*pats, pats*

I really need to make time to watch Rena Nounen and have a clear opinion on her, instead of clouding it with Ama-chan.

*pats, pats*

I really need to make time to watch Rena Nounen and have a clear opinion on her, instead of clouding it with Ama-chan.

I remember how it was. The introduction to NHK’s newest morning drama played and I wondered what happened to Jun to Ai, I thought Asadoras lasted all year — I guess not. Anyway, the intro to Amachan seemed pretty funny, and of course it was. Apparently, it was written by Kankuro Kudo, so I stuck around for an episode. Aki (Nounen Rena) had forcefully decided — against her mother’s (Kyoko Koizumi) wishes — to become an Amasan. A photographer had been shooting pictures, and Kyoko Koizumi was running off to Koike Teppei’s lighthouse screaming “HENTAI!!!!” and he apologized for it LOL. I was laughing too much already.
Then, of course, I saw Nounen Rena’s funny face when falling into the water, and her funny expression when she was not-so-much as deep-sea-diving, but she was stranded in the middle of the ocean. I wasn’t hooked, but I was peeking my interest. Damn, Nounen Rena is so charismatic… at least in the role of Aki.
I want to see some of her other roles to figure out whether or not this charisma is hers or if it’s the role, and if it’s the role… then maybe she’s one hell of an actress. She seems super dorky too, and she has an aura that you kinda just can’t help but to root for her.

This is the first time I ever found the Japanese name of this show. Kodomo Ningyougekijou (こどもにんぎょう劇場) or Children’s Puppet Theater, known in Peru (and maybe Latin America) as Me lo Contaron en Japon.
Though the DVDs are available on Amazon Japan — at a whopping price of nearly $50USD (over 4500 Yen) per volumen at 3 episodes a bundle [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], which results into over $600USD for 36 episodes. WHY, Japan? According to its Wikipedia page, the show possibly has over 50 episodes, running from 1990 to 2011.
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You would have to forgive me as I don’t really follow Ayase Haruka’s career, but she did kinda win me over when she played Saki on that freaking successful jdrama known as JIN [1][2], which got me to give a peak to Ayase’s pop culture oeuvre — Hotaru no Hikari, which okay. No, I couldn’t digest it. So forgive me if I’m late to the party, but- OMG! A WHOLE FREAKING YEAR! 50 episodes of a girl that likes guns? In a period setting. I love it.
Plus it’s got Joe Odagiri at some point in the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg9sOOGDXZM
Yae no Sakura (八重の桜) might be actual must-watch TV (with worthy wait of subtitles) for, at least, ten episodes.
salyu x salyu had a new song out? Titled Color Magic (カラーマジック, or the KATAKANA~ pronunciation KARA~ MAJIKKU — you know Katakana baffles me), it was included in NHK’s Design Ah (デザインあ), but you know it would be the perfect companion song to 6COLORS.
The song (if my Japanese is correct) will be included in the soundtrack of the show to be released on January 23rd.

They also have an awesome (interactive) song titled Ah’s Song (「あ」のうた).

You know, I read that post about Japan — despite its technologically-advanced image — not being a tech nation at all [1][2], so when finding this about a radio drama took me back in time back to when my mom told me they used to watch radio telenovelas (back then known as radionovelas, of course). Having Yu working on one is so bizarre… not to mention troublesome as a fan xD

I haven’t really been properly following Okaasan to Issho — this means I haven’t been practicing my Japanese much — so I was really REALLY surprised: first, when they changed the weather mascots so soon. I suspect it didn’t suit well with the whole Tohoku Earthquake. They seemed to have lasted just a couple of years compared to some of the others…
Anyway, the second thing that surprised me was… Itou Mayu is no longer there! Apparently she did her last show by the end of March. Sadly, I haven’t found any clip of that online.

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.

How was the new year celebration?
Most importantly~ did you catch adorable Mana-chan performing? If you didn’t, the Maru Maru Mori Mori performance blended with the Arashi/Disney performance and anything with Disney is full of win for me. I found you this link on Nate.com of the Disney performance.
Mana-chan also had the most graceful fall on stage, that I swear it’s going to last all year and be name Most Graceful On-Stage Fall of 2012~~~ which wasn’t even 2012, but just for the sake of upload times, it was.
[iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=163309537107207″ width=”580″ height=”326″ /]
You can read my “review” of this years show over in: NHK scouts the web for clips, but we can’t help by talk about the Kouhaku~ blog post.
Oh, I guess I gotta watch NHK all day to get fed all their upcoming series — at least for January. We all knew that Kenichi Matsuyama would be doing this year’s Taiga (Time really does fly!), but who knew Hikari Mitsushima (Love Exposure [1], Sawako Decides, Villain) is ending up on NHK?
The Pioneers, which is wayyyy easier to type than Kaitakushatachi (開拓者たち), showed a small clip while I was watching and seemed pretty good. According to Tokyograph:
A special “documentary drama” mini-series to commemorate the launch of its BS Premium channel and the 40th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Japan and China. […]
The story is set in the region formerly known as Manchuria and is based on the groups trying to resettle there in the years after the Manchurian Incident. The central characters are a family of four siblings who live there, but who are forced to flee due to the Soviet invasion of the region and Japan’s defeat in World War II. As a result, they return to Japan and attempt to forge a new life on a farm in the Tochigi prefecture.
The clip looked really good. We all know Hikari Mitsushima is a pretty good actress and this seems to be one of those projects. But as anything Japanese, no clips online to embed so I stole these:
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