JDrama: The season wrap up (winter '08)

Bara no nai Hanaya
A very heartwarming story about the owner of a flower shop who lost his wife when she gave birth to his daughter. The father of the mother seems to hold a grudge against the man and sets up two of his underlings to destroy the quiet but happy life of the florist.
Katori Shingo of SMAP has his funny moments in this one every now and then but all in all his performance is very solid and humble. As for Takeuchi Yuko she as beautiful as she always is. Her smile is one of the prettiest ones in Japanese television. The whole cast is very good, by the way. I really like how they managed to intertwine two basic storylines without getting tangeled up as they follow the quest of the mother's father to bring down the florist and at the same time the story takes time to look into the life of an abused child and the rescue of the child from its parents. This is great stuff with a wonderful soundtrack. (7,5/10)

Hachimitsu to Clover
I already watched the anime version of this story and what I especially liked was the fact that nothing really happened there. Basically this is just following the lives of college students at an arts university and what they do all year long. Sure, there are funny moments, sad moments, happy moments and stuff like that, but you never get the impression that the pace gets out of hand. It always had the feeling of being a story that could easily happen to yourself. Just life, eh?
The cast is brilliant with Narumi Riko leading it off as the shy and quiet Hagu. The trio of male actors inclued Narimiya Hiroki who I always liked for his silly roles in school boy dorama, but here he plays a highly talented slacker with lots of crazy ideas, still he's someone who helps out his friends when in need. As much as I liked the anime I also like this one. (7/10)

Ashita no Kita Yoshio
This is this season's stand out dorama. What a great start to the story. A man decides that he wants to end his life in 11 days. And during the time he has left he has a list of things he wants to do. One of those being a meeting with his ex-wife who divorced him 11 years ago. When coming to Tokyo he meets a lot of different people and experiences a lot of different things.
Might sound a bit boring but in fact this is really great stuff. The cast is excellent with lead actor Kuhinata Fumiyo stealing the show from everyone. But even the supporting roles are high class. The deeper you get into this, the more unexpected twists and turns come up and you will never know which direction this series will take with the next episode. Definetely a must see! (8,5/10)


Koshonin
Another one of those action police doramas, this time the main character being a female officer who is with a special negotiation squad. She's always by looked down upon by her superiors and while she is trying to prove that she has what it takes to fulfil the job she constantly gets herself in trouble.
This is kind of predictable since the episodes all deal with some sort of hostage taking or some madman setting up bombs all over Tokyo and the police are trying to track down his or her whereabouts. And the acting is a little tense. Don't get fooled by the banner, it's not as if Yonekura Ryoko is running around in a catsuit the whole time, the story a little bit more serious. Still this is just average stuff I would watch when there's nothing else on at the moment. (6/10)

Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi
I really liked Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki-senpai in "Nodame Cantabile" and here he is again playing a frustrated scientist who is transferred to an all girls school in the city of Nara where his life takes an unexpected turn. Turns out he's the only person who can save the planet. And you thought you had stress in your life, right?
This is a brilliant mistery story which at some points seems to get out of hand but then after a few minutes it gets back on track again smoothly and keeps you stuck in front of the screen. I haven't watched all of the episodes and I still have no clue in what direction this thing is going. All I can say is I really like it when deers talk to humans. Ayase Haruka plays the female lead and the rest of the cast is very good as well. (8/10)

Edison no Haha
Another school dorama and this time we're in elementary school. Ito Misaki plays a teacher who just got dumped by her fiancé and now she has to cope with a wiseguy student at school who is aking questions all the time. And what's even worse, that kid gets the rest of his class to follow his strange experiments.
A nice story about a child prodigy with an everlasting thirst for wisdom and knowledge. The bottom line of this series is that it is okay to ask question and that you shouldn't take no for an answer. Although at some points this gets a little too thick it still is a very good story and I have to admit that I like that kind of messages. Well, most of them. Again, this cast is pretty good and the story has enough lighthearted moments to make you laugh every now and then. (7/10)

1 Pound no Fukuin
Another manga adaption, this one telling the story of a good for nothing boxer who only has food on his mind as is in constant trouble of going to a weigh-in overweight. He meets a nun (a nun in Japan, oh well....) and falls for her, never realizing what it means to stay at a convent.
Another episode-based dorama where the story repeats itself every week. This is kind of funny, but it can be pretty lengthy at times as well. It's always about food - which is nice - and the problems the main character (played by Kamenashi Kazuya of KAT-TUN) has with his very strong appetite. Kuroki Meisa plays the nun and soemtimes she is acting a bit too holy, I think. Still because this is all a bit over the top you can easily recognize that this story was written in a manga. So it's okay, but not great.
On a funny side note, this dorama sees Kobayashi Satomi and Motai Masako team up again. Both were brilliant in the movie "Kamome Shokudo". (6/10)

Sasaki Fusai no Jingi Naki Tatakai
Another lawyer dorama. Or wait, is it a divorce comedy? Well, it has got a bit of both. Koyuki and Inagaki Goro of SMAP play the Ritsuko and Norimichi Sasaki who are not only married but manage their own law firm. But their ways of living their lives couldn't be more different. Ritsuko is sloppy and lazy while Norimichi is correct and disciplined. This leads to various quarrels and they are always on the brink of breaking up. It is only thanks to their friends and co-workers that they always find the way back to each other.
This series is episode based as well meaning that there is one story in each episode, usually a case the law firm takes on. But the quarrels and rants of the couple make this worthwhile. Every now and then I like those simpler things. (6,5/10)

* Fall 2007 Wrap Up
* Summer 2007 Wrap Up
* Spring 2007 Wrap Up

Bundesliga - Day 21: Action and Reaction.

VfL Wolfsburg - Hertha BSC Berlin 0:0
Arminia Bielefeld - MSV Duisburg 0:2
Bayer Leverkusen - FC Schalke 04 1:0
Borussia Dortmund - FC Hansa Rostock 1:0
Eintracht Frankfurt - Werder Bremen 1:0
VfB Stuttgart - Karlsruher SC 3:1
FC Bayern Bayern - Hamburger SV -:-
1.FC Nürnberg - FC Energie Cottbus -:-
VfL Bochum - Hannover 96 2:1

The underlying theme for this weekend's round of Bundesliga action seemed to have been foul play. In a reanactment of the 2006 World Cup final Bremen's Diego (as Zinedine Zidane) and Frankfurt's Kyrigiakos (as Marco Matterazzi) tried to stage one of the best remakes in football history. Diego seemed to have been the target of numerous fair and unfair attacks by the Frankfurt defense, when he was downed by the Greek defender who then told the Brazilian midfielder "fuck you and stand up". This caused Diego to snap and the himself mowed down Kyrigiakos with a fine body check. Without a doubt this was a red card and with only 10 men on the pitch Bremen lost the match 1-0.
So much for the story, what happened the next day was that most of the media were trying to find excuses for Diego's foul play which I find highly astonishing. Here is a player who commits a foul on an opponent and is sent off. A completely normal occurence on a football pitch. But because this was one by a player who is considered to be the best player in the German Bundesliga (and I totally agree with that) everyone is trying to defend him no matter what.
I wonder what they would have said to Mario Gomez who was constantly harrassed by his "shadow" Maik Franz in the southern derby between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. While the fans were trying to burn down the building before and during the match Gomez and Franz were going at each other with all they had in their repertoire. Gomez went ahead and scored the lead for Stuttgart in a game which Stuttgart went on to win 3-1. But it was only after the game when he told reporters what he thought of his opposition in Karlsruhe's defense. "I respect all of my opponents, but not this asshole. He's just an unfair sportsman".

Still all this can be dismissed as rather trivial when you read and maybe see (I won't post any pictures or youtube movies since this is just too much) what happened to Eduardo, Arsenal's Brazilian-Croatian striker. In a match against Birmingham City he was mowed down after only two minutes by Martin Taylor who with his lunge tackle might have broken everything into peices what was once in Eduardo's foot. This was one of the most brutal fouls I have ever seen and the pictures in the British tabloid papers look simply disgusting. One can only hope that Eduardo will be able to play football again in the future. This had nothing to do with sports and is rather an assault case for a law court.

Rugby Overkill: Six Nations and Super 14

Well, well, well, this was a packed weekend with lots of rugby and I took the chance and watched a little bit of the action. Interestingly enough I was able to compare southern and northern hemisphere rugby with the Super 14 championship applying some of the new set of rules, the so called ELV (Experimental Law Variations). No I don't really understand all of those new rules, but it seems that combined with the speed and creativity of southern hemisphere rugby this looks simply amazing. While I was watching Bulls vs Crusaders (19-54) or Lions vs Blues (10-55) I was thrilled to see wonderful passing and running. And it was also great to watch all those players I had only seen on their respective national teams before. The Crusaders victory was brilliant with All Blacks fly half Daniel Carter setting the pace and executing a wonderful kicking game. In the end he also scored a try and completely fooled some Bulls forwards when he was clearing the ball with a kick in his own end zone.
This was completely different from what the European national sides were showing at the Six Nations. I know there always is a difference between club sides and national teams, but while I was watching Ireland vs Scotland (34-13) - although this was intense and exciting - this match didn't have the dynamics and the flow that the Super 14 matches had. I have no idea if this is due to the use of the ELV or if it's just the difference in approaching the game.
The top match was somewhat of a surprise though with England beating France in Paris 13-24. France were looking very good in their first two matches although they were struggling in their game against Ireland in the closing minutes. They were playing with a very young pair on the half positions, François Trinh-Duc at fly half and an extraordinary performance of 19-year-old Morgan Parra at scrum half. It had the same feeling was the semifinal in last year's World Cup but this time England were playing with a lot more offensive effort than back in October, I thought. This was exciting to watch, although a lot of running plays were cut short by a formidable defense on both sides. Still England has to look for a better player at full back. After being hammered for his performance against Wales full back Balshaw didn't look very convincing to me.
With the results of this weekend only Wales (who beat Italy with a convincing 47-8) is still undefeated. Trailing are England, France and Ireland with records of two wins and one loss. This is promising to be a very eciting final to this year's competition.

Champions League - Last 16 (Leg 1)

Arsenal London - AC Milan 0:0
Celtic Glasgow - FC Barcelona 2:3
Fenerbahce Istanbul - FC Sevilla 3:2
Olympique Lyonnais - Manchester United 1:1
FC Schalke 04 - FC Porto 1:0
Liverpool FC - Internazionale 2:0
AS Roma - Real Madrid 2:1
Olympiakos Piraeus - Chelsea FC 0:0

The knock out stages in the European Champions League started this week and while Tuesday's matches were rather boring Wednesday saw somthing completely different. Arsenal vs Milan was labeled as the clash between the young and the old. The high speed one-touch machine of Arsenal with their exciting youngsters against the routine and the experience of Milan. Perhaps the embodiment of Milan, Paolo Maldini, played his 1.000th professional match for Milan last weekend and he again showed all his class in this one. It was a draw, yes, but the 2nd half was very exciting with an everflowing stream of Arsenal attacks and a very firm Milan defense.
Elsewhere Celtic lost to Barcelona after leading twice, both goals scored wonderfully. But Barca is a great team and one was able to see this when they scored. Messi did it twice and his 2nd one was brilliant. That match was also very intensive and exciting although Barcelona was in control most of the time. Still Celtic was fighting back with all they had. And their goalkeeper Artur Boruc made some great saves. If I remember it correctly he was in the goal for Poland when they played Germany in the group stages of the 2006 World Cup. In that match he was extraordinary as well.
That said I think the only team which will go through safely will be Barcelona. All the other ties are way too close.

Akiakane @ Sonic Ballroom, Cologne

I have been looking forward to this show ever since I found out about it on punkstelle.de at the end of last year. It's very rare for us to get to see Japanese bands play live in local clubs, so I gave the music of Akiakane a try via their myspace site and I instantly liked it. Very nice melodic punkrock with enough energy and aggressiveness.
Arriving at the "Sonic Ballroom" at around 2115h the place was decently filled but definetely not sold out. First up were a band from Cologne called The Bloody Valentines, a name today often associated with whiny emo bands, but those guys were more into the punkrock kind of things. Well, there were somewhere in the middle between classic 77 styled punkrock and German fun punk gods Die Ärzte, although only on the musical side of things. This was too much cliché. Interestingly though their bassist seemed to be blind, still he was making all the announcements and it seemed that he was writing a lot of the songs. So,w ell, yeah, they played for around 45 minutes which a quarter of an hour too much if you ask me.
When the samurai girls of Akiakane entered the stage the expectations were very high it seemed. There was some kind of strange atmosphere in the room. Noone knew what to expect now. Introduced by what seemed to be their tour driver from England they then went on to absolutely tear down the club. Fast, high energy and aggressive punkrock tunes, not very much talking on stage (maybe due to the lack of English knowledge - which wasn't true as I found out after the show when I talked to singer Moe for a few minutes), that's the way it should be. People seemed to enjoy the show and were dancing around, getting them back on stage for one encore after around 40 minutes. It's a pity the Ballroom wasn't more packed than the ~40 people who turned up on this Sunday night. But I really enjoyed myself and hope that they will return in the future. If not I might go and check them out in Japan. That's what their merchandise girl Nao told me to do. よろしく。

Bundesliga - Day 20: How to decide on a goalkeeper for the national team

Hannover 96 - FC Bayern München 0:3
Hamburger SV - VfL Bochum 3:0
MSV Duisburg - VfB Stuttgart 2:3
Karlsruher SC - Bayer Leverkusen 2:2
Werder Bremen - 1.FC Nürnberg 2:0
FC Energie Cottbus - Borussia Dortmund 0:2
Hertha BSC Berlin - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0
FC Hansa Rostock - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0
FC Schalke 04 - VfL Wolfsburg (Fr.) 1:2

Whereas last weekend saw some surprises this one was flat out boring. Sure, the games were exciting, but the results didn't provide anything near to an upset. The top 3 teams all won, the three at the bottom all lost.
What gets more interesting is how the German press sets its sights on the position of the goalkeeper in the German national team. Ever since Jens Lehmann made a few mistakes against Austria he's been the No.1 target. Now Germany is the very comfortable spot to have a lot of good, very good and world class goalkeepers compared to countries like, well, let's say, for instance ... England (yeah, I know, cheap joke, duh, hehe). There are at least 7 names which are always brought up when it comes to nominating goalkeepers for this year's Euro championship. Lehmann's back up is supposed to be Timo Hildebrand who is playing at FC Valencia this season. Although he seemed to have some problems at the beginning he's now playing on a regular basis. At east when I last looked up his name, things change fast, you know.
Then there is the youth movement in the Bundesliga which brought up players like René Adler (Bayer Leverkusen) and Manuel Neuer (Schalke 04). Both were pushed to the front last year and played outstanding seasons. But while neuer seems to struggle a little bit recently Adler is getting better and better. Just this weekend he secured the point for Leverkusen at Karlsruhe. Those two are only at the beginning of their 20s mind you so they have the future all for themselves.
The guys waiting for a shot at the national team right now are Robert Enke (Hannover 96), Frank Rost (HSV), Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund) and Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen). Rost is out of the equation if you ask me. He simply is too old (34) and doesn't seem to fit into the teamplaying role that the national team requires. Although he is playing very well for Hamburg at the moment. Weiderfeller is out as well because he's injured. That leaves Enke and Wiese. Enke had an outstanding season last year but seems to be back to the ground this year. Still I would consider him to be the best choice because of his character. Wiese on the other hand had an outstanding match in the UEFA Cup this week in which he saved towo penalties but he is just too inconsistent. Plus he speaks out too often which doesn't leave a good impression with the press and the coaches.

This being the situation at the moment every move and game of Lehmann is taken into consideration right now. Although - from what I've read - he wasn't to blame for Arsenal's defeat against ManU this weekend the German media (especially the tabloids) went on a rampage again. Heck, it's one game. If they really want to get him out of the team then go against his age. Personally I simply think he's too old and because of this you should use a younger guy. If Lehmann had stepped down after the 2006 World Cup he would have been a hero for everyone.

What will happen until June is that the tabloids will try to get him out of the team and instead have one of the aforementioned guys go to the Euro. And - believe me - the name of that guy will change every week. Whoever plays good will be mentioned. This will be fun, yeah..........

On other news, soon-to-be-promoted Fortuna Köln will play their first game this year in two weeks against Wegberg-Beeck at the Südstadion (Feb 29th). I am really looking forward to this one!! Yet another evening game. The last two were both won with a goal difference of 9-4.

Quote of the day

"I believe in freedom of speech and I think it's very important but you don't do it in foreign countries and you certainly don't do it in public"

(Some redneck in the movie "Shut Up And Sing" giving a statement why he now hates the Dixie Chicks. God bless America.)