Karei naru spy 華麗なるスパイ [series]

If Dorothy was a doll she’d be called shortcake. And I’d still want the strawberry first.

What exactly do I mean by that..?

I watched this drama early last year so I can’t remember all the ins and outs, but the overriding memory I have is Fukada Kyoko as Dorothy. Now, in a drama with Nagase Tomoyagi you would think I would be hung up on him I guess, but my god Fukada Kyoko is so cute I can’t even explain.

I can’t seem to get enough of her at the moment as she keeps cropping up in things I’m watching so it brought me back to this comedy drama, also starring a whole bunch of other familiar faces.

Cast:

Kyosuke - Nagase Tomoya (unubore deka, my boss my hero, mukodono, IWGP)

Dorothy - Fukada Kyoko (dolls, friends, kamikaze girls, strawberry on the shortcake)

Elise - Tomochika (ghost friends, Loss time life)

Kiriyama - Terajima Susumu (trouble man, code blue, ryusei no kizuna, fuurin kazan, unfair, pacchigi, casshern, himitsu no hanazono)  

Hirahara - Anne (samurai high school, youkai ningen bem, JOKER yurusarezaru sosakan, bandage)

Mr Takumi - Emoto Akira (Ryusei no kizuna, starfish hotel)

There are also guest appearances by Inoue Mao (hana yori dango), and Masuda Takahisa (gachibaka), if that list wasn’t already good enough.

ureshii squee for Massu's worried face again (^_^)

So we have Kyosuke who is a swindler jailed for being all swindly and bad,

then Kiriyama’s department of 60’s throw back spies in glorious Technicolor running around trying to protect the president from evil bad taste Hitler Halloween costume bad guy complete with mini-me and stoopid moustache,

the President signs Kyosuke out of prison so he can join the Scooby gang and team up with strawberry shortcake Dorothy doll face.

The secret headquarters and spy offices are accessible through a filing cabinet elevator,

and the weapons are seemingly useless and definitely not free even for company employees.

Making any sense at all?

no. thought not. don't worry Tomoyagi, you don't have to watch it.

It is fun and stupid, we get to see both Fukada and Nagase dress up like many different characters and nothing really ever makes too much sense.

Comparing this to Nagase’s other comedy dramas, you don’t get quite as emotionally attached to the characters as in my boss my hero, and it isn’t as absolutely relentlessly stupid as unubore deka, so it sits sort of in between the two. The setting is more far fetched than either if you take into account the science fiction element of the technology and war game baddie etc,

but there is still the token cosy café that would make even a vampire want to eat gyoza (koishite akuma reference), a nosy reporter, a few unrequited love issues, and of course, a bridge at night to stare out into the darkness to have some existential crisis at the most inappropriate time – as is the want of Japanese TV.

It is never a chore to watch Nagase and I hope he continues to make comedies. I did like this series, although I still find it weird to see him without Tegoshi pulling on his coat tails wherever he goes - even Massu got a look in this time – albeit for one episode. Ikuta Toma got to chase him around like a puppy when he played Nagase’s character in the TV show in Unubore deka which is confusing to explain at best. But I wonder when they will get Tomoyagi and Tegoshilocks together for another show; they could have a gay-off with Kamenashi and Kitamura from Bem. Oh god what a show that would be. Anne could be the referee.

She seems happy with the idea.

Jeez I’m going down a dark path here; I’m turning this car around before we end up in a dilapidated old manor in need of banister loving. Weirdest thing I ever read. Count yourselves lucky you have no idea what I’m talking about.

Moving on, *sigh* I can’t. That’s it. I’ve lost what is going on now. This will have to do for the review. Fan fic broke my poor mind and I fear I will never get it back…

promo poster:

 ~

Rescue: pride of orange 特別高度救助隊 [series]

Maru your face is so epic I may die. Your furrows of worry are the best.

Maru’s furrows = Marrows.

Ok the only reason I watched this was for Masuda Takahisa’s awesome face, I swear it was the only thing keeping me going. It was terrible and brilliant then terrible then brilliant again. I think I will go with it being brilliant, but believe me it was still very terrible.

The painful constant monologue, when people were in desperate need of saving, was frustrating and excruciating. Over and over again. But I guess it made it funny too. Nakamaru Yuichi has the most awesome concerned eager face in the world. Maru your face is epic.

He actually didn’t stop shouting throughout the entire program. It was geniusly funny in ways I’m sure they didn’t intend – ah maybe they did. Who knows. The writers of this show seemed to be off the f*ckin’ planet anyway.

This is bound to be a pointlessly unhelpful review and you probably won’t understand a word I say as my memories of this series are too wrapped up in jokes inspired by the dire melodrama to make much sense. I will try to be coherent.

 

Maru plays Kitajima Daichi – god only knows how I can possibly describe him accurately to you.

He is like a small puppy with all the enthusiasm of a girl scout trying to save her grandma, with only love and cookies, from a bulldozer.

Massu plays Tezuka – Daichi’s best friend, another lovely little puppy with a cute worried face.

I love watching Massu trying to look like he is having a hard time doing sit ups and chin ups and stuff when you know really he could sh*t all over everyone when it comes to that stuff.

These two are firemen. Yup. In silver News / Kat-tun-esque suits. So, everyone feels right at home then. But fire fighting is not enough for them, nor is the silver. They want to become part of a special rescue unit called the super rangers パー！and use said girl scout determination to undertake arduous training and become super-special-mighty-morphing-orange-eito rangers.

Or something like that.

We have lots of familiar faces for the other recruits, including Daito Shunsuke (fujoshi kanojo, tumbling, nobuta o produce) Yamamoto Yusuke (atashinchi no danshi, tumbling, rinne no ame, hana kimi) Ishiguro Hideo (gokusen, kamen rider den o, 1 pound no fukuin, Princess princess D)

here is them all staring at the sky for some reason:

Even baka Sato Jiro is in this series being his usual mental self. It isn’t right without him. I’ll say again what I have said before. He should be in every series ever made.

Rescue is full of shouting, disobeying orders, bringing personal issues to the pot, being irrationally angry at everyone else, sudden half naked chin ups in a restaurant/bar, main characters dying left right and centre unnecessarily because the rescuers all monologue instead of dig them out of the rubble, and lots of the

super-happy-ninja-orange-eito rangers stopping to stare at fire as if they have never seen it before.

Aside from the writers having not done a great deal of research into things that cause fire and therefore made believable scenarios it was the usual *things go bang and woosh fires explode and things fall down* and then super-orange-special-awesome-ninja-eito rangers rush in to save the day, or to stop to bring all their personal issues to the pot, or just to look shocked at fire for 20 minutes.

There were lots of great bits that made me think *ah this is why it was so popular.* Then with the frustratingly sh*t bits I was carried through my Massu’s amazing face which I would be distracted by even if zombies were sprouting up from the ground and turning into flowers as Johnny Kitagawa road passed on a Tegoshi’s pink elephant spraying magic zombie flower potion onto the dribbling hoard from the trunk.

The most brilliant part was probably Maru’s furrows of worry. Every time something serious was happening I was curled up on the floor laughing at the Marrows on his forehead so prominent you could wash your laundry on them like a wash board.

Actually, Maru come here a minute, let me borrow your forehead for a bit, I’ve got some socks I forgot to put in the wash last time. Just don’t let Roro near it, he’s murder with a wash board; he’ll ruin your washing and charge you for it.    ...hang on, theyre all at it.

Anyway. Back to the f*cking point. What is the point? The super-special-needs-orange-eito ranger guys having existential crises every time anyone was hurt or was scared or breathed. It was relentless and infuriating, then became brilliant, then plain frustrating, then kind of insulting that we were expected to go along with that sh*t, then it was brilliant again. I was very dizzy by the end of it all but those two weirdoes kept me going. How wonderful to have Maru and Massu in a series together with the most worried expressions anyone could muster.

I don’t know what else to say, clearly nothing else stuck with me but Massu’s general awesomeness which I already had such a problem with I have had to seek help from an addicts anonymous helpline, and the epic Marrows that I had no hope of accurately capturing in the screen shots. It was worth it in hilarity value on that alone.

More team NakaMassu please. It makes the world a better place. I’m sure there were meant to be lots of heart warming and soul searching moral messages in this series but when the orange NakaMassu power rangers – I mean eito rangers – I mean super rangers descend all I can do is laugh. What a stupidly great program. Or greatly stupid. Maybe both. Yeah both.

waraeru koi wa shitakunai 笑える恋はしたくない [series]

Father ChristMassu, I’ve been a good girl this year and I’ve got a list for you. It only has your name on it though.

 

MUST refrain form ranting about Massu in this post as you really don’t want to hear it – I swear I could go on for days with no pausing. I will try my best but I’m making no promises. I have a folder of pictures just entitled *Massu’s worried face* because it is actually the best thing ever – and how much do I sound like a weirdo right now?

This is a mini series of three episodes following four main characters and a fair few others as well. My favourite character is actually the store boss played by Sasaki Kuranosuke (zettai kareshi) so funny. I can’t describe him, he is just brilliant.

I turned to this mini series as my growing Tegomass addiction was becoming too much to bear without dipping in to Gachibaka yet again, but I found it to offer much more loveliness than just Massu’s phenomenal face. Unlike Rescue - his phenomenal face is the only keeping me going with that. That and Nakamaru’s epic expressions and over acting. How I love those two striving to become the super-special-eito-power-rangers. Genius.

Anyway, back to waraeru koi.

The title means don’t want a laughable love, which is adorable in itself. It is set at Christmassu time and just to make me fall over and die of cuteness Massu’s character’s name (hence the christmassu thing) is santa. Good lord. How do I deal with that?

Everyone in this was great and I kind of wish it had been a longer series but there was no need for it. The three episodes were enough to cover the short time frame in which all the characters meet and have their loves entangled in each other’s lives.

Our main character is Suzune (Yamasaki Shizuyo) who is lovely. She works as a lift girl but as she is rather monstrously tall with a deep voice and does not have a standard pretty face, she finds it hard to seek out her true love.

She falls in love easily but honestly, and is quiet fearlessly upfront about her feelings. She has an adorable personality and even though it is a running joke in the program that she is scary looking, she does have a very warm smile and it is obvious from one glance that she is a loving person.

Then we have Tonaka Ippei  (Koumoto Junichi) who is an acquaintance whom she makes a bet with in a bar one night to see who will have a partner by Christmassu.

He runs a cake stall in a Shopping mall that is in danger of closing because of *dunda da duuuuh! Enter stage right* Uozumi the mall manager.

He is truly great. He skips when he walks, especially when he is happy to have been really really mean to someone, and I love him I love him I love him. *to be sung to in Kristen Chenoweth latte boy stylee* (youtube it)

This brings us to Ryouhei (Matsuo Toshinobu) who is the mall manager’s trainee. He is basically training him to be mean. That is pretty much all he is trying to do. This guy is Suzune’s first crush of the program. She says if she has 99 loves then she will get mr 100, so she confesses without a thought as she always does and scares him half to death.

Also failing in his quest to have a partner by Christmassu, Tonaka Ippei is in love with a sweet young girl called Rika (Natsukawa Jun) who also works in the mall and is all kinds of out of his league.

 

We also meet Shirai Yukiko (Sakai Wakana) who appears to be a bossy strict career woman working at a TV station. She gets demoted for getting on everyone’s nerves and while frazzled at her new position she bumps into a delivery boy and snaps at him.

Yup, this one is santa. Santa the delivery boy. Seriously it is as cute as it sounds. Massu rocks that red uniform. Santa has four overbearing older sisters who won’t leave him alone for more than five minutes before ordering him around like a – well, like a younger brother. When he meets Yukiko he swears he would never be able to fall for someone like her but then later he finds her drunk in a bar (the same one the christmassu love-bet pair frequent) and is horrified to find her in his bed in the morning.

That is basically the beginnings of their stories and we watch them interlink and grow into a, probably quite predictable but, sweet and emotionally provoking tale of those searching for love and those finding love by accident.

…And those who get love for christmassu wrapped up in a box with a bow and stuff.

It is not a bad christmassu present, love. I may put it on my list this year.(Or even have a list in the frst place.) But you don’t generally get it just by asking for it. The more you look sometimes the further away from you it feels.

This mini series has that melancholic feel of christmassu and it is kind of sad, but it is very sweet and really funny, and of course includes an ever-needed cameo by baka sato jiro.

What a struggle it is not to just get constant screen shots of Massu for this post. I did try to restrain myself and get all the characters. So now that they are out of the way i guess I can just flood this post with Massu's worried face. right? Or would that be weird? I'm gonna do it anyway.

 

ok i might have gotten a little carried away. never mind ay.