Title: ライアーゲームKanzaki Nao is an honest college student who receives a hundred million yen one day, along with a card saying she has been chosen to take part in the "Liar Game". The aim of the game is to trick the other players out of their hundred million dollars. At the end, the winner gets the hundred million and the loser is a hundred million yen in debt. The next day, she receives notification that her opponent is her former teacher, Fujisawa Kazuo. She goes to him, seeking help, but ends up getting tricked into handing her money over. Desperate, she approaches the police for help, but they are unable to do anything. However, she is told of a mastermind swindler, Akiyama Shinichi, who is to be released from jail the next day. Desperate, she goes to him for help. -- DramaWiki
I left my reading glasses at home and I'm really straining my eyes looking at the computer screen....so I'm gonna take a break and be back again with the next installment of Tokyo DOGS! (Hopefully by then my computer is feeling more enthusiastic too!)Shinsuke Kuwano, a successful architect at 40, enjoys living by himself. He doesn’t like people but somehow is able to design wonderful houses for them.
He has a routine of making himself a delicious dinner and then relaxing to classical music in his easy chair while pretending he is the conductor. One night, he plays the music loud enough to make his next door neighbor, Michiru Tamara knock on his door to complain. When Kuwano answers the door, he suffers a terrible stomach pain and collapses to the floor. Lucky for him, Michiru is nice enough to accompany him to the hospital, where he is treated by Dr. Natsumi Hayasake. He is really rude to Natsumi, but she is still determined to treat him.
Afterwards, Michiru and Natsumi become part of Kuwano’s life. They make friends with Kuwano’s colleagues Eiji and Maya Sawazaki. They all enjoy talking about how strange and eccentric Kuwano is. Is it possible that someone would ever want to marry him? -- DramaWiki
A drama adaptation of a popular comic written by Sekiya Tetsuji. After a year of
working at a neighborhood Italian restaurant, Ban Shogo (Matsumoto Jun), an
enthusiastic, cocky young college student from Fukuoka, comes to Tokyo to
perfect his cooking skills as a chef in Italian cuisine. He discovers he has
much to learn and has to continually prove himself to the very competitive,
quick and efficient staff at the upscale Italian restaurant. -- DramaWiki
I've just watched the first 2 episodes of Real Clothes and I can't wait for the rest of the series! I love fashion and just watching these two episodes has me drooling, especially the accessories in the second episode :)
Hotaru works for a famous interior design company. It's a glamorous job but Hotaru's private life is totally the opposite of glamorous. She lives alone, and when she isn't working she's mostly lazing about her rented house in training wear. She's not interested in men. In fact, she isn't interested in anything. "I'd rather lay around than fool around," is her motto.
Her landlord is a bar owner, and one day his son, who has just separated from his wife, comes to inspect the rental property, not knowing that someone is living there. He is shocked at the mess, but not as shocked as Hotaru. He turns out to be her boss, Takano. -- Japan Times Online
A group of five medical students take on the task of conveying the "voices of the dead."
Kaji Daiki fails to get into a popular heart surgery seminar but is somehow accepted into a seminar on forensic pathology. When he approaches professor Sagawa and asks him why he ended up in the seminar, Sagawa challenges him by asking why he wants to study heart surgery. Daiki replies that medicine is meaningless after the heart stops, but Sagawa counters that medicine also applies to the dead.And so, together with fellow students Ryosuke, Kanako, Teppei and Akira, Daiki begins to explore the mysteries of death.
--Tokyograph
The main reason I even looked for this dorama was because Eita was taking the lead role. I've really come to admire and respect Eita after watching him in Nodame Cantabile and Last Friends. I've really come to see him as a talented actor who can take on a variety of different roles. So, of course, I was really full of anticipation and I have to say that I was not disappointed!
Voice is about a group of 5 med students - Kaji Daiki (Eita), Ishimatsu Ryosuke (Ikuta Toma), Kuboaki Kanako aka Aki (Ishihara Satomi), Kirihata Teppei (Endo Yuya), and Hanei Akira (Sato Tomohito) - who enrol into the forensic pathology seminar. Daiki originally enrolled into the heart surgery seminar, but found that his name had been "removed" and was instead in forensic pathology. He confronts Professor Sagawa (Tokito Saburo) about the enrollment list but then reluctantly agrees to give it a try. In each episode, the five medical students go beyond their obligatory classroom work to solve the mysterious deaths and lend a "voice" to the last parting words of each dead victim to their loved ones.
I found each episode interesting, filled with a twist that you only find out at the end when Daiki gets that enlightened moment of figuring everything out. I did find that a bit annoyingly far-fetched because it didn't really seem to have any real link and you only "get it" when he then goes on to explain to the others. It was like the evidence was only produced after Daiki figured it all out. That aside, I did like the fact that each episode had its own case and what linked the whole series together were the relationships between the characters.
Each of the characters were interesting too... they each have their own story, which was explored in the episode that had a link to each character. I must say that I would have liked to gotten to see Daiki's past a bit more... his character was on the mysterious side and you don't get to see or meet any of his family. The only think about Daiki's past that we saw was his first meeting with Professor Sagawa.
There were lots of light humourous moments peppered throughout each episode, which I find it makes the show more enjoyable especially when the subject matter is so heavy and serious (as in the human drama genre). I also found that there wasn't much of a romantic storyline at all, although it was subtly hinted at. I don't really like leaving things at "romantic notions" and having romantic tension that remain unresolved. I'm the sort of person who wants to be told "this is the happy ending".... I'm just a romantic at heart :)
In the end, everyone finds their own destiny and walks their own paths. Again, Daiki remains a mystery somewhat... I almost expect a second season, but that could also be because of US TV shows like CSI and Law and Order that go on for ages after.
The Verdict: I would rank it 4/5 because I did enjoy it and I would most probably pick it up and watch it again later. Of course, that could be biased in a way because of Eita :)
