Yeah! Yeah! Shinohara has a new drama... I would like to saw her in the new drama. Umm... I would see Orange Days too. Shibasaki and Tsumabuki so cool. GANBATTE!!!

What? another blind person theme? OMG Please don't destroy this beautiful spring with sad and pathetique drama.
I've found Boku no Ikiru Michi (last year) was so sad...I always cried watching Tsuyoshi...(hiks), so I'm not looking forward with sad dramas.

Courtesy of FUJI TV website :

To the One I Love

What if the one you love were destined to lose his eyesight in three months?

What would you like him to see last?

If you were him, what would you want to see last?

Shiki Tomokawa is a new pediatrician who is enjoying her life. She falls in love with Shunsuke, a cameraman, who is destined to lose his eyesight in a couple of months. How will Shiki react when she finds out Shunsuke's destiny?

"To the One I Love" takes place in two contrasting cities�in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, and in the peaceful city of Nagasaki, and depicts both the joys and sadness of life, and the interaction with family and friends.


Mondays, 9:00-9:54 p.m.
11 Episodes
Beginning April 19, 2004

The Cast
Character Name Played By
Shiki Tomokawa Miho Kanno

Shunsuke Anmo Naohito Fujiki

Ai Asakura Misaki Ito

Shingo Orihara Hiroshi Tamaki

Mitsuo Tomokawa Mirai Moriyama

Yoshie Anmo Kaoru Yachigusa

Tetsuo Tomokawa Shigeru Izumiya

Keisuke Furuya Saburo Tokito

Wonderful Life

Kirishima is the most famous baseball player in Japan. However, an unfortunate injury forces him to retire. His family abandons him, and all that's left is a vacant coaching position at a local baseball team for young boys. This club is on the verge of being disbanded�so far, they have never won a single game. Will Kirishima be able to help the club?

Through the television screen, popular baseball player Kirishima tells the kids, "dreams come true." His baseball techniques are so fantastic that he is called the "miracle man." But in reality, Kirishima is an arrogant and selfish flirt who spends money like there's no tomorrow.

Mizuki is a girl who wants to become a lawyer. Her brother plays on Kirishima's team, but can't stand the sight of Kirishima. She hates men who fool around, and especially those who deceive children. Will Mizuki and Kirishima be able to come to a mutual understanding?

Tuesdays, 9:00-9:54 p.m.
11 Episodes
Beginning April 14, 2004

The Cast
Takashi Sorimachi

Kyoko Hasegawa

Norito Yashima

Ken Horiuchi

Hiromasa Taguchi

Satoko Ohshima

Miyoko Yoshimoto

Yui Ichikawa

Mari Hamada

Masahiko Nishimura

At-Home Dad

Kazuyuki Yamamura works at a major advertising agency, and is the breadwinner of his family, which consists of himself, wife Miki, and daughter Rie. He purchases a house, and is proud of being at the pinnacle of his career.

Kazuyuki's neighbor, Yusuke Sugio, however, leads a completely different life. The breadwinner of his family is his wife Shoko, who runs her own company. Yusuke is a so-called "at-home dad," and because of this, Kazuyuki considers him miserable and helpless.

Suddenly one day, Kazuyuki is forced to quit his company. At the same time, his wife receives a call from her former employer saying he wants her to come back to work. Consequently, Kazuyuki has no other choice but to stay at home while Miki works. Kazuyuki reluctantly starts his new life as a household husband�the last thing he wanted to do.

Kazuyuki's new "career" starts out as a big failure, because he can't seem to do anything right. This consequently causes his pride as an elite businessman to go right down the drain. But thanks to his hard-working personality, he is determined to get the ball rolling�and soon after, finds himself enjoying life as an at-home dad. From this point on, Kazuyuki begins looking up to Yusuke as his mentor.

Tuesdays, 10:00-10:54 p.m.
12 Episodes
Beginning April 13, 2004

Produced by:
Kansai Telecasting Corporation

The Cast
Character Name Played By
Kazuyuki Yamamura Hiroshi Abe

Yusuke Sugio Hiroyuki Miyasako

Miki Yamamura Ryoko Shinohara

Shoko Sugio Tomoko Nakajima

Kenji Osawa Masaru Nagai

Saeko Kuramoto Saori Takizawa

Marie Iwasaki Naomi Kawashima

Satoshi Ueda Shigeyuki Nakamura

Divorce Lawyer

Takako Mamiya is a lawyer who quits her job at a prestigious law firm, and establishes her own office. She confidently sets out to build her business, but soon her former firm is putting up obstacles and interfering, causing Takako's employees and clients to drift away. She finally puts together a new staff consisting of a college student who knows little about the law, a girl who applied for the job in hopes of meeting a rich guy, a hard-nosed lawyer, and a paralegal who hasn't passed the bar exam yet.

Takako reluctantly handles divorce cases with her incompetent crew. For an elite lawyer like her, divorce cases are the most boring and unrewarding cases that exist. Through clashing with her employees and clients, Takako soon becomes a very mature and tough lawyer.

"Divorce Lawyer" also tells the story of how difficult it is to judge love and relationships in legal terms.

Thursdays, 10:00-10:54 p.m.
11 Episodes
Beginning April 15, 2004

The Cast
Character Name Played By
Takako Mamiya Yuki Amami

Daisuke Honda Tetsuji Tamayama

Kaori Yoshida Mimura

Toshifumi Yanagida Kuranosuke Sasaki

Natsuko Murai Yoko Kuga

Tetsuji Yamaoka Takanori Jinnai

Kizaburo Inoue Masahiko Tsugawa

enau wrote:

Courtesy of FUJI TV website : To the One I Love ...

Aa... miho.. Can't wait to watch this one!
i hope that won't be her another sad or dark drama again...

omgod!!
check out hiroshi abe!!!
he looks so......wierd without his goatie!!!!

Rampo R

on YTV

Starring :

Manami Honjou & Takeshi Fujii

Synopsis (from The Japan Times) :

Comedian Takeshi Fujii is best known as the effeminate, fake-blonde TV host Matthew Minami on the popular late-night variety show "Matthew's Best Hit TV," which is featured in Sophia Coppola's movie "Lost in Translation." Fujii is doing his first serious leading dramatic role in the new series "Rampo R" (Nippon TV, Monday, 10 p.m.), in which he plays mystery master Edogawa Rampo's detective Kogoro Akechi. Each episode will feature a different Akechi mystery updated to 2004. Many actors have played Akechi, who is often described as being "intelligent and nihilistic," but Fujii, who is playing the grandson of the original Akechi, will try to do something different with the role that doesn't involve changing his hair color. This week, Akechi is visited by a young actress, Fumiko (Miho Kanno), who has received a blackmail letter. In an upcoming production, Fumiko will take the role of a vampire, a part she played two years earlier. At that time, another actress auditioned for the same part, and after she lost out she burned herself to death. Ever since then, whenever the play is produced, someone dies.

On FUJI TV :

New New York Love Story

Starring :

Masakazu Tamura & Yuko Takeuchi

Synopsis (from The Japan Times) :

One of the mysteries of Japanese TV is the use of actor Masakazu Tamura as a romantic lead. As Tamura moves into late middle age, he continues to be paired with actresses in their 20s.

Tamura hasn't made a drama in the past year, concentrating on the more lucrative TV commercial market (that's him shilling for Tokyo Gas and making love to Audrey Hepburn's billboard in the Nicos Card CM). This week, he revises a role he played in a popular 1988 series "New York Love Story."

In "New New York Love Story" (Fuji TV, March 30, 9 p.m.), he again plays the cool expat Tajima, who owns a small successful winery on Long Island and lives in a beautiful Manhattan apartment. But all is not wonderful. Tajima is slowly going blind in one eye, and he believes he is dying. Into his life comes Eiko (Yuko Takeuchi), a young woman who is being secretly used by a Japanese-American FBI agent investigating Tajima's relationship with a U.S. senator. In exchange for spying on Tajima, the agent has promised to secure Yuko a green card. Obviously, the agent underestimates Tajima's charms.

Yuko Takeuchi's role as the love interest in the extremely popular "Pride" has ended.

oh my god..!! not another jinbe..?! tamura masakazu is best off playing furuhata ninzaburo..

On TV Asahi :

Toride Nakimono (The Defenseless Person)

Starring :

Koji Yakusho & Kyoka Suzuki & Satoshi Tsumabuki

Synopsis (from The Japan Times) :

The man who wrote "Pride," Nao Nozawa, has had one of his novels, "Toride Nakimono (The Defenseless Person)," made into a television drama that will air April 2 at 9 p.m. on TV Asahi.

Koji Yakusho plays Nagasaka, a TV news reporter who does a story on a young woman running a prostitution ring. After the story is aired, the woman commits suicide and a young man claiming to be the woman's boyfriend says that she was not a criminal and that the report drove her to despair.

Nagasaka is disgraced and suspended, and the boyfriend becomes a media celebrity. With the help of a female news director, Nagasaka soon finds out that he is the victim of a huge smear campaign.

arashinokoto wrote:

oh my god..!! not another jinbe..?! tamura masakazu is best off playing furuhata ninzaburo..

It's really to imagine what will this dorama look like.
You better check out this link arashi san :

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/NY/story.html

I'm so looking those pics there, I thought Masakazu is playing a grandfather who walks with his granddaughter (Yuko Takeuchi).

Quote:

"AIBOU" / "PARTNERS" (on TV Asahi) Starring : Yutaka Mizutani (right) and Yasufumi Terawaki (left) Synopsis (from TV Asahi website) : Partners -the two only special mission officers- Detective and friendship Two unique outlaw police investigators try to solve mysterious and clueless cases with their very original and outrageous ways. Story Special Mission Task Team � is not considered as important as it might sound. It is positioned in the lowest section of the Metropolitan Police Department and so-called as the �goversized garbage dealer�h. Ukyo Sugishita (Yutaka Mizutani) is a head of this Special Mission Task team. As people rumor that anyone who worked under Ukyo eventually leaves the office, he is called �gthe grave keeper of human resource�h. However, there was another reason why people call him in this name. When Ukyo fist transferred to this section with his secret mission, all of his direct reports died mysteriously. Somehow, the police have sealed this incident from further investigation.

From The Japan Times :

One of the cleverer series of recent memory is "Aibo (Accomplices)" (Asahi, Wednesday, 8 p.m.), a cop show centered on an odd-couple detective duo. Ukyo (Yutaka Mizutani) is erudite and unflappable, while Kaoru (Yasufumi Terawaki) is excitable and impulsive. In a final two-hour special, the pair is faced with its most perplexing case. A death-row inmate named Asakura escapes from prison, and Kaoru eventually finds him living as a homeless person. Asakura claims he doesn't remember anything about his past, including the crime he committed. The prosecutor wants him back so he can carry out the hanging, but for some reason the justice minister won't sign the execution order. It's up to Ukyo and Kaoru to uncover the truth.

jules wrote:

Aa... miho.. Can't wait to watch this one! i hope that won't be her another sad or dark drama again...

omg, I just finished koukou kyoushi. Fujiki Naohito as another serious health problem character?! I don't know if I can take that. But I will look forward to this anyway.

*spoilers* (sorta)

I managed to catch a good bit of this drama special on Tuesday. Missed the starting sequence and because I don't fully understand Japanese, could only follow the general gist of the storyline.

Its rather inconceivable watching Tamura and Yuko slowly fall in love as she tries to gain Tamura's trust and gather evidence for Ishiguro Ken, who plays the FBI agent. I'm not sure why or how Yuko was chosen to investigate Tamura's background, but it seemed that Ken had a bargaining tool which was her child and the promise of a green card. Tamura seemed more of fatherly character, and their relationship (to me) looked to develop more like amiable friendship of two kindred spirits. Definitely not quite love.

A sub-plot featuring Toshiro Yanagiba as well as the lady who acted as Jang Hyuk's guardian in The Successful Story of A Bright Girl were also woven in - part of Tamura's younger days.

Tamura eventually discovers that Yuko has been snooping around and her motive, and just when she thinks that her dream of getting the green card is going poof...he turns himself in.

I found the story rather draggy...not highly recommended.

hmm... isn't 'gege' a movie by Ishida Yuriko and Osawa Takao?

http://www.gege.jp/

the one by fujiki naohito and kanno miho has a similar storyline. but it's called 'aishi kimi he'

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/itoshikimie/index2.html

m|rA| wrote:

hmm... isn't 'gege' a movie by Ishida Yuriko and Osawa Takao? http://www.gege.jp/ the one by fujiki naohito and kanno miho has a similar storyline. but it's called 'aishi kimi he' http://www.fujitv.co.jp/itoshikimie/index2.html

Oh I see

Thanks for the correction m|rA| san.
Actually I just copy pasted the information from a website. Maybe at the time, the webmistress still not yet getting the official title from FUJI TV, so she used the "Gege" title (since the storyline is kinda same).

nice

Now that all the dramas are over I thought I'd give my top 3.

1) Boku to kanojo to kanojo no ikiru michi
2) Suna no utsuwa
3) Ace wo nerae

Most critics have released their list. The general consensus seems to be the top and the bottom. The top being "shiroi kyotou" and the bottom being "Pride".

Pride has been called such things as "the worst drama ever made" and "the beginning of the end of kimutaku" by the press. While these might be overstatements, the drama was most certainly quite bad.

I didn't get a chance to see "shiroi kyotou" because it was a continuation from the fall and I didn't want to start half way through. But for those looking for good dramas to watch I'd definitely recommend those 3 I mentioned above.

wat? cant the critics juz shut their trap? how many many times haf they mention anything being the end of kimura? ever since he got married till now. come on, he juz won the an-an poll for the consecutive 11 years, and datz the end of the road for him? as for pride, it has the highest average rating for the jan-mar dramas, and now everybody say the drama is lousy? wad is so lousy about it? i personally thought it was one of the best drama kimura ever starr in. it was a different drama for once, rather than starring in similar genres right? i really wonder what the critics out there are thinking, they expect kimura to act similar characters? and if he does that, they'll probably say he is boring again, really what exactly do they want?

"denchi ga kireru made"

(on TV Asahi)

Starring :

Naomi Zaizen & Takanori Jinnai & Sachie Hara

Synopsis (from various sources) :

A heart warming drama about the importance of the thing which lives. A girl who suffers from incurable disease made a poem which appeals the importance of the thing which lives, makes many impressions on also the adult now, not only the child. This poem also effects a teacher and she enters the turning point of life happiness and joy!

"reiikan no bus-guide jikenbo"

(on TV Asahi)

Starring :

&

Rei Kikukawa & Ken Kaito

Synopsis (from various sources) :

Every week as for the Wednesday night, Rei Kikukawa who play "the inspirational bus guide", invites everyone of the customer and the viewer, to the tour of fear from April....
At first glance, Rei is a normal lovely bus guide, but as story goes she will face the puzzle of the grotesque phenomenon of "the ghost tour". This lovely bus guide with the uniform which represents the bus guide of the sixties will keep solving incident and of course with full of tour spirit.