Kami no Shizuku 神の雫 [series]

I wanted to do this review like, wine red, but it doesn’t really work on black does it.

Cast:

Kamenashi Kazuya – Kanzaki

Naka Riisa – Shinohara

Tanabe Seiichi – Tomine

Toda Naho – Kiryu

Masu Takeshi _ Kawarage

Uchida Yuki – Saionji Maki

Taguchi Hiromasa – Honma

This series is a bit of a weird one. I was fully prepared to find myself bored and uninterested, when I read the synopsis I really didn’t think it would be my cup of tea. But as did most of Japan with the manga, I really got into it straight away and ended up really respecting the program.

Basically, Kamenashi looks beautiful in this drama, and he is paired up with Naka Riisa who is gorgeous and hysterically funny, there are a bunch of over the top melodramatic characters and plot progressions (including Tomine going kind of …blind through the stress …of drinking wine…?) and lots of good old fashioned will they wont they – oh for god sake they’d better – awkward slow build friend turn to love type stuff.

The plot starts with Kanzaki’s father dying and leaving a huge wine collection up for grabs to his two benefactors. The first being Kanzaki, the second being a wine critic called Tomine whom Kanzaki’s father adopted right before he died. These two have to fight it out for the immense collection through a series of tasks to find the so-called ‘drops of god’ all orchestrated by the dead father.

Reluctant at first, Kanzaki takes up the challenge in order to learn the truth about his estranged father, finding even more secrets and new friends along the way.

Now, I assumed quite a lot from the beginning about who Tomine was, and it is kind of obvious. But really it doesn’t matter how and when you cotton on to all the secrets, it is more fun to get carried along with Kamenashi and Naka and their character’s quirky friendship.

The best, or the worst, thing about this drama is the cheesy phrases and excruciatingly painful description of wine with all the relevant pretentious words and devotion to a f*cking drink. It really does make me want to drink wine though – even though I can’t stand the way people talk about it.

It is only a short drama really, running at 9 full length episodes, responsible for Kamenashi’s constant prattling on about wine throughout Cartoon KAT-TUN when he was filming Kami no Shizuku. I can see why, it did have a lot of nice appreciation for sentimental attachments – not just stuff wine buff lingo.

If Naka Riisa had not been in this drama there would have been no light relief from all the melodrama and epic theatrical performance made of the simple act of sipping a bit of wine. It was laughable in places, but would have been more so if there hadn’t been the real humour coming from Naka Riisa and her dorky character Shinohara. She absolutely made this series for me. I literally couldn’t have bared it – born it – uh, wouldn’t have been able to bare it without her.

It is worth watching if you’re a Kame fan on the fact that he is so pretty – though 1 pound gospel is still my favourite type of role for him (as brilliant as his boy love pouty moody monster style is in Youkai Ningen Bem at the moment) I just prefer him when he has comical characters.

But he does slut around in a suit *ahem* sorry – strut around in a suit for the whole show, and doesn’t crack a smile for a good long while, so many fans of Kame’s slut face – I mean strut face – will be happy.

Hmmm, I think it is actually way better than I’ve made it sound, I’ve kinda not done my job with this one have I? Well, I liked it; I don’t care if you do. And I watched it not that long after it aired which was too bloody long ago now to remember enough of the story to give an accurate review. Pointless much?

promo poster:

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