Still, I can say I pretty much enjoyed this drama, thanks to its relaxing, almost-iyashikei overall atmosphere, to its clean script and to the extremely beautiful setting!
As for the leads, they're both very, very young and there's still a lot of room for improvement of course (I did find the FL the better half of the pair, personally).
Looking forward to watching the sequel!!! 8/10
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First things first, what I liked: namely, the settings (that goes without saying!), the OST, the cast (both leads did a good job).
Alas, the script was the weak point of this drama, in my humble opinion.
With this kind of episodic structure, it was to be expected that some episodes were going to be better than others, but it honestly was worse than expected. I think the biggest problem lies with the FL character having been written that way (as a mostly grumpy and not-so-kind person, wary of others - particularly when they're males. I found that quite offensive, sorry).
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So, where did this series surprise me?
In all fairness, being quite the "supokon" aficionado, while at the same time not caring much (if anything at all!) for company-themed power struggles, I started watching this thinking I was gonna like the sports part and not so much the company one....instead it was basically the other way around, and I enjoyed the intrigues more than the sports.
Where it did match my expectations, instead, was for all regarding rugby. I must confess not being a fan (at all) of this sport, and this was confirmed, sorry but it's way too violent for my taste (I'm a baseball fan, 'nuff said, LOL) - although I know that there's a lot of good things in rugby: I remember they used to describe the two most popular English sports as "football is a game designed for gentlemen but played by thugs, while rugby is a sport designed for thugs but played by gentlemen". There's some truth in there, honestly...^__^
Anyway, the script is okay, the acting pretty good, and the "packaging" definitely above average. So even if you don't like rugby, this still makes for a pleasant watch! 7/10
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Anyway, I'm happy to say that this drama has surprised me very positively; it reminded me a lot of "Tokyo Sentimental" and of the various "...no Satsukyu" dramas. It's part slice-of-life, part "iyashikei", part food drama, with a pinch of comedy and a healthy dose of "mono no aware".
The acting is top-notch, the production value very high, the music superb.
The only reason I'm not giving this a "perfect 10" is that, as it's to be expected with most dramas having an episodic formula, a coupla episodes were a bit weaker, imho. Still, it got very close! 9/10
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I also didn't really like the first episode(s), that made me think "Oh, boy, here's the Nth series with the *curt male lead*...at least he's no CEO so glass half full I guess".
But I'm happy I didn't drop it there, as the story slowly but surely picked up and became a lot deeper and much nicer than I had expected.
The cast did well (some better than others), the "packaging" was totally OK.
It should be more of a 7.5 but since I don't do decimals (an old habit I kept from jdorama.com where they weren't used!) I'll raise that grade to 8! ^___-
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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 premise is as interesting and original as they come, *artistic* in the true sense of the word (that is, without ever being the least bit *artsy*). It's a little hard to judge the acting, due to the static quality of the series (it's like a "manga for TV", so as to speak), but anyway I can't find any major fault in it, so it's all good.
As for the stories, as it is to be expected in such cases, alongside little masterpieces, there are also much weaker episodes. Had they kept only the top of the crop, I would've given this a perfect 10, seriously!
As is, it's still a solid 8 in my book! ^____-
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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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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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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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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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Kuroshinri Kanojo ga Oshieru Kindan no Shinrijutsu
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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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