Lily_B

Best Japanese Drama of 2014: Gunshi Kanbei, Roosevelt Game, The Long Goodbye

Best Historical Drama: Gunshi Kanbei

Best Family Drama: Wakamono tachi

Best Japanese Supporting Actor: Eguchi Yosuke (Gunshi Kanbei)

Best Couple: Chiaki/Wahei, Saigo kara nibanme no koi (Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi)

Most Overrated Drama: Alice no toge

Best Mystery Drama: The Long Goodbye

Best Human Drama: Boku no ita jikan

Oh, I didn't think about that, a flashback. Yeah, in that case we will know. I'm not very used to k-dramas. :)

I don't know; I feel the way you do! My guess is that nobody knows how she got sick, at this point. The weird mother-in-law said it was Il Ri's fault because Hee Soo collapsed when the couple returned from the honeymoon. That's all. It makes absolutely no sense, so my guess is that she just got some sudden disease. OR there could be another reason because I think that in that very heated argument between the parents they also mentioned something about Hee Soo, I think? (I must confess I mostly rolled my eyes at how crazy they acted so I could have missed something. At first I thought it was strange that Il Ri had to care about it but now I think she wanted them to stop shouting for Hee Soo's sake.)

Well, I haven't seen her in many dramas yet but I liked her in Iki mo dekinai natsu, don't know if you've tried it!

I don't think my favourite songs are the popular ones (except the ones from HYD in the previous article and maybe the one from Gokusen 1st season, I don't know!). I haven't heard any of the songs mentioned before. :)

Sadly a somewhat overrated drama in my opinion. I did appreciate that both the main leads are very beautiful (eye candy everywhere, what rainruma said is true) and the first few episodes are good, but then it's a draggy drama with some (but not all, thank goodness!) of the usual drama clichés.

I'd like to point out, though, that even though a lot of people don't take very angry reviews seriously, this is so not a "love triangle' in that sense! It's just... not as good as it should have been.

I think many people are more or less intimdated by long dramas but just like you I fell in love with it from the first episode - I was surprised by how much I liked it - and that's why it's great that you wrote this article. Hopefully many more people will decide to give it a try, and they will realize immediately how right you are.

I agree with everything, especially the acting. The characters are young when they're introduced and they get older... sometimes when actors don't act their natural age it's just very awkward and strange, but all of these people are doing a great job!

Also, I'd like to add that even for a person who does not know a lot about Japanese history (I've got a vague general idea but certainly not to the point of knowing names or being able to tell whether something is accurately portrayed or not), this drama is highly enjoyable! Even if some things may be a little hard to fully understand sometimes, I have never felt confused or bored because I can't follow it, quite the opposite! So, to anyone who happens to read this comment and hesitate to watch because of lack of history knowledge: don't be scared; you'll learn to love it, and love to learn!

I am behing in watching this now, I just don't have time for anything, but I miss it and can't wait to get back to watching it.

P.S. What do you mean by "my eternal Oda Nobunaga", don't think you can keep him for yourself! :p ...As much as I liked Eguchi Yosuke (who may have been my reason to start this...) before, his portrayal of this complex person is just amazingly unforgettable.

What a good idea! This will be fun. :)

This was a fun article! :)

For my perfect man, I would use Fujiki Naohito as a template. <3

Ingredients:
Bookish - Koi
Smart - Liar Game
Kind - Nagareboshi
Good with kids - Daisuki
Piano player - also Daisuki
Likes food and good cook - Lunch Queen
Helpful and protective - Iki mo dekinai natsu
Serious, intense and artistic - Beethoven Virus
Adorable, understanding and dedicated - Queen In Hyun's Man

*lol* I could probably think of more and other examples, but yeah, something like that...

The synopsis doesn't make it sound interesting at all, but your review is very convincing!

"Users must be located in the US(including its territories) and Canada to enter." Oh, I knew it... Well, good luck to you guys! I've never tried any Japanese snack/candy but maybe I'll find something somewhere. :)

He should win an award for that performance. Or ten awards. All the awards, really!

(And then I want to see him in something like Iki mo dekinai natsu again, but the love story less between-the-lines :P)

Hello Anastassia, I'm glad you liked the drama - it's on my ptw-list because I like food dramas. :)

I think that more people would find your review helpful if you could try to explain *why* you loved it so much. In which ways does Aoi Yu show her talent? What about the rest of the cast? What about the story makes you feel that it is heartwarming?

"For some people this may seem like an irresistible drama" *lol* I feel like you are talking about me. ;) Actually, when I read the synopsis for Sayonara Watashi I was thinking that I'm probably not going to watch it. Then you mentioned Fujiki Naohito and suddenly it seemed like an irresistible one. ;) Hm, but I don't know.

I'm excited about Doctor X, because I feel like I know what I'll get (and the 2nd season was better than the 1st which was good enough, so I have hope it'll be good). N no tame ni does sound interesting! And maybe I'll try a few of the others, like the one with the chaotic plot description and the Nobunaga one maybe...

Yes, I understand why he confessed to it, what I don't get was why it was included in the scrip to start with! I think it was just a way to get rid of him and make her return to her husband... But yeah, I think so, too - that's the messsage they were trying to send! I guess I just didn't see it coming until the last few episodes...

And this thing with Japan and single mothers... we've seen it in so many dramas; I'm not surprised by it anymore... Also, one reason why the teacher did in fact not leave his wife after all has to do with him being a teacher, I suppose. It is written in their Basic Act on Education that teachers shall be "deeply conscious of their noble mission", i.e. they have a duty to be perfect role models, morally. So, a teacher should not be "irresponsible" and get a divorce, and for the same reason (in other dramas) teachers shouldn't get pregnant before they are married, etc.

I think some dramas more than others show how different Japan is when it comes to certain things than the society I live in. (Of course, nobody would say even here that adultery is a good thing, but divorce and being a single mom are also not such terrible things.)

No, you're right about that. There were many good things to be found in this drama. I was never sure about a happy ending - at least not for everyone. But I didn't mean just episode 11, it was obvious even before that.

I disliked how Kato's ex wife showed up out of blue and suddenly wanted him back. The plagiarism twist was sudden and weird. The way they said their goodbye was just strange to me... Because Noriko was in love with her husband, jealousy and anger is a normal reaction - but I would have felt for her more if she hadn't turned into such an obsessive character. One thing I always find it hard to understand about j-dramas is how one character (usually the one we call the Evil Second Lead, though) insists on staying with the other one even though s/he doesn't love him/her. I don't get it. "Even if you don't love me, I have to possess you no matter what!" I don't see how you can bear spending the rest of your life with a person who is in love with somebody else. That's why the contract they were forced to sign just made me roll my eyes.

And the scene where all of them came to drag Sawa and Kitano away from each other, as if they were two children who had run away from their parents... It is true that we must stick to the rules of society, and of course it is true that adultery and betrayal is wrong, but when you have a scenario like this one, it becomes absurd. They're literally kicking and screaming to stay together, they love each other - but no, they are not allowed to, and they end up accepting that they're not. I find it hard to believe that it would happen in real life. If this was considered normal, then it would be logical to make divorce illegal alltogether, since the bottom line is that once you're married, your spouse's family owns you...

I think the worst part is that all the way through the end, Sawa kept blaming herself just like she did from the start. It makes me furious, to be honest. Okay, so passion and romance isn't everything, but isn't it normal to want something more from a marriage than to play house with a grown-up child and his hamsters? Even though Shunsuke did agree to divorce her in the end, his last words were still that he could not understand her.

That's why I felt that I didn't like the direction this was taking. During most part of this drama I saw it as something like the quest for happiness even though you must face hardship...

This is not to say that I disrespect the idea of marriage, but if a marriage is in fact not at all happy...

Real life can be sad, boring and depressing sometimes. That's why it's not very uplifting to watch a drama where the message seems to be: "Love is wrong, and you shall be punished for it!" :(

I just don't understand how this drama could be so wonderful, and then turn into the most disappointing thing ever?

*sighs* I wish I could agree with you on that... This drama, though, I loved it for the most part and if just some things had been different I would have rated it ten. Anyway, I'll be interested in your thoughts if you do watch this.

I agree that it was good that Rikako stayed with her daughters because one cliché that I am very tired of seeing is where a character is deeply traumatized because his parents abandoned him when he was little. There were obvious reasons why she did that. BUT I still find if very sad that the society she lives in leaves no other choice for women than to either stay in a loveless marriage where the husband keeps her as a doll (the way he sees it, he has bought her) or to abandon her children and live a hard life and be despised by society. The girls were just children, of course one must feel bad for them. Mana, though, was old enough to at least partly grasp the truth - before Rikako's affair was revealed, Mana even took her side against the father - which I (being an optimist) want to think of as hopeful for the future... A happy ending for Rikako would probably have been unrealistic (when have we ever seen a drama husband such as hers say "okay, let's get a divorce, and you can have the children!") but I must confess that I wanted that...

When it comes to Sawa, though, I can't see how it was selfish of her to want to be happy. She wanted to be loved as a woman; Shunsuke wanted a housekeeper and a playmate. So yes, she made him unhappy, but he made her unhappy first, and why is it that his happiness is more important than hers? In the end he agreed to divorce her, but even then he said that he couldn't understand her...

I would watch Joker Game, possibly Clover. Omoi no koshi sounds like fun, too. I'm usually up for teacher/student stories, but Yamapi... doesn't interest me too much. Anyway, thanks for writing, it always make me happy to see Japan news/articles on here. :) I'd love a part 2.