Atashinchi no Danshi

Atashinchi no Danshi (アタシんちの男子) is a 2009 comedic Japanese drama. It stars Horikita Maki, Kaname Jun, Okada Yoshinori, Mukai Osamu, Yamamoto Yusuke, Seto Koji, and Okayama Tomoki. The summary is as follows:

These days, the term "homeless" has taken on new meaning. There are youths referred to as "net cafe refugees," who have neither a job nor a place to live, but who find themselves hopping around internet cafes. One such refugee is a 20-year-old girl named Chisato, who lost her mother at a young age due to sickness. She spent her youth trying to escape from the huge debt her father left her, and her battle with the repossessors unfolded every night. However, her life changed after meeting one man named Shinzo, changing her views on the meaning of "family." Shinzo comes from a rich family tracing back to the Edo period, and he adopted six good-looking sons with the hope of one becoming his successor, but all of them have strange personalities. Shinzo promises to free Chisato from her debt if she marries him and becomes the mother of his sons. However, a life with these six guys under one roof will not go smoothly...

I saw "Horikita Maki" under the cast listing (among other names) and I just had to watch it. Not to mention the synopsis sounds pretty intriguing and had some potential. Once I watched it, it was pretty cute. Since it's family oriented, it also had its mushy, touching moments (I sort of thought it could be laid off some); it made me put my face into my hands and such. I still find it interesting though, how it brings up the whole phenomena of the "net cafe refugee" into the plot and how every 'son''s character's background story was delved into. The end was endearing and I'm quite content with how it ended. Towards the middle, it sort of dragged a small tiny bit.

I would also like to note how this is one of the few dramas I've watched that was still airing, so I had to go through the painful waiting until the next subbed episode would come out.

You can watch it at DramaCrazy and MySoju. Although I started out watching via MySoju, the updates started getting slow so I went to DramaCrazy. MySoju still doesn't have all the episodes up yet.

Ryusei no Kizuna

For the Chinese New Years weekend, I decided to start and finish Ryusei no Kizuna (流星の絆), a Japanese drama of the suspense and comedy genres. It stars Ninomiya Kazunari, Erika Toda, Nishikido Ryo, Kaname Jun, and Nakashima Mika. The summary is as follows:

Based on the popular novel of the same name, Ryusei no Kizuna tells the story of three orphans, whose parents were murdered long ago. Together, the three vowed on a shooting star to one day avenge their parents. After many years, the two brothers have found the murderers, and are set to carry out their plan for vengeance when they realize they've made a serious miscalculation; you see, their sister...

I honestly had to say that I didn't really know what to expect - mostly because of the three periods that follow "sister" in the summary. I did give it a try - I mean, I was familiar with the cast and the things that the summary did reveal perked my interest. The interesting thing was how a drama with such a dark background such as murder and the theme of revenge is interspersed with comedy. To me, I actually liked it a lot since, well, my sense of humor isn't very normal and I find many things funny. To others, it may be a bit odd, but it's not like the jokes are banter is made everywhere - the serious parts meant to be serious and the parts meant to be a little light are pretty entertaining. It did give me some good laughs. One thing though - Mika Nakashima's role is rather eccentric, odd, and out-of-nowhere, but it's sort of like a breath of fresh air since it's totally different from everyone else's character within the drama, so I sort of don't agree with some other reviews that mentioned something about her character being pointless or something.

Even though the drama was a short 10 episodes, I liked it a lot. The way things were progressing and all until everything unravels rather surprisingly at the end. I do recommend this drama (and yes, I do realise that I usually do say that for all the dramas I have watched - either that or to 'give it a go').

You can watch it here.
I got the picture from here.