Konnichiwa and Annyeong Haseyo minna-san

Konnichiwa and Annyeong Haseyo minna-san

Hope that's correct above but what I'm saying is welcome everyone. May 10, 2019 is the first day of this blog and many may know me from 'Nao Kanzaki and Friends'... aitoda.com. There I have such a mix of things and finally decided to branch out with just a blog devoted to Japanese and Korean dramas. Will also be having some film reviews but one thing you won't see are any J-Pop idols or gravure models except for their dramas, this blog is dedicated 100% to dramas and films.

Also actresses as will be having many, many posts for them. Such as them appearing at events, mag spreads, interview pics and whatever else. So you should be seeing a lot of my bigger long time faves such as Erika Toda, Park Min-Young, Lee Yeon-Hee, Tsubasa Honda and too many others to count.

News and upcoming projects

News and upcoming projects

Should have done this on my Aitoda blog which is to let viewers know what's going on. Seems like a good way to let everyone know if I'll be taking a break, what to look forward to and any other tidbits.

Updating update, May 19th:

Whew, have finally finished transferring over enough posts from the Aitoda blog. May be a few here and there in the future for some new that's being introduced but there shouldn't be too many. Have also included announcers for women that I'll be posting about as my top two current faves just happen to be in that profession.

The first five episodes of '3-Nen A Gumi' have now been posted. For series over five shows will be doing two batches of them as I figure ten posts are way too many to read through during one sitting so will have the second half of the drama coming up in 2-3 weeks, highly recommend the show.

June 4th.... Have written up the recaps for episodes 7 and 8 of the '3-Nen A Gumi' show and will have those long with episode eight by June 6th. Up next for Korean dramas is up in the air but leaning towards a pair of shorter series which will be either "Splish Splash Love" or "The Universe's Star".

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Saturday, May 11, 2019

Hiragana-Keyakizaka46: "Re:Mind" drama episode's eleven and twelve recap



 Not sure if the title is accurate enough, for now will keep it that way as Hiragana does deserve to be in the title. The eleven members, the ones you see above, are the stars of this drama and there will be no Kanji members making an appearance. Glad for that as I'll bet not many of us know these members well enough and after viewing four episodes they're really likable gals. Here's the cast and will keep the beginning like this for a while, they all go by their real first names in the show.
  This is the order of the members in the opening credits, also the order they all woke up in.... you'll learn about that right off the bat. As a bonus also have the member's birthdates included with most members are being older than I had thought.

Mirei Sasaki....  December 17, 1999


 Sarina Ushio.... December 26, 1997


Mei Higashimura.... August 23, 1998


Ayaka Takamoto.... November 2, 1998


Kyoko Saito.... September 5, 1997


 Kumi Sasaki.... January 22, 1996


 Shiho Kato....February 2, 1998


Yuuka Kageyama.... May 8, 2001


Mao Iguchi.... November 10, 1995


Mana Takase.... September 20, 1998


 Memi Kakizaki.... December 2, 2001


 Above are the regular eleven Hiragana members but there needed to be a twelfth person. That ended up being a new second generation gal and her name is Miho Watanabe. There were auditions for the role and she came out on top. She never made an appearance until the sixth episode and even after that we only saw her sporadically, her DOB is February 24, 2000.


 Didn't read why others had thought the ending was a disappointment but after viewing it have to admit it left something to be desired. On the whole an okay final two episodes but one thing that made the shows drag was just having two characters, seemed so much more interesting with a room full of students held hostage. They pair left are still held against their will but the suspense of who will disappear next is gone.




 At the conclusion of the tenth episode Memi was whisked away leaving just the pair of Mirei and Kumi. We never did find out where the nine girls ended up, are they still being tied down or really the main questions are what's happened to them? During that tenth episode the girls have come to the realization that the rumor of Miho having a sister is true and she was probably in their class.
 But it was a big class and we did only meet eleven beside Miho, is the sister another girl who we've never heard of? There will be a lot of question marks as very few things were answered and the developments actually raised more questions. For the first ten minutes of episode eleven it was just the two friends Kumi and Mirei sitting at the grand table talking about many things which really added up to nothing.
 Both, especially Mirei, were really beating themselves up for what had happened to Miho in school. After she fell down some stairs which resulted in her being confined to a wheelchair Miho had been bullied by nine of her friends from the 'White Justice Club'. But Kumi and Mirei were two who didn't participate in the bullying but in a way they did as they did nothing to stop it. Mirei is feeling quite guilty about it now and wished she could have changed her in-actions, hindsight is everything.



 Mirei kept going on and on which did get a bit boring but it eventually ceased at the 10:28 mark of this eleventh show as the lights went out and you now what happens then. If you surmised that someone is gone you're right as Mirei is no longer there leaving just Miho's best friend of twelve years Kumi in the room by herself. She wasn't alone for that long as shortly after the lights came back on the door to the grand room opened and slowly a figure in a wheelchair entered.
 Who it could be was unknown at first as the person was wearing a hood and didn't utter a sound. Right after that entrance there was quite a long scene featuring all of the eleven original students who were sitting around the table. It wasn't explained but to me it was the person in the wheelchair who was imagining all of it which was what the girls would say now about Miho. This scene was a bit long but could have been the best part of these final two episodes as the girls didn't hold back on what they thought about their ex-friend Miho.




 The eleven discussed to no person in particular how they met met Miho and what their first impressions were. They also brought up what they liked or didn't like about her and there really weren't that many bad comments the group had about Miho. But they did admit when she was confined to her wheelchair it was open season to bully her, none of them seemed to get much pleasure in doing that but the peer pressure to join in must have been enormous.
 This went on for a while and after Mirei disappeared at the 10:28 mark this scene went on to almost the end of the 11th show. But it was interesting hearing what the others truly thought of Miho but the question is did what they say their own opinions of Miho? Or were they what the person in the wheelchair wanted them to say or what the person's impressions were of their relationships with Miho? As I said so many question arose and hardly any of them were explained.




 We're now in the final episode and as you can see that hooded person is now next to Kumi. They walked up to her as the wheelchair wasn't needed but the person explained they wanted to see what it was like to be confined to a chair which if you think about it was why the girl's feet were shackled to the floor. It's time for the grand unveiling of the hood and that face underneath it was one none of us would have guessed.
 That person was Yuuka who disappeared I think at the end of the seventh episode. She admits to Kumi she's the student who is Miho's sister, it was a mystery to all except for their teacher Hayashi. Yuuka was an illegitimate child who with her mother had moved away to Tokyo years ago, still no clue what city the high school was set in. But Yuuka had returned to the city two years ago and had no idea for a long time that Miho was her sister.
 Miho knew the truth though and quickly took Yuuka under her wing becoming good friends with her. It was a mystery to Yuuka why Miho liked her so much but she didn't ask why as it's usually so hard for a transfer student to fit in. Most of the last episode consisted of Yuuka telling Kumi everything about her life and why the girls ended up where they are.




 Trying to condense Yuuka's tirade down as she just went on and on and one and on. She designed the room and all of it's furnishing, what the girls didn't notice is that most of the room was furnished with pictures of sisters, they didn't grasp it until the tenth episode. It had been kept secret from Yuuka that Miho was her sister, it was only after her 'death' that the truth was revealed to her by her real father.
 Miho's father didn't think she had died but had run away and had asked Yuuka to look for her which she did but was unsuccessful. Yuuka wasn't too upset about the secret but there was one person she was irate at who was Kumi. Miho had supposedly committed suicide by throwing herself into a lake and the main reason was because of the bullying. Kumi had been best friends with Miho for twelve years yet did nothing to stop the bullying, what kind of friend is that is what Yuuka screamed at her.
 Kumi had the most screen time but she really didn't say all that much and once again she was silent as she didn't have an answer for Yuuka. That was the reason Kumi was the final person in the room, Yuuka wanted to get her alone to find out the answers of Kumi's relationship with her sister. Very little was revealed though and now the impression we were given is that the pair were going to perish.




 This room is on a ship and that's why quite often the room shook out of control. Outside the weather is getting quite severe, the sky window has crashed in and it appeared the ship could have been on the verge of sinking. That wasn't the case as it seemed before you knew it things were back to normal which led us to the final development.
 Many episodes ago for a brief minute the Wi-Fi had come on in the room, during that time Kumi had received an e-mail with a picture attached. It showed an open window near the sea with a pic of two girls on the sill, who could have sent it? It's wasn't official but odds are to Kumi that the e-mail was sent by Miho which means that she had faked her suicide! Yuuka is startled at what Kumi told her, why hadn't her sister sent her the same e-mail or if she was alive why didn't she contact her?
 It may be hard to believe but the episode ended right after Kumi told Yuuka about the e-mail, we learned zero about what happened to any of the other students or what was to become of the these two. Can see why many thought the ending really spoiled what was eleven fine enjoyable shows, there were so many possibilities for a dramatic ending and they came up with this dud. There was plenty of time as the final four minutes consisted of credits and we heard the entire theme song.




 Better ending may have been if the ship did get into a wreckage with the eleven being stranded on an island. If that was the case this episode's developments would have needed to happen 3-4 shows ago which easily could have been done. There were so many other scenarios that could have happened but to leave us viewers with a non-ending was a bit disappointing.
 But many Idol dramas do end that way, seems as though having a sad or dramatic ending is a no no. After this episode aired there was a prequel called "Re:Mind 0" which has events of what happened before the girls were taken prisoner, if it gets subbed will do a recap of it. All in all thought this series was solid but the final show left a bad taste in my mouth and if you viewed it you know what I mean. Would still recommend it but be warned the ending will probably disappoint you too.
 As usual plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story better as I did try to rush through this recap but talked about all of the major events. Up next for a drama is.... I don't know yet. Was doing recaps for "Nothing to Lose" but will wait until it's finished to continue them. But there are plenty of films I need to watch so will put the drama viewing on hold for a week or so and have reviews for many films with most being horror ones.




































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