Review: Papa to Musume no Nanokakan

Summary
Alternative Titles: パパとムスメの７日間, Seven days of a Father and Daughter
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 7
Broadcast: Jul. – Aug. 2007
Starring:

• Tachi Hiroshi as Kawahara Kyoichiro
• Aragaki Yui as Kawahara Koume
• Kato Shigeaki as Osugi Kenta

Kyoichiro and his daughter Koume have a very bad daughter-father realationship. They rarely speak to each other and if they do, they’re probably arguing. One day, the Kawahara family goes to the countryside to visit Kyoichiro’s mother. When returning from the trip, the train they’re travelling on a malfunction which causes Kyoichiro and Koume to become unconscious. When they wake up in the hospital, hey find out they have switched bodies.

Review
When I found out about Papa to Musume no Nanokakan, I became very interested in this drama. I expected it to have very original story and be filled with good acting and humour. After completing the drama in only two weeks, I have to say that it lived up to most of my expectations. Firstly, the story was very original and interesting. I thought that each episode had something to contribute to the overvall story. Since the series in only seven episodes, I didn’t felt that any of the episodes were just thrown in for no reason.

Each episode just deals with the various problems that Kyoichiro and Koume must overcome after having switched bodies. Kyoichiro (being inside his daughter’s body) lives the life of a high-schooler while Koume must learn the ropes of her father’s company. The parts showing Koume adapting to her father’s workplace might turn-off some people, but I thought they weren’t as bad as I originally thought because it doesn’t focus too much on business. Generally speaking, each episode had me laughing in at least one scene, but considering the story, I thought there was the potential for a lot more funny scenes. Another major aspect that I enjoyed was the background music. Papa to Musume no Nanokakan has the best background music I’ve heard in any drama. There’s absolutely no synthesized music, it’s all original orchestral pieces that fit well with what’s going on in the plot.

The only major thing I disliked was the acting by Kato Shigeaki (from J-Pop NewS) who plays the soccer player that Koume has a crush on. He is easily the worst actor I’ve ever seen in any drama. I know many female fans will like his looks, but in my opinion, he shows absolutely no emotion when acting.


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Pros

• Best background music I’ve heard in any drama
• At least one funny scene in each episode
• Overall, acting was good
• Ending was perfect

Cons

• Although he has the looks, Kato Shigeaki (NewS) is by far, the worst drama actor I’ve seen (ーー;)
• Had potential to be a lot funnier

Recommendation
I think most fans will get plenty of enjoyment from this drama. You should at least give it a try.

Rating: 8.7/10

Video Preview
Here's the first 10 minutes or episode one.

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish all readers a Happy New Year! The Keizou Journal started in mid-June and so far, I'm happy with the number of visitors. Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Since it was the holidays for me, I had time to watch a lot of dramas and prepare blog posts. Stay tuned to The Keizou Journal! I'll be writing more blog posts and hopefully I'll be ready to announce a new type of blog post!

Review: Azumi 2 - Death or Love

Summary
Genre: Historical, action
Release Date: Mar. 12, 2005
Starring:

• Ueto Aya as Azumi
• Kuriyama Chiaki as Kozue
• Oguri Shun as Ginkaku

Azumi 2 takes place shortly after the events of the first movie. Azumi and Nagara are the only surviving assassins whose purpose was prevent a civil war in Japan. Their last mission is to assassinate Sanada Masayuki. However, Sanada has recruited an army and has hired a deadly ninja clan. During their mission, Azumi meets a bandit who resembles her friend Nachi.

Review
Both movies are very similar and are basically about assassins killing anyone that the enemy can throw at them. However, I thought that the first Azumi movie was slightly better than Azumi 2. Azumi 2 had a couple of things that just turned me off. First of all, in Azumi 2, Azumi meets a group of bandits that decide to help her out, but most of the actors who play the bandits just seem very goofy. They’re very horrible actors who are just in the movie to get killed and they just put a bad impression on the movie. I also didn’t like the order in which some of the characters were killed. I won’t mention who gets killed, but for some reason the important characters that seem like decent fighters get killed pretty early on while the no-names get to live a lot longer. Azumi 2 also had a very high death count, too high in my opinion. The sheer number of major characters who die make the ending very week. If they just kept some of the characters alive, they could have added a little extra to ending.

However, Azumi 2 can provide some enjoyment to fans of Japanese historical action movies. The fighting choreography is nothing too special, but the fighting scenes are somewhat enjoyable to watch because of the unique enemies and the weapons they use. I also enjoyed watching how some of the enemies got killed. Though very unreal, they’re pretty interesting to see. The same goes for how the movie deals with blood. When an enemy gets killed blood splatters everywhere like a hose. It’s definitely better than seeing just blood dripping.


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Pro

• Has some enjoyment for historical/action movie fans
• Blood splatter goodness
• High production quality
• All-star cast, this time with Oguri Shun as a main character

Cons

• Number of major characters that get killed is way too high
• Characters that look like decent fighters are killed early on while the no-names get to live longer
• Ending was very weak, they could added a lot more if some major characers stayed alive
• Some special effects were cheesy

Recommendation
If you’re a fan of historical/action movies, you should watch Azumi 2. If you’re not, you should probably avoid it.

Rating: 6.7/10

Related Reviews (historical/action)
Azumi
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade

Review: Sapuri

Summary
Alternative Titles: サプリ, Sappli, Supply, Suppliment
Genre: Romance, workplace
Episodes: 11
Broadcast: Jul. - Sept. 2006
Starring:

• Ito Misaki as Fuji Minami
• Kamenashi Kazuya as Ishida Yuya
• Eita as Ogiwara Satoshi

Fuji Minami is a 29-year-old employee at a marketing firm. One day, while riding the train to work, she finds a lost cellphone ringing and answers it. A young man named Ishida Yuya claims that he has lost his cellphone and wants her to return it to him before his job interview. When Ishida gets hired and starts working, he notices that Fuji Minami works in the exact same office.

Review
Sapuri is a pure romance drama that takes place in the workplace. There is absolutely no other genre you can really recognize. In other words, it's just full of love triangles. Having said that, Sapuri is unquestionably the most boring drama I’ve ever watched. Each episode mainly deals with the relationships between the workers at the marketing firm. About mid-way through the series, if you were to draw a correlation chart that shows who likes who, it would become pretty complex. However, many of the relationships between characters are every predictable and there aren’t any significant plot twists. You could probably take a good guess of the two employees that will end up together at the end. In addition, Sapuri takes place mostly in a office, which makes it even more boring to watch.

On the other hand, not 100% of Sapuri is about romance. Romance does dominate most of the series, but there is a subplot in every episode about the marketing firm that Fuji and Ishida work at. The marketing firm is called Create Agency and it produces CMs for various companies (CM is a abbreviation used by the Japanese for the word commercial). Basically in every episode, they create a different commercial for a different product or service and it’s somewhat interesting to see how they create the CMs. These segments can be interesting if you’re the business type.


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Pros

• Scenes showing the creation of CMs can be interesting

Cons

• Boring since it’s a pure romance drama, contains no other genres
• Basically about love triangles and not much else
• Relationships between characters are predictable
• Not many unexpected plot twists to keep story interesting
• Mostly takes place in one office

Recommendation
I bet many females will watch it because Kamenashi Kazuya (KAT-TUN) plays the lead role, but it’s not worth it to just watch Sapuri because of one person. I had to force myself to watch it so that I could review it. In other words, I watched it so that you don’t have to.

Rating: 5/10

Related Reviews
(ItoMisaki or Kamenashi Kazuya in a major role)
Densha Otoko
Nobuta wo Produce