Andru wrote:

Do you watch your cable tv through a cable box? Or do you have it connected directly to your ("cable-ready" and SAP-enabled) TV?

I don't have a Comcast cable box anymore, but I run the cable into a HD DVR that I record it with. Maybe that's where the SAP is falling down on the job. I'll check it out on a raw telecast one day. (But my cable system isn't the best around -- we don't even have HD through the cable yet. That could be part of the problem)

I was just checking the TTV USA site, and found that their starting Top Caster on May 7th at 9:30 PM. It stars Amami Yuki and Yada Akiko. It may not be subtitled (although it's a TBS drama, and I don't think TBS has any prohibition against subtitles like Fuji TV -- it's just that I don't think that TTV USA cares to pay the extra money for subtitles.)

Anyway, here's the website with the info (in Japanese).
http://www.ttvusa.com/

Wow, that's currently airing in Japan. Cool.

The SAP does come through when you connect the cable to the tv. I was surprised when it was on SAP and heard English from the NHK news program.

Thank goodness, I finally realized that the actor playing Hideyoshi Toyotomi is the detective from "Shall We Dansu." I knew there was something about him...It was a small part in "SWD," but memorable.

I'm looking forward to the sushi special.
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wintersweet

That actor is Akira Emoto. One of my favorites, and an actor with one of the longest and best list of movie credits in Japan.

If you watched Haru to Natsu he was the successful silk worm farmer in Brazil that Haru's father had the feud with.

He was also the star of one of my all time top ten movies "Kanzo Sensei" aka "Dr. Akagi".

And yeah, he was great in "Shall we Dansu" As well as "The Eel".

Just one of the very best.
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Who is it that does the English broabcast on SAP? They sound like BBC. As a former broadcaster, they seem fairly amateurish, sucking in their breath and fumbling with simple words. Maybe I could volunteer...
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Hmm, I saw the sushi special preview for the Memorial Day programming. Yum.

dochira

Quote:

Hmm, I saw the sushi special preview for the Memorial Day programming. Yum.

Yup. I saw that too. Reminded me a little too much of the food challenges on "Fear Factor"

I'll be giving that one a pass.
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Geezer wrote:

dochira Quote: Hmm, I saw the sushi special preview for the Memorial Day programming. Yum. Yup. I saw that too. Reminded me a little too much of the food challenges on "Fear Factor" I'll be giving that one a pass.

It didn't looked like that to me...

Doesn't seem too challenging. Squid that is killed in the kitchen, instead of on the boat, something about the maguro....

Challenging? Setting up the DVD to record it while I'm away...
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This is weird.

Three weeks ago, Sunday night and I were hardly on speaking terms. I'd watch the news, and maybe I'd fastforward to the end of the recording to catch Kokoriko Miracle Type. But I really couldn't get into either Dr. Kobayashi's Lover nor Nyokei-kazoku.

And although I'm a big fan of Amami Yuki, the first (devided) episode of Top Caster didn't do much for me.

But last Sunday's (5/21) episode of Top Caster was funny! They managed to cut off the smelly clothes gag just as it was getting old, and it did get preachy toward the end, but the opening gag where Akiko woke Yuki up by doing the 5-seconds-to-air countdown was good, and I really liked the way they set up the canned-food running gag.

I'm still a little on the fence for Team Medical Dragon. It's playing a little like White Tower done way, way over the top. But I'm also a huge fan of Inamori Izumi, so I'm going to stay with this one for a while to see which way it goes.

This isn't as much of a dream lineup as last Summer's Slow Dance to Densha Otoko, but at least it's got me interested in Sunday nights again.

Soon our long national nightmare will be over. I'm figuring Wakaba has three or four more weeks before she wanders off the schedule, and after the Spring! Sushi! Festival!, the 8:00 PM slot opens up again on June 10th.

So has anyone heard what the possible replacements might be for Saturday nights? I would be majorly happy with seeing Kamen Rider in one of the prime spots, but I can dream, ne? And the first one that suggests Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho: The Musical will get a royal buttkicking.

CK

Wakaba should still have another 2 months to run. I'm looking forward to the end of this once promising series. The writers of this show must have been looking forward to the end of it also, as the whole thing has a very tired feel to it. Seems like they can't figure out where to take the story next or what to do with all these characters anymore. They send them off to New York, to France, or to oblivion, or to their grave as this seems to be Grandpa's next home.

I too am looking forward to something new and fresh (other than the mayhem of live sea creatures). In the meantime, I'll keep renting J-movies from my local video store which happens to have a substantial collection, all subtitled.

So she went, she fought, and she won. Will we ever know what?

Well, I picked up the current issue of Mon! and it says the next 8pm drama beginning June 10 will be.....



Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho 4

Edit: Quote removed since it's still broken.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! ::running screaming from building::

Maybe it's just the 'pre-summer doldrums' setting in, but I'm looking forward to something crazy-new. Just not THAT!

Thank goodness for d-addicts!

CK

I was out of town for a few weeks and have been catching up on all the stuff my DVR recorded for me while I was gone - mostly JTV on KTSF - and I have a couple of observations about Wakaba:

First, did anyone else find suspicious that, in the scene where Aki was forced to confront her husband about the suspected cheating and then ran out of the room to vomit from morning sickness, her father suddenly walked into the room at the same time as Judy? He explained that he had just came back from overseas and Judy said that she had been to Hokkaido, but why did they arrive at the EXACT same time? And Judy was looking a little too content to me, considering the jazz singer hasn't been around for her to harass.

Then, in the scene where Wakaba thinks the trees are talking to her, with the sunlight shimmering through the leaves and all, seemed to me like someone musta slipped a little LSD into her tea that morning.

OK, so I'm just trying to make the show a bit more interesting, since it does look like the final weeks of the series will bring us Ojiisan's death and Wakaba abandoning her career to become a proper housewife and mother. I was hoping she'd rock the boat and take the job as a landscape designer, and then quietly get an abortion. But back when the daddy-lookalike bartender disappeared, I guess all hope that the series would become less boring was lost for good.

I think the arrival of Aki's father and Judy together in last week's episode of Wakaba was purely incidental. (Maybe the actress playing Judy happened to be on the set that day as a result of a production schedule mishap, and rather than sending her home, they had her walk through the set to justify her day's pay.) I don't think the writers of this show meant for us to read any further than what they throw in to fill in time. I remember when, on several occasions, Judy and Hikaru walked onto the set together "looking a little too content" and telling everyone she was giving him pointers about pastry-making. I'm sure the writers meant this quite literally.

I remember reading through Wakaba's official website when the series started. They were saying that the theme of the series was to show how Kobe had recovered and been revitalized after the '95 earthquake. So I think that, in tune of this theme, the writers will send Grandpa to his grave after Wakaba's baby is born, so as to show that the cycle of life continues through tragedies.

Might have been wiser to give us a solid storyline with good character development. At leastKochira Hon Ikegami Sho 3 did a better job at this.

Is everyone asleep at the KTSF Programming Wheel these days? I just had a chance to look at my tape from last night of the Spring Sushi Special... and they aired the SECOND PART of the two-part series!! Oh for freakin' lame.

It's past annoying. Get your act together. NOW.

CK

Quote:

Kochira Hon Ikegami Sho 4

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Dang it! Where's my library card?
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Waldo T wrote:

I think the arrival of Aki's father and Judy together in last week's episode of Wakaba was purely incidental. (Maybe the actress playing Judy happened to be on the set that day as a result of a production schedule mishap, and rather than sending her home, they had her walk through the set to justify her day's pay.) I don't think the writers of this show meant for us to read any further than what they throw in to fill in time.

I'm sure you're right, but personally, I'd rather live in Andru's world. It's more interesting.

But I have no hopes for what will replace Wakaba. My guess is it will be Kaze no Haruka (or whatever replaced it). I watched a little of it when I was in Japan in February, and aside from featuring Maya Miki (another great-looking ex-takarazuka actress in her 40s), it was pretty darned Wakaba-ish.

CherKell wrote:

Is everyone asleep at the KTSF Programming Wheel these days? I just had a chance to look at my tape from last night of the Spring Sushi Special... and they aired the SECOND PART of the two-part series!! Oh for freakin' lame. It's past annoying. Get your act together. NOW. CK

They did air the first part of the special. They tried to save money by using the intro for part 2 and pass in off for part 1 thinking no one would notice.