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I don’t know what is it about Hayato Ichihara (or Christopher Gorham) that I find so irresistible. Must be the kind of boyish charm, huh? I suddenly ran into Hayato Ichihara on NHK (so lucky I changed the channel!) where he talked about his new NHK project, A Tree in the Sun (陽だまりの樹) — adaptation of an Osamu Tezuka manga, and the interviewers asked him about All About Lily Chou Chou, for its recent 10th anniversary.

I don’t remember seeing him in the anniversary pictures [1], but I’m so glad they asked him about it because Yu-chan got a mention by name as well as a very long clip. Natsukashii na~~~

Anyway, I didn’t get much about the interview (of course!), except that he likes tako nigiri sushi (octopus). LOL — Also, Hiroki Narimiya stars in the new show, and he’s another one of my weaknesses~ I find Narimiya attractive when I see him acting on screen (crazy and all), though, not on photos.

You know I have to do it… LOL

I wanted to add one more panel, but I thought it would be too spoilerific of the episode. I really really REALLY hope and wish someone subs Shokuzai because it’s only five episodes, and buzz seems to label it as “the drama” of the season because of the amount of talent involved [1].

I’m not much of a book reader, but my god. This is awesome.

Actually, I’m really surprised at the way the trailer for this has been cut… like, not a hint of being a Japanese trailer. Is it because it’s a Warner co-production or something?

The teaser is better than I was actually expecting it to be…

Also surprise at the amount of comments in Spanish for the video… goes to show you that films like that shouldn’t just be released in North America. By the way people are talking among themselves, they sound a lot like a Peruvian crowd — and if they’re not Peruvian, it’s very likely they are all Latin American.

Modernist Cuisine

December 7, 2011 — 2 Comments

This trailer is disgustingly beautiful.

https://vimeo.com/24381453

And oh-they know it~

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Seriously, time is flying.

We probably need someone to translate – cough, queue Nina xD

Does anyone know if a fansub group is taking this? And… are you guys watching this?

I got some Shokuzai pics used on the official WOWOW site.

It seems like only the first episode is going to have Yu-chan in, or at least that’s what I got unless all this “First chapter” business on Yu’s photo means nothing.

I hope everyone is as excited as I am.

First… of course, I love Yu-chan. It seems like when my fandom is faltering, she throws a bone at me. LOL

Then… it’s a Minato Kanae revenge story. Kokuhaku wasn’t mind-blowingly amazing but it was pretty good, so I can’t complain from a revenge story about a woman who’s lost her kid and tries to get her now-grown friends to remember and seek atonement.

There’s also Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who directed Tokyo Sonata — which, you know… I wasn’t really as blown as everyone seemed to be with him. But it’s always exciting to see new people coming together to make projects. Especially since WOWOW is involved. I tend to like their off-beat dramas that get a lot of indie J-film flare.

Kyoko Koizumi — who has actually worked with Yu-chan in the play Gakuya — stars as the mom, and the four friends of her dead child are Yu Aoi, Chizuru Ikewaki (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish), Eiko Koike (Paco and the Magical Picture Book, Wool 100%) and freaking Sakura Ando (Love Exposure, 1).

The four women are being played by Aoi, Koike, Ando, and Ikewaki. 15 years earlier, when they were elementary school students, they had been playing with Emiri up until just before her death. They were the first to discover her body, and although they saw the culprit’s face, they were unable to remember it well enough to identify the person. As a result, Emiri’s mother (Koizumi) demanded that they find the killer, or else find a way to atone for themselves to her satisfaction. Now grown up, those women find her words coming back to haunt them as tragedy begins to befall them.

via BionicBong.com

Lasting only five episodes, the drama starts on January 8th, 2012.

Hope a fansub group subs this as soon as possible.

Is any of you Yu-chan fans a fan of Rurouni Kenshin?

I gotta admit that I’ve never read the manga — but I hardly read any manga or comic, so… — and I seldom watched the anime series they just to show regularly on Cartoon Network. But I did watch (and own) that OVA movie… Samuari X: Truth and Betrayal. I kinda loved it.

But I don’t know much about the Rurouni Kenshin universe, so I can’t tell you much.

Yu Aoi has been confirmed as Takani Megumi, which according to Wikipedia:

Megumi is the youngest daughter of Takani Ryūsei, a well-known doctor in Aizu which was an important province supporting the Tokugawa Shogunate. During the Boshin Wars, Megumi’s father died and the rest of her family went missing, leaving her as the sole survivor.

[…]

Watsuki’s describes his standalone Megumi as bearing a “lighter quality” as she had a small role in that story. In the final series Watsuki decided to give her an “earthy quality” so she could make an impression on the reader.

The description on Wikipedia makes it sound like an interesting role involving Megumi knowing Western and Eastern medicine… and the tragic disappearance of her family, as well as an opium storyline. But alas, I doubt they will deal with that in the film, considering she’s not a main character xD

Yu-chan is joined by Munetaka Aoki, who was on Nihonjin Shiranai no Nihongo and also shared credits with Yu-chan on NHK’s Taiga drama last year. Both actors will be back together with their Ryomaden director, Keishi Otomo.

I am pretty (99,9%) sure that this used to be called Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu Kakigoori (春夏秋冬かき氷), which I translated as Kakigoori for All Seasons or Shaved-Ice for All Seasons. But now it’s called Kyou mo Kakigoori (今日もかき氷). I don’t know when that happened. But look!

We know how much Yu lovessssssssssss shaved ice, she’s like… super passionate about it. Some people love animals from shelters, melt for abandoned puppies and other assorted pets — Yu-chan loves herself some Kakigoori. She loves Taiwan for it, and my Mandarin teacher who’s from Taiwan tells me shaved-ice in Taiwan is off the hook out of this world.

I have no illuminating knowledge about shaved ice, because apparently Peruvian raspadilla has NOTHING on Taiwanese shaved ice. But there you go! Now you know how to say shaved ice in Peruvian Spanish~ I’ll put it in katakana: ラスパディーヤ // RASUPADI~YA. LOL The root of the word comes from “raspar” which means “shave” – and while in English, there’s also what we call “snow cones,” raspadillas aren’t really served in a cone.

Another common name for shaved ice in Spanish is granizado, in katakana: グラニザード // GURANIZA~DO, which comes from the word “granizo” as in “hail” ~~~ and also the term nieve raspada (shaved snow) or in katakana: ニエーベ ラスパーダ // NIE~BE RASUPA~DA, which in itself is a wonk term because you can’t shave snow… can you?

Are you bored by now with my Kakigoori knowledge? Well, in any case Yu is willing to travel the world for the perfect Kakigoori… I guess she’s going to need to know how to call it in different names. But if my teacher is telling me the truth, then Taiwan is all Yu needs.

Here are some more photos!

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