[Anime Movie Review] Laputa Castle in the Sky / Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta 天空の城ラピュタ

Last time, I went to Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, somewhere near Tokyo. It made me love Studio Ghibli even more. A big robot statue was in the top of the museum and regretfully I don't know what that was. It turns up to be the robot from Laputa Castle in the Sky film. I decided to watch it after going back from the museum. It's actually a famous old anime which was aired 1986.

The story starts from an orphan girl named Sheeta who has a mysterious stone. She fell from a plane after being kidnapped, and mysteriously the stone make her flying. Pazu, an orphan boy from a small mining town, saw her and took her to his house.

In his house, Sheeta saw a photo captured by Pazu's belated father, which was Laputa, a floating island.

However, the kidnapper was still going after Sheeta. They were after the mysterious stone which Sheeta had, and Pazu helped Sheeta to run from the chaser. Later, Sheeta told Pazu that her full name contained 'Laputa' which means Sheeta was one of the Laputan. Sheeta was caught by Muska, one of those who chasing the stone. 

Pazu tried to save Sheeta with the help of another chaser of the stone, Dola. Dola is a pirate who is after the treasure at Laputa. They successfully saved Sheeta but the stone is dropped somewhere and taken by Muska.

Pazu, Sheeta, and Dola were following Muska who had known the direction to Laputa through the stone, and successfully landed in Laputa. They met a robot in Laputa, which leads them to a big tree with a tomb below it. They found out many robots were not working anymore.

Muska soon landed in Laputa too and tried to activate a weapon mass of destruction which was made by advanced Laputan technology. Sheeta and Pazu worked together to mess up Muska's plan.

After watching this anime, I was more and more impressed with Studio Ghibli. It was a nice story and I barely felt this is an old anime even though it was aired in 1986. Studio Ghibli's film is really everlasting and interesting to watch, even until now. I gave this anime movie 8 out of 10 points.

[Anime Movie Review] Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom? 打ち上げ花火、下から見るか? 横から見るか?

I could say only just recently I become interested in the anime which doesn't have many episodes, only one movie.
Another one I watched is Uchiage Hanabi, Shita Kara Miru Ka? Yoko Kara Miru Ka? which means, fireworks, should we see it from the side or bottom.

The main idea about this anime is about daily life of some high school students.
One day, Shimada Norimichi, a boy in the high school which is the lead main character in the anime, went to the pool with his friend, Azumi Yusuke. They were in charge of cleaning the pool, when unexpectedly they met Oikawa Nazuna, a quiet girl in their class which they found quite charming.

 Shimada Norimichi

Azumi Yusuke

Oikawa Nazuna

The three of them decide to do swimming competition. Nazuna intended to ask one of the winner goes out to see the fireworks in the festival tonight. Yusuke won the competition and was being asked by Nazuna. On the other hand, the boys from the high school was arguing about how a fireworks look like if it's being seen from the side. They tried to prove if it's flat or round tonight too.

 
Due to some shock, Yusuke reject the offer by avoiding Nazuna. Nazuna didn't know and met Norimichi while waiting for Yusuke. Nazuna said that she was hoping that Norimichi was the one who won the swimming competition. Later, Nazuna told her story that her mom is going to remarried for the third time and they are moving to another city. Nazuna escaped from the home, but soon captured by her mom. Norimichi who cannot help Nazuna, desperately throw something like a glass transparent
ball which was found by Nazuna in the morning, and suddenly the time is rewinding.

Norimichi went back to the time where they were still in the swimming pool. Norimichi then started to change the future one by one, a little by a little.

When I saw the title of this anime movie, I was interested as I have heard of it before, even though I've never watched it. After I watched it, the only comment I could say is "Another time slip? Another going back in time?",as before, I watched Kimi no Na Wa, and the concept is just very similar and it was released not a long time ago too.
I wonder, is it because this is the second time I watched an anime movie with the same concept that I became not interested in it?
Well, I don't know, but I gave this anime movie 4.5 out of 10 points. I wonder if I would give a better points if I watched this first before Kimi no Na Wa.

[Dorama Review] Iryu Sosa season 1 / 遺留捜査 1

This time, I'm so interested in a dorama called Iryu Sosa which the first season was aired on 2011. I read a brief synopsis of the dorama, and got interested in it since it's a mystery dorama, one of the genre I love most.

Itomura Satoshi (played by Kamikawa Takaya) is a part of the Metropolitan Police Department First Investigation Scientific Criminal Unit. He is in charge of personal effect of the murder victims, where his job is to identify the victims' items to help the investigation. He is not supposed to investigate the case or the murderer.

Itomura is a very curious person, even for the smallest thing, which always makes the detectives annoyed and angry. He believed that every single thing could deliver a message which the victims want to convey. His curiosity always led them to find out the truth, the real truth behind a murder case, and sometimes also led them to find out the murderer itself.

Oda Miyuki (played by Kanjiya Shihori), a rookie detective is also one of the detectives who gets annoyed with Itomura. Slowly, when Oda knows that Itomura is helping the victims who cannot speak anymore to convey their messages through the items, Oda started to feel moved and helped Itomura a little bit I guess. Muraki Shigeru (played by Komoto Masahiro), a scientist who always helped with the research of the items, is always forced by Itomura to help him in various way, which is sometimes quite funny.

Even though the story is nice and amusing, the character of Itomura which is very calm and slow became a minus point for me. A detective, mystery genre dorama usually has a very active and quite aggressive main character. Well, actually this makes the dorama unique, but just I prefer a mystery detective dorama with more action scene.

I gave this dorama 7.5 out of 10 points.

[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.

[Anime Movie Review] In This Corner of the World / この世界の片隅に

Last week I went for a holiday trip and I was on a 6-hours-flight. The flight offered some movies for us to watch, and the one caught my attention is an anime movie called "In This Corner of the World" or in Japanese it's called "Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni" which was aired on 2016.
Basically, I don't watch anime so often, but recently, since I saw some anime movies are good, I'm quite interested in this genre of movie.

Well, the theme of this movie is really simple. It's a daily life movie which was set in Hiroshima City and Kure during the world war II era.

The protagonist is a young girl from a family who live in Hiroshima City named Suzu. She likes drawing so much.

A man from Kure, a city which is near the port, comes to Hiroshima City to propose Suzu. Well, I can't say it's a forced marriage for Suzu since she has a choice to reject (which is actually a good thing I guess) but that era is an era which people just got married easily, not like our era now. They come to the woman's house to propose, and just like that, they got married!

So, Suzu moved to Kure, a city where Shusaku, her husband, lives. They are a happy family too, I guess. Shusaku's mother hardly walk, so Suzu did most of the housework. She learns happily how to do the housework since Shusaku's family is also very nice to her.

Living in the war area is though. The food is being controlled, so they can't eat properly. The thoughest thing out of eveything is the bomb. Suzu got bombed and lost her right hand, which means she can't draw anymore. Not only that, many people died in because of the bomb.

To summarize it, the movie wants to tell us the daily life in the world war II area, the lost and the suffering of those people because of war, especially the Hiroshima atomic bombing incident.

Although the theme is very simple, this movie is soooo interesting, and could be touching.

I gave this anime movie 7.5 out of 10 points. Must watch I guess!

[Dorama Review] Medical Team: Lady da Vinci no Shindan メディカルチーム レディ・ダ・ヴィンチの診断

It's been a while since the last time I watched dorama. Well, I was so busy with work, watching something like a 10-episodes-drama will sure take a long time. But at last, I could find a drama which is quite good to watch, Medical Team: Lady da Vinci no Shindan which was broadcasted on 2016.

The story is about a genius neurosurgeon named Tachibana Shiho (played by Yoshida Yo). Due to having hallucination, she decided to quit being a neurosurgeon, since it could be dangerous if the hallucination appeared in the middle of the surgery.

Then, Kitabatake Masayuki (played by Takahashi Katsunori) which is her former professor and the director of Toko University Hospital came to offer Tachibana-sensei to be one of the team doctor in the newly-built Analysis and Diagnosis Department.
I somehow reminded of Iryu 4 since the role of Takahashi Katsunori here is similar with Iryu 4. I think they made it similar on purpose though.

Rather than doing surgery, the department is used to analyze and identify unknown illnesses. If General Medicine is the first step of the treatment, Analysis and Diagnosis is the last bastion. The member of this department is 7 female doctors with various background.

The one who often accompany Tachibana-sensei is the intern in the department, Tamaru Ayaka (played by Yoshioka Riho). She is more to the clumsy character which makes the dorama quite funny.

Another one who often accompany Tachibana-sensei is a former genius Cardio-surgeon, Nitta Yukino (played by Aibu Saki).

Don't forget the leader of the A&D Department, Iwakura Yoko (played by Ito Ran). She has a TV show called "Doctor SOS", and in that TV show she always do her catchphrase "Even if the gods lie, these eyes of mine will never lie" which is quite funny to me because of its absurdity.

Well, if you have read by previous dorama review, you could find out that actually I'm a real big fan of Team Medical Dragon~Iryu~ series. Ever since I watched that dorama, I'm so into the medical world. I've tried watching several medical dorama before, but I didn't finish it because I think it's boring compared to Iryu series.

If Iryu series is all about surgery, Lady da Vinci told us that the medical world is not just surgery, but it's also important how to diagnose accurately and giving the right treatment. Iryu also focused on the politics of the medical world story, the rivalry between antagonist and protagonist, where in Lady da Vinci is purely more to the medical treatment story with a little bit sense of humor. You barely feel the sense of rivalry in Lady da Vinci, because even if they got a little bit of rivalry, they have the same vision and mission to save patients with all their might.

The theme song is "Miracle" by AI, how it once again reminds me of Iryu, because Iryu 1 and 2 theme songs are also AI's songs.

I could say this medical dorama is quite different from Iryu, and reveal a different story from Iryu. I love how they make the dorama with some sense of humor which make the dorama not boring.
I recommend this dorama and I give 7 points out of 10 points for this dorama.

[Anime Movie] Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi / Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し

After watching Kimi no Na wa, I talked with a friend, and she said something like "Kimi no Na wa is not that interesting to me. I prefer Spirited Away".

I got curious and ended up watching this anime, Spirited Away, or also known with its original title Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. This anime was aired in 2001, quite an old one, produced by the famous Production House Studio Ghibli.

A 10-year-old girl, named Chihiro is moving to a new town with her family. She seemed to be a stubborn and naughty girl.

Chihiro's father took a wrong turn and they ended up finding a mysterious tunnel. He insisted on exploring the tunnel, even though Chihiro kept saying to leave it away.

Inside the tunnel is the abandoned amusement park, or at least that's what Chihiro's father thought. It seemed that there were no people lives there, however, they found a restaurant with plenty of delicious food. Without thinking much, Chihiro's father and mother started to eat. Chihiro was still afraid and rejected to eat the food. Of course, who would eat such a suspicious food =_=""

Give up to persuade her parents to go back to their car, Chihiro ended up walking around the place alone. She found a bath house, and met a boy named Haku. Haku surprised to see Chihiro and told her to run away before it got dark.

However, it's too late. Chihiro couldn't come back, and her parents turned into pig.

The place turned up to be a spirit world. There, Chihiro worked hard to find a way to turn back her parents into human again.

This anime is a fantasy genre of anime, with ghost and other spiritual story. Actually I'm a coward and I'm afraid of ghost the most, so, if I know that there are ghosts in this movie, I wouldn't want to watch it. However, I watch it because at first I don't know that Spirited Away is this kind of movie (￣ε￣;;)
I don't regret watching this anime movie anyway. Even though many ghosts in the story, but it doesn't really make you afraid.
It's hard to make a comment on the story since it's a fantasy story, but for me this anime is entertaining. I like it as much as I like "Kimi no Na wa", even though the genres are different.

I gave this anime 7.5 out of 10 points

[Anime Movie] Kimi no Na wa / Your Name 君の名は

So, recently this anime movie is sooo famous which makes me curious. Kimi no Na wa!

This anime is about a girl, named Miyamizu Mitsuha, who lives in a small town called Itomori city. She is the successor of a temple in Itomori city. One day, she woke up switching place with a boy named Taki.

Tachibana Taki is a boy who lives in Tokyo. He is a normal student, however he is quite temperament. He has many part-time job.

So, once in two days, they are always switching place. Taki woke up as Mitsuha, and Mitsuha woke up as Taki. After they went to sleep, the day after, they will come back to themselves. And so on...

To always continue their routine normally, they keep a note of what they were doing everyday.

One day, Taki is not switching place with Mitsuha anymore. Curious, Taki travelled and try to find Mitsuha...

Overall, I love this movie. The plot, the story, everything. It's a romantic anime movie, however it's not just a normal romantic anime. You barely feel it's a love story, but when you think again, it is. Wrapped in around one and a three-quarter hour, of course there is a limitation in the story. The story about how Taki and Mitsuha switching place is a little bit fastened, but it doesn't decrease the interest of this movie. 

The story is a little bit saddening in the end for me when they don't remember each other. Sometimes when we had a dream, we mostly forget it after we woke up. I think the idea comes from that??

Anyway, I gave 7 out of 10 for this anime movie. 

This anime is definitely a worth to watch movie!

[Japanese Movie Review] MARS ~ ただ, 君を愛してる~ / MARS ~ Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru

Just before, I write about the dorama MARS ~ Just, I love you. Now I'm going to write a little bit about the movie. This movie was also aired in 2016, and it's the continuation of the dorama.

For the dorama review, you can find it here:
MARS ~Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru dorama

Okay, the first thing I will say is I'm very impressed with this movie.
I wonder when does it start to change from a romantic, high school genre into something quite mysterious and thrilling?

If the dorama tells many thing about the male side, the movie tells us more about Asou Kira (played by Iitoyo Marie)

Unexpectedly, in this movie, it will reveal more about Kira's past. If you have watched the dorama, you must be noticing that Kira has some kind of trauma related to a man. I only could guessing in the dorama, but with this movie, it is all clear.

On the other side, Kashino Rei (played by Fujigaya Taisuke of Kis-My-Ft2) starts to change. Doesn't want to hurt his girlfriend, Kashino tries hard no to be violent anymore.

However, it's not as smooth as it seems to be. Kirishima Makio (played by Kubota Masataka) starts to reveal his true face. He, who seems to be a quiet and introvert man, is actually a psycho... It was already introduced also in the last part of the dorama.

If the dorama tells us more to a romance story, in this movie, it's more thrilling, mysterious, and psycho, even though it still has some romance in it. Before, I said the dorama is quite interesting, but with this movie I conclude that it's wonderful. I bet the viewer expect that this is a pure standard romance story at first, but actually it is not. It's just so unexpected.

I like this movie more than the dorama, however, the movie and the dorama completed each other. It's just a package you need to watch.

I gave this movie 8 out of 10 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] MARS ~ ただ, 君を愛してる~ / MARS ~ Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru

Just finished watching this dorama today, so let me write some review when it's still hot in my mind: 

MARS ~ Just, I love you

This dorama was aired in 2016, and in additional, a movie was also made as the sequence of this dorama.

In every episodes of the dorama, you will eventually see a brief introduction of this main characters:

Kashino Rei, a boy who holds light and shadow (played by Fujigaya Taisuke of Kis-My-Ft2).
Kashino is a violent playboy who seems to not afraid of anything and will eventually beat someone who is in his way. All woman would fall for his handsome look with a cool Ducati motorbike.

Asou Kira, high school girl who closed her heart (played by Iitoyo Marie). Kira is a strange and introvert girl with a great talent of being an artist. One day, Kashino saw her drawing and amazed with it. From that on, their start to know each other,

Guess, what? A violent handsome boy with an ugly strange introvert girl starts dating? So impossible! Well, Iitoyo Marie is absolutely not ugly, but I think they are trying to make an impression as if she is nerd, strange, and ugly (；￢_￢) There's no way the producer would use a real ugly woman as an actress, right!? Even though I think everyone is actually beautiful in their own way, only some people got their beauty hidden.

Another classic story, all the girls got jealous because that ugly introvert girl is dating 'their' handsome man, and Kira starts to be bullied. If it were me, then I will kick and punch the girls and said "Hey, it's him who loves me first!" (ꐦ°᷄д°᷅)

And another character came, Kirishima Makio, exchange student who holds the fate (played by Kubota Masataka). He was in the same school with Kashino before, so, he knows all the Kashino's past story. Kirishima who seems to be an introvert also, join the same art club with Kira.
While I don't want to be a spoiler, Kirishima played the mysterious important part in this dorama.

The three of the main characters are battling over the fate for love, or that's what the movie said at least.

This dorama is actually based on the manga MARS by Souryo Furumi. The Taiwanese version of live action drama has also been made before.

When I watch the first few episodes, it was quite annoying for me. A classic standard story. Handsome cool boy who likes introvert strange girl, where the girl will be bullied later on. Well, that's impossible to happen in the real life, isn't it?? Even though I always think it would be nice if I could be either the handsome boy side or the introvert girl side like in those story.

However, starting in the middle of the dorama, I'm quite curious. Well, it's still a classic story where the handsome boy actually has some secret about his past, but it somehow make the dorama more colorful, more interesting. And Kirishima is the one who knows his past.

The end of the dorama is the climax, I guess? The dorama ended up in full of mystery, full of curiosity, and likely to be continued in the movie. However, starting from that the end of the dorama, I could realize that this dorama is worth to watch. Unexpected story, not a really mainstream dorama, not like what I though at first.

Other than its story, I think the way this dorama is taken is unique. Sometimes, it feels like a kind of short story, being put on together and there it is, this dorama, and I still can understand it well because it's connected.

It's been a while since I watch a quite interesting dorama, since the last few doramas I watch is just so so, or even bad.

I gave this dorama 7.5 out of 10 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*