Rebound

Japanese title: リバウンド

Aired on NTV, April/June 2011
10 episodes

Main cast:

Aibu Saki: Oba Nobuko

Hayami Mokomichi: Imai Taichi

Kuriyama Chiaki: Mimura Hitomi

Katsuji Ryo: Kazami Kensaku

Hankai Kazuaki: Kamiya Takayuki

Wakamura Mayumi: Morinaka Ran

Nishiyama Maki: Naito Yuki

Ito Kazue: Oba Tomoe

Ishizuka Hidehiko: Oba Mutsumi

Note:
Aibu Saki and Hayami Mokomichi who were in Zettai Kareshi are reunited in this drama. Also present is Ueno Natsuhi who has a small role here but was Riiko's "best friend" in ZK.

Review: +

Girl: Nobuko has always been overweight but recently with the help of a dietetician she slimmed down and got a job in a fashion magazine, something she wanted for a long time. However, she must be very careful with what she eats because she can rebound (gain a lot of weight) very quickly. We really get to know her in the drama (though sometimes the characters sum it up for us): she's meddling, always wants to help, gets into impossible situations because she can't tell the truth for fear of disappointing people and she's cheery and really expressive. (+)

Boy: He's a pâtissier and inherited the shop from his father. He's really impulsive, has a somewhat bad character, feels easily down especially when it comes to his shop but he's also very talented, dedicated and loyal. (+)

Plot/relationship: The relationship between those two is the main plot but it is intertwined with her job at the fashion magazine and relationship with her boss as well as with his quest to make delicious cakes, with her help. The series starts with a lot of talk about her weight and it remains a big element of the story but episode after episode, the focus shifts to issues like what path to choose for one's life, big dilemmas, happiness. The answers are kind of similar to what I've seen in most dramas but the ride is interesting. (+) I could see the resolution in the last episode from miles away but it was cute.

Other characters: I didn't really care for her parents or Kenzaku, an ex-boyfriend of hers. (-)
But I really enjoyed her boss who is a well-done cliché of a fashion magazine editor-in-chief and her best friend who is the introvert to Nobuko's cheery and is a character I'm less used to see though I think there are a lot of people like her in real life. (+)

Funny factor? Again, especially at the beginning but it's quite funny.

Music: Two days later, I don't remember it.

Bottom line: This drama is a good surprise. This premise is tricky but it managed to tackle some topics about life choices. The characters are all likeable but still flawed, something that is acknowledged in the drama itself. It rings true. I couldn't wait for the next episode. It's a (unexpected) +!

Zettai Kareshi

Other title: Absolute Boyfriend
Japanese title: 絶対彼氏。

Aired on Fuji TV - Spring 2008
11 episodes + Special

Main cast:

Aibu Saki as Izawa Riiko

Hayami Mokomichi as Tenjo Night

Mizushima Hiro as Asamoto Soshi

Sasaki Kuranosuke as Namikiri Gaku

Maya Miki as Wakabayashi Fujiko

Ueno Natsuhi as Ito Mika

Nakamura Shunsuke as Asamoto Masashi

Minemura Rie as Yoshioka Tetsuko

+ in the Special:

Kuninaka Ryoko as Kamiya Ayumi

Uchida Asahi as Nanase Jun

Notes:

- I haven't read the manga this drama is based one.
- Since I watched it just after Buzzer beat, I couldn't help but notice that Aibu Saki and Maya Miki star in both, and that they have characters called Kamiya and Riiko (Riko in BB).
- I want to watch the Taiwanese adaptation to compare but I haven't to this point.
- I watched this drama twice and I didn't remember much from the first time. I have to say that I liked it better the first time maybe because I had such low expectations.

Review: +/-

Title: Makes sense since 01 or Tenjo Night is a robot conceived to be the Ultimate boyfriend.

Girl: She's more of a relatable character. She doesn't have confidence in her skills and in one episode, she was a bit too defeatist (which is realistic but rarely makes for a nice viewing experience). However, she is energetic, funny-cute but not in a grating way. She was well-acted too.

Boy: He's a robot. That's the premise. The actor and the sound made a good job of making us aware of that. So Night was designed to love Riiko but he is totally clueless and keeps doing embarrassing stuff. However, he is very earnest and we end up caring for him. I also noticed that he doesn't have many facial expressions but still we know what he's "feeling".

Other boy: His family owns the company for which Riiko works as a temp. At first, he's slacking, seemingly not caring about work. Then we realise that he is actually caring about his grandfather's legacy. And writing this part of my review, I realise that I don't have much to say about him. Although we see that he is loyal and perseverant, he's kind of bland in my mind.

Relationship/plot: I have a problem with the premise. It's tragic. When I first started to watch, I thought: "This can't end well." It's also a problem with love triangles. Real love triangles which are the ones where the two love interests have equal chances with the one in the middle. Some dramas take the easy road and make one love interest less interesting or make us know from the beginning which one we should root for. But the main problem is that Night is a robot and it raises deep issues. It's really hard to pull off putting these issues in the center of a light drama. That's why, the first time I watched, I was worried and then pleasantly surprised by how it was dealt. But, the second time, I couldn't gloss over the seriousness/wrongness of what happens.

Apart from that, the relationships between people and how they progressed are believable.

The B-plot, which at first bored me, then made me think I'd like to see more of it, unravels slowly. The company where they work made pastries and the plot is about Riiko gaining confidence in her talent as a pâtissier and Soshi pushing for a return to the roots of the company (valuing taste over aspect) and working towards a goal. We learned of Riiko's dream of becoming a pâtissier some episodes into the drama and I wish it was more prominent before because it seems to come out of the blue.

The Special takes place three years after the final. It goes deep into the ethical issues by making a storyline with new characters. Which requires to care about them but it's hard to because they are new characters that we don't see much and were "antagonists". We're also too busy caring about the original characters. Speaking of which, I was disappointed not to see more of the Asamoto pastries plot. It felt like it was ditched in the middle of the special to make place for the "new" storyline. Of course, this new storyline has a point and is linked to the main one but for me it felt artificial. Now that I think about it, it feels like an after thought. "Oops! We forgot to deal with these issues! Let's do a special."

Other characters: There is the crazy landlady, the wise women who owns a bar. Most people are good people. One is perfect, like she is not jealous, not envious, she is confident, gracious... Does this kind of people exist? Well, not all characters are like these, some are "enemies" but they have clear motivations that make them complex and not total cartoons.

Funny Factor? Yes, at the beginning. Comes from some characters and Night's embarrassing actions.

Music: I liked the music but it was more of a background music. This isn't a criticism since I think some dramas go overboard with their use of music.

Bottom line: I'm sorry I can't get past the premise.
It's still not a minus because I give minus to dramas that triggered deep annoyance in me or caused me an bitter shock.

Wow, that was hard not to spoil! Hope it makes sense!

Buzzer Beat

Japanese title: ブザー・ビート

Aired on Fuji TV
July-Sept 2009
11 episodes

Main cast:

Yamashita Tomohisa: Kamiya Naoki

Kitagawa Keiko: Shirakawa Riko

Kanjiya Shihori: Ebina Mai

Ito Hideaki: Kawasaki Tomoya

Aibu Saki: Nanami Natsuki

Mizobata Junpei: Hatano Shuji

Kaneko Nobuaki: Yoyogi Ren

Maya Miki: Kamiya Makiko

Oomasa Aya: Kamiya Yuri

Nagai Masaru: Utsunomiya Toru

Review: +

Title: "Buzzer beat" is a basketball term. It is explained several times and what it describes happen several times in the drama. There is also some link to love attempted at one point. They could have called it "Love makes you stronger" because this is something expressed a lot in the drama and this slogan is prominent in the form of an ad.

Girl: I like her very much. She's passionnate about her music (and I always admire it because it requires a lot of work and perseverance). She knows what she wants and she's honest so we don't have lame misunderstandings and moping around. She's lively and charismatic. I do not really how they insisted on her not having much beauty products but still, it's a big (+)

Boy: He is a less common male lead in romance since he lacks self-confidence. He lost his mojo since becoming a pro basketball player but he is still passionnate about his sport. He isn't arrogant but on the contrary, he is very nice and doesn't speak much. However, he is not boring. (+)

Relationship: Cute and believable. The pacing is good. The only unnecessary cliché I noticed was the piggyback ride (Oops, I forgot waiting under the rain!). There are a number of it's-fate coincidences happening but the thing is that they are bonus and not used to propel the plot so they're just a nice, cherry-on-the-cake touch. One of the issues to be resolved in a drama is how to force these two people to interact and meet. Especially here since at the beginning, the two characters evolve in two parallel worlds. But they manage to find ways to slowly fuse their worlds so their meetings are not far-fetched coincidences. The obstcles thrown in their ways are common but they do not drag the story. The romance is intertwined with what is happening in their respective careers. The last act (last episode) is not as successful as the rest of the drama (I could have done without a last cringe-worthy utterance of "love makes you strong" but it's not on the mess level of the last act of Heartstrings. (+)


Other characters: As you can see from the people I chose as the "Main cast", they are many supporting characters that are quite important. I could describe and discuss at length each one of them and they have nuances with are good things. (+)

But (and this is a big but), there is a character I didn't understand at all. Like, at all. I don't understand what they want to say with her, what she's supposed to be. It's confusing. Seriously, it looks like she has a split personnality. I can't blame it on the actress, I don't know if it's a directing or writing issue. But her voice actually changes when she drops the mask/changes personnality. I know that we act different when we're alone but here it borders on creepy. Moreover, her motivations are mushy. She's not a nice but unfulfilled girl who made a mistake and then had nothing to lose. Which it sometimes looks like it should be. No, she rather appears as a mean and cold person who pretends to be warm and kind around some people for reasons that are never clear. She could have been as interesting and three-dimensional as the other characters but instead she is twice one-dimensional. (-)

Music: Very nice. Complements and enhances the drama. (+) However, I have to say that I liked the direction (some shots were inspired though sometimes a bit too on-the-nose) but that the editing was sometimes weird, like the cuts between scenes at times cuts the music in the middle (and I'm not talking scenes in which the music stops).

Funny factor: Yes! Not LOL but still nice. It's more romance than comedy.

Other points: Bonus for female friendship! It felt real. I enjoyed one conversation in the bus (first episode) in which they talked about random things like you do in a bus with a friend. There is also another moment that felt real to me when the guys are comparing their body in the locker-room... which brings me to another bonus:

Male nudity! Well, of course, not full nudity, but between the locker-room scenes, the bath ones and the beach trip, there are plenty of eye-candy.

I was reluctant to see it because I'm not into sports and I didn't want to watch endless basketball matches but it's not how it is. It's not a "sport" drama.

Bottom line: This is a Plus! I recommend it. Watching it, I wondered why it was not a Fav and I'm not sure why. I watched it many times but it just doesn't feel like one to me. I watch it with pleasure but it doesn't have that subjective thing that makes me fav a drama. I don't know if it's because of that one character. If it is, it's really too bad because almost everything else is so solid.