JDrama: The season wrap up (summer)

Well, well, well, I don't know what to make of this season. Sure, there were your usual top class series with lots of stars in the leading roles, but it seems that the big shot drama with a good story was missing this time. A bit too much humour, I think. Let's wrap it up anyway...

First Kiss
This is your typical heart warming drama in which the little sister, who has a heart disease which causes her to have an operation at the end of the summer, goes back to Japan to visit her brother who sought out to become a photographer but ended up to be a lousy assistant. Inoue Mao, who was so good in both "Hana Yori Dango" seasons, plays the little sister and she does it with style. Always badmouthing people and blabbering about all kinds of stuff which pisses people of. Ito Hideaki plays the brother who keeps her company and tries to find her a lover so at least before she has surgery she might be able to experience love for the first time in her life.
The comedy in this series is quite good but the actual story lacks something. I still can't quite figure out what it is, but somehow it just doesn't get moving. Still this was one of the better dramas this summer. (7/10)

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
The big names drama of this season. Almost all of the male super idols were in this, I guess. The story follows Horikita Maki as she tries to get in to an all boys' school in Osaka to get close to Oguri Shun, who plays a track and field athlete who is doing high jump. As you might expect this leads to all kinds of complicated situations for the girl as she is surrounded by boys all the time. Luckily the most obvious jokes about going to the toilet or changing clothes before P.E. or taking a shower were dealt with in the first few episodes.
What's really great about this series is the cast. The crazy dorm heads with their underlings get the action going and are always in for a good laugh. Apart from that this drama was rather shallow and didn't offer much. (6/10)

Ushi ni negai wo: Love & Farm
Interesting, because this wasn't set in a big city. Set in the lovely scenery of Hokkaido this drama follows six university students who take on the adventure of spending some time of ther agricultural studies right where it matters: in a small village with lots of farms. This leads to some funny scenes were the people from the city can't quite keep up with the rural life, but the story still shows the problems the rural population faces today. The cast is wonderful with lots of familiar faces and the six students were cast very well as well. Tamayama Tetsuji plays the leading role as a farm boy who went to Tokyo to get rid off his rural heritage but eventually comes back to help with his parents' struggling farming business. I really liked this one because of the different setting and the unusual topic of the story. (8/10)

Tantei Gakuen Q
Yet another manga adaption and you can really see that this one was done on paper first. It's a typical crime comic story with six young detectives trying to solve difficult cases. The whole series looks rather cheap and I wonder if it really has cost a lot of money. The special FX don't look very expensive. There are soem nice jokes but all in all this one is rather disappointing. Well, maybe I'm not the target group as this looks like it is aiming at school children. (4/10)

Hotaru no Hikari
A bureau mid 20s drama about a young woman who is liked at her company by her colleagues but leads a completely different life when she is at home. In the office she is smart and efficient, at home she likes to drink lots of beer and hang around in her trainers. Suddenly her boss moves in because his wife left their home and so both of them have to cope with each other for the next few weeks. Ayase Haruka plays Hotaru, a "himono onna", a dried up woman who just isn't fit for love anymore. She falls in love with a co-worker but is totally puzzled and just doesn't know what to do.
A funny and smart comedy with very good actors, one of my favourites in this season. (8/10)

Yama Onna Kabe Onna
This one was absolutely hilarious. Now in Europe veryone is making jokes about the obsession of Japanese man with female breasts, but I never had imagined that they would make a drama series out if this topic. The story shows the life of Aoyagi Megumi (Ito Misaki) who works in the handbag section of a huge department store and is the ace seller there. At one day she gets a new co-worker, busty Mariya Marie (Fukada Kyoko), who wins over customers with her natural charm. This leads Aoyagi to think over her complex of being flat-chested, a topic that surfaces every now and then during the course of the series.
I really liked this series and not because it had this sexual undertone. Ito Misaki was wonderful and the rest of the cast was so great that it really was a pleasure to watch this. (8/10)

Katagoshi no Koibito
A "30 year old women gets her midlife crisis" drama which centres around two friends, one of whom just recently married the ex-boyfriend of the other one. Yonekura Ryoko and Takaoka Saki play the two friends who seem to do everything together although at some points you'll get the impression they can't stand each other. But when tough times come they get their act together and help each other out, be it problems on the job or the husband having an affair. In all this chaos enters a young student who ran away from home to get away from his over anxious family.
I really liked the rants both women let go in every episode, they just can't seem to stop. This actually is very funny and it has great actors as well. The sidestory with the young boy who ran away from home seemed to be a little bit out of place, but apart from that this was a really good drama series. (8/10)

Yamada Taro Monogatari
Two members of Arashi starr in this series which tells the story of poor student Yamada Taro (Ninomiya Kazunori) who goes to an elite school in which he enters a special class for outstanding students. There he meets Mimura Takuya (Sakurai Sho), a very rich guy who soon gets behind the secret of Taro. But he never really made a secret out of where he comes from or what he is doing, it is more that people assume that because of his good looks he must be very rich. Which is what his classmate Ikegami Takako (Tabe Mikako) is thinking. She always says that she will only marry a rich guy and so she is very surprised when she finds out about the living conditions of Taro...
This is a very lighthearted drama about a poor family who despite all misfortune and need never gives up hope and always tries to lead a life with dignity. (7/10)

Juken no Kamisama
A "God of the Exams" who helps rather hopeless students with their entrance exams for there preferred school is ust what little Hiroshi (Nagashima Mitsuki) needs. He wants to follow his friend into a well known baseball school, but his grades are way too bad to get in their. So he gets his father to get him the so called "God of the Exams" who garantuees that every student of this "God" will make it through the exams of the school. It turns out that the "God" is a middle school girl named Sugawara Michiko (Narumi Riko) who is very arrogant. She takes charge of Hiroshi's life immediately after arriving at his home. Will he make it through her rigorous training camp?
Another school based drama with some well known faces, but this didn't really get through to me. Maybe it's because I haven't seen so many episodes yet because some of the subtitles are still missing, but this hasn't really been convincing. Good still. (6/10)

Sushi Oji!
This is a hilarious story about a sushi chef turned martial arts master who has a fish phobia. Sounds carzy? It is. Domoto Koichi of Kinki Kids is the maing character Maizu Tsukasa, who travels around teh country to find out more about the secret art of sushi making martial arts. This seems to be another rather cheap drama filmed in style of the 70s Eastern movies but they managa to do it really well. The episodes are all funny and the actors seem to enjoy themselves as well. You might need a special kind of humour to get into this series, but once you're in you just can't stop watching. (7,5/10)

* Spring 2007 Wrap Up