Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri Review

Title: Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri

Genre: Detective, Comedy

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2012-Apr to 2012-Jun

Theme song: Your Eyes by Arashi

Cast: Aiba Masaki, Fujiki Naohito, Okura Tadayoshi, Oomasa Aya and Matsuko Deluxe.

Katayama Yoshitaro (Aiba Masaki) is a detective really unsuitable for the job: he is afraid of heights, blood and women. He loves doing housework, is incredibly naïve, believing everyone, and is very gentle and too nice. Being forced to be a detective by his older brother Katayama Hiroshi (Fujiki Naohito) and younger sister Katayama Harumi (Oomasa Aya), due to the family’s percept “One family, one detective” meaning that there is every generation has to be one detective. Hiroshi dreams and strives to become a novelist, and Harumi is working part-time jobs dreaming of becoming an actress. The two basically don’t let Yoshitaro quit his job so the two can do whatever they want, even when Yoshitaro takes a resignation letter to his boss, the siblings make sure to go to his workplace and take back the letter.

After his 4^th failed resignation, he and his fellow co-worker detective Ishizu (Okura Tadayoshi) are assigned to go to a girl’s school, where Yoshitaro sees a cat. He is warned about the cat having a reputation of scratching and biting people so no one wants it, but when he approaches the cat, nothing happens. The cat is introduced as Holmes, and when he takes it home he is surprised to see the cat transform into a human form (Matsuko Deluxe), but only in front of him/in his eyes. When a murder happens in the same school Holmes helps Yoshitaro, and slowly Yoshitaro becomes better and better at his job.

This is a very family oriented drama, which focuses on making the audience guess who the killer is. Presenting the evidence do that everyone understands, and having a family discuss the issues makes the audience get involved and helping them guess the methods and reasons. The cats as ‘Holmes’ gives it a humorous side to it, and having the lead actor not being interested in being a detective makes it funnier than usual police dramas. This drama suits Aiba the most, and fits his personality almost perfectly.

I did enjoy this mainly because it’s not as annoying as the typical dramas, and it’s very light, meaning a great break from all other dramas. A good Japanese drama.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Inu wo Kau to Iu koto Review

Title: Inu wo Kau to Iu koto

Genre: Family

Episodes: 9

Broadcast period: 2011-Apr to 2011-Jun

Theme song: My Home by Kanjani8

Cast: Nishikido Ryo, Mizukawa Asami, Kuge Kokoro and Yamasaki Ryutaro.

This story is about the Hongo family: the father Hongo Yuuji (Nishikido Ryo), the mother Hongo Sachiko (Mizukawa Asami), the son Hongo Masaru (Yamasaki Ryutaro) and the narrator, the daughter and youngest Hongo Mako (Kuge Kokoro).

Yuuji works as a salary man, and has a hard time, getting all the dirty work by requiring the resignations from factory workers - which mostly ends up with him kneeling, or the one people vent their anger on. Sachiko is a housewife, but also works part-time several places in order for the family to survive. Though poor, the family is scraping money in order to take a family trip, by saving pennies.

One day Mako sees a stray dog that keeps returning to the same spot, abandoned by his owner. She ends up saving the dog from dog catchers and decides to bring it home. And changes the family for good…

This is one cute family drama! It has all the real-life issues that people have a hard time dealing with, and surprisingly very educational - not in the teaching aspect, but more of an inspirational characteristic… I honestly have a weird feeling that Nishikido Ryo has some secret family somewhere and he is preparing all his fans by making them watch all these family dramas, so that they won’t be shocked to see him with family. Besides that this drama has great actors, the kids even, which made it more enjoyable. The dog in this drama wasn’t the complete focus, yet part of the bigger picture.

Overall pretty enjoyable!

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Juui Dolittle Review

Title: Juui Dolittle
Genre: Animal
Episodes: 9
Broadcast period: 2010-Oct till 2010-Dec
Cast: Oguri Shun, Inoue Mao and Narimiya Hiroki

Tottori Kenichi (Oguri Shun) is a mean, unsocial vet, who only works for money, it seems. He is very talented, and cool-headed, but has problems being around people, mainly because he prefers animals over humans. He feels that humans are horrible creatures, and likes to give people lessons and giving them his clear opinion, if they in any way seem not to show 100% of care towards their animals.
One day, Tajima Asuka (Inoue Mao) comes to his clinic, after being turned down by other vets, and was recommended Tottori from Hanabishi Masaru (Narimiya Hiroki) a vet-celebrity, who went to school with Tottori and believes that Tottori is the best vet of all. Tajima asks Tottori to take care of her horse, Asuka Mirai a racehorse who broke its leg during a race, but the first thing Tottori does is telling Tajima the price of the surgery and the recovery treatment, which ends up being extremely expensive. After some while, Tajima agrees, and decides to work at Tottori’s clinic to pay him back.
But someone near them hurts animals, much to Tottori’s despair.

Short and honestly, it was good. Brilliant cast and decent enviorment makes a great drama. Though I felt that sometimes the script didn’t really do the actors justice, and 50% of it seemed fake. But somehow they managed to fix it, and make everything seem okay. Oguri Shun as Tottori is not only a totally different sight of him, but he does it with such an ease that you would think that he’d always played this character. Mao as Tajima was nice, though her character is dull and very typical for her, but on the other hand, it suits her. Narimiya as the ‘charasmatic vet’ was perfect, and like Oguri they sort of became the characters, instead of acting them out.
This drama is good, if you are an animal lover, otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it. The focus is mainly on animals and how pet owners treat their animals, also it touches the subject about how vets ‘survive’ the competition..

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Jenji's verdict
My first this kind of drama i think, and it was quite good. Of course it had something to do with the actors,, keehee. like Oguri Shun, which was really simply just great. Again he shows his great skills, acting a role like this, i was really surprised. Though in this drama he is like reeeaally really grown up and all. like really MAN.. u knw. But his acting,,, wuufff... And then Narimiya hiroku,, which was also really good. But the whole drama is like really serious and it almost only had something to do with animals (of course duuh), and well that side story with the evil-rich-guy-and-his-screwed-up-family , but other than that it was all about needing to take care of your surroundings as we share it with the nature as well. It was a cool drama, with a bit comedy here and there. But it was serious and not just something for fun. And i really enjoyed the personality Tottori, it was cool, like he was so realistic all the time and people find him rude but what he really wants is to help everybody, but in his own way. Maybe one of the things i didnt like that much was the character of Mao,, i didnt like that she was one of those that like cry the whole time and get too emotional, and in a few episodes she like totally qualified to be a nurse,, huuuh?, i mean i know she studied and all but like.. she doesnt even have experience.

☆☆☆½ /3.5 stars out of 5

♥♥♥♥/ 4 hearts out of 5