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. The first few weeks there many not be too many posts for new dramas as I'll be copying many recaps from the old blog along with some film reviews and actress posts.
Won't be going too far back, perhaps to 2015 with a few exceptions and will have an entire series in a row to make it easy to follow. Did find it a problem completing series at the Nao Kanzaki blog, won't be doing that here as all the series will have a post for every episode. Thanks for visiting, it'll will be a work in progress for a while here but hopefully not for too long. Comments are also appreciated, like to know your opinions on dramas and for any recommendations you may have.
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".
There's actually no one who I'd like to see finish number one more than her but in all honesty can't see it happening though a top five finish hopefully is possible next year. Just two more positions to go on this year's faves list and then no more talk about it for a while! But will have four other posts for a pair of lists and those have always been extremely popular with you viewers. Will be taking a day or two off around X-Mas so the final posts before that will be which were the most popular posts for 2021? Have an inkling on who the top two spots will be plus a few other posts that will make the list but all in all I have no clue about most others, will make the list a top sixteen. The other list will be for who the most popular women were here for the year, being able to look at the stats means I know who will be number one rather easily but after that spot it's another thing I'm going to be curious about.
Sadly Haruka won't be making either of those lists which are determined by you viewers, I just do the compiling of the stats. Every now and again Haruka has a popular post but they've been far and few between, out of the 28 who had six or more posts this year bet her average views per post will rank her about 25th. No matter as Haruka is one of my biggest current faves and she's inching slowly up there in posts. This is her 61st so while it will take a while to hit a hundred it is a milestone that will be hit, my prediction is sometime in late 2023 though that's if I'm still here! Over the years it's been easy for Nogi members to hit that one hundred post mark but as far as actresses go only one has hit that figure in four years. But two others should be hitting it soon, this year's #2 has over seventy posts but the next one to hit that rare milestone will be a Keya member who should hit a hundred next year, what's impressive about that is her posts have been all solo ones the last three years.
This may be Haruka's busiest stretch ever as she's had six posts since September 4th, wish that pace could keep up but know it won't. Next year is going to be quite busy as she has three(!) dramas already lined up. "Imadaoki no Wakai Mori Mon wa" is the first one and that'll be starting in January but no official start date has been announced yet. Second series will be "Shoujiki Fudousan" that will begin in April and lastly is the asadora show "Maiagare!" that won't start until the Autumn. All those shows are ones I'll be checking out so more info on them in future posts. No regular films though have been announced for next year, back in May reviewed her superb 2019 movie "Love and Murder of Sheep and Wolf" which ended up being her most viewed post of the year.
Whew, already turning out to be a long post! Haruka is also a singer and just released he fourth single this week. It's the theme song to her drama "Unlucky Girl" which just ended it's run on December 9th, here's the two covers for it and also the song's PV: "Lucky Days" video
It's on okay song but have to admit her previous singles were much better. Some recent Instagram pics and many are from the set of the drama.
Have been having mini recaps for the series in some of these posts and this will be the final one. It's being subbed but only at a site where I'm not a member and have no intention of joining it but wouldn't be surprised if it'll be available in the future so would do regular recaps then. "Unlucky Girl" really needs the subs and while I've been able to follow the action well enough there's been so much that I've missed. These screenshots are from the fourth episode which was the best one to date. Haruka plays the lead role of Sachi who as the title says is one unlucky girl, so aren't her two new friends Kaoru and Itsuki, the trio had met up at a coffee cafe called Ren.
That's where Sachi is now working but in the first 2 1/2 shows her job had been at a lottery kiosk, seems she's no longer there. The character I'm most curious about is an older man named Ibusuki who is a lawyer and also a very mysterious fortune teller. He gave the trio of women an envelope of 500,000 yen in this show, it was some sort of experiment but have to admit what it was about flew right over my head. Now and again Sachi had seen this other woman named Sana who was her complete opposite as she was a lucky girl! That is until she met Sachi and her friends, Sana managed an Idol music club and asked the three to help her out at a show. And what a disaster that turned out to be as you can see in these screenshots and the Idol was played by an ex-AKB member.
There's always a lack of mag spreads for Haruka or at least for this year there has been, just one mini one from the December issue of Animedia which was for her new anime film.
Here's a new interview with The First Times site for the "Unlucky Girl" drama and it came out at an odd time as the show ended eight days ago. But it's also for the new single and these are the top new pics for this post, here's the link to the interview: The First Times site
"Hula Fulla Dance" is the anime movie that was mentioned above, it's based off the "Hula Girls" film that came out about fifteen years ago. Haruka voices the main character of Natsu, the movie was released on December 3rd and in her last post had pics from it's premiere. There was a second one held the following day which is this batch of pics.
Final set of pics is from another event for the anime movie which took place on December 11th. The event was a 'Thank You' one for the fans but it was a bit odd to me as the movie wasn't in the top ten at the box office in it's first two weeks. Least Haruka looked oki doki and though she had some swimsuit pics in her 2018 photobook she seems to be quite a conservative woman. After the pics is a video that has a different version of the "Unlucky Girl" single, Haruka just uploaded it to her YT channel today and you can check out her other videos at her site if you view it.
