ST: Scientific Taskforce Review

Title: ST Keishichou Kagaku Tokusou-han

Genre: Police

Episodes: 10

Broadcast date: 2014-Jul to 2014-Sep

Cast: Fujiwara Tatsuya, Okada Masaki, Shida Mirai, Kubota Masataka, Miyake Hiroki and Ashima Sei.

Back as a team under the name ST (Scientific Taskforce) where Yurine Tomohisa (Okada Masaki) still is the Captain of the group of ‘outsider’ police officers. When the director of the police force leaves, the only support for the ST team disappears, and a new director arrives and she does not like the team.

Besides the fact that the ST team is rude and arrogant, the team leader Akagi Samon (Fujiwara Tatsuya) takes the cake by being the most ill-mannered and offensive of the bunch, and it’s the Captains job to keep him decent - which Yurine exceeds in more than anyone. And surprisingly the Yurine seems to fit in the group well, which creates a well-functioning duo and a harmony to the team.

But not everyone agrees with the ways of ST, especially the new director…

This is actually the first drama, of the year, in which I couldn’t wait till next week’s release. Not that the drama was THAT exciting, but I really looked forward to every single episode. And about the storyline, it’s great, nothing boring at all. The cast was brilliant on the other hand, might be the real reason for me to watch it, especially the confusing yet bromantic duo: Akagi and Yurine (Fujiwara Tatsuya and Okada Masaki). Talk about great acting! The two really are great actors, and they really are good at acting opposite each other!

I rather not spoil this, because I really think it’s a worthy watch, and recommendable!

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Kamji’s Verdict:
Eh? What? Why? Was that the ending? I’m so confused right now. I have been watching this for quite a while now, maybe half an episode everyday, but I managed to finish it. It’s not boring, nor bad, I’m just the stressed out student with all my exams. This drama was good, a typical genius-detective-solving-crimes Japanese drama with a little sprinkle of bromance, very cute! Captain and kurosaki are eye candys, it’s an interesting show to learn about psychology and murder mysteries. Ten episodes only and no romance but great show.

Ps. Just found out there is movie coming up, the grand finale, maybe that’s why it ended like that.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Blackboard Part 2 - Ikiro SP Review

Title: Blackboard part 2 - Ikiro

AKA: Blackboard: Survive

Genre: School, School violence

Broadcast date: 06 Apr 2012

Cast: Sato Koichi, Shida Mira and Kanjita Shiori.

This is the second out of 3 stories about the school system changing in Japan.

Gota Akira (Sato Koichi) used to be a student of Shirahama’s (Sakurai Sho), and he has a hard time understanding the students hate for school, since he had a hard time being able to go to school at all. Never the less did he become a teacher, but with a different vision than most teachers. He became infamous in his previous school as a “violent teacher” meaning he uses corporal punishment towards delinquent students, which most schools are having a hard time dealing with, mainly ‘school violence’ meaning the school is getting vandalized.

On his very first day he meets the root of the problem, Furusawa Yukari (Shida Mira) who was forced into suspension, and has come back, but ruined several classrooms with two of her friends. When the two meet, Gota uses ‘his fist’ on the delinquents, and gets a lot of attention, not only by teachers, but also parents and the media..

I actually like this one more than the other one, even though it’s Sakurai. This one focuses more on the students and the school as a general, and also makes you wonder about different kinds of situations. Okay yes, the delinquent part does make it more my kind of genre, but on the other hand the storyline seems more school-related. The actors are doing a good job, even though it does get lengthy at the end. Somehow they manage to get it swirling in its own bad habits, but yet it has the flavor of excitement.. LOL.

It’s good, and worth 2 hours of your time - or mine at least.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

ST Keishichou Kagaku Tokusou-han SP Review

Title: ST Keishichou Kagaku Tokusou-han

Genre: Police

Broadcast date: 2013-Apr-10

Cast: Okada Masaki, Fujiwara Tatsuya, Shida Mirai, Kubota Masataka, Miyake Hiroki and Ashima Sei

“To cope with diversifying of crimes, the Metropolitan Police Department gathered the top 5 investigators from the National Research Institute of Police Science.  Then they were granted with a special investigation privilege. It is called “Scientific Taskforce”. ST” for short. This is a special unit to fight against crime and destroy the wicked by the use of science as their weapons.” (Intro)

Becoming the captain of his very first team, Yurine Tomohisa (Okada Masaki) is surprised to find out that his team seems very cold. The so-called ST is a team of 5 people: the leader, Akagi Samon (Fujiwara Tatsuya) who is a forensic medicine expert, Aoyama Sho (Shida Mirai) a profiler with a master degree in psychology from US, Kurosaki Yuji (Kubota Masataka) a chemistry expert, Yamabuki Saizo (Miyake Hiroki) another chemistry expert and Yuuki Midori (Ashima Sei) a physics expert.

When a, what seems to be a random shooting occurs, the ST are called out, but are met with dislike by the rest of the police force, mainly due to the ST teams attitudes. Yurine soon finds out that all members suffer from medical condition such as insomnia, obsessive-compulsive behavior, severe claustrophobia, aichmophobia (fear of sharp object) and the leader himself is a hermit, basically is a hermit with face to face situations. He himself is a perfectionist, and soon realized why he is put in the group as the captain..

I like it, a lot actually. Weird people, a great cast, and on top of that a good storyline, makes me happy. I actually hope they would make a drama out of this, because I really had a good time watching this. Even though I sort of knew who the killer was, I have to admit, I really did like the way the story progressed. Instead of saying it was about figuring out the killer, it is more about these people and how they persuade everyone else to believe them, which makes this kind of like a rapid talk drama (they speak fast when they explain stuff, expecially the leader, phew!)

Anyways, a good 1½h spent on this, NO REGRETS!

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

HAMMER SESSION! Review

Title: HAMMER SESSION!
Genre: School
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2010-Jul to 2010-Sept
Cast: Hayami Mokomichi, Shida Mirai and Higa Manami.

A drama different from the typical “teacher-making-deliquents-to-decent-people. The usual is, a teacher getting respect from students then he/she preaches, a lot. Here, the ‘teacher’ is a genius felon called Otowa YonKo (Hayami Mokomichi), who is hiding from the police, and by accident saves a high school from getting burned down. The culprit is a teacher, Hachisuka Goro, who is afraid of the rumoured horrible class, and he’d rather burn down the school, then being a teacher there. The principle of the school, after a little while, notices how brilliant Otowa is, so he decides to use Hachisuka Goro’s name and let Otowa be the teacher, on the other hand he’ll be hiding Otowa.
The daughter of the principle, Mizuki Ryoko (Higa Manami) is a teacher who has lost all dreams and hopes as a teacher, so she is trying to find a housebound in order to get away, but is too much in a hurry, and tends to make her boyfriend’s run away with marriage propositions, soon after they start dating. One of Otowa’s students, Tachibana Kaede (Shida Mirai) a loudmouth who meddlesome, is the daughter of Police officer Tachibana, the officer after Otowa, but officer Tachibana doesn’t know about him being a teacher there, and Otowa doesn’t know about Kaede’s father.

Sorry about the lousy intro, but in order not to spoil anything I kind of tried to be ‘low-key’.
The drama is not good it’s great, like everything about it is good, the characters, the problems, the teacher, and the twist with one student being involved in all of the problems, LOVED IT!
To be honest, when I started, I was let down, but towards the ending I felt like crying, and ended up doing just that. I am a "school drama" freak, love all of them, but this one is strong, and made me remember why I want to be a teacher. All in all, if you like school dramas, like to listen to wake-up calls, and want a big laugh, totally recommend :)

☆☆☆☆ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts

Jenji's verdict
Sugoku tanashiinda! Best drama ive watched in a while. Definitely a must watch. Its one of those really really great japanese dramas. Absolutely loved it. A different high school drama. A swindler as a teacher. Superb!! And it was so much fun as well. It had everything it needed. Its like the classical but then again with a new story.. It was really lots of fun and the way it was all linked and the end .. omo.. what a scene. Maybe even the best student-teacher-scene ever in a school drama. Really. Its worth watching. I definitely recommend this drama to all you jdrama-lovers. It reminded me of how great japanese are. Like those touching dramas that just make you stick to the screen with fun and excitement of how to get out of those kinda situation.


☆☆☆☆ / 4½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts

14 Sai no Haha Review

Title: 14 Sai no Haha
AKA: 14-year-old Mother / Juyon-sai no Haha / Mother at Fourteen
Genre: Family
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2006-Oct-11 to 2006-Dec-20
Cast: Shida Mirai, Tanaka Misako, Namase Katsuhisa, Miura Haruma, Muroi Shigeru, Yamaguchi Sayaka, Koumoto Yunichi, Kitamura Kazuki . . .

Miki Ichinose is just a 14 year old student who by "accident(they got no idea wht they r doing)" gets pregnant with a guy, Kirino Satoshi(Miura Haruma!!) from her cram school. She only realises when 2 months have passed and she hasnt had her period for a while. Then in order to find out whether she is pregnant or not, she steals a pregnancy test, cause she cant really buy it,, people would be thinking "Naani?".. So the test turns out positive and she hides it at her room. Then by accident her mother finds it while cleaning. She then confronts her and they talk about it. Miki's parents, especially her father, get really mad. And everybody are like naturally "quickly abort it then u can move on again". But Miki is actually thinking about giving birth. So when she tells her parents they immediately try to convince her to abort, they even go to the clinic and just when they are about to do it Miki runs away. Then she convinces her mother, tht she really wants to keep it. So her mother understands and supports her, later on her father too. But everybody around them their neighbors too are like looking really mean at them and never greet them and talk about them all the time. And not to mention that Kirino's mother is TOTALLY against it and she tries to "buy their silence" about her son being their father, but the media like found out so their company is totally screwed.. But Kirino actually wants to take responsibility and says he will start working. The little aka-chan (baby) is born early and Miki goes through a operation so she doesnt wake up until like a day later, they both fight for their lives and then survive and so on.

I had a really hard time getting through the first 5 episodes but after that it got really good and interesting. And of course i cant not mention Miura! Kyaaa! But here he's like soooo young. But maaain,, his acting skills are like REALLY good. And omg u see Miki has a little brother. And he like gets bullied at school because of her so then when Miki talks to him and she says like she's sorry and she didnt know that anyone would bully him then he is like "You should have it... the baby" .. Awww.. and then when people are like staring at her or something he just takes her hand and pulls her away.. and he is like what,, 10 ?.. aww.. really cute.. But anyway, the drama is like,, i dont knw how japan reacted on it, i mean. Its about japan being lousy at explaining,, what happens when, and how, u have sex.. And this whole thing about japanese people not really being helpful but omg.. When she like falls down because of pain.. people just like walk by and those who do stop they just stare!! aaargh!! whattaaa.. I mean of course not all japanese are like that but the majority i guess. So its like a drama about how things like these are received in the japanese community. But. the drama ,, for me. It wasnt one of those wooow, the ones u just gotta watch. But for its genre its great, really. so the rate is just like.. what i felt watching it and not a,, objective rate..?..

☆☆☆/ 3 out of 5 (gomen, Haruma-Chan ><)

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict
Putting the fact aside that the "lovemaking scene" was weird, the love story was pretty adorable. Okay, yeah, she is 14, and he 15, but when I was that age I thought I was insanely mature, so.. The story line was good as well, pretty typical in the Japanese environment, and the bulling from neighbours as well as fellow students is reasonable too.
Jenji is a bit sensitive, like she wouldn’t help a person on the ground in pain, unless she has been standing there for around 15 min, but she hates other people doing the same.. Oh well. I prefer Haruma's acting in this drama, also the father of the girl, Namase Katsuhisa, awesome and believable. It's a Renzoku (human drama), so it's not my turf, but it's a good watch.. Seriously..

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ /3 out of 5 hearts

Shokojo Seira Review

Title: Shokojo Seira
AKA: A little Pricess
Genre: Romance, drama
Episodes: 10
Broadcast period: 2009-Oct to 2009-Dec
Theme song: Kanashimi wa Kitto by UVERworld
Cast: Shida Mirai, Hayashi Kento, Tanabe Seiichi, Okamoto Anri, Kutsuna Shiori, Higuchi Kanako and Kojima Fujiko.

Kuroda Seira(Shida Mirai) is the daughter of a wealthy 'Mine-owner' in India. All her life she has been living there, but moves to Japan to fulfil her dream, by entering the same school, her mother went to. Seira who is a good student and smart to, fits perfectly in the school, which also lead to jealous eyes. In the school she meets Muira Kaito(Hayashi Kento), house servant who was sent by mistake, and Shoji Masami(Okamoto Anri) a goofy girl that is mesmerized by Seira. Also she meets Mizushima Kaori(Kutsuna Shiori) a girl who doesnt like to talk to people, or befriend them and Takeda Maria(Kojima Fujiko)the class representive, who HATES Seira. Maria isn't the only one hating Seira; the school principle Mimura Chieko(Higuchi Kanako), who was her mothers calssmate, hates her too.
Seira isn't bothered by any of it, untill her father dies, and she is left penniless. As a result, she is forced to work as a servant in order to pay off her school bills.

"Every girl is a princess". This line is from the famous children novel "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett, one of my favorite books, so I was keen on watching the japanese version of it. And I have to say, it was enjoyable. shida Mirai is great at portraying "Sara" (Seira in JP version), the rightous and honest girl from india. The acting was great, and I was pleasently surprised by the romance story that was going on(in the book there isnt a lovestory, in the book the other servant is a girl). The climax was also different than the book, which was cool too, so all in all, and exciting watch.

☆☆☆½ / 3,5 out of 5

♥♥½ / 2½ out of 5 hearts