Zíza

Yes, it's a perfectly ordinary love story, just as the subtitle of the series claims. It starts with the coronavirus and people have to keep their distance. The people in the company are advised by their psychologist to install an online game to sort of keep themselves sane. So that's what our heroine does, but she's not very good at it, nor does she particularly enjoy it. But she starts chatting with another user and their anonymous chat goes on for months. Then it becomes something more. But the two don't know each other, only the heroine finds out that it's someone from the same company. For a while we fumble along with her trying to figure out who it could be, until we finally do, and just watch it slowly unfold from behind the screen. Enjoyable, human, topical. Right from the start, we thought these two would be a good match, and they are. But then all of a sudden I got absolute second lead syndrome and it was all over. I haven't had such a great "second lead crush" in a long time (if ever). A great actor, a likable guy, and a well-written character to boot. Still, the ultimate object of the heroine's love was no conniving bad guy; quite the opposite, I just personally liked the other one better. A very pleasant coronavirus movie. Somehow a love story unfolds behind the masks. And he wasn't the only one. We had several couples on the show, most of whom I liked, except for the youngest. They actually annoyed me quite a bit, I didn't care what happened to them, just as the young man in the couple assumes when he talks to the camera. Still, a hilarious romantic series. Interestingly, Haru plays in them quite often. A strong 3 stars.

I approached this series with no expectations. With such a cheesy title, what could it possibly give me? Even the plot is corny. In fact, everything that happened was corny, but it was really great, fun, with great energy. Yoshioka and Suzuki had divine chemistry between them, great dialogue, and they faced all the clichéd obstacles together beautifully, overcoming them in a non-clichéd way that made my heart leap. Basically, I feel like the writer of the source material, or the screenwriter, took every possible cliché he knew and threw it at the characters' feet. The characters may have stumbled, but then they continued on as people and not just clichés. I enjoyed them immensely, looked forward to them every week, like I was in cliché heaven without the unpleasant aftertaste that clichés can leave. I know, I keep repeating myself, cliché cliché cliché, but I'm just an excited fangirl about it. A great story about building relationships between a girl who attracts bad guys, a mangaka who's always locked up at home, a boy who lost his father, and the world around them. Aside from the romance, we get comedy and drama and most importantly, a bit of self-reflection toward the genre – without even a stroke of fan service! The beginning of the last episode was particularly great in this regard. For me, it was the highlight of the spring season (although Ichikei no karasu is also pretty good).

Without a doubt a very interesting insight into the life of one of the greatest military figures of the first half of the 20th century in Japan; but unfortunately the narrative style and flow of the film didn't sit well with me today. Otherwise, I think it would have been a star higher. If you're interested in WW2 in the Pacific, this is definitely a piece that will bring you enrichment.

Excited after Code Blue, I was curious to see another team that comes to the rescue in crisis situations, the so-called Rescue. But right from the start, from the very first episode, it was clear to me that this show wasn’t worth a damn. They may have put money into equipment and so forth, but the script must have been written by someone raised only on Kamen Rider. What didn't I like? A script leakier than my socks, dear Kitajima yelling everything at the top of his lungs as if he forgot that you don’t actually have to yell all the time. Plot holes: concrete and metal railings on fire, the front of the building is on fire; the woman can think of nothing better than to get in the way of the smoke in order to inhale it, even though there is no smoke nearby; in crisis situations where every second counts, the boys still manage to pour their hearts out... and Yokohama probably burned down. It's transparent, the dialogue is bad – the actors might say it with passion, but it's still just empty words spoken with a straight face. But yeah, one thing I liked – the CO2 fire extinguishing. A better 1 stars.

The cast is very well cast, but in the end I found it didn't really work here. Somehow the chemistry among the ensemble was just lacking. It was kind of dry, with no juice. Especially the first four episodes. It broke around the fifth one and finally started to get properly suspenseful, only to go back to the not-so-interesting ballast about the life of a dead college student and the lives of those left behind after the sixth. I wasn't expecting the final absolution, but I probably would have been much happier for a different one (where Koike Teppei's character wasn't such a saint, but decided to give everyone a hard time). A mediocre series about the lives of a few Japanese people who carry a scar from their past, and because they couldn't get it right in their heads, a lot of them are just treading water. Much more interesting from the pen of the same author as N no Tame ni, which starred Kubota, who made a cameo in the last episode here. Which I really appreciated. :-) 50%.

Holding your attention for two whole hours is an almost a superhuman feat, even though it's an interesting film. Takeru is great, surprisingly Haruka really knows how to run, and you definitely have a problem if your conscience is a plesiosaur. For my tastes, this film was a bit too "quiet". At least it felt that way to me; I felt like the music didn't start playing until halfway through the movie. Basically, the whole movie kind of goes on in a lull, and it even ends that way. It's not bad, but it's definitely not to everyone's taste; its handling is too civilized for the subject matter, and in the end it simply lacks logic – the film ended and I felt like there was something missing (=explanation, by which I don't mean the technology of transferring consciousness), despite the running time. From the trailer it looked like something more vivid; in the end its the viewer who ends up unconscious.

A relaxing romance set in what is basically a work environment. The characters are interesting, they're different, they're special, they each have direction, and you can tell at the end that they've moved on somewhere. It's a Japanese romantic comedy, so if you come to it blind to the violins, nursed on American productions, you probably won't be too thrilled. But if I had to compare the two, I'd say that for the most part American productions are "rough" in this regard and Japanese ones are "soft". It doesn't push anything, it doesn't embarrass you, it just flows and you can enjoy seeing where it goes. Sure it has its flaws, but as something where you don't have to think too much and it doesn't make an idiot out of you with its simplicity and idiocy, it's excellent. Plus, for fans of Ogurin, it's almost a must-see – it is, after all, his latest TV venture. ;-) A better 3 stars.

The cast is definitely interesting, and so are their characters. They're interesting in the sense that if someone told you about them you'd be like, yeah, that's an interesting person, funny, hardworking, driven, etc, but if you throw them all together like that it doesn't quite fit. Eita and Keiko had chemistry, but only occasionally; whether that was their characters or they themselves I still can't decide. Unfortunately, I also didn't like that for all the things the characters managed to say to each other, there were still some things they didn’t, and that was all that made up the plot. So basically nothing much happened. I mean, he worked over there, she worked over here, their families were going through divorces, but somehow it was all rather ridiculous, uninteresting, and lacking in anything to offer. This is a story that would be fine about twenty years back. It's overused, it's been written a million times and unfortunately there was nothing in it that made me want to say: "Oh, it doesn't matter that it's dated in the delivery of the story and characters, at least I'm enjoying it, it's funny, the characters have crazy chemistry with each other, ..." Just nothing, no added value. Sure, it's not a downright bad series, and if you're a fan of Keiko or Eita, go for it; Keiko in particular was awfully good here, but that's it. A series that fired up only to fizzle out.

I liked the relationship Arisu and Himura had with each other. They were understanding of each other and always there for each other. So it's not surprising that their close friendship was used to imply that the two of them could pull off all sorts of things together. Within limits and humor, of course. I enjoyed the series a lot in the beginning, it even had a fairly original take on crime scene reconstruction, but I wasn't so into it towards the end, as I became more and more focused on Shangri-La and its representative. It lacked the momentum that the series had before. Another plus is the fact that the police weren't just seen as someone who arrests criminals that Himura points out. Yes, they relied a lot on his abilities, but it was never that they acted without thinking it over. I liked everyone in the series, I just didn't like Hasegawa Kyōko very much. Otherwise, fine. An unpretentious detective series with a cult on top. A better 3 stars.

A story that deserves to be deciphered and pondered. What was the author trying to say? What were his characters after? As long as you don’t figure it’s an ordinary overlong film where nothing ever actually happens, Kuwabara gives us the background music just so that we don't notice that there won’t be much in the way of excitement, as long as you step back from the dullness and "boredom", you might find that this is a fairly complex and well-constructed film. Where everything has its place, even its characters represent what they are supposed to represent – whether it's a piece of society or just a minority voice. There aren't many actors, but the important ones play the everyday and almost mundane well. The whole thing hinges on the bland Nanami, played by Kuroki Haru. Here she put the charm with which she manages to draw attention to herself on the back burner and she really was just a wallflower. A very pretty one, to be sure. I still can't get enough of that actress. And then there was Ayano Gō, representing the anonymous company firm. Just the way he talked made him seem out of reach, someone who can’t be relied on if he isn't going to get anything out of it. But of course, it doesn't end there. Watch closely, it's not a film for staving off boredom.