First Impressions, Spring 2010: Tumbling

Plot: Azuma Wataru (Yamamoto Yusuke) is a hot-headed punk. But when he is forced to join a club he ends up on the men's rhythmic gymnastic team because the cute new girl he likes is part of the girl's team. But the boy's team is small and struggling and gets no respect, always competing for gym space with the larger and more competitive girl's team.

You can tell they're hardcore because they're wearing their school uniforms unbuttoned.

Episode 1 Recap: Azuma Wataru and his two best friends are punks who get into a lot of fights. The new teacher tells Azuma that he must join a club or take extra classes or he'll have to call his mother. Azuma doesn't want that, so he tries out for a variety of clubs but his impatience and hot-temper make him quickly quit each one. The beautiful new girl that Azuma has fallen head over heels for joins the girl's gymnastics team, so he joins the boy's team. That doesn't work out so well, either. Azuma has no patience for things like stretching and he doesn't get along well with the other team members, The boy's team has other things to worry about, as the girl's team barely gives them any gym time and their newest member (other than Azuma, who barely counts as a member) is injured, destroying their dream of competing as a group for the first time. But then Azuma decides that he is serious about the club and sets out to prove his dedication to the other members. They begin to accept him, but then their competition performance is such a disaster that the team members are horribly dispirited. The episode ends with Azuma rededicating himself to rhythmic gymnastics and the watchword for the series seems to be teamwork, because it looks like the team has no chance of winning until they bond more and start to work together like a real team.

Azuma Wataru (Yamamoto Yusuke). His red hair shows his hot-headed nature.

Thoughts: The first episode was an hour and a half long, which I wasn't expecting. That's double the length of a normal episode, and this isn't something big like Bloody Monday 2, which also had a double-length first ep, so I don't know why this one was extra long. I thought overall this was a decent high school drama. Not something great like Nobuta o Produce, but not a trainwreck, either. It's fairly mediocre--some heart, some humor, but not enough to get me excited about the next episode. It also suffers because I'm not really into any of the actors. The sad truth is that if it had any of the actors I really liked--Sato Takeru, Kame, Yamapi, etc.--than I would tune in every week just for the pretty. Yamamoto Yusuke is serviceable as the lead, but doesn't really do anything for me.

Rhythmic gymnastic members. Too bad none of them are as pretty as Kame.

The Good: Not as boring as a show about rhythmic gymnastics could be. Yanagishita Tomo as Mizusawa Taku, the hardcore rhythmic gymnastic member who is better than his teammates and isn't much of a team player. Otsuka Nene from Tokyo Dogs as Azuma's tough-as-nails mother. Mostly because anything that reminds me of Tokyo Dogs gets my undying love.

Azuma was way too badass to stretch. Luckily, he got over it.

The Bad: Formulaic sports drama about friendship and team spirit--but how many jdramas aren't formulaic? No actors that I particularly like. No matter how many fancy camera angles and slow motion they use, still can't make rhythmic gymnastics look cool. Fairly mediocre plot/script.

Trying to work the leotards.

The Verdict: I'll give it a few more episodes but it's not a show I'll be waiting for each week. Still, if you like high school dramas and especially if you like high school sports dramas, it's worth checking out to see if you'll like it more than I do.

Spring Dramas 2010

Tsuki no Koibito (Moon Lovers)
When: 9pm Mondays
Sub Group: TimeLes Sub
Starring: Kimura Takuya (SMAP), Shinohara Ryoko, Lin Chi Ling (Taiwanese, Red Cliff), Kitagawa Keiko (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Taiyo to Umi)
Plot: Kimura plays the head of an interior design company who wants to expand into China. There appears to be a love square between him and three women, including a Chinese interior designer (Lin Chi Ling) and a model from a rich family (Kitagawa Keiko).
Thoughts: This is one of the dramas I'm interested in watching. It's already done really well in the ratings for the first few episodes, which doesn't surprise me, since it seems aimed at the same older crowd who made JIN a smash hit (Kimura Takuya is apparently quite popular among them). Although it's not exactly aimed at my demographic, I like love stories and like Keiko from her previous roles.



Zettai Reido
When: 9pm Tuesdays
Sub Group: Rollins
Starring: Ueto Aya is the lead, but supporting actor Sugimoto Tetta (Code Blue) is one of the older actors I recognize and like
Plot: Ueto Aya is the head of a new forensic analysis police team which uses DNA to investigate cold cases and missing persons cases.
Thoughts: So...basically a low budget CSI/Cold Case. Every season brings a new round of episodic detective dramas that I never watch because whenever I do catch an episode on TV it is either laughably bad or boring or both. This seems to be of the same ilk. If I happen to turn on the TV when it's on I'll watch it, but I won't go out of my way to find it.



Mother
When: 10pm Wednesdays
Sub Group: Chuks
Starring: Matsuyuki Yasuko
Plot: Matsuyuki is an elementary school teacher who takes in one of her abused students
Thoughts: I randomly caught the first episode and found it really slow. Slice-of-life dramas aren't really my cup of tea.



Dosokai
When: 9pm Thursdays
Sub Group: Heiwa Fansubs
Starring: Kuroki Hitomi (head boss lady on Real Clothes)
Plot: Hitomi plays a housewife whose life is falling apart in the recession: her husband has lost his job and her family has lost their house. However, her class reunion changes her life even more.
Thoughts: Another show that I randomly caught an episode of. I really liked Hitomi in Real Clothes and it was interesting to see her as a normal housewife instead of a high-powered fashionista. There was a lot of crying and love tangles going on in the episode I saw. Not something I'll watch regularly.



Sunao ni Narenakute (Hard To Say I Love You)
When: 10pm Thursdays
Sub Group: Querbeet
Starring: Eita (blond haired violinist in Nodame Cantible), Ueno Juri (Nodame of Nodame Cantible), Seki Magumi, Tamayama Tetsuji, Hero JaeJoong (from Kpop group TVXQ)
Plot: I can't do it justice if I try to write it myself, so here's the description from drama wiki:

Nakajima (Eita) looks up to his father, who was a war photographer, but can only get a job as an assistant for gravure magazines. Mizuno (Ueno Juri) is a provisional high school teacher, currently on probation. Nishimura (Seki Megumi) is Mizuno's best friend, whose boyfriend has been avoiding her since she discovered she was pregnant. Ichihara (Tamayama Tetsuji) works at a magazine where he is being blackmailed into sexual favours by his chief editor. Park (Hero JaeJoong), on Twitter, takes on the persona of a doctor, when he is actually working at a company that sells medical equipment to disinterested doctors, and at the same time, trying to take care of his younger sister.This is a story about the blossoming friendship of five young people who were brought together by Twitter, and their journey to finding honesty with each other and with themselves.

Thoughts: I like Eita, I like Ueno Juri and JaeJoong is cute. Plus, I like shows about young people in love (and you know with this many beautiful young people there are going to be love triangles galore). Even though, c'mon, Twitter? There's a show about people connecting through TWITTER? I want to know how they all become Twitter friends. I'm only Twitter friends with famous people (who I like to pretend I'm actually friends with) and people who I'm already friends with in real life.

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan
When: 10pm Fridays
Sub Group: Timeles Subs
Starring: Narimiya Hiroki (bad guy J in Bloody Monday), Naka Riisa (Ninkyo Helper)
Plot: Hiroki plays Shinagawa Daichi, a good boy gone bad (this is Japan, so not really bad...more someone that gets into fights, smokes and skips class but still has dinner with his family every night). Riisa plays Adachi Hana, a bad girl gone good. Hana is determined to be a good class rep and have everyone participate in and enjoy high school, including delinquent Daichi.
Thoughts: My Jdrama weakness is high school dramas and this was the number 1 drama I was looking forward to this season. So far the first two episodes haven't disappointed. I was a bit worried at first that Hiroki was way too old to play a high school student (dude's 28!) but he looks close enough in his school uniform and he's doing a good job in his part. This is based on the manga of the same name, which I haven't read yet, but am planning to. It's called Flunk Punk Rumble in the English translation (yeah, I don't know how they came up with that name, either).

Tumbling
When: 8pm Saturdays
Sub Group: GiriGiri Fansubs
Starring: Yamamoto Yusuke (Ninkyo Helper, Atashinchi Denshi, that guy who felt spirits in HanaKimi), Seto Koji (Otomen, Atashinchi Denshi), Daito Shunsuke (Welkame, the guy who gets beat up in Nobuta wo Produce), Tomiura Satoshi (the cute little brother in Hana Yori Dango)
Plot: Yamamoto Yusuke plays Azuma Wataru, a short-tempered delinquent who is told he must join a school club. He decides to join rhythmic gymnastics because a beautiful girl is in the female rhythmic gymnastic team. But the male team is not in great shape.
Thoughts: Am I ashamed that I want to watch this? Yes, yes I am. It's not like I even want to watch it for the pretty boys because I've never been a fan of Yamamoto Yusuke's looks and the other boys don't do anything for me either. Plus do you SEE the promo pic? Those uniforms aren't exactly lust-inducing. But I still want to see it. It looks like it will be in the cracktastic dumb good fun category.

Kaibutsu-kun
When: 9pm Saturdays
Sub Group: GiriGiri Fansubs, STORMY Subs
Starring: Ohno Satoshi (leader from Arashi!)
Plot: Leader plays the prince of the land of monsters and is best buds with Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein. And he has to come to the human world as part of his training.
Thoughts: Uh...yeah. I'm sure all the Leader (Ohno Satoshi) fans out there will watch this. But unless I hear good things I will probably pass. There's it's so cracktastic it's good, and then there's it's so cracktastic it's cracktastic. This seems to be the latter.

Shinzamono
When: 9pm Sundays
Sub Group: Chuks
Starring: Abe Hiroshi, Kuroki Meisa (1 Pound no Fukuin, Saigo no Yakusoku), Mukai Osamu (Gegege no Nyobo, Atashinchi no Danshi, evil butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji), Miura Tomokazu (head cop/father figure in Tokyo Dogs)
Plot: Abe Hiroshi plays a detective in charge of a case involving a murdered woman.
Thoughts: This looks like it is a plot-driven detective series instead of episodic, which means it has potential. Plus, it has a lot of actors I like. I'll give this one a chance.