MaSuNaRa

To be honest, the itakiss drama is not as good as the animation, it's not really a problem with the drama itself as much as it is a problem with it not being an animation, I know it had another drama adaptation previously but I never watched it so I don't know, but the thing with japanese dramas is that they manage to give depth to the story but not as much to the events and situations , i.e. they create firm and solid stories but you don't get to see enough of the characters on the move so you sometimes find difficulty getting attached to them (especially when compared to KDramas who kin of excel in that field

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I watched clannad a long time ago but I remember how I loved that couple but above all I adore tomoya's character a lot to the extent that I sometimes saw my ideal type in him. I also remember how confused I was at the ending with the time backwards and different course of events happening but still i loved that animation a lot, interesting characters and amusing story & script that managed to make me cry badly one moment only to fall off my chair the next laughing.
Itazura na Kiss, was my first shoujo (girls) anime that I ever watched. I fell in love with it immediately, so although I was watching it while in Japan, I sent my sisters a link while chatting with them and told them they HAD to watch it, the result: my sisters ended up itakiss addicts even more than I am ;-)
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It happened before, to receive an email and yet find no friend requests on the site, it might also be happening with a couple of the friend requests I sent as well :-)

There seems to be quite some bugs and issues that need to addressed here on MDL. Anyhow, thanks a lot for the friend request! What type of shows do u prefer? Tell me your favorites

Hi -Winnie- (^-^)/
Thanks for accepting my friend request!
I like your introduction and especially your favorite couple ;-) I also watched Clannad around 2 years ago and fell in love with the main couple they're simply super cute!><

Well, right now you can say i'm on a bit of a pause, lately I've finished watching a couple of JDoramas (Kazoku game, Kagi no kakatta heya & Mother) and I'm supposed to be currently watching Itazura na Kiss ~ love in Tokyo~ but there's a problem with our Internet connection at home so unfortunately I can't download the latest 2 episodes.
As for kdramas, the "To Watch List" just seems to be getting longer and longer with not enough time to fulfill it :((

Is there any JDoramas or KDramas that you've watched lately and would recommend to me :-)

Hi!! I've received an email notification that says I've got a friend request from you, but when I access MDL I can't seem to find it. If there's been a mistake no problem, if you actually sent a friend request then I hope you don't think i have rejected it, and do please try sending a new one

Hi!! I've received an email notification that says I've got a friend request from you, but when I access MDL I can't seem to find it. If there's been a mistake no problem, if you actually sent a friend request then I hope you don't think i have rejected it, and do please try sending a new one

Thanks a lot for the reply.
WoW!! Your summers seem hard! Reminded me a bit of Japan's summer season (Tsuyu). Hope everything's fine over there.

Flawless!!! Thanks for the compliment, but the more I read articles on MDL the more I realize just how much my English is no good. It's also a matter of lack of vocabulary knowledge, especially lately I'm spending ages gaping at my screen trying to sum up words to express my thoughts.

Now I'm dying to know what you've written about the strawberry night couple!! Looking forward to your article ;-)

You speak my mind!! Japanese DO excel in that field, if compared to Koreans. That & their stories somehow feel more profound than Korean ones, though Kdramas are better at character development than JDoramas, might just be thanks to more number of episodes ;-)

Thanks for the reply.
Well, somehow i felt Lucky 7 too light for my taste, I mean there was rarely anything serious going on concerning the background stories not every episode's case of course, it might just have been my mood at the time that ruined it for me. Anyhow, I never thought of watching the Special, but I might give it a try after all.

You know, now that you've mentioned it, I've always thought that japanese dramas have that ability of creating specials that beat the drama itself. I remember that when I watched propose daisakusen (which is btw no where near my favorites) i felt that I enjoyed the special more than the drama itself. Also Rich Man poor woman's special had a lot of positive points that I thought I was glad they created it.

Hmmm, considering the ending of Kagi no kakatta, it would be a little difficult to make a sequel, though of course I would not mind it at all if they did ;-)

Nazotoki, huh? Never thought of watching it don't know why! But now after reading your words I'm feeling the temptation to, especially after watching Kazoku Game and getting amazed by how Sakurai's acting skills have developed.
Thanks for the recommendation, i'll be adding it to my list ;-)

Thanks a lot for accepting my friend request.
I read your review for bad family which encouraged me to watch, it was on my to watch list (on my pc) but i had forgotten it.

Every time I read one of the articles on MDL I wish I could write one myself but I'm always hesitant because I don't have enough confidence in my English besides not sure what to write.

Don't worry about articles being personal, that's totally normal, besides no one expects to find a 100% objective reasoning throughout the article, we're not professional critics after all and even them mix personal tastes :))

I'm so glad you found my review helpful, I always found them kind of lacking. But more than anything I'm glad you decided to put mother on your PtW list, it's definitely a drama worth watching.

Takeuchi IMO is one of the most talented japanese actresses, and although she sometimes delivers a very similar acting in some of her roles, she's somehow ALWAYS very convincing. No need to mention of course her undeniable charisma that makes even female viewers like me mesmerized by her every move.
It's a different issue, but her latest drama Strawberry Night made me realize that I'm more attracted to subtle romance scenes depending only on emotions with no or almost none visible actions more than direct romance scenes with love confessions and kisses and hugs. I always enjoyed the scenes with himekawa and kikuta, despite them being very few.

Thanks a lot for accepting my friend request. I loved your latest article about drama mysteries!! You are definitely one talented writer i believe you should be writing more and more not just on MDL of course.
I also love takeuchi yuuko and strawberry night is one of my favorites.
I will be looking forward to more and more of your helpful reviews and enjoyable articles.

This is one hilarious article!!! I LOVE IT <3 <3

you sure make a point, Asian dramas tend to brush off some of the most basic physical rules, especially ones related to sound waves!! I was rolling on the floor reading point number 5 :D

Unfortunately I have no answers to any if these mysteries, in fact some of them really do bugged me a lot, like:
-Always insisting on running and not thinking of taking a taxi when you're the most in a rush. We know that cabs in Asian countries tend to be a bit expensive but that must not be the case here right?
-The ever-so-famous riddle of removing cell phone batteries in Kdramas!!! They're still doing it with Smart phones which simply kills me!! And they're the leaders in the technology field you know!!
-Never thinking of looking up the boarding gate to the flight destination instead of searching up & down the entire airport for one individual, or even giving that someone a call just in case they haven't switched their cellphones to flight mode yet!!!

And many many other mysteries that are too common that while at first one tried to over look them, one finds oneself not noticing them anymore. So thanks for reminding us just how unexpectedly humorous Asian dramas can be sometimes ;-)

On a side note, I know u said u haven't watched the moon that embraces the sun, but I would like to say that Il woo did a great job and fitted the role nice, also the actor who played his young self resembled him a lot and did an even better job portraying the character, so it would have been a waste if Joo won had taken the job.

Wow!!!! This article sure hit my with some interesting & surprising pieces of information!!!
I've watched most of the shows on the list, save faith, me too flower, BOF & gentleman's dignity. I don't know about the first two, but I find that jan geun suk doesn't really fit the image of the F4 leader (as far as the Japanese original goes). & as for gentleman's dignity, out of all the turn-downs I thought this one a waste, I'm a bit of a cha seun won fan plus i find him more attractive than the guy who landed the role. To be honest, he's the main reason why I don't feel keen to watch the show :-(
I'm glad joo won got Bridal mask as well ;-)
But by far the most surprising of all the choices above, was the K2Hs one!!! I'm not necessarily suggesting that it would have been a bad choice if CSW had accepted the role, but come on!! It's either the storyline was first written to fit a man over 30 not a young 20-something guy, or that is some daring producer who thinks of casting such an actor to play such a character. O_o
Looking forward to your next parts (hope there's more and more)

AGREE!!
I was a bit disappointed to read negative reviews regarding the ending in particular, coz i found it so unique and kind of connecting all the dots together!

As an Arashi fan myself, i agreed the most with your opinion at the end of how the 5 members working together are always better than individually. But it would inpossible to create a drama with all of them acting as detectives. As for your wish that nino lands a role as the culprit in one pf the detective dramas the other members stared in, that's always possible if they made a sequel to one of the dramas and gave him a cameo in one of the episodes.
I've only watched kagi no kakatta heya and lucky seven, i liked the former and found ohno adorable, but I didn't really fancy the latter. I don't like Aiba's dramas plus this one sure has a queer premise, but i might be giving nazotoki a try after all.
Thanks for the nice article!!

Not at all ;-)
Well, I haven't been watching much new KDramas lately (I guess the latest i had watched was Level 7 Civil Servant) because i thought I'd take a bit of a rest from Korean Dramas and felt I really missed the Jdramas which i had lately been putting off a lot
I watched Kazoku game and loved it, Kagi no kakatta heya and liked it, and I'm currently watching Mother which I'm also greatly liking. I'm watching Itazura na Kiss~love in tokyo every week too, it's fine :-)

Your impression of Kazoku game is very close to mine, so though I agreed that the extreme measures he took to change the kids and eventually the whole family (sometimes vise versa) we indeed effective, there's no doubt they were way too cruel for a resonable mind to accept.
It's just a fictional drama so we tend to accept ad swallow stuff that don't make much sense, so though the plot itself might have been a bit outrageous the drama as a whole was simply spectacular.

As for Arashi, when i was in Japan it was so easy to watch all of their shows (not dramas) on TV so when I was back home it felt so frustrating to not e able to enjoy them all the same way, I loved their shows more than theor dramas or movies and sometimes even music ~_^*

I'm so glad to be able to talk about arashi in such a while
P.S. MDL comments' allowed number of characters seem more before you start to write one :-)

I totally agree with you. Sometimes I end up enjoying the OST of a drama (both vocals and instrumentals) more than the show itself. Example is Bad Guy and Baker King Kim Tak Go.
I also loved many of the instrumentals in Nice Guy and King2Hearts, and that piece from Flower Boy next door was my favorite too!! I have three pieces from Gaksital on my iPhone and always playing them, Gaksital, Destiny & I'm right beside you.
Other than the dramas you gave I enjoyed Rooftop Prince's OST a lot, and many of the instrumentals in there were on my iPhone for a long time.
But by far the Korean OST that had the most spectacular instrumentals was The Moon Embracing the Sun! I guessed you hadn't watched it when I didn't find it on your list here ;-)