Proposal Daisukusen Review

Yes I did actually finish watching this one!

D-Addicts Wiki Entry

"Yamashita Tomohisa and Nagasawa Masami play a young man and woman who have been friends since elementary school. Yamashita's character, Iwase Ken, is obstinate and unskilled in love, but he fell long ago for the lively and cheerful woman, Yoshida Rei, played by Nagasawa. But Rei is about to get married to another man. While Ken and other friends from high-school attend the wedding ceremony, a fairy appears and sends Ken back in time, giving him a second chance to win the girl he loves."

Yamashita Tomohisa (Nabuto wo Produce, Dragon Zakura, Kurosagi) plays the part of the useless guy (Ken) who you end up wanted to knock out cold because he is so useless at saying anything of use to Rei (Nagasawa Masami - Dragon Zakura), but what is interesting is that you follow the characters through different intersections of their life (high school, University and beyond) and you see Rei change and develop as a character as she gets older - of course its the same actor and all that, just they put more effort into the script.

While you see Ken try his best to "make a difference" to the present by trying to make his mark on Rei in that segment of his past. What makes this show interesting is that he doesn't always get things his own way, and even ends up giving up towards the end and that's when you can tell there is nothing more he can say to Rei to change her mind.

But you can see with each time travel he is making subtle changes to the present Rei's affections towards him and some of his friends are changing too. 

The last few episodes have twists aplenty and even I was gasping when episode 9 finished, and his contrasting actions in episode 11 were completely unforeseen.

This series is a very low key romantic story which has the viewers willing Ken on in his bid to change the present, I feel this is one that will stay timeless due to its completely unusual story.

I would recommend everyone watches this series at least once!

Technorati Tags: japanese, drama, review, proposal, daisukusen, yamashita, tomohisa, nagasawa, masami

Read More......

J Drama watch list Summer 2007

Dramas to watch this summer!

Hanazakari No Kimitache e

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hanazakari_no_Kimitachi_e

Extract from Wiki:

Horikita Maki (Teppan Shojou Akane, Kurosagi, Nobuta wo Produce) plays a Japanese girl in the U.S. who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi played by Oguri Shun(Hana Yori Dango) compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him, and decides to move to Japan to attend the same school as him. However, Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to achieve her dream of being with her idol.

This drama has the Kawaii Maki Chan and one of the best young male performers in Japan at the moment Oguri Shun a winning line up!

This is based on a hit manga and should be worth watching, but I can't see how they can make them look young (although they pulled it off with Proposal Daisukusen!).

Show kicks off on the 3rd of July.

-------------

First Kiss

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/First_Kiss

Extract from Wiki:

In this romantic comedy, Mao Inoue (Hana Yori Dango) stars as a selfish girl named Mio Fukunaga. Because of a serious illness, she lives in the U.S. for medical treatment. Before undergoing an important operation, she returns to Japan, where she meets the older brother she has been separated from since her parents' divorce. She finds Kazuki (Hideaki Ito) leading a good-for-nothing life, but he shows his seriousness when he resolves to find a way for Mio to experience her first kiss. Yuta Hiraoka plays the love interest, a rookie doctor.

There isn't much of a lineup in this one, but it will be interesting to see how well Inoue Mao can rise from the ashes of her success with Hana Yori Dango and establish her self in the J Drama world. Yuto Hiraoko was a real talent and shone well in Proposal Daisukusen so will be interesting to see how they hit off on screen.

------------

Detective School Q - Tantei Gakuen Q

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Tantei_Gakuen_Q#Renzoku_Series

Extract from Wiki:

Adapted from the manga by Tadashi Agi(Seimaru Amagi), Tantei Gakuen Q revolves around a team of genius students studying in a detective academy run by a famous detective, Morihiko Dan.

Kamiki Ryunosuke and Shida Mirai (Suppli, 14 sai no haha) star in this drama, I am interested to see Mirai's progression since 14 Sai no Haha (not seen all of that series yet).

---------------

Hotaru no Hikari

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hotaru_no_Hikari

Extract from Wiki:

Haruka Ayase stars as the title character, Hotaru Amemiya, in this adaptation of Satoru Hiura's "Hotaru no Hikari" manga series. Hotaru is a twenty-something office lady who has become a "dried fish" - she has "retired" from love, and she prefers to spend her time lazily at home. Then one day, her world gets shaken up when she unexpectedly ends up living with her boss (Fujiki Naohito). To complicate her life even further, she begins to find romance with a new employee named Makoto (Kazuki Kato).

Ayase Chan (Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, Byakuyakou)is back after a break after Tatta Hitotsu, and we all know about Naghito from Proposal Daisukusen (seems a lot of actors from that show are getting new roles!) but Kato Kasuki seems a new comer, this is another show I might look at 1 or 2 episodes to see if it whets my appetite.

-----------------

Others to watch out for:

Yama Onna Kabe Onna

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Yama_Onna_Kabe_Onna

Starring Misaki Ito (Densha Otoko, Suppli)

------------

Jotei

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Jotei

Starring Kato Rosa (newbie) and Matsuda Shota (Fresh from Liar Game).

------------

Seven days of Daddy and a Daughter

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Papa_to_Musume_no_Nanokakan

Starring Aragaki Yui (My Boss=My Hero), comedy type.

Technorati Tags: jtv, drama, japanese, summary, summer, 2007

Read More......

Bleach Episode 129 & 130

I hadn't watched Bleach last week as I knew it was a filler, therefore I am even more disgusted that this week's is also a filler, seems the whole mini story will be dragged on for a little while longer - I am so disgusted I am not even going to bother reviewing them - there was no non filler scenes at all...

Technorati Tags: anime, review, bleach, 129, 130

Read More......

Naruto Shippudden 18 Summary

This episode again is just transitional before the real fighting begins.

Neji uses his eyes to look past the barrier and can't explain what's happening, but Kakashi discovers that this is a Five Seal Barrier and would require all five seals to be removed at once.

Neji pinpoints the seals and the other 4 are in distant locations.

Team Gai split up 4 ways and locate all the remaining seals.

Meanwhile Akatsuki member's are starting to leave and Sasori tells Itachi that the Kyuubi will be his and he and the his colleague stay behind to welcome the outsiders.

All 5 seals are removed and Sakura destroys the boulder, at the same time some enemies are beginning to appear in front of each of Team Gai's members.

Inside the hideout it seems as though the monster/statue thing that was used to contain the monster sucked out of Gaara is transported elsewhere as the head of Akatsuki cast some seals and they both vanish from the "hideout". Team Kakashi know they are already too late when they see the two remaining Akatsuki members sat on the lifeless body of Gaara.

They didn't need to figure out who has the Kyuubi inside of them when Naruto flips and starts calling up his Kyuubi strength in a bid to launch an all out assault on the Akatsuki.

Again not much content in this episode, I am a bit disappointed with the quality as there were some scenes where the quality had dropped a bit. Looks like the fighting will start next week, but seeing as it might be split into 5 fights I expect this might take sometime before any more story progression...

Technorati Tags: anime, naruto, shippudden, 18, review, summary

Read More......

Liar Game - Summary

LIAR GAME D-Addicts Wiki Entry

This is a must watch. If you are like me and enjoy watching things like Hustle on the BBC and enjoyed Kurosagi then this is a must watch!

I call it a psychological suspense type of show in which the lovely Toda Erika (as in the picture above; features in the last 2 episodes of Hana Yori Dango 2 also in Nabuto wo Produce) plays the dumb Kanzaki Nao - who is so gullible she gets tricked by just about anyone and cannot see the dishonesty behind what people say or do, ie she never doubts what is said.

She gets accidentally snared into a deadly game called Liar Game, where each contestant is sent 100 million Yen (around £40 million) to their house and they cannot refuse entry once they open the cash (which she had already done), you are chosen an opponent who you must steal his money from in order to win. You have 30 days to do this. If you win you keep half (100 mil), if you lose you owe the Liar Game Secretariat 100 mil which they will take back by making you take out a loan or something.

She is assigned her old High school teacher as an opponent, thinking that she can confide in him, he tricks her into handing over her money (for safe keeping) and she manages to enlist the help of a ex con genius con man called Akiyama Shinichi (played by Matsuda Shota - Hana Yori Dango) to try and win her money back.

The plot thickens when they realize they are in something allot deeper then just this one opponent...

I enjoy the action (up to episode 4 so far) in terms of suspense and not knowing what the game or Akiyama will throw up next. Akiyama is less sharp in comparison to Kurosaki but the tricks and cons he has up his sleeve are only shown at the last given moment - so you are kept guessing till the end.

I recommend this above all the other J-Dorama I have seen this season, of course having the nice Toda Erika alongside the sly and sharp Matsuda Shota is a winning combination!

Technorati Tags: japanese, tv, j-tv, drama, liar, game, toda, erika, japan, matsuda, shota, review, summary

Read More......

Joudan Janai Episode 1 Summary

Oda Yuji is back with a BANG!

D-Addicts Wiki Entry

Oda Yuji (Odoru Daisousasen, Last Christmas) back as Takamura Keita - a 40 year Computer Design Technician who is hitched up with a 20 year University student Ellen (Ueno Juri - Nadame Cantabile) who fly off to France to visit Ellen's parent's and seek permission for Marriage.

Keita bumps into his ex girlfriend from his University days, Hirose Rei (Ohtake Shinobu) while in Nice, France. What he didn't know that when he meets Ellen's parents, Rei is her Mother!

Still going ahead with the marriage Keita shows an awkwardness towards Rei and if new ever got out that he used to date Ellen's mother all hell would break loose. The episode ends with Rei returning to Tokyo and staying unannounced with the newly weds. Seems like she is out for revenge and wants to be the thorn in the pair's marriage.

As typical of Oda's previous Drama outings, this is filling with great little comic moments in amongst the crazy script and wonderful cast.
A couple of noteworthy mentions are Ueno Juri looks wonderful and looks to be the up and coming j-tv actress for 07/08, and also Oda Yuji has aged quite a bit in the 4 years since he last did a drama!

The Subs are only up to episode 4, lets hope it continues to progress. As usual all the subs and stuff are over at D-addicts.

Tags: oda yuji j-tv joudan janai review

Read More......

6 a side football in Hayes

www.soccerfeva.com

In the spring we decided to enter a new league that was starting at Vale Farm sports center (our local astro pitch), but when the league was canceled due to lack of support from Vale Farm themselves, we were invited to join the newly formed Hayes league.

Now after 5 games we finished the table (Championship) in first place and are the group winners and will be promoted to the top group (Premiership) for the next round!

Our team's name is Ghetto Fabulous (Sounds silly but the captain came up with that on the day of registration) and here is the squad as well as our results:

Nauman (Captain)

Sajid (Manager)

Umair

Zeshan

Zuhair

Gary

Yasaar

Sameer

Hamid

Adil

Sanjee

Sandeep

 

Fixture	Result
Ghetto v Football Club UK	5-0 (Umair 3, Zeshan, Hamid)
Ghetto v Alpha 6	1-2 (Zeshan) (Ghetto awarded 3-0 win as Alpha 6 were thrown out)
Ghetto v Vasco	0-1
Ghetto v Last orders	1-1 (Umair)
Ghetto v Last orders	2-1 (Gary, Umair)

Technorati tags: football, 6 a side, astro

Read More......

Another cooking Jap Drama - Bambino!

Matsumoto Jun (Hana Yori Dango, Gokusen) plays Ban Shogo - an over enthusiastic young assistant chef who works part time at his local family restaurant while at university. He is arrogant and wants to promoted to a full chef but the head chef recommends he move from the small town to Ropponji in Tokyo where he can work under the head chef's training college at a  popular Italian restaurant as a helper.

The head chef tests him early and puts him in charge of Pasta, but fails miserably. The favourism he is shown by the head chef turns everyone in the kitchen against him - with all colleagues betting he wont last even a day. He gets put under the charge of Katori Nozomi played by Sato Ryuta who doesn't take long to knock seven shades out of our "pretending to be too great" main star. But Ban comes back for more and earns the nickname "Bambino" because he is like a infant deer and needs supervision (Bamby - Italian for baby deer?).

Jun does well to portray his usual character and a good scene is when he steps into the kitchen at his new work place and is stunned (see picture), he is even more blown away by the pace and intensity when the orders start coming in. The cast are all mostly known figures (not starring ones like Jun) and there isn't much to judge them on yet. I seem to be a fan of the cooking type of drama (Lunch no joou, Teppan Shoujo Akane, etc) and I enjoyed this and will be watching it very closely.

Technorati Tags: bambino, matsumoto, jun, j-tv, japanese, drama, review

Read More......

Naruto Shippudden 17 Summary

I am going to review Naruto now every week (released Friday mornings (4am) by Dattebayo) since after power watching through 220+ episodes of the regular series, I found the new series on par - sometimes better - than Bleach. The story is like thus: Naruto is back from his 2.5 years of training and teams up with Sakura and Kakashi into a new 3 man team. They are sent to help the Village of the Sand after their leader Gaara is beaten and taken by the group known as Akatsuki (Itachi Uchiha is a member). En route Gai's team and Naruto's team are slowed down by Akatsuki fake's. This episode is more of a transitional one, since the team are resting and then finally get to Akatsuki's location. In the meantime we hear that it was the old granny (in the picture above) who sealed away the "one tailed" demon into Gaara on his father's request. We also see what seems to be the death of Gaara after Akatsuki finish extracting the demon from his body.

Would be a real shame if Gaara is dead because he was one of the more powerful and psychopathic characters who really lit up series 2 and 3.

The next episode won't be out for another 2 weeks - NOOOOO!

Technorati Tags: anime, review, naruto, shippudden, 17, summary

Read More......

Bleach Episode 128 summary

The time wasting and uselessness of the bleach cast continues to confound me! In this episode we see about 1 minute of anything remotely useful - Ichigo is able to keep his Hollow transformation for a mere 30 seconds longer while he continues to train. The rest of this episode is just Matsumoto wasting time shopping and getting involved with a pre formed arrancar - which gets everyone suspicious as to why Aizen would send that into the real world. So no meat to this episode as usual and the void still remains in my stomach - when will we get some decent entertainment in Bleach again?

Technorati Tags: Bleach, 128, anime, review, summary, ichigo, matsumoto

Read More......

A update finally

Been a pretty nice month all round.

Albeit losing to Chelsea in the FA Cup final put a downer on the title celebrations for all United fans.

Smallville has finished for Season 6, I will get an review ready in the upcoming week.

I finished Final Fantasy XII so expect shots/videos and a good in depth review.

Going to have some retro reviews looking at some of the games available on the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii.

I got my England v Brazil ticket in the post today, damn shame I couldn't get 2 tickets together.

Read More......

Championes Championes, Ole Ole Ole!

 Continuing on the celebrations from yesterday I have some links to post:

Sky's coverage after the Arsenal draw (including Morinho, Sir Alex and co reaction as well as a video): 

Asnl v chel (1)
Uploaded by jay2567

BBC's report on where and how United won the title:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/6610085.stm

On a side note, tomorrow sometime I will be posting a review for Smallville Episode 20, Bleach catch up review and also news about the new 6 aside competition we have entered.

 

Technorati tags: manchester, united, champions, chelsea, arsenal, premiership, league, bbc, alex, ferguson, morinho, sky

Read More......

Manchester United - Champions!

Manchester Utd completed a monumentus comeback to reclaim the Premiership title for a record 9th time this afternoon after Chelsea failed to beat Arsenal (1-1 at the Emirates Stadium).

At the start of the campaign people didn't rate United as title contenders because their failure to bring in a replacement for Ruud van Nistelrooy (who was sold to Real Madrid in the summer) and Roy Keane (who left United midway through the last season). Their only outfield signing was debatable Michael Carrick, who now is a regular first team player and a perfect partner for Scholes, and the emergence of Ronaldo and the late show from Rooney and the return to form of Giggs and Scholes!

More coverage and views over the week as United visit Chelsea this Wednesday and West Ham over the weekend.

 

Technorati tags: manchester, united, mufc, man united, premiership, champions, chelsea, arsenal

Read More......

Digg attacked by the people!

In a bizarre incident at Digg.com took place yesterday.

Seems the HD DVD DRM/encryption has been cracked due to a key which was leaked from the film industry. Following this a story appeared on Digg yesterday which included the code included in the key (something of a hexadecimal number). Fearing the wrath of the MPAA (Group that safe guards the interests of the Movie industry - much like the guys who come after you if you download MP3s - RIAA) Digg removed the story which became the catalyst to a community backlash:

Hundreds of post appeared from users all including the cracked HD DVD key in them. At first I thought Digg had been hacked, but it looks like people retaliated making sure this DVD Key stayed in the public domain.

Seems Digg has bowed to the pressure and claims people would "rather see us go down fighting" than bow to the pressure of the big movie makers.

Interesting that "people power" has kept Digg.com free from influence of American conglomerates.

Read more here at GigaOM:

http://gigaom.com/2007/05/01/a-very-angry-digg-nation

Tags: digg hd-dvd drm key hacked gigaom mpaa riaa

Read More......

Mega UPDATE!

I have updated my Youtube videos and Flickr Galleries!

As in my earlier post I have uploaded Photos from the new Wembley stadium, but there are complimenting videos in my youtube account:

http://www.youtube.com/theskillster

I have uploaded videos from Manchester United vs Lille from in the crowd, as well as Manchester United vs Roma in the Crowd, the Manchester United Tour.

There are more pictures in the Wii unboxing showing the UI, the Internet Shop and the Opera Browser at work.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theskillster/sets/72157600128237110/

Also photos from the Manchester United vs AS Roma game!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theskillster/sets/72157600128231527/

Read More......

Smallville summary

Episodes 18 & 19 + recap!

Episode 17 and recap:

Clark is distraught by the marriage between Lana and Lex Luthor and starts rounding up criminals in a rather violent way, in this episode he gets into a fight club in order to track down and kill and escapee from the Phantom zone, featuring 2 WWE wrestlers.

Episode 18:

Smallville is back after its 3 week (damn straight, that is a long time!) break the series is back on track with a nice episode.

This episode is all about Chloe's past, and her mother(who was in a mental hospital) seems to have powers to control Chloe. Lex jumps on the chance to transfer her to a LuthorCorp facility to see if she can control other "Meteor Freaks", while in captivity she controls Chloe and makes her do various errands like try and break her out or run Lex off the road etc.

Lana gets caught in some cross fire and ends up in the Smallville hospital (probably the most known landmark in Smallville) and the doctor carries out tests on her and to our astonishment (not mines as I had already sussed this out) that Lana was not pregnant but she was unknowingly slipped hormones which simulated pregnancy!

In the meantime Clark busts out Chloe and her mum, but Chloe's mum can't stay sane for long and eventually goes back to her "catatonic" state but is put into safe care via Queen industries.

In retaliation to Lex's experiments on Chloe and her mum she threatens to expose Lex's 33.1 practices on Meteor Freaks and Lex warns her to drop the story or face aggravated assault charges (for ramming Lex off the road and knock him out in his car), but Chloe remains resolute and hits back claiming some "Quality time behind bars" is worth it if she can take down Lex. Lex has the ace up his sleeve when he reveals that he will put Chloe in a place that "makes prison look like a picnic"! We can all guess he means 33.1 and Chloe warns Clark and he feels that the "war has just began" between them and Lex.

Episode 19:

We start with Lex and Lionel in some underground tunnel network, Lionel gets hurt as some women kidnaps Lex.

Seems she is a ex soldier and her husband was supposedly KIA but was infact taken in by LuthorCorp. Lex claims he is dead but the women has already set explosives to go off in 20 minutes and sets off one in the same room after Lex wrestles her gun away and shoots her.

Clark has already made his way into the tunnels after Lionel managed to warn him about something big that Lex was doing there, but he is hit by the explosion and the walls in the tunnels contain meteor rocks and Clark is out cold for 5 minutes. He finally awakes and gets to Lex who managed to find cover, but Clark is hurt bad and has been weakened by the rocks. Lex claims he knew that he must have been invincible after he stabbed him with the chisel back in the valentines day special in Feb.

After Clark reveals that Lex forced Lana to marry him and she wanted to leave him on the day of the wedding, Lex still helps Clark who gets caught in even more rubble.

Meanwhile it seems Lana is forcing the issue after confronting Lionel in hospital about her fake pregnancy and then busting into Lex briefcase from his car to find a CD about this "ARES" project which has something to do with a Zoner. She has full access to Lex's documents on his laptop and Chloe learns that Lana knows about Clark's secret when she goes to her for help in finding Clark.

Lex and Clark get out but Lana is totally all over Clark till she spots Lex and then goes over to him to carry on her charade as Mrs Luthor.

Lana learns from Lionel that he is protecting Clark by keeping Lana close to Lex because Lex could kill Clark (?). Lex asks Lana if she did see Clark the day of the wedding and Lana does a superb act of bending the truth and indicating that she would lose her love for someone who did not love her (ie Lex was only interested in the marriage etc) but she doesn't drop the fake pregnancy discovery on him yet.

In the meantime Clark studies the maps and documents to see what Lex was really up to in the tunnels but fails to find the real deal - Lex has that ex army dude in some labs down there and seems like he might be the one who has been taken over by the Zoner in the video Lana saw...

Will Clark mend his relationship with Lex after this escape? Will Lana leech Lex for all the info she can? What is Lionel doing - whose side is he on? Where is Oliver Queen - we want more of him! Next episode 20 of 22 is out next Saturday.

Sarg

Read More......

Wolf's Tale

He may have forgotten to plug my blog, but at least I can plug his!

Parv finaly solved his seemingly never ending struggle to stick to one location for his blog(wordpress, blogger, yes he has tried them all). After his latest move I suggested I should sign him up with a domain name (URL) so he can move around but still be found under the one universal name. So he took the bait and all worked out in the end(although I am sure he still has to pay me 30 odd quid).

He is now (and hopefully forever) location at www.wolfstales.com

Also thanks to www.freeparking.co.uk who make it so easy to buy and manage domain names.

 

Technorati tags: url, domain name, wolfstale.com, theskillster.com, freeparking.co.uk

Read More......

Day Trip to see the New Wembley Stadium

£10 well spent! This Saturday I went to watch the England Under 16 team vs the Spanish U16 at the new Wembley Stadium. The admission of £10 was worth it to get to grace this fine new national arena.

The game wasn't have bad either - fine English pedigree on show - winning convincingly 1-0. I have uploaded photos to my gallery here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theskillster/sets/72157600149415419/

I will add descriptions and comments later when I also upload my videos (including the only goal of the game!) later in the week.

Technorati tags: fa, new wembley, wembley stadium, england, spain, international, freindly, under 16, 90000, cup, final, photos, gallery

Read More......

Nintendo Wii - Unboxing!

Yes! I got a Wii two weeks ago and have finally posted the photos of the Unboxing - a video of the setup will follow shortly.

Click on the image to access the gallery of photos:

Read More......

Prison Break - The End?

Season Finale!

Well I thought this would be the end of the line for Prison Break but it seems those executive producers at FOX have decided that they want to make a 3rd series (WHAT??) and somehow the writers have shoe horned in everything into the last episode!

I was left gasping for air when I realised what had actually happened in the final episode - not because it was so good, but because it was totally unbelievable. Schofield goes head first (no thinking involved) to try and save Sarah. Instead they lose the money, the boat and their freedom.

The only winner is Lincoln who was cleared of killing the ex president's brother and Kellermen looks like he has been killed off by the company.

Somehow we are lead to believe that Schofield has been experimented on and that now he has been thrown into jail he will attempt to escape simply because "its in his blood".

Schofield is thrown into "Sona" a prison that is so lawless that even the police do not dare enter. We see Mahone and Schofield enter and we see Bellick on the floor with barely any clothes on completely disfigured by the animals (or criminals) in the jail.

Who know what is in store for series 3 but I am not that interested for the time being.

Tags: Prison Break tv review

Read More......