Drama: IS~Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei~ ep01

I'm glad I got a chance re-look over the drama list for the summer and added this to my own list.  I really like this drama and I see myself not wanting to wait for the next episode.  I'm not much for serious dramas, but the storyline really caught my attention.

Plot:
“IS” stands for “intersexual,” a term referring to people who cannot clearly be classified as male or female, and who may biologically possess characteristics of both sexes. Rokuhana’s manga primarily deals with the troubles faced by the young Hoshino Haru (played by Fukuda), an intersexual who was registered as a girl at birth but has been raised as a boy.
Goriki plays Aihara Miwako, a mysterious classmate who tries to get close to Haru. Inoue Masahiro has been cast as Ibuki Kenji, a member of the soccer club whom Haru begins having feelings for. Nishida Naomi and Minami Kaho play Miwako’s and Haru’s mothers, respectively.

Credit: DramaWiki

Cast: Fukuda Saki, Gouriki Ayame, Inoue Masahiro, Irie Jingi

Official Site: TV Tokyo - IS~Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei~

Comments:

The first episode is basically the background story of Hoshino Haru (Fukuda Saki) and educating viewers on what IS (I-S, Ai-Esu, Intersexual) is and the complications it brings to these families.  In this case, I will be referring to Haru as a boy because he identifies himself as a boy, even though he's going to school as a girl.  I'm probably going to go in and out of pronouns only because I'm finding myself in habit of doing so.  It's not on purpose, so I apologize in advanced.

The story starts with Haru getting ready for school.  With his uniform on (female), his family takes a good look at him and is a bit stunned.  He even put on the skirt the wrong way.  When trying to fix it, he revealed boxer shorts underneath.  As Haru heads towards school, he goes into the story of his birth.

 His parents were working at their bakery when Haru's mom went into labor.  They rushed to the hospital, which was a pretty comedic, but sweet scene.  They wouldnt let them see their child at first, but the doctor had called them in for a special one-on-one.  He revealed to them that their child is IS, not a boy, but not a girl meaning this child has the features of male and female reproductive organs.  Unable to cope with the news, Haru's mom thought it'd be easier for the child to die than to live through a life of hiding this from people.  She headed to the top of the staircase, the roof of the hospital, and almost attempted to drop the child when Haru's father got there in time to stop her.  With some revelation, they decide to live life normally.  They named the child Haru as it is not a boy's name or a girl's name, but were also inspired by the beautiful spring season outside the hospital room.

 The Hoshino family must decide whether or not the child should be registered as a boy or a girl soon.  They wanted to wait until the child was old enough to be able to choose their own destiny, but because of medical complications, they had to decide fast so they can do reproductive surgery. They decided to register Haru as a girl because physically seemed more female.  Growing up though, Haru was more like a boy.  Through early childhood, Haru lived life as a boy.  He even told his best friend Reon (Reon = Leon) about himself (this was in kindergarten) and Reon accepted it and promised to keep it a secret.

When it was time to pick a high school, Haru decided to go the culinary route because his dream is to open up a pastry shop again with his dad.  In order to get into the culinary program in the high school, Haru must enter the school as a girl.  Haru accepts this challenge and decides to go to school, posing as a girl because it's only for 3 years.

 Haru gets to school early and catches eye of another student who came early as well.  She immediately grabs Haru and takes her to a field with beautiful cherry blossoms surrounding the area.  They introduce each other  with Haru almost accidentally revealing "herself" to Miwako (Gouriki Ayame) as a boy because of the way "she" talks.  The episode ends when Haru is in the bathroom, only to find out he got his period for the first time.
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This drama isn't bringing in a lot of ratings even though it airs Monday's at 10pm.  But looking at the list of other dramas, all the best ones are shown closer to the end of the week.  Even so, I also believe it's because TV Tokyo isn't really one of the more popular stations to watch dramas, nor do they make a lot of dramas per season (they only have 2 this summer).  I also have to mention that the way I wrote this isn't in sequence with the actual episode.  It went in and out of present day and past so I just wrote it with the backstory first then what happened that day.

I like this drama because it actually depicts something that happens in reality and so far they're handling the subject really well.  Yes the first episode is starting the season off slow, but it's better to educated those first before you get into the dramatics of the series.

I think they made a good choice in picking Fukuda Saki as the lead.  I haven't seen her in too many dramas.  I think LIFE was the only one I've finished with her in it.  I've seen the first few episodes of Ghost Friends and Maid Deka, also skimmed through Yatterman.  She doesn't come off entirely girly in any of those except for LIFE (which was one reason why I ALMOST didnt like her..), so my image of her is really sweet, innocent and the girl-next-door.  She does a great job playing a boy, and her mannerisms come off quite well too, so it's really believable.  Besides the hair and clothes, she does exude feminine features.. theres no mistaking her as a boy.

As for Gouriki Ayame.  I hated her in Asuko March, her character was such a beezy (hence why I didn't like Fukuda Saki in LIFE too haha), so I was a bit reluctant to watch this only because of her, but with her short appearance in the first episode, she's doing alright so far.  The only problem I have is that long ass wig she's wearing.  Like really... there's no doubt it's a wig.  I mean, she had really short hair in Asuko March and to go from that to some rupunzel hair (yes I'm exaggerating) yeah there's really no question.

Anyways, can't wait to review episode 2 when the drama starts.

Drama: Ouran High School Host Club ep01

I'm not sure if it's me being biased, but this drama is freaking adorable and I hate having to wait once a week for episodes and I hate the fact that 30 min is not long enough (well tbh, it actually is since it stays true to the anime).

I'm going to do this review a little differently than the other dramas.  Let's go the short version route for describing the first episode.

Plot:
The story revolves around a high school girl named Fujioka Haruhi (Kawaguchi) at the prestigious Ouran Academy, who stumbles upon a group of male students who have formed their own club as hosts. Accidentally breaking an antique vase, Haruhi ends up owing the club a vast amount of money, and she ends up posing as a host in order to repay her debt.

Credit: DramaWiki

Cast:
Kawaguchi Haruna, Yamamoto Yusuke, Nakamura Masaya, Ryusei Ryo, Daito Shunsuke, Chiba Yudai, Takagi Shinpei, Takagi Manpei

Official Site: TBS - Ouran High School Host Club

Comments:

 

Haruhi is on her way to school, dressed in non-uniform clothing.  She's studying in the library, but the library at this school isnt like a typical library with peace&quiet.  She sets off to find a place and comes across Music Room #3.  She notices a very pretty vase, turns and finds 6 ikemen guys off to the side.  Tamaki welcomes Haruhi to the Host Club and asks her which guy type is for her (thinking that she's a guy.... haha).  She freaks out, slowly backing away from Tamaki and ends up knocking into the vase.  The vase breaks and she's in debt to the host club of 8 MILLION YEN.  In order to pay off her debt, she becomes a lackey to the boys.  Tamaki orders the guys to make Haruhi up so that she can become a host the next day.  Haruhi gets cleaned up and is even given a school uniform... a guys uniform.

She becomes a host the next day and is quite the natural.  Her goal in order to get rid of the debt is 100 customers.  One of Tamaki's customers looks extremely jealous that Tamaki's attention is going towards the new host.  Haruhi's personal items are tossed into the fountain in the school quad.  She gathers all her items from the fountain except her wallet.  Tamaki comes and tries to save the day, and all the other members help out as well.  The next day Haruhi gets a request from the jealous girl, the girl tosses water at Haruhi, but Tamaki intervenes.  The hosts stand up for Haruhi, the girl gets angry and leaves, Haruhi sweetly asks the girl to come by again for their next event.  Tamaki gives Haruhi her wallet, but drops it on accident revealing her school ID.  Tamaki finds out Haruhi is a girl and freaks out while the other hosts just watch Tamaki panic and pretty much faint.  And that's the end of the first episode. 

Definitely not the short version, but shorter than my usual recaps HAHA.

Characters:

Haruhi - Haruna does a pretty good job at portraying Haruhi.  She plays the kind and sweet part of Haruhi really well, but when it comes to shooing off Tamaki, it doesn't sound too believable, like she's just yelling at him, instead of putting an emotion to it.  That's just my opinion.  Haruna's response at the part at the end when Tamaki drops her wallet revealing her school ID, she says "hai" in this weird tone.  Usually when you're like "yes?" its in a questionable tone, but she said it in a, dare I say, sensual way, which was really weird and for some reason it bothers me haha.

 

  

 

Tamaki - I think Yusuke is doing a great job with how he's portraying Tamaki.  He's actually got some of the gestures down and what I like about the way this drama is going is that its filmed with special effects that portray an anime, like when he gets crushed to the wall by the "UZAI" word.  I also noticed that Yusuke is wearing a light colored contact lense which I didn't notice the first time I watched it.  I knew his comedic portrayal would seem like his character on Atashinchi no Danshi, which I loved as well.  Facial expressions and some gestures resemble it.  If I can, I'll screencap those and compare, just gotta go through the episodes again haha.  His protective side is really charming and his host persona makes me wanna giggle haha.

Kyouya - yes... YES!  I think everyone is in agreement that Daito as Kyouya is definitely the best pick and he really does do a great job portraying the character.  He really is this "cool" guy, the loveable douchebag lol!  The tone in his voice and the way he expresses his words is what really brings out Kyouya. And you gotta love that they upgraded his notebook to an iPad, so much more convenient.

Honey- Chiba Yudai is cute, but doesn't have that cute factor of Honey.  He's trying, but there's only so much you can do considering how chibi Honey is in the anime/manga.  The effect that they added to Honey when he jumps on Haruhi is kind of disturbing (especially in the 2nd ep which I'll explain then), like really... he becomes chibi in mid-air?  That's hella freaky.

Mori - Of course, Mori has no lines or barely anything to say, but gestures go a long way and I think Nakamura does a pretty decent job and being this statuesque, tough, guy.  Him eating the cake with Honey was kind of funny though, when you look at how he eats it.  He's eating cake with such a stern look on his face.  The part with him picking up the fish in the fountain was so awkward and unneccesary.  You don't need a schtick for the comedy, though him picking up a fish in a 6-in fountain was pretty funny, it was just.. not needed.

Hitachiin Twins - The Takagi twins are portraying the twins pretty well, though seeing a live action of literally "brotherly love" is really disturbing.. REALLY disturbing.  I thought it was pretty comedic at first, but everytime I see them getting close to each other, i feel so uncomfortable that it makes me laugh.  I wish they were a bit more playful and mischievous but we can't really see that yet with just this one episode.

Nekozawa - I understand that they're going to add him in all the episodes, which is one of the big changes from the anime to the drama.  I like the idea of adding him, but so far he really is an unnecessary character, but I think Ryusei Ryo is doing a good job playing him.  I still can't get over the fact that Nekozawa is played by Ryusei, it's such a drastic change from his usual roles, and he even changed his voice to get that creepy Nekozawa feeling which I think is really well done.  Nekozawa.. is a bigger creeper than Kyouya. period.

They actually did very well staying true to the anime, but I really wanna see some exaggerated gestures.  Go crazy! Have fun with it! I wanna see an anime come to life, not just people portraying an anime.

I also gotta mention that I did watch all episodes of the anime, which is really rare, but I couldn't stop myself, I just kept going and before I knew it, I was at the end.

Drama: Bull Doctor ep01

* The links to enlarging pictures got messed up for some of them and I won't be able to fix them unfortunately.

Plot:
Esumi’s character Tamami is the “bull doctor” of the show’s title, which comes from the word “bulldozer.” Ignoring any opposition from the people around her, she uses any means necessary to determine the truth behind the deaths of the bodies she examines. Because of her personality, she is constantly at odds with both Ishihara and Inagaki’s characters.
Credit: DramaWiki

Cast:
Esumi Makiko, Ishihara Satomi, Inagaki Goro, Shida Mirai, TOM, Ohno Takuro, Sakura, Ikeda Narushi, Anan Kenji, Ichikawa Kamejiro, Ichige Yoshie, Kohinata Fumiyo

Official Site: NTV - Bull Doctor

Comments:
The drama starts off in a lecture hall of Jyoto University for students of Forensic Medicine.  This is when we first see Takeda Mia (Shida Mirai) and Takeda Nobuo (Kohinata Fumiyo).  Nobuo is a professor at the school teaching about Forensic Medicine while his daughter, Mia, is a first year student.  When I read character descriptions, I didn't put 2-and-2 together that Shida was going to play a college student.  I think she comes off fairly young still, until I realized she IS 18 in real life.  Moving on, Nobuo introduces the character Odate Tamami (Esumi Makiko) as a new professor who is coming from the US.

We see her riding her bike to the University when a man jogging nearly collides with her.  He falls to the floor grabbing his chest and is taken to the hospital via ambulance.

Getting to the hospital, we see Kamatsuda Chika (Ishihara Satomi), an investigator for the police, get out of her squad car and into the hospital where she meets Tamami.  They exchange a few friendly words and head off into the hospitals mortuary.  Their first meeting was kind of awkward because it looked like Chika was trying hard to just get through her job.  It didn't really seem like she had any intentions to get along with Tamami in the first place.

Already we're getting that stubbornness that Tamami exhibits when she doesn't believe that Akai-san's death was just a heart attack.  While there aren't any bruises, cuts, wounds or anything that would indicate physical damage, she just doesn't believe that it was a heart attack that killed him.  When a thorough examination isnt permitted for her and refuses to just let it go, Chika heads into the faculty room calling for Nakura Junnosuke (Inagaki Goro) who is an assistant to the head of the department, i believe.  Nakura is quick to call the death a heart attack and puts an end to the matter.

 

(First meeting with Tamami, she still hadn't shown up to meet her colleagues yet either)

 While in the mortuary, Chika gets called to a different scene to investigate.  This scene looks like a murder.  There was head trauma to the male and they found sleeping pills in the bedroom.  This body versus Akai-san's body was sent to the examiners.  Tamami was the lead Forsensic pathologist and everyone in the room was shocked at the way she does her examinations (she didn't bow her head before starting procedure).  It already seemed like it'd be a homicide case, but of course, Tamami wasn't having it and did not declare it was homicide while Chika did.

*From here I'm going to bullet some points to shorten this post, and also because I dont have screencaps for them everything.  Caps will be placed where needed.*
- Chika vents her frustrations and concerns to her boyfriend who turns out to be Nakura.  Really.
- Chika interrogates Taguchi Yoshimo over the murder of her husband.  She thinks she has the murder weapon.
- Tamami tries to see if the murder weapon fits the wound, but doesn't. Chika tries to make it fit.
- Frusted Chika goes to calligraphy class and meets Odate Kousuke, who right now, doesn't know that's Tamami's son.  This scene was really cute though.  They showed off their inky hands and at first it seemed like Chika was just showing off her inky hands as like "im an idiot" kind of way, but when I rewatched that scene, it seemed she genuinely showed them off to say that her and Kousuke are alike

- One last look at the Taguchi household trying to find any chance of a murder weapon, Tamami, Chika and Mia (who happened to tag along) meet the Taguchi families daughter who's trying to clear her mother's name.  From what I've seen so far, Mia is very ambitious to become a great forensics doctor, like her father, so ends up tagging a long to the scene of the crimes or during examinations with Tamami.  I see this as a trend for the series.
- They find out that the father and mother, even though tended to fight, were actually trying to find a way to reconcile.  Because their anniversary was coming up, they wanted to do something special for each other in secret.  The father actually passed away because he slipped and hit his head on a cinder block and lost a lot of blood pressure to the brain when he fell asleep.  This was a really touching scene and I did get teary eyed.  I was just lucky to be home alone at this time haha.

(The scrapbook the father was making)

So in the end, still not convinced that the Akai-san had died from a heart attack, Chika went on a stake out and ended up overhearing some stuff between Akai-san's wife and a friend of hers.  Tamami also had found something out doing her own investigation and in the end, it turns out Akai-san was poisoned by his wife after taking a "vitamin capsule".

Before we find out that they ruled Akai-san's death as a homicide, we get Tamami's monologue about why she became a forensics doctor.  It's really inspiring, at least to me, on why she changed from the emergency to forensics which is that life just doesnt end at death. She wants to know why it happened.  As she says, she can't pray for the dead until she finds out why.  It's really touching... it reminds me the other drama that Ishihara Satomi was in about forensics which was "Voice."  Forensic doctors are the voice for the dead, they want to know why it happened and let them rest in peace.

Ok so,
Strange, I'm not much of a fan of doctor dramas, shows, movies, etc, but I tend to like Forensic and Forensic Pathology ones. It's most likely because I major in microbio, so a lot of things that have to do with microcultures and discovering reasons why certain things happen appeal to me.

The story so far is keeping me interested.  I thought Bull Doctor would be a drama I'd drop after the first episode, but it seems interesting enough to keep going, even without a cliffhanger from the first episode. I don't see much character chemistry yet, but it is only the first episode and we havent gotten a chance to see character development yet. This is the first time I'm seeing Esumi Makiko in anything so I wasn't sure what kind of acting style she has. To be honest, I'm not really impressed yet. Her stubborness comes across poorly in acting like you know she's acting stubborn, but she really shines when she smiles. I really liked the way she was with her son at the end of the episode, it's really precious.

I've seen plenty of dramas with Ishihara Satomi (which is one reason why I picked up this drama).  I have a love/hate relationship to this girl, I really do.  Some roles where she has to play a serious character are usually the ones I tend to hate because her acting gets a bit overdramatic and fake. Going through the first episode, I thought it was gonna start going that route, but she didn't overact this time around and delivered well.

I'm ready to watch the next episode just to see where things go after this episode. There's more to this drama than having the two leads butting heads, but the other characters need to unfold their backstories as well.