Yokoso, Wagaya e Review

Title: Yokoso, Wagaya e

AKA: Welcome to my home

Genre: Family, Suspense

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2015-Apr to 2015-Jun

Theme song: Aozora no Shita, Kimi no Tonari by Arashi

Cast: Aiba Masaki, Sawajiri Erika, Arimura Kasumi, Minami Kaho and Terao Akira,

Kurata Kenta (Aiba Masaki) is a coward who avoids confrontation and disputes. Due to his upbringing he never bothers other people or does he trouble people, and uses preferably the sentence “I’m sorry” in any given circumstance. His father is the same way, and his mother is a happy person who never stops smiling. The only one in the family with a serious personality is the daughter, who is the complete opposite of everyone else.

The family is happy and loving family, until one day Kenta finds his courage and tells off a man who bothers people at the train platform. Here he also meets Kandori Asuka (Sawariji Erika) a woman that always speaks her mind without holding back.

After the situation the man runs off in embarrassment - but when Kenta takes the bus home that very man appears in the same bus. Creeped out Kenta gets out of the bus only to be followed by the man and it escalates with the man running after Kenta. Kenta runs around the neighborhood, and manages to lose him. The next morning though the flowerbeds in front of their house are ripped out. Unsure whether or not it is that man, Kenta wants to figure out who he is, and by pure luck meets Asuka again, who introduces herself as a journalist willing to help finding out the stalker.

But as it turns out more and more things start to happen to the family, continuously bothering them. Who can it be, and why the Kurata family?

My reason for watching this was mainly Aiba so I did not really read the summary of the plot. But I think that did kind of the good part here, not know what to expect.

The drama is a mellow family story with a psychological twist to it, as it is very disturbing to know that due to a little confrontation you can become a victim of severe stalking and what I call ‘chain-stalking’.  And to be honest, even though it isn’t all horror, it made my mouth dry quite a few times. Just the thought of ‘what-if-it-had-happened-to-me’ made me shiver. As I said: dirsturbing.

As a general it doesn’t isn’r scary, and the family is so adorable and fun to watch, so you don’t get that bored, but to be honest it is a bit too ‘chain-stalkerish’… you’ll get what I mean when/if you see it. And I wasn’t all that excited to find out the ending. Aiba is great as always, and to be honest everyone was good at acting, even Sawariji whom I never really liked before.

All in all: a good and interesting family drama with a hint of suspense.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Yowakutemo Katemasu Review

Title: Yowakutemo Katemasu

AKA: Even if we are weak, we will win

Genre: School, Drama, Sports

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2014-Apr to 2014-Jun

Theme song: GUTS by Arashi

Cast: Ninomiya Kazunari, Aso Kumiko, Fukushi Sota, Arimura Kasumi, Nakajima Yuto, Hongo Kanata and Yamazaki Kento

When his professor is suspected of falsifying a thesis, the sponsoring for the lab Tamo Aoshi (Ninomiya Kazunari) is working at is pulled back and he is left without a job. The professor promises that in a year he’ll fix the problem, but that still is a year without a job for Tamo. He contacts his old high school principle for a job as a biology teacher in the same high school, and gets the job and is assigned a class. The school is famous for smart kids that enter Toudai, and the students usually score good results in tests. While being there he is reminded of the time he was at the baseball, and how bad how he was, which made him leave baseball 13 years ago. Still unable to let it go, he finds himself drawn to the baseball team that is so bad, the students are not even able to catch the balls. Still loving the sports, the six members that are there are yearning for a good coach, and find out that Tamo used to be in the school’s baseball team.

Set to get his revenge on the school that made him feel weak and leave baseball, Tamo declares to that very school that he will win against them, by having these students win against them. Now he has to make the team a team, and find a way to make them win even if they are as bad as they are…

Another Arashi drama with Ninomiya as the lead actor. To be honest, I was really excited to watch a high school drama, and a baseball one on top of that. Though I was sceptic about Nino being in the role as the teacher, I have to admit he is perfect in this role. Generally he is a great actor, and acting as a Tamo-sensei is pretty perfect for him. The male cast, basically all the boys of the team, are really good at acting and even raise the quality of the drama. I was a bit annoyed at Arimura, but I guess it’s her face, because her character was okay.

The drama is also pretty slow passed, so there really is not that much going on. Lol, when I finished it I actually didn’t really know what I was expecting, but it didn’t really have that much of a climax.

All in all a greatly acted drama, with a slow pase.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Shitsuren Chocolatier Review

Title: Shitsuren Chocolatier

AKA: Heartbroken Chocolatier

Genre: Romance

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2013-Jan to 2013-Mar

Theme song: Bittersweet by Arashi

Cast: Matsumoto Jun, Ishihara Satomi, Mizukawa Asami, Mizuhara Kiko, Mizobata Junpei, Kato Shigeaki, Sato Ryuta and Arimura Kasumi.

Falling in love at first sight, Koyurugi Souta (Matsumoto Jun) spends most of his time around her because it makes him happy and he wants to make her his girlfriend. And after more than three years of courting he finally manages to date her for two months. But after being dumped, Takahashi Saeko (Ishihara Satomi), tells him that she never even thought of him as a boyfriend. When he comes home he spends days in his room, and while continuously thinking about her, he is reminded that she likes a special sort of chocolate which is only made in Paris, France. He then decides to leave Japan in order to work at the store making that very type of chocolate, so he can bring it back and make it for her.

Six years later he returns to Japan, looking forward to seeing her again, opening up his own chocolate store, only to find out that she is engaged to get married. But still he is not able to stop loving her, and when Saeko keeps sending mixed signals, Souta is getting confused. So he decides to change his personality in order to make her fall in love with him: to become a bad boy, which he believes is her type.

But when he meets Elena (Mizuhara Kiko) he is surprised to find out that he isn’t the only one with unrequited feelings, and for some reason he is able to talk to Elena like he never was able to do before.

Will his heart change for Elena, or will he make Saeko fall in love with him?

Another drama like Summer Nude, except this one made me hungry. The concept of being heartbroken was so deep in this drama I still am stunned that they had it go through all 11 episodes. I mean the beginning was kind of funny, but not only did they drag it on, they honestly made me dislike the main couple. I heard people disliked the main actress in the beginning and liked her later on. I did not like her AT ALL. I felt she was a brat from beginning to end. Matsumoto’s character was kind of okay in the first few episodes, but he got on my nerves. Honestly at the end, everyone got on my nerves. The entire drama did. Like a bunch of people not knowing what they want and having weird ideas of how to fix things or make others like them. Oh man. Though I liked the more realistic view of how these couples behave. Like no over protective personalities, or just simple kisses.

To sum up, I wouldn’t watch it again.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts