JDrama: The season wrap up (fall)

Is it just me or was this season just a little boring. There weren't those blockbuster star-packed series' which usually are shown. Although one or two good ones emerged the overall impression is that this one was a let down.

Galileo
A detective/mystery series about a young detective (Shibasaki Kou) who has been assigned to solve very difficult cases which go beyond the normal imagination. She teams up with a weird scientist who helped her predescessor in his work. The setup usually is the same in each episode: there's a mysterous killing which cannot be explained reasonably. The detective will meet with the scientist and he will come up with a rational explanation of the case. This may sound boring but because of the great acting actually it's very funny. I always like to watch Shibasaki Kou act in dramas and this one is no exception. She really fills the screen with her presence. her counterpart is brilliantly cast with Fukuyama Masaharu who wonderfully displays the weird and rational scientist who only believes in what he sees and what he can explain reasonably. A must see! (8/10)

Abarenbo Mama
Yet another drama starring Ueto Aya and this time she plays a mother who has to come to terms with the kid her husband brings into the new family. Personally I think that her acting is way too childish for her to portray a responsible mother, but since this is a comedy it might work out. The series follows her problems with all the other mothers from the kindergarten and stuff like that. it feels a little bit like "At Home Dad". Her husband is played by Oizumi Yo who was very funny in "Haken no Hinkaku". This is lighthearted and funny, but it's not brilliant. (5/10)

Yukan Club
Take six goodlooking young and promising stars (like Akanashi Jin, Kashii Yu or Suzuki Emi), some of whom might even be singers, put them alltogether in a series with a lousy script and this is what you get. Although there are dramas with every singkle one of the main cast actors this is just disappointing. The story is a bout six filthily rich students who in their free time solve criminal cases. It has its moments but overall this is aimed at a far too young audience. Maybe that's why I just didn't get into it. (2/10)

Iryu Team Medical Dragon (2nd Season)
I really liked the first season and this one follows the original series where it left off. Asada-sensei is back to save a lot of patients with the most frightening heart diseases. Honestly I would consider this to be "Schwarzwaldklinik" ("Black Forest Clinic") on speed with those fast cut and highly dramatic operation room scenes. The episodes are mostly the same, there is always a hopeless case which by the hand of Team Dragon is helped to survive and to live on. But there is also the overriding theme, this time it's the conversion of a hospital into a high tech medical centre for rich people. This keeps the pace high and this has kept me watching it. A good manga adaption with a great cast which has too many good actors to single out a few. (6/10)

Joshi Deka!
Another detective drama this one tells the story of a veteran offiver and her new apprentice who came straight out of the police school. I've only watched to episodes but this looks interesting. true, sometimes it's a little bit too silly, but the main Story about a serial murder case is very interesting and serious and it seems that there is something happening in future episodes since the first episode started with a flashback. Nakama Yukie starrs as the apprentice and Izumi Pinko as the veteran. They make a great team and it's fun to watch them when they interact. Nice one (7/10)

Utahime
This is this season's winner to me. Another great show starring Nagase Tomoya who despite being a rockstar with his band "Tokio" delivers another wonderful performance. This time he plays a war veteran who was washed ashore a small village on the southern coast of Japan. When he strands there his memory is erased and he becomes a helper to the local cinema owner. Things evolve from there. What makes this very good is first and foremost that all actors speak some kind of dialect. This is a nice expection and really sounds interesting. Then I think that either the scriptwriters, the producers or the directors had something to do with classic series' like "Ikebukoro West Gate Park", "Kisarazu Cat's Eye" or "Tiger & Dragon". They way the dialogue flows and the way some jokes are introduced is very similar. And some of the actors are featured in the aforementioned dramas as well. I really liked this one (8/10)

Mop Girl
Another winner. This is about a girl who is demoted from her job as a wedding planer to a company which cleans up crime scenes and prepares for funerals. The lead character, played by former "Sailor Moon" Kitagawa Keiko, has the strange ability to travel back in time when she touches the belongings of recently deceased people. So you get the picture of what happens in every episode. What I really liked was the very comicbook-ish facial expressions of Kitagawa and the supporting cast. Above average. (6/10)

Dream Again
I originally started watching this because it was about baseball, but then again baseball is just a side story here. Sorimachi Takashi plays a professional baseball player who loses his place in the first string team of the Yomiuri Giants and tries to get back to the big leagues. Just when he makes his decision to work harder he gets struck by a lightning and dies. But this was a mistake and so he is given a second chance. He enters the body of a business man and has to cope with all the faults of a ruthless broker. Adding up to his problems is a daughter who he never heard of and trouble with a law firm who is represented by his former girlfriend. This is a little bit over the top and we all know those "dead people return in another body" stories. It's fun to watch, but it's nothing special. (5/10)

SP (Special Police)
A drama about a special squad which is assigned to protect important people. You might say it's a bodyguard unit in the metropolitan police. I've only seen one episode, but it looks interesting, because it has Okada Junichi and Tsutsumi Shinichi in it, two actors I really like. The first episode looked very promising and this didn't seem to be a case-by-case approach but there seems to be an overlaying storyline as well, something I always like because there is an end you can look forward to. From what I've seen one of the better dramas in this season. (6/10)

* Summer 2007 Wrap Up
* Spring 2007 Wrap Up