Dorama

Love can appear in surprising occasions, with incredible power. For Shoichi it strikes so much that he decides to leave his wife and son to be with a dying young woman.

Given the setup, this is not one of the most delightful dorama series. Death glooms above while the story proceeds like a train. I can like dorama with blue undertone but great story and acting. If a dorama can lift up my mood, it doesn't matter even if it is mediocre. This one was not bad, but not exactly my cup of tea.

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Sushi is serious matter, especially for young Shota who is determined to become the number one sushi chef in Japan. Working as an apprentice of a master sushi chef in Tokyo he faces a challenge after another while the stakes get increasingly higher.

The strongest emotion caused by this series was annoyance, followed by appetite. The characters don't have any depth in them, it's like someone just threw them in the set without thinking what to do with them. There is very little development in the story or in the characters. Most episodes follow the same pattern of Shota facing a challenge and by a lucky coincidence finding a solution, which gets boring after a while. Just like good sushi, good dorama is a combination of several factors. Unfortunately this series lacks many of them.

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Haru grew up in an orphanage on an Okinawan island with a group of other kids. While they grew up, only Haru stayed on the island, but now it's time for her to move to Tokyo and meet her friends again. She's especially looking forward to meeting Ryo, her childhood sweetheart. But as it soon turns out, maybe she has set her expections too high.

Pretty usual dorama with beautiful (especially Ai Kato as Natsumi), handsome and funny characters, unlikely coincidents and romantic but unsurprising plot.

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Sakura, Japanese-American girl born and living in Hawaii, decides to take a job teaching English in Japan. She has to part with her American boyfriend and get used to the Japanese way of doing things, which is not that easy. Sakura is often annoying and naive but she means well and works hard to solve the problems of other people.

I have only seen the first 20 or so episodes, but based on that I have to say that this series feels like a mass production, which it is with 156 episodes. The series lives on dealing with stereotypes, how a foreigner sees the Japanese culture and traditions and compares them with the American way. In the end, the American way is usually judged to be better. The characters are like caricatures, and it is hard to get emotionally attached to their lives.

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As a child in Okinawa, Eri promises to marry a visiting boy Fumiya. This promise becomes the driving force in her life, leading her to live in Tokyo with her brother and variety of other interesting characters. This series is warm, funny, silly and romantic, and that's how I like to have my Japanese dramas.

The good old teacher, Kinpachi, has a class that takes a lot of effort to raise. And as if the problems of his students were not enough, he encounters some serious issues at home too.

Unlike most other Japanese drama series I have seen, this is very dark. It deals with serious issues in a believable way and really makes you root for the characters. A couple of times I felt it gets too bad, but I had to watch and take the pain. I usually like the happy-smiley junk more, but this series touches much deeper. And not to be mistaken, it is not all misery, there is enough sunshine to keep you afloat. I haven't seen the previous Kinpachi series, but after this I have to.

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Aya Ueto home, pictures

Veteran journalist is assigned to lead the local news section of a newspaper. The reporters there are not the most experienced or respected ones, but with spirit and enthusiasm anything is possible.

Warm and funny, feel-good series.

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Sakurako is determined to find a rich husband. Osuke has left behind a career in mathematics to run a fish shop. Their ways meet at one of Sakurako's group dates ("gokon"). She mistakenly thinks he is rich, and he likes her because she looks like her ex-girlfriend. What follows is classic dorama.

I liked this series, and I might have liked it more if I had understood more. The Chinese subtitles didn't really help... I wish I had found the synopsis earlier. It's romantic and funny, and the characters will certainly make you either love or hate them.

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Synopsis

A woman takes off to a trip with a friend before her wedding, but everything goes wrong from the beginning and she finds herself (and her loyal suitcase) in the most unexpected places all over Japan while trying to get back home. She can't help helping people, which doesn't make the journey go any faster.

I watched this without subtitles, so with my limited Japanese understanding I didn't get all the details, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Sure, the story is unrealistic but the twists on her journey are crazy enough that you cannot take it seriously, so it's better to just enjoy the ride.

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It's business as usual at the Central Ikegami police station. The chief takes it easy, and people wonder why such an elite officer is still stuck at a small station. The unsolved case of a killed police officer casts a shadow in officers' minds. While the chief's wife is in Finland researching Moomins (!), some new leads are found, which may help solving the case.

Nice, symphatetic series where even criminals have a warm heart.

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