Proposal Daisakusen SP

Japanese title: 14年越しの恋に永遠を誓う瞬間は訪れますか?
Number of episodes: 1 (special episode)

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Ah, I finally got to watching this SP after Dom was like asking me to watch this a few times, saying it’s very nice. Well, after watching this 2 hour SP, I figured out why he recommended this. Firstly, and most importantly, this episode manages to tie up the loose ends that were horribly left dangling during the TV series which sparked quite a lot of discussions among many forum threads. Haha, it’s good that they managed to wrap things up properly.

Secondly, this episode still carries the nice part of the TV series, which is about Ken (played by Yamapi) going back to help prevent the marriage breakup of 2 of his close friends. This event takes place about a year after where the TV series left off and it was Tsuru and Eri’s wedding. However, things don’t seem to go right on the big day and Ken was once again wishing he could do something to change the present outcome, and yup, the fairy appears again! Hahahaha. Well yea, the fairy conveniently appears to aid Ken (once more) even though Ken is still not progressing very much in his own love life. Heh.

Oh yah, the hallelujah chance was done twice. Sheesh, really lame way to allow for the first pose to be a “failure”. Hahaha, fan service maybe? =P Yup anyway, as usual Ken learns more about himself and the importance of doing things while his trip back in time which eventually led to him making some moves that will finally make some progress in his relationship. Haha.

Okok, that aside, I guess the nicest part of the show was to find out what Tsuru was really doing back then while Eri was doubting him. I can only say whatever Tsuru did was actually very nice and sweet, though his “suspicious” actions nearly cost him his marriage the first time round. Perhaps this is the part that Dom was referring to as super nice or something. Haha. With a little help from Ken, his best friends’ marriage was saved. =D

Back to present time, the main leads of the show finally settle their relationship and take it a step further. Haha, which also means there’ll probably be no more Pro Dai related drama coming liao. Also good la, end it while it’s still nice and good. =P

Overall, it’s another nice SP that manages to continue from a successful TV series that ended quite disappointingly and bringing the story back on track while wrapping up things in a nice manner. Whether it was the plan from the start, or a well done attempt at salvaging the bad ending of the TV series, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the story is eventually nice and complete.

Security Police SP

Number of episodes: 1 (Special episode)

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Even though it’s labelled as a special episode, much of the nearly 2 hour content is basically a recap of the various events and cases the TV series [blogged about it here] has gone through. A bit of new scenes were slotted in here and there, so it’s basically similar to the SP of 1 Litre of Tears [blogged about it here] in terms of new content.

Heh, but it’s good for those who missed the series since its TV series time slot isn’t all that prime for such drama serials. Indeed, its popularity hasn’t dropped since the TV serialisation days based on the viewership rating. Perhaps all these will help to attract more people to its movie follow-up [news source here], which hopefully is true, as the story is left dangling with some queries and mysteries unexplained. Actually those were also shown in the TV series but I thought at least some of them will be answered during the special episode, which is very apparent that it isn’t the case. Lol.

I guess this special episode is a good way to get to know the story faster yet without losing much of the important details and stuff. For those who have already watched the TV series, you probably wouldn’t be missing out anything crucial. Let’s just wait for the movie and see. Hope the news source is accurate =) Though I think the movie might not make it to local theatres here… Hah.

4 Shimai Tantei Dan

Japanese title: ４姉妹探偵団
Number of episodes: 9

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Yet another detective-type drama that’s supposed to be filled with mystery and crime. Ok lah, there’s a fair bit of crime in the show, in fact 1 case per episode. Personally, I find it nicer to have mini-arcs here and there than to have ALL standalone episodes. One thing is that the continuity between episodes will be somewhat worse, and probably the overall feeling will be not as great.

Each case has in fact quite a number of people dying. Gosh, it’s kinda terrible seeing so many people die in each episode. Lol. The police force portrayed in the show is superbly crap, although I know it’s made so exaggerated for its own purpose. Rather than finding it funny, I actually found it lame for many parts. Sheesh, no need to do this to put the limelight on the sisters right? Anyway although it’s supposed to feature 4 sisters, most of the solving and observations are actually done by 1 of them. Haha, the others just try to help out though often they end up in trouble rather than finding important clues, unless you consider being caught by the actual criminals a great help. Lol…

Perhaps the best part of the show is the theme song, by Yui. Lol, though it’s another quite standard style of hers, at least it’s somewhat nicer than the overall feel of the drama. Hahahaha. Oh, and this show doesn’t really have a fixed ending credits since the credits usually appear along with the playing of the theme song while the drama continues and tries to wrap up the standalone episode.

If I didn’t read wrongly (I’m really, really bad at reading Jap), there’ll be unseen footages in the DVDs, but I’m kind of wondering who will buy the DVDs. Probably the fans of the stars of the show. Haha, oops. If you have read through this entry, you’ll probably be able to figure out that I’m not gonna recommend this as a to-watch drama series. Yeap. =P

Densha Otoko Deluxe

Japanese title: 電車男 - 最後の聖戦
Number of episodes: 1 (Special episode)
Some info @ D-Addicts Wiki

Unlike the another final special, this special episode takes place a year after the TV series, and also it’s not about recaps and stuff. Haha. A year has passed, and the otakus were losing their sanctuary in Akihabara, and Densha Otoko becomes super popular (there’s even a movie).

An upcoming company wanted to make use of this as a business opportunity and set out to find out the true identity of Densha Otoko, as well as trying to get Hermes for himself (the CEO). Meanwhile, Densha tries to propose but fails miserably due to nervousness and all, and through various circumstances he sets off for Hitachi Tahiti in search of a black pearl which is supposed to foretell his love life. Yeah well, it’s probably a little lame on this part but it proves to be useful later on in the show =D

Things happen, and it seems as though Densha is going to be a goner, but things eventually turn out fine with combined effort of the forum-ers and people =D I thought the ending was actually quite nice, though it may appear to be a little overly emo. Haha.

There’s quite a lot of background music used in the show such as Indiana Jones and Star Wars. The insert song is actually nice too. For those who are curious, it’s Tsubaki’s Sea of Love. I thought it suited the mood quite well during the part it was played during the show. All these further helped to increase the level of enjoyment while watching the SP. =)

Oh yeah, most of the forum-ers posting on the forums while using the com are just random mashing the keyboard since I believe all those text can’t be typed with just utilising 1 line of the keyboard, and of course the speed that they press the keyboard don’t match the words that appear on the screen. Lol, of course the most ridiculous one would be the part where one of them hacks into the system. Wow, that one is really… not very convincing. Haha.

Overall, I found this SP to be lots better than the another final SP. It does have some flashback scenes but they do not take up a big proportion of time, but rather to create a better flow of the show. Prior knowledge of the TV series would be good in order to enjoy this show better. Watch this if you have already done so for the TV series. =D

Densha Otoko Another Final SP

Some info @ D-Addicts Wiki

Another final SP is a special episode that’s kind of like a spin-off + summary of memorable parts of the original TV series. Although it was a long time ago (a couple of years at least) since I watched the TV series, I can still recognise some of the memorable scenes which they’ve included in this SP.

Based on my not-so-accurate memory of the show, it should be that this SP contains scenarios and incidents a little more than Densha Otoko’s first episode. There’s also a Guitar Otoko before Densha became popular on the forums, but the former was soon overshadowed by Densha and hence a lot of the recaps can be put into place. Of course, this SP is done in a more Guitar Otoko oriented point of view for the most part of it.

Watching through this SP reminded me of the entertaining times the TV series gave me back then. Haha, the forum-ers’ participation and reaction are definitely a key to the entertainment factor. Based on memory, it’s a pity that this SP has a lot less ASCII art than the TV series, which looked really cool!! Haha.

Overall, it’s a nice way to re-experience the Densha series in a nice summarised episode. Hahaha.

Bara no nai Hanaya

Japanese title: 薔薇のない花屋
Number of episodes: 11

Some info:
1) DramaWiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

It’s been a long time since Takeuchi Yuko had any new show on the small screen, and it’s certainly nice to see her back! Alongside her stars many well-known actors and actresses who have their own wealth of experience in drama. I guess based on the cast, this show was already attractive even before it started airing.

I’ve heard there was much discussion over this drama a few months back, but I gave up reading some of the discussion threads cos they were just too long and much to read, and more importantly they contained spoilers anyway. Haha. Now that I’ve finished the series, the thread grew even bigger, and it’s really daunting to try to read through all the stuff even if I were to use my cmi speed-reading. Heh.

Anyways, Yuko plays Mio, a nurse who’s on a “mission” as directed by the head of the hospital she’s working at to get close to a florist, Eiji (played by Katori Shingo) by pretending to be a blind lady. There are reasons why the hospital director wants this to be done, and the mystery behind the entire issue is slowly revealed during the course of the show. It really takes a long while before the full picture is pieced together, which can be frustrating at times since they only feed you with that little bit of new information each time around. Heh.

Well, Mio ends up falling in love with Eiji, due to his kindness and way of caring for her. Even after the entire act was exposed, she still couldn’t help going back to see him even though both of them know it’s very awkward. The story finally steers towards a happy ending at the very end, and I mean very end, like last half of an episode. To fill up the other details and twists in plot and storyline, I guess you’ll have to sit through 11 episodes worth. =P

Enough of synopsis, and possibly some spoilers. I’ll just share some of my views on the show. Firstly, during the course of watching this show, I got the feeling that it was similar to another JDrama that the lead actress starred in, and after taking a quick look at the scriptwriter, I realised that it’s the same person who wrote the stories for both dramas. No wonder there was some resemblance. However, the overall story is still quite different in nature. Hehe.

Secondly, there are a number of twists in the story since you can’t really always predict correctly given the little bits of info each episode provides. Sometimes it gets a little too much to see the story seem more mysterious and distant just when I thought it was near the “truth” behind certain things. Haha, I guess too much of such things can be a bad thing.

Thirdly, I think the background music used throughout the show created a nice feel for the show, though I’ll probably not like to hear those pieces alone without an appropriate setting such as those portrayed in the drama. The theme song of the show is also quite nice, in terms of the feel and lyrics. =) Music is certainly important in increasing a show’s overall enjoyment level and value. Heehee.

I may have expected a tad too much from this show, as well as from the little bits of forum discussion I’ve briefly read through, but overall I think this show is certainly nice in its own right. Sigh, this is why I normally don’t like to have too much expectation for a show I’m about to watch. Haha.

Koshonin

Japanese title: 交渉人
Number of episodes: 8

Some info:
1) Wiki @ D-addicts
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Judging from the title of the show, I guess you should be able to deduce that it’ll centre around negotiators and their line of work. Well, but apart from that, there’s also the truth behind her (the main lead, centre of pic) dad’s death [died in line of duty] and the incident surrounding that.

Very little is revealed along the way, and even up till the end of the series, the details aren’t exactly blatantly spelt out, and it’s kind of left to the audience to interpret the exact happenings and details, though the rough idea is quite clear. =D

Of course, what is shown while they try to investigate deeper into the past are just other criminal cases which require the need of a negotiator present. Some of the negotiation methods seem rather useful in that kind of situation while others I can’t really see the usefulness and the credibility of that working in an actual situation like that. Haha.

The story ends rather peacefully, and the truth is out, though like I said earlier, the exact truth isn’t fully spelt out.

Some comments:
1) The female accomplice in ep 2 has really some bad acting, at least the way she tries to laugh hysterically (or rather in a mocking manner) is really quite weird that I felt like laughing at that awkward facial expression and acting. Ah well.
2) In the “strip scene” of ep 2, it clearly shows that the female lead did really undergo quite a bit of training and toning to present her character’s toned body as well. Wonder if the producers wrote the script like that on purpose for more “fan service” or it’s just one of the scenarios they came up with to make the negotiator’s work more varied in the situations they’re involved in. Shrugs =D
3) I wonder how many takes it took to finish filming the credits, considering how much food was consumed. Of course, judging from the shots shown alone, it isn’t that much, but I do suppose when the filming is done, certainly more has been eaten (due to NG or getting a good flow of the actions). Haha, and the ending credits’ editing required some work, and was presented in quite an interesting fashion. They sure can come up with various ways of presenting ending credits.

Overall, this drama serial is quite ordinary, and there aren’t many episodes, which made the story a little weaker bah, in terms of development and substantial story/plot. Go watch if you’re interested in negotiators. Haha.