Rinne no Ame

Rinne no Ame (輪廻の雨), or Rain of Reincarnation, is a 2010 Japanese tanpatsu showcasing bromance. :) It stars Yamamoto Yusuke (Atashinchi no Danshi, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e) and Seto Koji (Atashinchi no Danshi, Koizora). The summary is as follows:

The Brothers, Kohei and Shuhei Mikami were abandoned by their father, after the mother passed away years ago. The intellectually disabled Shuhei is working in a factory, where he is violently abused by the manager on a daily basis. When Kohei finds it out under unpropitious coincidences, he kills the man in affect and deprives money. He buries the corpse in the mountains with his younger brothers help. During the criminal investigation is it Shuhei who soon draws the attention of the Detectives on the Mikami brothers through his diffus behavior and words. Even through he is unable to comprehend the murder of his older brother and doesn´t understand the situation, the Police uses Shuhei as deciding factor in arresting the culprit.

I heard this was a tearjerker and so I tried it out. First off, it was short - really short. Like within-an-hour short. That was good since I have to go to bed now. Anyway, this drama special won many awards and when you watch it, you know why. I mean, the two act really well. You'd pretty much think that Seto Koji was actually 'intellectually disabled' if not for the fact you know he's acting, as it's a drama and all. Second off, it's all about the love between two brothers who had a hard life - an abusive father, a mother who died early, the fact that one of them was 'intellectually disabled' and was abused by his boss - but they loved each other. For such a short program, it did a fairly good job of showing what happened in flashbacks and you can see the struggle that the older brother goes through when his life gets further complicated due to his younger brother, who doesn't even know that he did anything. The ending is sad, though cut off somewhat abruptly, letting you figure out what happens next yourself (unless there was more), but it all comes together once again via brotherly love - bromance. <3

It's short and sweet as well as intense; it does deal with a murder after all. If you've got a little bit of time and want to see superb acting, go for it! However, although I did feel for them, there were no waterworks on my end. In fact, my eyes remained pretty dry. O_o Or maybe that's because I'm sleepy that they feel like they need re-wetting drops, haha.

You can watch it at dramacrazy.

Picture taken from here.

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.

Koizora

I just finished watching Koizora (恋空), a Japanese drama on first love based on a true story starring Mizusawa Elena, Seto Koji, Aoi, and Miura Shohei. In China, there are these little stands that sell DVDs and I found this, read (or attempted to) the summary that was in Chinese, and decided that from what I got out of it, it sounded rather nice. So a couple of friends and I watched it together. The summary (in English, lucky you) is as follows (taken from DramaWiki):

Tahara Mika is an ordinary high school girl. One day, out of the blue, one of
her classmates kisses her. His name is Sakurai Hiroki also known as Hiro. Hiro
stands out because of his bleached hair and piercing. Apparently he is also
dating someone. Mika is shocked and hurt that her first kiss had to happen this
way. She desperately tries to forget about it. Then, her friend tells her that
she should find somebody else and suggests Tatsuya, another boy in their class.
However, before she even realizes it, Mika is already in love...

It's on the same parallel as 1 Litre of Tears - but the roles are switched and it's shorter (only 6 episodes). It's pretty interesting and cute and worth watching if you're up for a short and sweet drama. Warning though: it's sad. There's also a movie version of this, but I haven't watched it yet.