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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Monday, May 13, 2019

Kakegurui drama: episode five recap




 Start Date: January 14/16 as it aired on both the MBS and TBS networks
Theme song: "Strawberry Feels" by BIGMAMA    Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa

 Listed the characters this way for the "Re:Mind" drama and thought it's be a good idea to do it once again. Couldn't find a promo video for this episode so have a short and excellent clip from this show above. This series still reminds me so much of 'Liar Game' and there aren't many dramas better than that one, lets get to the characters and these are the main ones that will be featured. Have the character descriptions though some may be blank for now as we haven't met all of them yet.

Minami Habe as Yumeko Jabami.... transfer student who is addicted to gambling


 Aoi Morikawa as Mary Saotome.... The evilist of students who gets severely humbled


Mahiro Takasugi as Ryota Suzui.... wimpy guy who befriends Yumeko


Ruka Matsuda as Itsuki Sumeragi.... Richest student at Hyakkaou Academy


Taishi Nakagawa as Kaeda Manyuda.... Student council member


Natsume Mito as Runa Yomozuki.... Student council member


Kiyo Matsumoto as Nanami Tsubomi.... Timid house pet in debt


Natsumi Okamoto as Yuriko Nishinotoin.... Student council gambler


Yuma Yamato as Jun Kiwatari.... school bully


Yurika Nakamura as Sayaka Igarashi.... Student council member


Miki Yanagi as Midari Ikishima.... ????


 Video for this post is a clip of the 'Live or Death' game which takes up the entire episode though they only play one round of it. The student council promotes it as a game where a house pet can wipe out their debt yet the opposite is usually the outcome as we saw in the last recap with Mary who had a debt of 8.8 million yen but now owes over 49 million!
 Yumeko was next up to challenge the student council gambler Yuriko and if you read the previous recap you know that the first roll of the swords ended in a draw as neither was able to pick a correct number. But Yumeko had noticed a few odd happenings in the roll of the swords once they get put into a cup. She's accused Yuriko and the cup roller of communicating with each other plus they've been able to mange to make sure a sword, especially the Life one, ends up in a certain slot.




 Yumeko is right on magnetic but it's the roller with a magnet in her finger, while in the cup she can often make a sword stand up straight. While it's standing up like that the cup holder can twist the cup around until it's lined up over a number that Yuriko had picked. That is if it's a Life Sword, if it's a Death sword she can twist the sword so it falls into a number that her opponent has picked. Didn't work out that way in the first round as their cheating strategy isn't fool proof.
 On to the second round and Yumeko is playing with an enormous stake of 40 million yen(!), as the game began she had a net profit of 8.8 million yen from her match with Mary. You will see in the top screenshot above how Yumeko was able to break down how Yuriko's last name of Nishinotoin can be spelled out which is often the numbers she bets on. But as mentioned the strategy for fixing the position of swords isn't perfect as none of them landed on a 2-4-10.




 Just as the second round was about to begin in walked a masked student council member, one who is very important though she doesn't appear to be the president. This member, who we've seen briefly in the past, always wears an eerie white mask so can't tell you who she is yet. However she does know that Yumeko is a gambler who could be a threat to the student council and wants to see first hand how she's been so successful up until now.
 Finally it's time for the second round, just like 'Liar Game' these intense scenes get stretched out quite a bit though often they make the scenes more enjoyable. Yumeko is playing with 40 million yen that the student council fronted her and as we've noticed one thing Yumeko never will be is conservative. With just a few seconds to go until all bets have to be played Yumeko places her entire stack on chips on the number 24, most bettors place chips on 4-5 numbers.




 Not sure if Yumeko had wanted to lose on purpose or not but in an unexpected outcome she did lose. All of her money was bet on the number 24 while her opponent Yuriko had placed most of her chips on the number seven, as you can see above that's where a Life sword landed. But if picked successfully the Life Sword is worth up to thirty times the amount of the bet and to say Yumeko took a huge hit is an understatement. She's gone from having an owed bankroll of 40 million yen to owing the student council.... 310 million yen!!!!
 That's very close to $2.8 million in U.S. money but Yumeko didn't seemed too fazed with what happened or at least not in this episode. For now we don't know what's to become of her such as what will be her fate if she can't pay off that massive debt? If you think about it what person in the world could pay off such a steep debt, especially a senior in high school.
 The episode wasn't quite finished yet as Yumeko and her trusted ally Suzui take a stroll around the building, she really wanted to check out the room below where they were playing. The reason for that was Yumeko had surmised there was another way the pair cheated at rolling the swords and it had to do with a person hiding in an enclave below the gambling room. Once the swords were rolled a person with a magnet could move a sword onto a number that Yuriko had bet chips on, once Yumeko surveyed the room she deduced that's how she lost, it's an very old trick that gamblers have used for close to two centuries called 'Bear-in-a-hole'. Yumeko was actually pleased her opponents would go through so much effort to defeat her and on that note we've hit the end of the fifth episode.




 Wish these games had a few more rounds but so far that's been my only minor complaint about the series to date. You may not realize it but am moving right along with these recaps as I'm going to write up episode six right after this one, currently we're halfway there on this ten show drama.


























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