?
(Expect a MAJOR spoiler in my answer, so if you wanna avoid it, don't read any further! ^___-)
Honestly, I really didn't like the ending.
I think the story had been remarkably realistic (without being gloomy, thanks to the script, the funny side characters, etc.) until the last episode, and I found the kinda abrupt happy ending pretty off-putting. It felt, in all fairness, too unrealistic and predictable. The FL had been written, until then, as quite cold and seriously not being really into it much...then she reads the ML's letter from their school days, and *BAM!*, she suddenly melts and they live happily ever after? Big let down, sorry. Particularly since the script had been so good until then!
Imho they either should've taken more time (like, one more episode?) to portray her change of mind, or else, why not, they could've left it like that, as weird as it may sound; if anything, it would've given off a precious message: that is, that it's a lot more important to find someone who cares about you, rather than to waste your time running after someone who doesn't.
(Yeah, I know, it sounds harsh. But it's a pearl of wisdom from someone who's almost fifty and has been there, done that, and learned the hard way...^_^;...)

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Absolutely brilliant!!!

Now, THIS is what I would call "THE perfect romance" (just as it was the case with "Naguru Onna" - another one of my all-time faves, which I never fail to recommend ^___-).
No CEOs, no COLD MALE LEAD (often code for "the ML can't act, so we just had to write him like that"), no lousily written FL, no cheap and shallow "fluff overdose", but instead beautifully written, deeply humane characters and a witty script filled with funny moments as well as with moving scenes (I'm not ashamed to admit that my eyes got wet more than once!).
The cast did mostly tremendously well (honorable mentions for the two leads, Kuroki Hitomi and Kaneshiro Takeshi, and for Enomoto Kanako!), the music is *fabulous* (Paul Anka, folks! 'nuff said!), and the "packaging" is good too.
Perfect 10, as far as I'm concerned! Wholeheartedly recommended! ^___-

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I remember wanting to watch this "Nisennen no Koi / Love 2000" ever since I started watching Japanese dramas, back in 2005/2006. Unfortunately, the English subs available seemed at first glance the product of a machine translation, often unintelligible as they were, so I had ended up putting it aside.....until I've recently found it again, this time with beautifully done French subs (pardon, "sous-titres" ^___-).
And so I watched it after all those years....you can imagine that after such a looong wait, my expectations were pretty high; and I'm happy to be able to say that it didn't let me down. Quite the contrary!
Despite the somehow implausible premise (you'll have to boost your "suspension of disbelief" powers quite a bit to accept this imaginary country in the Urals where people apparently speak among themselves either in Japanese, Russian or English! >__<), the script sill managed to develop that brilliantly and pretty much realistically (newsflash: if you thought that spies had anything - even remotely - to do with James Bond's fantasy world, well, think again; the ugly and gritty truth is a lot closer to what we have here - murder, lies, betrayal).
The cast did also temendously well (with honorable mentions for the gorgeous Nakayama Miho, the great Kaneshiro Takeshi, and last but not least for the übersexy "Fayray" - wow, that singer sure is a looker!)
A beautiful OST coupled with a fine production value wrapped up the whole thing very nicely.
What's not to like? 10/10!

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I've watched this for Kubo Shiori, and I'm happy to confirm that at least she didn't let me down; on the contrary, I've found her acting (but honestly, the rest of the cast did well too) the best part of this drama (and BTW I find her particularly gorgeous here, what with the pale moon face, the jet-black hair and the red lipstick and cloak, and the tsundere character....but that's another story entirely, sorry).
Unfortunately, I'm not really happy about the script; the series consists of eight episodes and four unrelated stories, taking two episodes each; no explanation whatsoever is given about the main character, her origins and/or goals; she appears as a cruel, damning devil in one story, and as a kind Deus ex machina in another one. I'd sum up the script as "chaotic, inconsistent and ethically questionable", honestly. All imho, I'm sure many will love it precisely for that.
The music, which would befit a 90's videogame, despite not being my favorite genre (like, not in the least), is nonetheless catchy and adequate for the show's atmosphere.
Production value is pretty good too.
Personally, another detail that made the series lose points in my eyes is the typical abuse of English terms - employed in the same way as pseudolatin is in young adults' novels - a kind of "mumbo jumbo" that reminded me of an Italian comedian (Mago Forest, for those who know) and his old skits filled with silly inventions which were given an English (or rather, English-sounding) name for pseudomarketing reasons (like the small pair of strainers to be worn around one's neck, so as to catch the eventual falling earring during a night out - and accordingly called by the comedian as the "No More Lost Orecchin In The Night ©" - with "orecchin" being the macaronic English from "orecchino" - 'cause the average Italian Joe might know the words "no", "more", "lost", "in", "the" and "night", but might actually struggle remembering "earring", LOL. Well, that's how all the psychological "English" mumbo-jumbo used in this series sounded to my ears...^__^;;;

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If you love mahjong, you're gonna love this!

First things first: if you don't know the game, I'd suggest you skip this. Honestly, chances are, you'll find it boring and/or simply incomprehensible.
BUT. If you play, know and love the game (the three things are interconnected: you can't play it if you don't know it, and you can't but love it if you know and play it), then you'll be able to understand all its intricacies. And you're just gonna love this drama! ^______^
The script is close to being perfect: the authors' love for mahjong transpires from every scene, the characters are written tridimensionally (quite a feat, given how they're stitting at a mahjong table the whole time!), and the "villains" are not so villainy after all, but rather opponents who could end up being friends under different circumstances (Harada is imho the kind of "villain" - again, quotation marks - that every writer would love to create!).
Although they also play several episodes by "house rules", those are still totally realistic or at least plausible, The moves, the strategies, the discards...all of them are realistically depicted, and as a player myself I'd almost always play exactly as the characters do, discarding the same tiles etc. - sign that it's well done (true, their discard-reading skills are sometimes a bit more than normal, but it's ok, seriously).
The cast did a marvelous job as a whole; just as in "Akagi" script and cast had gone hand in hand (unfortunately, in that case, being both lousy!), the same happened here, but in this case it meant that a great script was performed very well; kudos to all of them.
Some nice music, direction, editing and photography complete the package.
Perfect 10, as far as I'm concerned.

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