Starman ~ Kono Hoshi no Koi Review

Title: Starman - Kono Hoshi no Koi

Genre: Romance, Sci-Fi

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2013-Jul to 2013-Sep

Cast: Hirosue Ryoko, Fukushi Sota, Koike Eiko,

Kenchi a.m.m

Uno Sawako (Hirosue Ryoko) is a single mother with three boys that has been left by her husband who ran away from her and his family. Sawako lives with her grandmother and the three boys in a small town far away from Tokyo, and greets every day happily even with her luggage.

One morning while driving her youngest to childcare she almost hits a man (Fukushi Sato) swaying along the road, but barely manages to stop. When she walks out to scold the person, he passes out right in front of her. Captivated by his way of looking at her, she takes him home, and she finds out he has lost his memory due to shock.

After pondering she decides together with her best friend Misao (Koike Eiko) and her grandmother, to tell the man that he is her husband. When managing to make her children get on board, he wakes up, and the story of her younger husband ‘Hoshio’ begins…

I was pleasantly surprised, and I was sort of head over heels even though I have no idea why. I mean the story is seriously absurd, from memory loss to aliens, it really has the most bizarre situations, and I say that with having watched all other dramas. The relationship seems shallow when you think about it, but I was kind of liking it. The couple was cute, so where the kids, and the entire family was so adorable.

But I do think the main reason I liked it as much as I did was because I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next episode. I was taken aback by everything, especially by the pace. It was fast!

So if you want a cute family story with a hint of the weird and the sci-fi, this is a great pick.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Last Hope Review

Title: Last Hope

Genre: Hospital, Medical

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2013-Jan to 2013-Mar

Theme song: Calling by Arashi

Cast: Aiba Masaki, Tabe Mikako, Tanabe Seiichi, Koike Eiko and Kitamura Yukiya.

This drama revolves around a group of special doctors, who just recently were hired in one of the up-to-date hospital as a form of special team that help people who are at their last chance of getting cured. Hatano Takumi (Aiba Masaki) is a strange fella who has to eat a snack when the clock hits 3pm. He is different than the rest of the team since he is the only one not having a specialty. He is a “country doctor” meaning he is a doctor from a small village, and has helped his father in the family clinic. Being haunted by images from his past and having a scar on his body he can’t really explain, Takumi one day notices a newspaper with faces of the people he remembers from his childhood. Tachibana Ayumi (Tabe Mikako) is known as “The Machine”, meaning she never gets emotional about any cases, nor does she try to connect with her patients. Due to this she is being sued for malpractice by a family who believe that she is guilty for the state of their family member, this also gets the attention of a journalist who has found out that Ayumi is actually Aitani Kiko, but changed her name due to her father’s mishaps. Besides these two there are Takagi Junji (Tanabe Seiichi) a player ‘look-a-like’, but in fact has a deep emotional scar from losing the love of his life because of an illness. Ogiwara Yukiyo (Koike Eiko) a mother, divorced due to her husband’s infidelity, who wants to find the person who was responsible for her mother’s death. Soejima Masaomi (Kitamura Yukiya) the son of a hospital CEO who has had problems with his marriage, and Komaki Toshiaki (Kohinata Fumiyo)a researcher who lost his son, but refuses to believe so.

Every doctor has a past and dealing with, along with trying to be the last hope for their patients…

This is officially my favorite Aiba Masaki drama, and my favorite Japanese medical drama. I love that the backgrounds of the doctors is shown and every story is taken care of, and I love that there isn’t really a love story, I mean sometimes you just shouldn’t add one. It does have love stories in it, but not as the main story which made it more enjoyable than expected. I love that every character is its own and that they really have this individuality - also that they all somehow connect without crossing paths. I never really imagined Aiba as a doctor, but it really worked for me, also I didn’t expect to like Tabe, but I did.

Without trying to ruin the drama, I’ll just go ahead and recommend t :)  

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts