This review may contain spoilers
I hope you will forgive the (by now, totally abused) pun, but this is the Nth case of a special...which was actually *nothing special* at all! On the contrary, it was actually a *huge* let down, given how the original series, so brilliant as it was, had set of course the expectations bar pretty high. Unfortunately, it couldn't live up to that.
The script was but a pale shadow of what it used to be during the series: the once complex machinations became an idiotic and dull plan, and the once hilarious comedy relief scenes became ridiculous, embarrassing and not-funny-in-the-least moments; "cherry" on top, the usual (and oh-so-satisfying) final retribution to the villain lacked almost completely here.
The acting was also negatively influenced by the poor script, resulting in a barely ok performance.
The music is the only thing that remained at the top-notch level of the original series.
All in all, this doesn't bode well at all for the second season...>____<
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But guys, believe me: to say that this drama has surpassed my expectations would be an utter understatement; it's been a tremendously brilliant watch that I thoroughly enjoyed from its very first minute to the very last!!!
Fabulously written (you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think, you'll smile....the whole nine yards, seriously!) and so aptly acted by the whole cast! Hard to choose only three "special mentions" among this star-studded cast, but I'll go with Katori Shingo (I'm normally no big fan of former SMAP members' acting, but he's the exception to this personal rule: always superb imho! BRAVO!), Maya Miki (again, always absolutely marvelous!) and Yahagi Honoka (the junior cast was also very good as a whole, with some better than others though, and imvho she simply was the best of the lot).
To complete the package, a beautiful OST (I particularly enjoyed the ending credits samba!) and a very good production value.
Perfect 10, as far as I'm concerned! ^______^
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But it was a good type of quirkiness (heck, for the most part, the best type - more on that in a jiff), and it made the watch a very pleasant one.
The cast did very well, not only the leads (Odagiri as the weird detective, Ishibashi Renji as the old boss of the agency, and the voluptuos Koizumi Maya as the secretary providing, at the same time, comic relief and eye candy), but also the guest stars and supporting cast.
The music was, imho, the best part of the drama; opening and closing credits songs by the great EGO-WRAPPIN'...need I say more? ^____-
Direction, editing and photography were also very nice and contributed as well to the great atmosphere.
The only problem I have with this dorama is that, story-wise, not all episodes were at the same, tremendously high level; some were absolute masterpieces, seriously (I'll name #3, 6, 8, 11 and the first half of #10 - it's the only episode containing two different stories), but a coupla episodes were just so-and-so, and a coupla more were actually quite bad, imho. Had they avoided those, I might have given this a perfect 10. All things considered, it's more like a solid 8.5 though; not using half grades, I'll be generous and rate it a 9. ^___-
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm normally wary of specials originating from a previous series, as in my experience, more often than not, they tend to be a complete let-down. It wasn't the case here, luckily! ^__^Instead, this SP of "Zetsumeshi Road" managed to bring back on screen all the aspects that had made me give such a high grade to the original series: the ML's weird-but-deep hobby (searching for "endangered dishes" on the roads of Japan, sleeping in his car during his salaryman's short week-ends), some nice scenery from Japan's countryside, and last but not least, the portrayal of real restaurants with their real problems and the real stories of the people behind them.
Oh, and finally, my beloved Sakai Wakana got a little bit more screentime, as this SP focused on the theme "marriage" and most of all, on how to make it work. The "endangered restaurants" the ML visited this time (oh, yeah, two of them in this double-length SP, yay!) presented him with two possible (albeit quite different!) answers...and inspired him on how to mend things up with his wife.
Once again, the cherry on top is when they showed pics of the real restaurants' owners, alongside the actors who had portrayed them.
And once again, the fact they have left Kaburagi's subplot hanging prevented me from giving this a "perfect 10", just as for the original drama, LOL! I promise that if they ever make another SP wrapping that up nicely too, I'm gonna correct their grades right away! Until then, it's another (very) solid "9"...^___^
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I honestly thought I was gonna drop it after one or two episodes, annoyed as I was probably gonna be by the Nth "romance" (or how I actually call it, "what passes for romance these days", ehm...) drama with the Nth "cold/arrogant male lead" (which, sorry to sound so harsh, I interpret, more often than not, as "the ML couldn't show an emotion even if his life depended on it, so they had to write his character like that", LOL)...but man, was I wrong!!! ^__^;;;
The truth is, this little drama got a beautifully written script, with a nice message, the proper amount of romance (please note, no quotation marks this time!) and comedy (some of the comic relief scenes were honestly hilarious!), with wholesome, clean characters and an extremely interesting "behind the scenes" look at the acting world...and in addition to all that, the drama manages to shine also thanks to the very convincing performances by the whole cast (BRAVO, everybody!), and last but not least to some nice music.
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But whereas I had quite liked "Pure", I'm not gonna be able to give this the passing grade, sorry.
Apart from a coupla episodes, the mystery plots weren't really interesting nor very well done; the characters felt horribly bidimensional and neither particularly endearing nor actually that funny (imho the comic relief moments in this were only weird, without being at the same time hilarious, as it had been the case in "Pure"); despite having a pretty remarkable cast (with also Narita Ryo and Emoto Tokio in supporting roles), the actors couldn't shine, due to the dull script they had to work with; direction and photography were okay, and the music pretty good, but that's way too little to get anything more than a five, at least from me.
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It's a bit hard to explain why this SP is so good, without giving away any detail, but that'd be a real pity 'cause it'd rob you of the lovely experience of finding out by yourselves...so let's just say that it's a romantic but at the same time realistic tale, set in a beautiful rural scenery and graced by an extremely good performance by Tokiwa Takako and by some nice music on top of that.
(Of course, if your ideal of "romantic" story is something like "rich and arrogant CEO with a Ferrari + young and naive secretary with long eyelashes", you might disagree...)
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Having changed their name (and separated from the sister group), the Hinatazaka46 girls got their own "Bingo", of which this was the first season.
Except for the V-tubers episode (which, personally, I think nobody older than 10 will find enjoyable, LOL), it was a solid variety show, the cherry-on-top of which was the new MC: I must confess I didn't know Koyabu Kazutoyo at all, so at first I was taken aback by his gruff, borderline rude approach...but it didn't take me long to realize that, behind that curt façade, there's a very nice person - he honestly reminded me a lot of my old Latin & Ancient Greek high school teacher, back at the end of the 80s / beginning of the 90s: he always acted all tough and grumpy, but he had a really great heart and we all missed him dearly, after we graduated!)
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I've noticed that the next sequel, "Kamiki Ryunosuke no Satsukyu", is coming soon, and I'm looking forward to watching that one as well - and while we're at it, if then they feel like continuing with another season, please allow me to hope for a "Morikawa Aoi / Fukuhara Haruka / Ohara Sakurako / Okada Yui no Satsukyu" (any of those four would make my day! ^___-)
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Although I still find the idols' "core business" (pop music and choreographies) unappealing (so much so that I won't hide the fact that, with very few exceptions, whenever they showed a song's performance at the end of the episodes, I'd just fast forward it, sorry), I'll still admit that these idols' variety shows are, a) pretty well done, and b) obviously quite addictive!
The MCs are to be praised (BTW: Tsuchida, Sawabe, Wakabayashi, Kasuga...all from Saitama! Does that prefecture produce a particularly high percentage of comedians, or is this a mere coincidence? >__<), but so are the authors who mostly kept the things interesting and lively, and last but certainly not least so are the girls themselves, many of whom are indeed quite talented.
BTW, whereas with the "Kanji Keyaki" I really liked a few of the members but at the same time really disliked some of the rest (from whom I kept getting some really evil vibes) and overall the group's dark aura, with these "Hiragana/Hinatazaka" I'll have to say they seem all nice to me, and the group's aura feels also much more uplifting and sunnier (no surprise their fans are called "ohisama", LOL). All imho so please take no offense if you happen to think otherwise...^__-
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This review may contain spoilers
Another SP that is...nothing special!
And here I am, once again commenting on a SP episode with the (by now, I'll admit, a bit trite) pun "another SP that is...nothing special!" ^_^;;;The premise seemed like it could be developed into one of those quirky comedies Japan is quite good at, but imho what we have here is just a load of quirkiness without anything else, so it ends up being weird but neither funny nor particularly entertaining.
The fault lies with the script, which feels both tremendously shallow and terribly incomplete (things happens without the least explanation, the story is totally unresolved, the very quirkiness of the FL doesn't get a background story, we're just supposed to accept that she behaves like a robot without ever getting to know *why*!)
Takahata Mitsuki is beautiful and also a good actress, but here the lousy script compells her not to show the least emotion for, like 95% of the story - only in the final scene, when her character is finally allowed to open up, can she show her (remarkable) acting skills! Such a waste of her talent....T____T
Last note about the food: way too simple and unappealing.
4/10 (and I feel like I'm being generous! >__<)
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This review may contain spoilers
This SP is very good, but the following one isn't!
WARNING: this review won't only contain some spoilers about this SP episode of "Tokyo Sentimental" ("Senju no Koi"), but also about the following one (Ochanomizu no Koi").Continue reading only if that doesn't bother you!!!
"Tokyo Sentimental" had started with a very nice SP, then came the equally brilliant drama, and finally these two further SPs.
I could sum up my feelings about them by saying "I really wish there had been only one instead of two!" >___<
Elaborating a bit more on that: this "Senju no Koi" is beautifully scripted and acted (Kuroki Hitomi is such a perfectly chosen guest star, and such a lovely match for Kururi-san!), and I loved every single minute of it...except for the unresolved, bittersweet "ending"!
I really wished the writer(s) had shipped those two together, as it would've been THE perfect way to end this "Tokyo Sentimental" franchise.
Instead, they went for that "ending" so that they could later add another SP ("Ochanomizu no Koi") which I found, in all honestly, so weak that it didn't even reach the passing grade. Such a sad way to make the audience part from this endearing character! T____T
9/10 to "Senju no Koi" (it would've been a perfect 10 with an appropriate ending!) and 5/10 to "Ochanmizu no Koi".
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It can be appreciated also by those who aren't "idol-wotas" ^_^
First things first: I've never been into idols.Matter of fact, as I've written in another review while discussing why, despite being generally speaking a japanophile, I am a bit of a rare specimen since I really don't care for anime (nor for sushi, but that's another story ^_^;...): "...the whole concept of 'moe' gives me the creeps..." - and adding insult to injury, the few times I had happened to see an idol group's MV I was in all honesty bothered both by the (to me - please take no offense!) unappealing music, and by the (again, to me - really, no offense meant!) unappealing choreographies.
Dammit, I had even dropped the asadora "Amachan" halfway, when the idol story arc began - so little interest I had in the whole thing! >___<
So, how the hell have I ended up watching this show (and, on top of that, liking it too!)? ^__^;
It all started with Imaizumi Yui.
Totally by chance, I saw some pictures of her, and that adorable face got my attention right away. I then searched her on YT, found a solo ballad of hers (日が昇るまで - pretty nice song, BTW! ^__-) and really loved her voice too!
At that point it came natural to me to look for her dramas/movies, but I couldn't find her only main role (at least so far - the movie "Korogaru Bidama") and the rest are either the two dramas done with the rest of her idol group (only one subbed - "Tokuyama Daigoro wo Dare ga Koroshita ka"; watched a coupla episodes; found it terrible...) or else very minor roles in dramas I'm not particularly interested in anyway ("Hidarikiki no Eren", "The Good Wife", etc....).
Finally, I decided to give a try to one of the variety shows she took part in, together with the rest of the group, and here I am.
I've watched the first two seasons of this "KeyaBingo!" (by the time the third one started, she'd already left the group - "graduated", as I've found out they say in this, for me, still quite mysterious - though a little bit less than before - world) and honestly, it was a whole lot better than I had imagined it would be!
The MCs are funny, some of the guests were positively *hilarious*, and some of the girls are tremendously cute and/or talented and/or funny (in addition to "Zuumin", I'll name at least Nagahama Neru and Sato Shiori!).
On the other hand I must confess I got really evil vibes from some of the other girls (for those who'll know what I'm talking about: like real-life versions of Choko from Urasawa Naoki's "Happy!" manga, URGH!!! >__<), so much so that I wasn't very surprised when I read about the alleged bullying episodes that possibly had a role not only in Imaizumi's - and others' - "graduation", but also in the group changing its name later on (disgusted, yes; surprised, not really - but once again, that's another story completely).
Back to the good aspects of this show: the cherry on top is the last episode of the 1st season, featuring an überfunny "battle" between Keyakizaka46 and Ito Asako (46) - LOL, that Japanese female comedian is really *hilarious*!!! ^_______^
Now, I'm not gonna become an "idol wota" any time soon, LOL...but I can man up enough as to publicly confess that I've found this variety show to be a surpisingly pleasant and entertaining watch.
Therefore, believe me, even people who aren't big fans of the whole idol thingy can totally appreciate this. Why not give it a try? If anything, you should all be able to enjoy at least that episode I referred to, LOL! ^______^
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Just as good as the original SP!
If you liked the original SP, there's a high chance you'll like the drama as well!Yoshida Kotaro gives another solid performance as the main character whose real age doesn't really match his heart's (meaning, he's so young at heart that he'll always fall in love at first sight - just to be brought back to reality before each episode ends, LOL) and whose best quality is that, despite being initially moved by maybe-not-so-pure-intentions and by a pretty self-centered attitude (always thinking that the woman is interested in him, LOL), in the end he always puts the other person's feelings and needs first, showing the moral strength of an Edo-period samurai. Such a beautifully written character, indeed! (oh, and while we're at it: it's so refreshing to have a middle aged man as the main character! I wish there were more dramas like this!)
The supporting cast also does a nice job, particularly Takahata Mitsuki and Ogura Shun, who make up with (acting) quality to what they might lack in (screentime) quantity, giving a lot of depth to their characters - so much friendship transpires through those meaningful - and often silent - glances they give Kururi-san everytime he goes off on a tangent, convinced as he is that he's found his next bride-to-be.
The script is mostly very well-written, although some episodes are definitely better than others - as it's to be expected; the music is really nice and adds to the whole viewing experience, just like the direction and photography.
I think the only "problem" this series has (and that's the reason why I don't give it a "perfect 10") is that it's tremendously repetitive after a while; in order to avoid being bothered by this aspect, I'd suggest you do like me and dilute the watch over a longer period, so that each episode can feel "fresh" (I totally think this is NOT the series you'd want to binge-watch!)
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