[Dorama Review] Switched / Sora wo Kakeru Yodaka

Hello guys! I saw that my last post was on July 2019, so it's been more than a half year since my last post. Actually I watched some doramas between those days, and it's quite good too, but I'm just too lazy to write any review and comment.

Also, recently I started to watch netflix, and I found a lot of good doramas there, even though I couldn't finish some of them because it is so boring in the first 2-3 episodes and I decided not to continue watching it.

Well, tonight I want to write a little bit review and comment about the dorama I watched on netflix: Switched. This is a super good dorama for me, even it made the-lazy-me to wake up and write on this blog after ignoring it for more than half a year, lol.

This dorama is about a beautiful-famous-girl named Kohinata Ayumi (played by Kiyohara Kaya), who was super friendly and smart, and also kind-hearted. If you ever imagine a perfect girl ever, then maybe she is the one.

 She had two bestfriends, bestfriends since childhood to be exact, and they were boys. Kaga Shunpei (played by Shigeoka Daiki of Johnny's WEST) and Mizumoto Koshiro (played by Kamiyama Tomohiro of Johnny's WEST). Beautiful girl who has two handsome close boyfriends, what else can you expect? It's just a perfect world for people who see them, isn't it?

Then it turned out that Koshino confessed his feeling to Ayumi, and they were dating. Umine Zenko (played by Tomita Miu) who was believed to be an ugly and fat girl, loved Koshino because Koshino had helped her before and she started to get jealous. Umine found a way to switch body with Ayumi.

Umine which was in Ayumi's body was super satisfied. She would never go back to her old body. On the contrary, Ayumi who was trapped inside Umine's body started to cry. Ayumi experienced being Umine, who was bullied, a broken home kid, and all alone.

But their bestfriends found out about the body's switchover. They were bestfriends after all. Kaga was the one who was beside Ayumi when she was trapped inside Umine's body. On the other hand, Koshino was always beside Umine who was in Ayumi's body.

So many things happened in the search of finding a way to switch the body back. But let me write only some important things that I learn from this dorama.

- Ayumi who was inside Umine's body started to live her life with all her might. She started to shine inside the class, being liked by her classmates and of course by his bestfriend Kaga, despite having an ugly appearance. She was struggling at first, of course, having people bullying her and even her mother was body-shaming her, but in the end, inner-beauty shined the most.

- On the contrary, Umine who was inside Ayumi's body was falling apart. She didn't like the fact that the new-Umine could gain attention from many people. She was even being asked:
"Cute appearance, wonderful friends, kind and caring family, but despite all of that, you don't seem very happy, do you?"
Despite having all of the perfect things in life, she was not satisfied. It's because all were in her own mind, always felt lacking of something.

From those two perspective, I can say that indeed a beautiful girl has advantages at first. I wouldn't deny that we live in this world full of sin where most of the people would judge on the appearance first. And maybe you and I unconsciously do that too, but we just don't spit it out. But believe me, beauty on the appearance only wouldn't last long. Body can rot as we grow old. But a good character only knows how to get better.

It was shown in Ayumi, despite of her appearance which turns ugly, she was still being liked by her friends. Of course, not instantly, need more works than when she was having a beautiful appearance, but she can do that. Showing her good attitude make her more charming, make an ugly one turned to be a cute one in people eyes because of her attitudes.

Umine, despite having a wonderful body, people started to look at her in a suspicious way, probably thinking "What happened with her?" Her beautiful appearance can't cover her bad attitudes of being egoistic. "Looking different on the outside won't change what's inside", that's the remarkable sentence that touched me from this dorama.

To conclude, there are four types of people. Beautiful ones with good attitudes, beautiful ones with bad attitudes, ugly ones with good attitudes, and ugly ones with bad attitudes. It's good if you're blessed with beautiful appearance, but don't be satisfied only with it. Shape your characters that people may say "Wow, she is beautiful outside and inside". Ayumi, Kaga, and Koshino were the three examples for this, actually. They are beautiful and handsome, they don't bully Umine, and they help Umine actually, but because Umine was so deep down in her negative thoughts, she can only think the ones who bullied her.

Well, if you feel so beautiful but having bad attitudes (which I believe a few people - or maybe no people? - would admit it), just be careful. People stay with you maybe only because you have something, and eventually they will leave you when those beauty fades. Start to learn to be better.

If you ever feel ugly, don't worry. First, maybe actually you're not that bad. As how Umine was, she just need a single hairpin, and she looks cuter. Not bad at all. Maybe you just need that 'single hairpin' to make you looks cuter. But second, that's not the most important things. Having good characters will make even a super ugly ones turn into the most beautiful person ever, in other people eyes. That's why people say "Beauty is subjective".

In the end, I would give this dorama 8.5 points out of 10 points. I'd give 10 points for their morale lessons though.

Thank You Johnny-san!

Several days ago there were some news telling that Johnny-san, the founder of Johnny’s Associate as well as the producer of many J-pop talents, had passed away. Well, at first, I was just considering it as an ordinary news. All people someday will leave this world anyway. The death of Johnny-san didn’t really have any specific impact in my life. 

As days go by, I read some of the artists from Johnny’s Entertainment writing their condolences regarding this news. Well, it’s also not something extraordinary since they grow there and have a success life in the entertainment industry, thanks to the company.

Unexpectedly, the condolence messages come from the outside of the company too, especially those trainee (or we call it Juniors) who quit the company due to no chance of debuting, or even the debuted artist who got into scandal and forced to leave the company. Well, for those who got into the scandal, they had no choice since it was their wrong-doing and they had to be responsible for it. But imagine, those who practice hard everyday for years, for dozen years, or even decades, they had the talent, they were even quite famous as a Junior, but they still couldn’t make it. It was even more heartbreaking when the young infamous newbie Juniors, which people didn’t know who and why, suddenly make a debut in the same time with the resignation of the other talented Juniors. 

Never heard the exact explanation, but I always assume, the talented Juniors were tiredly waiting for their debut, and they resigned because it ended up the newbie ones were the chosen one. And I somehow believe, more or less, it’s a true story. Because life sometimes seems not fair, doesn’t it?

Don’t know what were the reasons behind those Johnny-san and the management’s decision, however, they had their own wisdom, I guess. One thing that I’m quite sure is that Johnny-san cared about each of the Juniors, each of their talents. Even after those heartbreaking incidents, the ex-Johnny’s still can send those heartwarming messages, even telling that they won’t be there if it’s not because of Johnny-san. I wonder how Johnny-san touched each of the Juniors they raised.

This story of Johnny-san, somehow makes me think a little bit. When we put our hearts into our works, maybe we can deliver loves into others. They might not feel it right now, they might hate it right now, but one day, they might thank us because of our sincerity.

Lastly, I just want to thank you for those good moments, those fandom experience I got in the high school and university, in my teenage days. Thank you for raising KinKi Kids and Kis-My-Ft2, my favorite J-pop artists ever. Thank you for raising Question?, my favorite not-yet-debut-then-disbanded Juniors which I always regret it. Thank you, Johnny-san!

[Dorama SP Review] Bokura no Yuuki: Miman Toushi / Miman City 2017

Well, I did make a review of this dorama before because even though it's old, the story is nice and unique, making it one of my favorite dorama. I'm quite surprised and excited when I know that they are making the SP edition of this dorama.

If you haven't watch the dorama series or you want me to remind the dorama, please refer to my review here:
Bokura no Yuuki: Miman Toushi dorama review

Back to the SP series, the story starts at 20 years after the Makuhara City incident. Yamato (played by Domoto Koichi of KinKi Kids) is now a junior high school teacher and Takeru (played by Domoto Tsuyoshi of KinKi Kids) is now a lawyer. 20 years ago, they promised to be a nice and good adults, and they promised to meet again in 20 years in the same place where the satellite fell down to see what kind of adult they will be.

As promised, they met at the same place again after 20 years. The place where the satellite fell down was being reconstructed into a library. Akira (played by Masaki Aiba) was the architect for the library. However, there is a news that quite some people died during the construction.

It is later known that the T-Makuhara virus from 20 years ago remained somewhere under the ground zero of the building. Yet, the government didn't stop the construction.

With some story, at last the best friends from 20 years ago gathered again to make the government stop the construction of the library. Kiichi (played by Kohara Yuuki; which is not an actor anymore but acted just for this dorama), who is a bus driver, and Mori (played by Matsumoto Jun) is also joining the forces.

Yamato's problematic student and friends are also unexpectedly helping them in taking the underground water which is contaminated by the virus.

Sometimes, the expectation is just so different from the reality. I expected this to be an amazing dorama SP, but it's just so disappointing to me. Rather than the continuation of the dorama, I could just say it's simply a way of KinKi Kids to celebrate its 20 years debut anniversary wrapped in a 1,5 hour movie.


I get the idea of the story, but the length of the movie might be the producer team's problem to make it interesting. Rather than a touching and interesting dorama SP, it became so cheesy and absurd. I guess it could be a better continuation dorama if they make it a little bit longer and detailed story.

The reunion of the actor and actress are somehow surprising. I know it's not easy to gather the casts once again in a movie after 20 years, moreover, some of them are not in the entertainment biz any longer. I gave two thumbs up for this.

Since the actors mostly are from Johnny's Entertainment, this is absolutely a Johnny's Entertainment movie. Even the new casts are from Johnny's Jr. 

I also realized, KinKi Kids are absolutely aging so much compared to the first time I know them around 10 years ago. I mean, everyone is growing old, but they just cannot hide that their face looked so old in this movie, especially Tsuyoshi.

Well, if you watched this dorama series before, you can just watch this dorama SP, but just don't expect too much.
Even though I was a KinKi Kids fan (I even got their name "Domoto" in every of my ID =_=" ), it's quite disappointing, so I give this dorama 4 out of 10 points.

[Dorama Review] Summer Nude

I’m going to review another romance dorama, Summer Nude which was aired on 2013.

The dorama consist of some love story in a summer, in a beach area. Mikuriya Asahi (played by Yamashita Tomohisa) is a photographer who works in the beach area. One day, he took a shoot of a wedding from a bride named Chiyohara Natsuki (played by Karina). However, at the end, the groom left her and the wedding was cancelled. She lost both her husband-to-be and her job. Pity her, Asahi sent a photo to cheer her up, and Natsuki was very thankful to him. In short, Asahi could get her helps for a restaurant beside the beach which is usually managed by Shimojima Setsuko (played by Itaya Yuka) who is on a maternity leave. A lot of love story is starting from that summer…

I’m actually quite confused to write a review about this dorama. The several first episodes are quite boring for me that I need to force myself to watch the dorama. I usually finish one dorama in a day or two, because I’m so curious with the continuation of the story. However, for this dorama, I even watch another movie in the middle of watching the series, means I’m so bored with the dorama. Starting in the middle, I’m a little bit more interested in the dorama, and there is also a sad scene that makes me nearly cried. It’s a scene when someone moved to Tokyo to pursue his dream. Well, I’m so touched because I feel the same. Seven months ago I did the same thing, moving from my hometown to the capital city just because to pursue my career.

The beginning of the story can be so boring but from the middle to the end, I could say it’s rather special. I don’t expect the story to end up like that. I thought when the summer ends, all of the people in the beach area will be together and some couple will be made, that’s what I thought for the end of the story. However it came out differently. I’m quite entertained with the unexpected story.

The cast consist of, again, some of Johnny’s Entertainment artist: Yamashita Tomohisa and Sato Shori from Sexy Zone. Those two people is enough to make Johnny’s fans to watch this dorama.

For those who is a Johnny’s fan, you should watch this dorama. For the others, you can try to watch this dorama if you want. I gave 6.5 out of 10 points for this dorama.

*this review is a personal opinion and made by me who is a newbie reviewer, if there is any mistakes, please feel free to make a correction*

[Dorama Review] Nobuta wo Produce

This time I’m gonna write a review about a school genre dorama, Nobuta wo Produce. It was also a popular dorama back then, in 2005 when it was aired.

Well, the cast itself is already very interesting, as the male main casts are Yamashita Tomohisa (also known as Yamapi) and Kamenashi Kazuya, two of the famous idols from Johnny’s Entertainment. For the female cast, there are Horikita Maki and Toda Erika who is not less famous.

The story starts from Kiritani Suji (played by Kamenashi Kazuya), a very popular guy who gets along well with everyone. He has a classmate whose name is Kusano Akira (played by Yamashita Tomohisa) who is a little bit strange, likes to laugh and act funny. One day, a new transferred girl came, she is Kotani Nobuko (played by Horikita Maki). Kotani Nobuko is a shy girl which is often bullied at school. After a long story, Shuji and Akira decided to make Nobuta (Nobuko’s nickname) a famous girl in the school.

Usually in a school genre dorama, there will be a problem and the teacher will help to solve that problem. In this dorama, the unique thing is that the popular classmate and the strange classmate are the one who help the bullied one. Other than that, I found this dorama is just another ordinary dorama which using the casts as the main attraction. Well, as Johnny’s Entertainment is very famous, two male casts from the entertainment is enough to make this dorama well known. I can say this dorama is just ordinary but it’s also entertaining. The message I got from this dorama is also just an ordinary message, no bullying at school!

The soundtrack of the dorama is also good, Seishun Amigo which is sang by Shuji and Akira (Yamashita Tomohisa and Kamenashi Kazuya), as expected from the Johnny’s.

For those who is a Johnny’s Entertainment lover, of course this dorama is a must-watch-dorama. If you don’t have any other things to watch, this dorama also can be quite entertaining. I gave 7 out of 10 points for this dorama.

*this review is a personal opinion and made by me who is a newbie reviewer, if there is any mistakes, please feel free to make a correction*