[Dorama Review] Miss Sherlock / ミス・シャーロック

The dorama I want to review now is a dorama recommended by one of my friends. It was aired in HBO Asia on 2018.

Let's get started!

As always I will start from making a short synopsis about the dorama.
A woman called Sherlock (played by Takeuchi Yuko) is a detective who works for the police department. She is a genius and very smart, but somehow she has a weird attitude and a straight-forward, impolite character. She said "I can't think when my aesthetic sense is disturbed" when she saw someone who has an old sense of fashion lol.

Well, that's what she said to Tachibana Wato (played by Kanjiya Shihori), a doctor who just came back from Syria, and accidentally met Sherlock due to a case happened to her. Later, she would stay with Sherlock, and is the only friend Sherlock has, even though Sherlock didn't want to admit it.

Reimon Gentaro (played by Takito Kenichi) is a police who always asks for Sherlock's help. He believed in Sherlock's ability. He has a sub-ordinate named Shibata Tatsuya (played by Nakamura Tomoya).

In short, Sherlock solved so many cases, requested from Inspector Reimon, and with the help of Wato too.

I don't know much, but I can say it's like a parody of Sherlock Holmes. A woman Sherlock which accompanied by a doctor, Wato, a parody of Watson. You can see the similarity of the characters and the big story plot between the real Sherlock Holmes and this Miss Sherlock. However, I think the cases are different. It's wrapped in Japanese style, where you can always learn some good moral and find some comedy inside of the dorama.

I personally love it when Sherlock plays the cello. Prelude. Such a good song to always start the dorama.

Even though overall, it's a super good dorama, again it's one of those dorama which the ending is a little bit unexpected. I'm quite disappointed with the ending of this dorama. I wonder if there will be the next season? Well, let's just wait.

Anyway I will give this dorama 8 out of 10 points. It's so good that no wonder the HBO is the TV Station to broadcast this dorama. I recommend it so much!

[Dorama Review] Kakuho no Onna ~ Kanagawakenke Tokumei Sosa カクホの女～神奈川県警・特命捜査～

I was desperately waiting for this dorama to finish 😂 And at last, around last week, candy lemon as this dorama's subber finished subbing the last episode.
Now that I've finished watching, I will write about this dorama, Kakuho no Onna, which was aired in the beginning of this year.

A woman who previously worked in the HR Department of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was transferred to Kanagawa Prefectural Police. Her name was Hojo Yuriko (played by Natori Yuko).

Of course it was unusual. Someone near retirement from Headquarter moved to the Prefectural Police Station, moreover, from office work to field work. Everyone in the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Station was questioning about this transfer.

Well, it turned out that Yuriko-san wanted to know the real truth behind the death of her fiancee, Kariya Shinsaku (played by Tsurumi Shingo), who was said to die because of suicide. She believed that Kariya Shinsaku would never commit suicide.

And the leader of Kanagawa Prefecture Police division 1, Miura Aya (played by Asou Yumi) was said to have a relation with the death of Kariya Shinsaku. That's the reason why Yuriko-san wanted to be transferred there before her retirement.

Well, don't forget about Kisaragi Kotaro (played by Takahashi Katsunori, the one and only, lol 😂), a Police Chief from Tokyo MPD, who was Yuriko-san's back up and helped her to be transferred to Kanagawa.

Okay, that's the end of my synopsis.
Now, what I want to comment is that the story of this dorama is really the best... until I watched the ending which is quite disappointing for me. It somehow was... like being forced to end quickly in the last episode. But anyway, the episode 1 - 6 is good enough for me to recommend this dorama.

The dorama is also filled with a little bit comedy, which makes it funny. Now that I think, many Japanese dorama is wrapped with a little bit comedy. It's somehow mainstream but always make the dorama better.

The main casts are old actors and actresses, I don't know much except Takahashi Katsunori, who is always so cool and has charisma every time he acts as a police officer. Since they are old, people might know them but it doesn't mean they are popular... how to say it... you know, like usually someone young and handsome would be popular amongst the nation and helps to make a higher rating, doesn't it? So, in my opinion, it means that the rating they got was purely because of the story, not because of the casts.

A scene that I like most is in the end of episode 5, where Miura was asked, who is the one she trusts the most? And she said "No one, but there is someone I want to trust". If I cut it only this scene, it somehow reminds me of myself. I hardly believe in people but I do want to trust someone. I think many people is also like me, hard to believe in human. But believe me, there are still many people who is actually kind, even they still, of course, have flaws, and might disappoint you one day. But when you realize that everyone is not perfect, you can face the disappointment and continue to still believe in them.

Another quote that I remember got from this dorama is "There is no one in this world it would be better to kill", means no matter how bad the person is, we shouldn't kill, we should forgive them instead, I guess.

The song "Unmei no Hito" by Hayashibe Satoshi is so perfect. I'm really really moved with the lyrics of the song, and this song is super suited to the dorama. His voice was so soft, I thought that the singer was a female, before I found out that he was the one who sang the song. I always nearly cry every time I listen to it lol. I also made the translation of the song, it might be not so perfect due to my limited Japanese language but you can go check it out:
http://jpopenthusiast.blogspot.com/2018/04/kanji-romaji-unmei-no-hito-by-hayashibe.html

So, overall I would give this dorama 7.5 out of 10 points. Just if the ending didn't disappoint me, I could give this dorama like around 9 points, maybe.

[Dorama Review] Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatte Iru

Hello, back to another dorama review!
Surprisingly I watched some doramas non stop recently. When I watched those doramas, I can't wait to write a review since those doramas are really good. Let's start by talking about a dorama called "Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatte Iru".

Tatewaki Shotaro (played by Fujigaya Taisuke of Kis-My-Ft2) worked in a museum. He didn't know what to do after graduating from graduate school and ended up working in Shizen no Mori Museum.

Kujou Sakurako (played by Mizuki Alisa) is an osteologist. She constructed animal skeleton for the museum. She is a bone freak, thinking that bone is beautiful.

Everyone in the museum avoided Sakurako-san. However, in short, Shotaro met Sakurako-san and somehow forced to go hunting for the bones.

Well, it's not animals' bones, but human's bones was found instead. Shotaro contacted the police and with the help of Sakurako-san' bones knowledge, they could solve every mystery.

I like this dorama from the opening. The opening was presented in a nice way, with some good words. From the first second of the dorama, it already made me fall in love with this dorama.
The story is unique and strange, I think. An osteologist, someone who is good at bones, should not related with murderer, should it?? An osteologist became a detective instead?? It is somehow strange to relate an osteologist with a murder case and detective things, but the dorama is really interesting. I'm always impressed with all the ideas those Japanese writers got. Unique, strange, but always interesting.
This dorama is not only about mystery and murder, but there is a comedy in it too. It's quite funny and make this dorama more colorful and not monotonous.

I really love this dorama and I highly recommend it. I gave 8.5 out of 10 points.

[Dorama Review] Tsubaki Bunguten / Tsubaki Stationary Store

It's been a while since I watched a dorama because recently I feel like I want to just watch a movie which end quickly in just 1,5 - 2 hours. Well, I managed to watch a 8-episode-dorama this time though.

This time I want to write about a daily life genre dorama. Tsubaki Bunguten, or in English it means Tsubaki Stationary Store. Seems like the owner made that name because she likes Tsubaki (Camellia) flower, and even there is a huge Tsubaki flower in front of the shop. The store didn't only sell stationary things, but also opened a service to write a letter on the customer's behalf.

The owner of the store, Amemiya Kashiko (played by Baisho Mitsuko) is an old grandma. The store was located in Kamakura. When Amemiya Kashiko passed away, and her granddaughter, Amemiya Hatoko (played by Tabe Mikako), who has left Kamakura since 8 years ago, at last came back to her house.

It seems that Hatoko was receiving strict lesson from her grandma to succeed the store since she was little. It made her left the house and never contacted her grandma. She had no mother as well, the being about her mother was unknown.

The house was about to be sold as Hatoko won't succeed the store. However, after talking to her neighbor, Madam Barbara (played by Enami Kyoko), somehow Hatoko seemed to think and change her mind.

Well, that's how the new journey of Hatoko began. She got requests from customers, and she wrote letters on their behalf.

Actually, in my opinion, this dorama's theme is a little bit boring. I was like "Only write a letter?" Hmm, I wonder, maybe a daily-life dorama is like that, not so much climax nor anti-climax... But it is not bad... Really really not bad! It might be a strange remark, the theme is boring but the dorama is quite good!

It was a little bit sleepy at first but as the episodes continue it is getting more interesting. It's hard for me to watch this dorama until around the third episode, where I can't stop watching this dorama.

As how a Japanese dorama usually be, this dorama also teaches us some good morals. There are, of course, many things that you can learn from this dorama, but what get into me the most is:
There is no one who doesn't have regret, but the most important is how we react to it; we learn from it, leave it, and live with what is in our hand now.

Well, as I was so down several days ago, I was lazy to do anything, and I decided to watch this dorama for several days, and I'm getting better now! I mean, time absolutely makes me better, but this dorama also help me to recover. Hopefully, this dorama and also my writing here can be my motivation when I'm down again.

Overall, I gave this dorama 6 out of 10 points. It's actually a mixed feeling. The score is not that high, but somehow I recommend you to check that out!

[Anime Movie Review] Grave of the Fireflies / Hotaru no Haka 火垂るの墓

Ok, another Studio Ghibli movies streak. Grave of the Fireflies, or Hotaru no Haka. This movie was released on 1988. If mostly Studio Ghibli's movie is about fantasy, this time I could say it's more to a daily life story with World War era setting.

The story is actually quite simple. There was a brother and sister called Seita and Setsuko who lived in a city in Japan in the World War era. The American bombers were flying above them, which led them to go to the bomb shelter. Their mom went to the bomb shelter ahead since Seita needed to secure their belongings. Seita took her little sister Setsuko with him.

Before they reached the shelter, the bomblets dropped which led to fire in the whole city. Seita and Setsuko were succeed in fleeing, however, their mom got into the fire and badly injured.

Their mom died no longer after that incident. Seita decided not to tell Setsuko first since Setsuko was just a little girl.

Having no home due to the fire, Seita asked help from their mom relatives. At first, they were accepted, but as days went by, their aunt kept nagging and hated them. Well, I think it's just as expected since the food was hard to get at that time.

Seita decided to live on their own. Seita brought Setsuko to an unused cave and stayed there with Setsuko.

Things went even worse. Food scarcity led Seita to be a thief, yet, they still didn't get enough nutrition. Setsuko suffered from malnutrition and died.

Seita who was left by his whole family felt hopeless and also died not long after that.

This movie has a really simple story but very touching. In reality, maybe many people who experienced the same as them back then in World War II. This gave me a thought that egoism from the politics could lead a war and made the whole country suffer from it. In the same time I also grateful that I was born in this era, in a place where there is no such a war, and hopefully it will never happen in everyway.

Well, it's a super good movie, even though there are other movies which has the same theme and similar story (like "In This Corner of the World"), but it's still good and interesting, giving us one more alternative life story which might happen in the World War era. It's a must watch movie.

I gave this movie 8 out of 10 points.

[Anime Movie Review] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind / Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa 風の谷のナウシカ

Another Studio Ghibli film's review streak, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind which was released 1984. This is the first Studio Ghibli's film I think. Now, let's just get started.

Nausicaa is a princess from a kingdom Valley of the Wind. She is so great in flying using a glider.

So, the setting is in a world with so much toxic caused by a war. There is a poisonous forest named Sea of Decay, which has so many giant mutant insects. One of them is Ohm.

Ohm is an insect which eyes would turn red when they are angry. Its shell is very hard and could break swords made of iron. No one could survive if they are attacked by the raging Ohms. The Kingdom of the Valley of the Wind could make weapons from a died Ohm's shell though.

The toxic are getting worse day by day. People from many kingdom are anxious and try to find a way to save themselves. One of them is the Tolmekian which are led by Princess Kushana. They invade the Valley of the Wind and want to use the Giant Warrior to harm the jungle.

Believing that the best way to handle the poisonous jungle is not with force, Nausicaa tried to stop them. Well the story continues until it ends with a happy ending of course.

I can't actually believe that it's the first film ever made by Studio Ghibli because it's super good. Compared to other movies created by them, I think I could say this is one of the best. Well, most of them are the best though, lol. But, recently I found one of the latter movies is not that great, and this is just the contrary.

I could give this anime movie 8 out of 10 points.

[Anime Movie Review] Kiki's Delivery Service / Majo no Takkyuubin 魔女の宅急便

Another review on Studio Ghibli's movie, Kiki's Delivery Service. It was released on 1989.

Kiki is a daughter from a witch family. In the witch's tradition, when children turned into 13 years old, they must leave the house for a year for training. Kiki has turned into 13 years old, so it's her turn to do the training. She left the house with her black cat, named Jiji.

Kiki decided to find a city near the sea because she liked the sea. She found one which was quite a big city and Kiki was flustered at first.

When Kiki tried to find a place to stay, she met a woman who had a bakery. One of her customer forgot something on her store, and Kiki helped her to bring the item to the customer. Later, Kiki was allowed to stay in her place.

Kiki decided to work because she needed money to live alone. Realizing that her only talent was to fly with a broomstick, she opened a delivery service, while trying to get along with the people in the town.

To sum up, it's really a simple story but super entertaining. It's easy to understand, really compatible for both children and adults. You don't need to think hard, it's simply entertaining, easy to watch (easier than any other Studio Ghibli's movie I've watched so far). I think it's really one of the best movie produced by Studio Ghibli. I like this movie a lot!

I can give this movie 8 out of 10 points.

[Anime Movie Review] Howl's Moving Castle / Hauru no Ugoku Shiro ハウルの動く城

Another writing about one of Studio Ghibli's film, Howl's Moving Castle. This film was released on 2004 based on a novel written by Diana Wynne Jones. Well, let's get started!

The film setting was on a war period. Sophie, a girl who lived in a small town, was a hatter who tried to make the best hat. One day, on her way home, Sophie met some soldiers who tried to tease her.

In danger, suddenly there was an unknown blonde man who helped her. Later, she would know that the man is Howl, a witch who lived in a moving castle near her town.

While in other hand, a witch of waste, who had a one side love with Howl, started to get jealous and put a curse on Sophie. Sophie became an old grandmother, and because of that condition, she left her town to find a place for her to stay.

On her way to find a place, she met a moving turnip. That moving turnip helped her in finding a place to stay, which was Howl's Moving Castle.

Old Sophie met the Turnip

Howl's Moving Castle

In that castle, Sophie met Markl, a little boy who lived with Howl, and Calcifer, a fire demon who was the source of energy to move the castle.

Together, they faced problems related to the war. Sophie helped Howl in many ways.

Based on what I watch, the animation of this film is no doubt. Studio Ghibli, as always, is stunning and amazing. However, it's quite hard to understand the line of the story. The story is a little bit abstract and hard to understand. I could say that this is the worst Studio Ghibli movie I've watched so far. Even though the story is not so clear, especially from the middle to the end of the story, but it's still entertaining and not bored to be watched, as expected from Studio Ghibli.

Well, I still could give this film 6.5 out of 10 points.

[Anime Movie Review] Princess Mononoke / Mononoke Hime もののけ姫

For those who doesn't know yet, last time I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, and ended up watching Laputa Castle in the Sky which I had written the review before. Now, I want to write a review for another Studio Ghibli movie, Princess Mononoke. It's actually an old film from Studio Ghibli which was published on 1997 and maybe many of you have watched this film, but still, I want to write the synopsis and review for those who hasn't watched it yet.

Ashitaka is a prince, as well as a warrior from a small town, between north and east. One day, a demon boar came to the town and was going to attack Ashitaka's village. To protect the people in the village, Ashitaka had no choice but to kill it.

Ashitaka was cursed when killed the demon boar. There was nothing could cure the curse, except going to the west and saw what made the boar turned into the demon which might help Ashitaka found a way to cure the curse.

Ashitaka started the journey to the west and found out that a village was burning the forest down which made the animals there angry. He tried to reconcile the relationship between humans and animals. He also met San, a human which was raised by wolf, making her in the animals' side.

Even at the first San looked like an enemy, but in the end she and Ashitaka were helping each other. Together, they tried to save the forest from the bad people and also saved the people from the God's anger.

It's just a short synopsis from me, but when you watched it, it's actually so interesting. "This is Studio Ghibli" is all I can say about this anime movie. So far, Studio Ghibli is never disappointing me in all the story, animation, and concept. I think my blog will be full of Studio Ghibli's films review.

I have watched four of Studio Ghibli's film: Spirited Away, Totoro, Laputa Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke, and the story of all of them are very different, yet interesting and amusing. I'm really looking forward to watch and write a review for another Studio Ghibli's movie, so please look forward to it!
I gave this anime movie 8 out of 10 points.