Zíza

Audrey was sweet as always, plus she and Gregory lit up the screen. The beginning was funny, as time went on the joke faded and you could slowly feel what was coming. And then a bittersweet ending comes, what else? Say goodbye and face your responsibilities. A black and white romantic comedy that I can easily recommend to everyone. It's not stupid like the ones that are currently being made in Hollywood. A better 4 stars.

I'm four episodes in and I'm thinking – enough! It's actually all about emo school, where the emos shine under the smiles but still carry around their past experiences that they can't get over sometimes, they shudder at them but that's ok because there are other shining emos to get them out of the shudder. It's all capped off with a "positive" ending... Flat, formulaic, not good at all. Fortunately, one episode is about 12 minutes long, so you can endure the horror for an episode or two. Then you start to realize that even that 12 minutes isn't worth sacrificing to this one.

I confess that this series didn't appeal to me as much as I expected and hoped. I was looking forward to the Toda/Matsuda duo like Christmas, and the fact that there weren’t any romantic scenes didn't bother me, what bothered me was the character Toda plays. I know that if I met someone like that I couldn't help but cheat on her, so I couldn't blame those who cheated, lied, etc. I liked her most when she followed Akiyama's plan, otherwise she was a character that I just couldn't stand. Plus, I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat – the first time she screwed up I knew it was going to happen, I was actually thinking of the same tactics Akiyama used. In the later rounds I knew who was behind it, I just had no idea how Akiyama would handle it. He always handled himself very interestingly, that's true. But since I've seen so many shows or movies where similar psychological stuff is played out, this was just average, maybe slightly above average given the amount I've watched.

I remember Kitano Kii from Life and it seems to me that she hasn't moved on much acting-wise, but it doesn't matter because she played what she was supposed to. Ueto Aya, on the other hand, has grown quite a bit since Azumi (in 7 or so years, it would be silly if she hadn't) and she played alongside Takenouchi, which I haven't seen from her before. Well, I'd seen Takenouchi in Drop-out Teacher Returns to School and I already liked him there – here my fondness only deepened. The two of them were really good together, it was really nice to watch them together and suddenly, without noticing when it happened, you knew that the two of them really liked each other. Their relationship was really well portrayed. Plus, it avoids all manner of clichés that we usually see in high school romances (or some Korean doramas where the main characters are the same age), so that made me very happy. I figured I'd give it one episode and go to bed. Like hell. I kept wanting to know what was going to happen, kept wanting to know about all the characters, so I ended up on episode 8 at 6 am, unable to keep my eyes open properly. I finished the other two episodes as soon as I woke up. They just grew on me. It's really such a nice dorama where it's not overacted by the adults. It all felt really real to me. I'm just a little sad about the typically Japanese ending, but I can't complain that much since it's jdorama :-)) It didn't have to get dragged out like that. I also have to mention the doctor character played by Matsuda Shōta – he kind of caught my eye (like Erika Toda did in the previous dorama), so I decided I had to check out Liar Game :-D Another one who surprised me was Inagaki Gorô – the guy really played quite the psycho brat. I kept looking for a reason why he was doing what he was doing, for what, exactly. I think I figured it out at the end, but you never know. His poker face... What adds to the pluses is that there was no problem here with a man and a woman being friends: no one was jealous, no one saw it as anything more – just friends. Period. Just like normal life. It was so refreshing. :-) And I have to mention the storyline that took place in the hospital Maria x Ryota x (sensei) – the series has its touching moments too. ~~~ So if you're in the mood for that kind of slice of life, adult romance, and a story that doesn't cut corners, and has s a very nice song, Nagareboshi might be just the ticket. P.S.: I was dying from the weather; it totally fit and I just so happen to love this time of year ^^ After a second viewing, I'm upping it to 5 stars.

Poor smoker, having to run like that... :-D Somehow I caught an allergy to Haruka Ayase when I first started watching it, but over time I got used to her. It's mostly because there was also the great Erika Toda (one of the most beautiful contemporary Japanese actresses in my opinion). Again, there were a lot of actors I've seen before, so I just sat back and watched to see which of them could still surprise me. Well, what I appreciated the most was that Kazuya knows how to smoke (it doesn't look as dreadful as, say, Kenta in Parade; I once had a smoker explain to me how to smoke, hold a cigarette, etc., so I've been keeping an eye out for that in movies ever since, it's become a perversion I guess :-D). The biggest surprise was Mr. Saito. I'm watching, I'm watching, I'm thinking damn, I've seen this guy before somewhere... oh, of course! That's him, that's him! Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, he played the delinquent of the year 1998 :-D But back to the series. Sometimes I really enjoyed it, sometimes I just fast-forwarded because things were happening that I didn't need to see, I got bored and missed nothing when I skipped approx. 5 (and >) minutes. The musical component was bland, nothing stuck in my mind. ~~~ It’s such an average drama, below average for a while, about a relationship between two people who love each other but are prevented from being together due to certain circumstances they were born into. Luckily we're not deeper in history, or it would have turned out to be a tragedy.

It's not bad; Koharu annoyed me at times, Masaki isn’t too bad, it has a pretty good cast, but it's not my cup of tea. If you like father-daughter stories, parenting, getting to know each other, parental love vs work, you'll like it; I didn't care for it. I was bored. Couldn't get into it. So I don't have the experience of being a single father... ^^

It's not bad, maybe – on the humorous side – I'm having more fun with it than Bleach or Naruto. Not to mention Reborn!. But then again, I don't snore at it like I do with One Piece. I like that the main character can think (I mean, even Naruto has figured that out, but it took him a while... :-D) and he's not weak, he's one of the stronger ones from the start. A nice change. There's a lot of likable characters (e.g. Gray ^^) and the girl isn't (mostly) the whiny Inoue type = more positive points for FT. But it has one major flaw – it's just not suspenseful enough and it didn't engage me enough to leave me quivering for more episodes. When Natsu fights, you subconsciously somehow know he's going to win, so then where are you supposed to get the suspense? You just kind of get a feeling how it's going to turn out. And the fights aren't that great either. Which means points down again for me. Worse than Naruto and One Piece, but definitely better than Bleach. Oh well, maybe I'll be (pleasantly) surprised in the future. And maybe I won't.

A Japanese movie without their universally renowned overacting. I already know all those main character actors from elsewhere (and except Fujiwara, I know them all as good little darlings), so they really surprised me a lot here – all of them. I know Kenta (played by Satoru) from A Little Princess and he played such a decent bumpkin there and here... same with Keisuke; I remember him from Rookies as such a sweetheart and here... well, what can I say, I've only read about characters like this so far (both Murakamis serve as good examples), but here I've actually seen them, so I'm a bit shocked. The ending of the film really impressed me, I stared at the screen for a while and thought: "Well, what now?" You have to let it go through your head a bit. Yes, the film can be impressive, but it's also easy to forget pretty quickly afterwards. I have no need to see it again. Once is enough.

I was still hopeful at the beginning – yeah, it'll be okay, or at least average. Bullshit, with mushrooms. It got boring. A lot. The main heroine, her American friend, all the characters, were two-dimensional with stupid dialogue. The best dialogue was in Japanese (probably mostly because I only half understood it...). Plus by the middle of the movie I couldn't take it anymore and kept fast-forwarding. Sometimes by ten minutes. Surprisingly, I didn't miss anything. The graphics are like something out of pulp game at a cheap bookstore. Nice movie... If you watch it anyway, watch it with Czech dubbing – the gold standard.

What I like about this dorama is that we get to spend so much time with the characters – we actually visit Elementary School a bit, graduate from College, get a job, watch a wedding... going back in time to certain situations I liked, the most beautiful feat Ken did was wiped off the board until I felt sorry for him. Hm, here you really have to empathize with the main character a bit (or more), otherwise it's hard to take anything away from it. I empathized, felt compassion for him, and by the end, I really felt sorry for him that things just weren't working out. I was cheering him on and screaming: "Get it out, dammit! Say it! Say it!" ^^ I loved it. It had a nice end song. It was funny. It showed a beautiful friendship. You really have to envy them. If you want something calmer, where the main character is worth going to the past for, definitely reach for this one. You have to watch the special as well, without it you feel like you missed the best part (btw it’s almost 2 hours long).