Byakkotai (2007)

Country: Japan
Format: movie in 2 episodes
Genre: historical
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Tanaka Koki, Fujigaya Taisuke, Kuroki Meisa, Higashiyama Noriyuki, Kobayashi Nenji, Yakushimaru Hiroko, Nogiwa Yoko, Takashima Masanobu, Ito Shiro, Ito Kazue, Matsuo Toshinobu, Takuma Takayuki, Nishihara Aki, Ishiguro Hideo, Saito Shota, Sakimoto Hiromi, Tomita Sho, Hashizume Ryo, Matsushige Yutaka, Masu Takeshi, Kikawada Masaya, Tsutsui Mariko, Iida Kisuke, Yamada Meikyo, Hirooka Yuriko, Kanno Rio, Matoba Koji, Nakagoshi Noriko, Ida Kunihiko, Namiki Shiro, Okayama Hajime, Sakai Toshiya, Ishimaru Kenjiro, Bengal, Asano Yuko, Musaka Naomasa, Watanabe Ikkei, Kataoka Tsurutaro, Wakamura Mayumi, Wakui Emi,
Synopsis: Sakai Shintaro and Shinoda Yusuke are descendants of Byakkotai samurais. In order to escape from Shintaro's grandmother, they go to Aizu where grandfather sends them into Byakkotai Memorial Hall. In their mind they travel back to years 1868 to 1869 when Japan had Boshin war - war were special force of 340 boys of 16-17 years old fought for their lives.
Rating: 3/5
It is a re-make of 1986 movie - so I think it looks exactly the same. Most of the things that happen in the movie are based on true life events.

Deka Wanko (2011)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 11 episodes
Genre: detective, comedy
Cast: Tabe Mikako, Tegoshi Yuya, Sawamura Ikki, Masu Takeshi, Ohkura Koji, Mikami Kensei, Watanabe Naomi, Ishizuka Hidehiko, Taguchi Tomorowo, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Sano Shiro, Ito Shiro, Ueda Koichi, Imai Kazuko, Shimura Rena,
Synopsis: Drama: Hanamori Ichiko, a rookie detective with an amazing sense of smell, is newly assigned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Having 7 men as her colleagues it is sure to get interesting as Ichiko tries to find her place in the cruel men's world with her cute poodle Patrache and Lolita clothes.
Christmas SP: Wanko is in France on holiday, when she suddenly pumps into Kiri, Koma and Duke in Paris! Yana's personal things got stolen and Shige's location is unknown. Wanko also meets a girl named Leticia whose boyfriend Shige is living in Japan. Things get more absurd when they are suddenly called back to Japan and Wanko ends up in parallel world in Edo-period. 
Rating: 4/5
It is definitely not another usual detective drama. It is based on same-named manga by Morimoto Kozueko.

Ichiko gets her nickname Wanko for several reasons - beside the fact that her nose is as good as dog's one ("Wan" is the sound the dog makes in Japanese and "Wanko" resembles a small puppy), her name meas "First/One Child", which is half translated by Duke who says "One-ko", which seems to others as "Wanko". Her clothes are absolute love and I noticed that many things were from Angelic Pretty shop (Girls, if you want to look as cute as Wanko then I added a link to shop), at least some of her head-dresses. She is talking to herself out loud a lot, which makes her annoying to others, but it is damn funny when the situation is rough. She is naive and never gets the atmosphere. Sometimes she rushes into the action with out confirming the facts, which leaves her into the situation of being kidnapped countless times. 

 Shigemura (Shige) is the best negotiator. I think he never visited the actual crime-scene, but he had 100+n ways to make the culprit to confess. He is the man with many mysteries. You never know what is his deal, because he never gives any direct answer when it comes to something personal. He might be as great in his job as he can be, but there are times when even he needs help. There are jokes about Sawamura Ikki dramas and his real life self too as some people say in drama that Shige looks like Sawamura Ikki.
 Koma is almost like a leader. He has been in the group longest with Shige and that is the reason why these two keep fighting with each other. Others describe him as a smoker with long oily hair - even when he has just washed them. (no room to add a picture)

Yanagi (Yana) is one of the most useless ones in the group. He is very emotional, always torn between Shige and Koma and he has a different taste in women as others. Even though he looks like he would not harm a fly, he gets really violent when he is irritated - Wanko feels his head kicks really often.Wada (Chanko) is a former sumo, who loves to eat. He is prone to accidents, even though he hardly gets into real action as he is too slow. He is a man of few words and like you know than every big chubby guy has one cute secret in the closet.

Kirishima (Kiri) is the ikemen of the force, even though you might had imagined him being taller while you read the manga, but well Tegoshi pulls it off with his powers too. Kiri is very short-tempered, most of the time seems to be angry and he is the one who must put up with Wanko the most. He actually almost becomes her trust-person, because she calls him a lot. He is forced to play newly-weds, cross-dress, go undercover as an idol and so on. I am going to ruin the excitement and say that you do not know until the end if Kiri has feelings for Wanko or not - there are some many  jokes and hints for it. I seriously think that it might be Tegoshi Yuya's best role ever, at least the most interesting. It was funny as they put in NEWS and Tegomasu related jokes, as you know, Tegoshi is a member of both of them. For explanation "Juice" and "NEWS" sound similar in Japanese and in movie, when Wanko says that in kindergarten Yuya and Takahisa fought for her, it is hinted to Masuda Takahisa who is Tegoshi Yuya's co-member in NEWS and duo-partner in Tegomasu.

Duke (just Duke) has been in the group for a year, he entered with Kiri, who is pretty much his best friend. Duke has grown up in States so he is bilingual with English being his mother tongue. Sometimes he even does not understand if he is speaking in English or in Japanese. Like I understood, then his mother was Japanese and father American. Even though Mikami Kensei should be pure Japanese, he makes a great accent in both Japanese and English.
From other characters the most important is Mikhail von alt Oppenbauer zon (also sometimes

written as Micheal). I bet that he and Wanko would start to date if Mikhail would be an human. He has a different relationship with Wanko - they are biggest rivals, but at the same time thier mutual understanding is incredible.. and actually from time to time Mihkail takes a human form in Wanko's imagination. I still do not understand why his name is Mikhail - it is Russian name, not German..
It is funny and not that serious drama. It does not suit for people, who are looking for realism, but I recommend it to people, who want to have a great laugh. I must say that only thing that stopped me from adding final star was the missing KirixWanko joke in the end of the SP. how to say it? The cherry was missing from the cake.

Yankee-kun to Megane-chan (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: school, yankee, romance, comedy, violence
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Naka Riisa, Hongo Kanata,  Koyanagi Yu, Kawaguchi Haruna, Suzuki Ryohei, Minagawa Sarutoki, Ito Shiro, Furuta Arata, Owada Miho
Synopsis: Shinagawa Daichi is referred as yankee, he gets lousy grades and is always fighting, but he attends a highly rated high school, because on the entrance examination he fell in love with one girl, who later disappeared. Adachi Hana is a former yankee, who tries to move on with her life to live like a normal girl. She sees in Daichi a person who could help her. They become classmates and with Adachi's persistent attitude, they become friends.
Rating: 3/5
It is based on a famous same-named manga, but I must say that the drama is not actually that much based on it. There were too many things left out and too much new stuff added or changed. Like actually Adachi lived with her grandmother, not grandfather; In manga, they do not show that much Shinagawa's family. They more concentrate on future choices in drama, but manga shows their time in school. But an important thing to remember is that when drama was filmed, the manga was still on-going!! That explains the different ends and all. The drama shows about 2 months since they met til the end of the drama, but in manga they meet on first high school year and the manga ends many years after the high school graduation.

But there were many great points!! First and the main thing - NARIMIYA HIROKI and NAKA RIISA! As amazing as it is Narimiya Hiroki played 10 years younger character than he in real life is. Shinagawa Daichi was 17 years old, but at that time Narimiya was 27. Sugoi, ne?? In addition, his face expressions are more than super. He has perfect yankee-voice even xD (Maybe the experience of "Bloody Monday" helped him to get a better feeling =P). Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa hit in ten with their appearance and acting.(I am in Narimiya fandom at the moment... O.o he is just soo hot...). Shinagawa Daichi might be a yankee (actually he seems to be yankee against his will), but he has so kind heart and that is what gives him the hard time. I like his home clothes - sexy animal print =P He also has cat and dog printed wallpaber =D SHOO KAWAII! But I feel like story revolves too much around Shinagawa. You can see him smoking many times on screen, but in the end he smokes less and that is called Hana's charm =D

Adachi Hana seemed like three different people in one body. One is "former yankee", second is "trying-hard-to-be-normal-(geek)" and last is "real Hana". I like the third person the most xD I cannot believe how dumb she can be - it is  amazing. No matter what the thing is she is always "SHINAGAWA~!" xD She never understood the situation and got everything wrong. But this all makes her funny and it is nice to watch.
It is hilarious that Narimiya Hiroki and Naka Riisa voices sounded like weeping cats, when they were yelling at each other.

I do not understand why they did all other characters so annoying (except for Nerima, because NerimaXShinagawa friendship is one high light of the drama). Chiba pretty much is a wimp - he has so few self confidence in him and he is pretty naive. Rinka is too yankee.. she has personality crack too xD and Izumi has his own problems... which can be really weird in some scenes O.o  and actually he was not yankee - he used to be a biker in junior high. But I must say that Kanata Hongo has some amazing leg kicks  (he is the white-head dude) =P At all, the drama contains much much violence.

They try to solve student problems like working part-time at the same time, future choices and dreams. Like many of you know, working part-time while attending high school is mostly not allowed in Japan, there of course might be exceptions. I think it is because studying is hard enough, but I really think that there are some cases where it should allowed. I live in Europe (like you all have found out before, I believe) and I know that in my class about 6-7 students are working too, but it is because some of them are living alone and they must pay the bills themselves, some earn money for partying, because they are too ashamed to ask their parents and some of them are just earning money from their hobbies. About future choices, I think that every student must make the decision themselves. It is their life, not their parents! I know that parents want the best for their children, but if they make their children study something that actually makes them unhappy?? To end this paragraph, I repeat

Shinagawa's words "Everybody has a dream, but not everyone are telling it out!"
It suck in technical way - it is too fake, but "imagination points" are extra-funny and these are in every episode too =D But I must say that Shinagawa reads too much manga, because his imagination was actually shoujo-like xD
The best thing is to watch it as a totally different drama, which has little to do with manga. As a live-action it sucks more than it should.