Aibou Season 11 Review

Title: Aibou Season 11

AKA: Partner Season 11

Genre: Action, Crime, Police

Broadcast period: 2012-Oct to 2013-Mar

Cast: Mizutani Yukata and Narimiya Hiroki.

This is the 11^th season of the popular Japanese drama “Partners”.

While staying in China with his girlfriend Kai Toru (Narimiya Hiroki) is contemplating about a visit he had made to the Japanese ambassador, where a death had occurred. He runs into Sugishita Ukyo (Mizutani Yukata), who introduces himself as a police officer, and so does Toru. Though Toru finds him annoying, his attention shifts to another man he had met at the ambassador’s house. He confronts him, much to Sugishita’s interest, and notices that there seems to be much more about the case, than your regular death.

After arriving in japan, Ukyo finds out that Toru is the son of the Deputy Commissioner, though the Deputy Commissioner refuses to acknowledge Toru and/or his position as a police officer. Due to his odd and curious nature Sugishita decides to ask Toru more about the case in China, and the two unknowingly become partners while investigating the case…

I’ve been having this drama on my computer for some time now, as I was hoping the other 10 seasons would have subs, so I could watch them before this one. Unfortunately, as many other older Japanese dramas, this will not be the case. So, I decided to start it, and I did feel as if I missed a whole lot of the backstory. I really felt there was something I did not understand, or that I was missing something that was supposed to make fans go “aha!” or something like that. But I guess I’ll never find out.

That said, this drama is really great. I found it interesting and equal to the American crime tv shows. Of course, this was very Japanese, but that did not make it bad. Unless you prefer the American version that is.

I enjoyed the comedy, and I enjoyed the contrasting partnership. But sometimes I did scratch my head, as in I wondered how and why thing happen. Also, the solving part was confusing, but you would get used to it later on.

All in all, a nice time pass, and interesting cop drama.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo S04 (Neo) Review

Title: Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo Neo

AKA: Files of Young Kindaichi Neo

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Episodes: 9

Broadcast date: 2014-Jul to 2014-Oct

Cast: Yamada Ryosuke, Kawaguchi Haruna, Daiki Arioka, Asari Yosuke and Narimiya Hiroki.

This is the fourth season of the drama following young Kindaichi Hajime - the grandson of the great detective Kindaichi.

Kindaichi Hajime (Yamada Ryosuke) together with his friends Nanase Miyuki (Kawaguchi Haruna) and Saki Ryuta (Daiki Arioka) have joined the school Mystery Club. As always they are an unrepeatable trio, but school isn’t easy when being Kindaichi Hajime, as murder is always around the corner, even in the club next door. And when the Hell’s puppeteer Takato Yuichi (Narimiya Hiroki), a crime producer - making plans of how to commit the perfect crime for payment, seems to be behind a lot of the killings, Hajime can’t keep still and decides to fight him directly and uncover the tricks the way he knows - in the name of his grandfather…

Finally at the fourth season of this drama and I know I should have expected it, but the deaths are way too circumstantial for Hajime to be there every single time. I mean more people die in this drama than average, and those three are witness to too many murders compared to the regular high school student.

That said, besides the acting not a single thing was even interesting, and yeah I count the murders in too. I didn’t know who the murders were a lot of the time, but usually I could guess when a famous/known actor/actress guest starred there was a 95% they were the killers, and sometimes the way of killing was just ridiculous. Also after the murders, and confessions of course, Hajima had this idea of ‘understanding’ the killers and talk to them - which was bull. I mean the way these people are killed is just coldblooded, why would you need to talk to them? Sorry I don’t see remorse or regret, so yeah.

All in all an interesting drama with loop holes.

☆☆½ / 2½ out of 5 stars

♥♥½ / 2½ out of 5 hearts

Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo 2014 SP Review

Title: Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo Gokumon junku Satsujin Jiken

AKA: Kindaichi Boy’s Accident Files 2014 SP / The Files of Young Kindaichi 2014 SP

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

Broadcast date: 2014 January 12

Cast: Yamada Ryosuke, Narimiya Hiroki, Kitamura Kazuki, Kawaguchi Haruna, Daiki Arioka and Wu Chun.

The special continues after the Shanghai story.

Kindaichi Hajime (Yamada Ryosuke) is forced to go to a well-known cramming school in Tokyo called Gokumon, famous for providing results immediately. He is taken by his two friends Nanase Miyuki (Kawaguchi Haruna) and Saki Ryuji (Daiki Arioka) who are afraid that Hajime might not continue till graduation with his grades. Arriving at the school they are met with a scream and find a dead body. When the police arrive they are surprised about how indifferent the fellow students are. Shortly after Lee Byron (Wu Chun) pops up and shows Hajime a letter he had gotten from a man calling himself “Puppet Player from Hell”, and explains him that his sister pointed him and as the mastermind behind the murders that happened in Shanghai.

As he is reading the letter he spots a man doing a magic trick and vanishes. Running after the man, Hajime and his friends are led to a warehouse where a message of a challenge is waiting for him…

Okay, yes I am a bit obsessed with these dramas, by these I mean classic, but they are really good. And this special is also pretty good, considering the scale they go through. This time it is Malaysia, and they really go there, which is nuts, but compared to the Shanghai special, this one is a bit more believable - and I sort of knew some of the trick. I am surprised that the Japanese aren’t tired of the same tricks over and over again.

Besides Wu Chun being a bit weird actor, the rest are really good, and the special appearance from Nickhun made me laugh out loud, but even though he didn’t really say anything (not that I remember anyway) his acting was better than Mr. Chun.  

So… to watch, not to watch? If you have watched the other you should, and even if you didn’t it’s still great :)

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Ace Attorney Movie Review

Title: Ace Attorney

AKA: Turnabout Trial

Genre: Law, Comedy, Drama

Origin: Japan

Release date: 11 Febrary 2012

Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Kiritani Mirei and Saito Takumi.

In a future version of Japan where technology is very much progressed, Attorney Ayasato Chiriho () has hired a new attorney in her office: Naruhodo Ryuichi (Narimiya Hiroki). Naruhodo is rookie that panics under pressure, and has hard time finding evidence or explaining evidence. Different is his childhood friend Mitsurugi Reiji (Saito Takumi) who has become a prosecutor and has not lost any cases before.

One day Chihiro calls Naruhodo and tells him she has had a breakthrough in a case she had been working on finding evidence for a long time, so she tells him to meet her at the office - only to find her dead. The prime suspect happens to be her younger sister Ayasato Mayoi (Kiritani Mirei) who has all evidence pointing at her.

After proving her innocence, Naruhodo tries to figure out the truth about the death of his mentor, but is interrupted by Mayoi telling him to watch TV, where the news is all about Mitsurugi being arrested for murder, and found with the murder weapon. This makes Naruhodo decide to take the case and prove his friends innocence…

I watched this out of two reasons: one Narimiya Hiroki and second is because tumblr kept showing me pictures of this movie.  Though I did finish it, I am not sure if this is a children’s movie or just one of those black humor movies, which I decided in the end I would asses as a children’s movie.

It is fun and pretty interesting, and I did find myself compelled by the storyline, even though I kind of knew who the real criminal was and all. The pace made it really entertaining and I kind of started to loose myself for 2 hours LOL. Narimiya is amazing as always, and I love him. If you want to see him in a comedy role this should be your pick honestly.

So is it recommendable? Yeah, but kind of childish..

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai SP Review

Title: Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai
Aka: I Don't Want To Kindap Anyone Anymore
Genre: Comedy, mystery
Broadcast date: 2012-Jan-03
Cast: Ohno Satoshi, Aragaki Yui, Sato Ryuta, Kanjiya Shihori and Narimiya Hiroki.

After being fired from his latest job and thrown out by his landlord, Tarui Shoutaro (Ohno Satoshi) still can’t let go of his dream of becoming a superhero. At the age of 29 he still can’t let go of his cartoon-figures and goes crazy when he sees rare items, not to mention the level of seriousness he has when his favorite characters are discussed.

When he meets his senpai Koumoto (Sato Ryuta) he gets a job, so that he can pay rent, as a ‘mobile’ sweet potato seller, driving a van while selling them. On his rute he happens to see a rare poster, and runs to the store to get it, where he stumbles upon a girl (Aragaki Yui) who runs away from ‘bad people’. Shoutaro helps her, only to find out that she is Hanazono Erika, the second daughter of the yakuza clan Hanazono. After a disagreement, Shoutaro involuntary drives her to her desired place, where he almost is arrested. Wanting to give her a piece of his mind, he waits for her only yo hear her reason for being persistent, and being nice as he is, offers to help. Something she decides to take; she asks him to kidnap her.

I liked it, surprisingly. Even though I watched it because of Ohno I have to admit that the storyline most defiantly isn’t my style at all, but watching it, damn it’s pretty good. I guessed the criminal almost immediately, but I had no clue what so ever how. And the comedy part was actually funny, like exactly for this drama, I enjoyed it.  The special appearances of Sakurai Sho and Matsumoto Jun were fun, but only if you watched “Nazetoki wa Dinner no Ato de” and “Lucky Seven”, which I did, hihi..

Anyhow, its actually recommendable, this cast is perfect, and it’s hard not to like it when you know all actors and actresses. I mean they do the acting pretty neatly, sort a wish it was a drama instead of a special…

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 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

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan Review

Title: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan
AKA: Flunk Punk Rumble / Yanmega
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 10
Broadcast period: 2010-Apr to 2010-Jun
Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Naka Riisa, Hongo Kanata, Koyanagi Yu and Kawaguchi Haruna.

Shinagawa Daichi (Narimiya Hiroki) is marked as a delinquent, because of his clothing and attitude, and he doesn’t care to change his image. He has never lost a fight, except the fights against his family; a over loving mother , a mean sister that beats him all the time and keeps on putting him down, and his father, a doctor that doesn’t believe in his son. One day, he happens to hear someone call out a “super-fighter” ‘Hurricane Ada’, and he is immediately mixed up to be him.
When school starts, Adachi Hana (Naka Riisa) an apparent model-student tries to make Hiroki join class, even accomplishes it, but the class is not interested in having a ‘Yankee’ (delinquent) as a classmate. The loudest opposition comes from the no. 1 student, Izumi Gaku (Hango Kanata), who seems to have a rather surprising past. As Hana becomes the class president, she is notified that fellow student Chiba Seiya (Koyangi Yu) doesn’t attend, and hasn’t done it in a long time, the righteous and strong willed Hana takes Hiroki to go and help her getting him back in school. Meanwhile, Hana’s past comes back to haunt her as her ’ex-‘ best friend, Himeji Rinka (Kawaguchi Haruna) returns to fight her.

I am officially in love with Narimiya Hiroki! It has been a crush for a VERY long time (since I saw Innocent love and Bloody Monday – mainly Bloody Monday 2). Now I see him, for the second time, as a Yankee, and I love him in that role! He is perfect as a comic character, as well is good with the attitude. The only negative, in my opinion, is Adachi Hana. She is such a know-it-all, like she knows what’s good and what’s bad, sometimes it might be pretty cool, but it was just SOOO annoying in the long run. To put simple: this drama has two of my favourite things, Yankee’s and Hiroki.
If you are a Narimiya fan, watch it. If you like comedy, watch it. But in my opinion, Narimiya’s performance is worth 3,5 stars itself (the 0,5 are because it’s about Yankees)

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Jenji's Verdict
Liked the drama actually. I don't know why I waited so long watching it because it's actually pretty good. Fun too. And of course Narimiya, hahah, he was really fun to watch. + yankees. Or well, he wasn't really a traditional yankee, he was kinda a good yankee. It's not like he just fought just because he felt like it hahah. The story is pretty nice, a yankee who doesn't care if people call him yankee because he lives his own life and why should he care what others think and then a yankee who wants to live a normal life. I think the girl was pretty okay, sometimes annoying but overall it was fine. Definitely recommend it if you like yankees and comedy + NARIMIYA ! YEES! hahah

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3.5 out of 5 hearts

Drop Movie

Title: Doroppu
AKA: Drop
Genre: Comedy, Friendship
Origin: Japan
Release date: 20. May 2009
Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Mizushime Hiro, Kamiji Yusuke, Nakagoshi Noriko and Namioka Kazuki.

Shinaogawa Hiroshi (Narimiya Hiroki), being inspired by a Be-Bop High School manga, drops out of private school, and joins a public school to be become a delinquent. What happens is that he meets the “school thug”, Iguchi Tatsuya (Mizushime Hiro) who LOVES to fight and deals with every single problem by fighting. The two get into a fight and become friends, where the “not-so-fond-of-fighting” Hiroshi joins the gang, which includes members: Lupine, a thief who rarely fights but knows how, WanKou, an airhead who likes to fight even bites them during fights, and Moriki (Namioka Kazuki), a fast fighter that thinks before he acts.
The one supporting Hiroshi, and helps him stay grounded, is his sister’s, Shinaogawa Yuka (Nakagoshi Noriko) boyfriend, Kimura Hideo (Kamiji Yusuke), an ex-delinquent who has become a decent person.

Short and simple, I liked it. It’s a real yankee (delinquent) movie, for people who like humour, tough love, friendship and not to mention fighting (scenes). Though I was (to put it nicely) annoyed at Iguchi’s girlfriend, like I have no clue what the hell her character is doing there. I mean, no way in hell Iguchi liked her, or I don’t know, maybe he did, but noticed the fact that Hiroshi liked her, so he wanted to ‘give’ her to him, or whatever, but no less, useless. This movie reminds mostly of CROWS ZERO, but its way more humour based. Last words: I recommend it.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Jenji's Verdict
Exactly my cup of tea! :P I especially liked Hiroshi's comments.. So much fun. And it was weird watching Mizushime Hiro with this kind of role, because he was always speaking with a deep and dark voice. And all he was ever thinking about was the next fight. And they kept fighting and fighting even though they lose almost everytime, and somehow more and more people join their little gang. And what i also liked a lot was how it changed from comedy to a really serious movie at the end. Anyway great movie, been waiting for one of these to watch for a long time and its really just awesome.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars :D

♥♥♥♥4/5 / 4,8 out of 5 hearts

Bloody Monday 2 Review

Title: Bloody Monday

Season: 2

Genre: Action, suspence

Episodes: 9

Broadcast period: 2010-Jan-23 to 2010-Mar-20

Theme song: Zanzo by flumpool

Cast: Miura Haruma, Sato Takeru, Kawashima Umika, Narimiya Hiroki

While the first season was about terrorists wanting to spread a deadly virus this is 2 years later about terrorists trying to get this huge bomb which could destroy not only Japan but all the countries around as well. While tird-I and the terrorists try to get hold of the bomb Fujimaru goes through a lot himself. He got a new job at a job and has quit having anything to do with computers, or so he claims... Later on something happens at work and he is back to the hard life where he is resposible for so many peoples lives. He loses a lot of importent people in his life. But he has to continue no matter how hard it is for the sake of Japan. Along with his friend Otoya he tries to find a way to prevent the terrorists from carrying out their plan even though it is hard enough to know who they can trust. Many of people are suspected of betraying and people whom they thought they could trust are betraying them.

For me this was way over what I expected. I thought it wouldnt be able to be as good as I wanted it to but it was way better. Ofcourse im a fan of Miura's acting so. And the action is .. uff.. and there are so many things happening which you wouldnt even expect. I can not imagine it being any better than this. And having to wait a week for every single episode made it even worse! I was going crazy! And why did it have to end at ep 9?! Im definetely expecting a season 3! It just cannot end like this! LoL fangirl gone mad, haha. And with 3 veeery handsome boys in it,, gyaabooo. I was so impressed by Otoya (Sato Takeru) in the drama. He was soo cooooool. He was holding this lecture/presentation at his university and my jaw just dropped . Like he was talking a whole other language,, i mean he was (japanese) but ,, smart japanese. And J! Narimiya Hiroki, he dyeed his hair blond, or white. Ahh.. he was so cute,, and evil. But more cute than evil. hehehe.

You MUST watch this ! But first if you havent watched season 1 WATCH IT!! You gonna miss something amazing if you dont. + a few handsome boys :D

☆☆☆☆☆ / 5 stars out of 5

♥♥♥♥/ 4 out of 5 ♥'s

And if Bunji gives below,, let me tell ya something,, she is VERY picky. You gotta watch this.

Bunji's verdict

Well, first off, gotta say, the first season was fenomenal, so picking up from there is hard enough. Eventhough I liked the involvement of Haruka, the little sister, and his best friend Ooyata, I gotta say, it didnt quite reach my expectations. I did find the thought behind the story awsome, and the seriousness was waaay better in the second season, in the end there were several bad things about it. Acting-wise, it was awsome, but I found the storyline a bit dull. I mean, there were no real enemies. I mean, yeah some strange talking terrorists, and some weird hacker, that seems to be better than Falcon, but it wasnt quite there. J was there too, blond, making him more nuts-looking than usual, but his role was too boring this time around. Missed the insane feeling of terror, when he was around.

On the other note, the actors couldnt be better, and who doesnt love a cute hacker, adorable Nuclear physics student and a hot terrorist? Lols, but yeah, if you liked season one, and wondered what has happend to our beloved Falcon, you should watch it. Yes you are going to be on egde all the time, so be careful in watching it in one go, but dont expect it to be like season one.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts