Resident ~ 5nin no kenshui~ (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: medical, drama
Cast: Naka Risa, Masuda Takahisa, Hayashi Kento, Oomasa Aya, Ishibashi Anna, Sudo Risa, Arakawa Yoshiyoshi, Minakawa Sarutoki, Terajima Susumu, Furuta Arata, Ozama Yukiyoshi, Chiba Yudai,
Synopsis: Five interns become part of a medical team to but their skills into practice. They do not have to save only lives of their patients, but their mind must grow as doctors to be able to continue saving lives in future. Each of them faces the challenge of their past that keeps interfering their work.
Rating: 3/5
Seriously, I have never waited after subtitles for so long as for "Resident", but I am so grateful that they still decided to finish it even if it took around 1,5 years.

Juui Dolittle (2010)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 9 episodes
Genre: veterinary, friendship
Cast: Oguri Shun, Narimiya Hiroki, Inoue Mao, Fujisawa Ema, Kasahara Hideyuki, Suda Masaki, Ishizaka Koji, Kunimura Jun, guests: Masuda Takahisa, Kuninaka Ryoko, Saotame Taichi, Kaho etc
Synopsis: Tottori Kenichi (Oguri Shun) is not the friendliest person, but he is the best veterinarian in Japan. He keeps saying that veterinary is business and makes people understand the true meaning of being pet's owner. After operating Tajima Asuka's (Inoue Mao) horse, she is made to help out at the clinic to pay back for surgery.  There is also a great friend, charismatic veterinarian Hanabishi Masaru (Narimiya Hiroki) who is unable to carry out an operation.
Rating: 3/5
 I was surprised by "Juui Dolittle" - I do not know why, but I thought that it will be totally different, so it is really great that it was able to overcome my expectations. It has been in my "watch-list" ever since it aired on TBS, which is almost 2,5 years, so it was about time to finally watch it. I even remember how I kept watching their updates on official page, because they had so cute animals on the set all the time. (I am a big animal lover - I actually grew up in a farm with many animals)

Oguri Shun was really cool in it, because I think that he suits into those "tsundere" character rolls with his big growth and suitable face. Tottori Kenichi is most of the time really cold and his fees are reaaaaaalllly high, but at the same time you can see his hidden love towards animals. I also felt that his coldness is caused by other people ignorance toward their pets, because there are so many people abandoning their pets or not taking good care of them. He also has many secrets, because he is a man of few words, but I also felt that they gave us too less information about him to understand him 100%.  

Tajima Asuka is a novice in veterinary. She is really cute character, because she is not annoying or useless and she gives her best to help animals at clinic. Of course there are mistakes, but it is understandable because she has never done anything like that before. They have put in some hints on love-line between her and Tottori, but the biggest impact goes on animals. As you might think already, then you can see more Asuka's emotions than Tottori's. Another thing I thought before watching it was that she will have some kind of love-line with Hanabishi, which would have caused much jealousy, but it did not happen.  But I was most surprised by the fact that Hanabishi Masaru and Tottori were friends.. :D

I do not know why I thought they are rivals - as you can see I do not read others reviews or all synopsis' before watching. I really liked Hanabishi because he was willing to do everything in order to save animals, even though he did not perform operations himself. He was really appealing and wanted the best, but for me it all made his over-priced car funnier. He has the biggest problems and difficulties in the drama, all due to the lie about operating. He is the only veterinarian who officially acknowledges Tottori's outstanding skills and because they were university buddies he is the one person who understands Tottori, which is really cute.

From other characters I really liked Domon Junpei at first, but Domon family is the most annoying part of the drama. No matter how they all make really selfish things and manipulate with others, so they just got on my nerves. I do not like veterinarians who are out for fame and money or do not bother to make extra researches to find out pet's illness. Of course there are some annoying ones more within "costumers" and their selfish thoughts. Another thing that I did not enjoy in this drama was those fake animal capes! Some of them were tooooo fake and that was not pretty. I understand that making a drama with animals is difficult and especially in those scenes it would have been inconceivable to use living animals, but they could have done a better job with capes.

If we leave out the annoying family and fake capes, then it is a really sweet drama that makes you treasure your pets, there could have been more constant action between three main characters, because, it is said that this drama should be about main characters friendship, which I got to know after I had searched for real synopsis after watching it. Do not know how much it was about friendship and how much it was about owner-pet relationships, but I will leave it up to you to decide.

Sotsu Uta: Sotsugyou shashin (2010)

Country: Japan
Genre: life
Format: part of Sotsu Uta series
Cast: Nagasawa Masami, Masuda Takahisa, Hara Fumina, Yasuda Ken, Utagawa Shiiko,
Synopsis: Final story of Sotsu Uta series. The radio caster Hitomi (Nagasawa Masami) always wanted to become a radio caster, but as she got her job by having a love affair with her boss, she is put into variety show on TV. Hoping to find inner peace she returns to her childhood village, but the place which had to remain the same is going trough changes. Only one who has not changed is childhood friend Tsuyoshi (Masuda Takahisa).
Rating: 1/5

Really nice and heart warming movie. It shows changes of life and people, which we must accept even if we do not want. I liked the fact that they talked how big city has changed the people. Actually I am afraid of those changes too, that when I finally move away from this place, I might change.

But I liked the saying that Graduation is not ending, but it is beginnig of something else. So remember it, does not matter what door closes behind you, another one opens before you. As it was the last episode of the series, you can hear the other episode conclusions a bit too, but otherwise episodes are not attached  to each other, so you can watch episodes as different movies too. (Every episode is made after one famous song).

From all of the things I loved Hitomi's and Tsuyoshi's relationship the most. Their friendship was amazing, but you can definitely see how time has left its marks on it: some things unsaid have gathered and feeling of uneasiness grows. Hitomi is only character who is in every episode of the whole Sotsu Uta series. She is a radio-host, who might have earned her position with something else than her talent. Compared to Hitomi then actually Tsuyoshi was much more grown up and he was willing to accept the truth. Like he said several times, they are not children anymore. There will be time when every person must grow up.

I like to believe that Tsuyoshi had actually more feelings for Hitomi than just feelings of friends. That would have explained the reason, why he has still alone etc, but there was no hints about it (oke, you can take some things like Tsuyoshi always supporting Hitomi and so on as those hints). Masuda Takahisa can act those kind of characters very well - a little weak and soft by nature, but with big heart and will to succeed no matter what. At the same time I was not amazed by Nagasawa Masami's acting nor her character. I do not approve the way Hitomi got her job, I do not approve how she was so headstrong.

I liked Nagasawa Masami in "Proposal Daisakusen" and "Last Friends", but here she just was not that great. Especially which I did not like was in the end the use of English "See you tomorrow". I have heard Japanese radio shows, so it was just too plain there. In Japanese it would have suited more, beside this was her last radio show, so why say tomorrow?
There is no action, love lines etc. It is more movie of much talking and thinking, time to time really slow, but at least it has really beautiful scenery's.

Gekidan Engimono: Ie ga tooi (2005)

Country: Japan
Genre: friendship, school
Format: part of Gekidan Engimono series, mini-drama 4 episodes
Cast: Masuda Takahisa, Kato Shigeaki, Tegoshi Yuya, Kusano Hironori, Mizukawa Ayami
Synopsis: Kume (Masuda Takahisa) wants to create a band, Kojima (Kato Shigeaki) is popular with girls, Kita (Kusano Hironori) is a pervert and Tommy (Tegoshi Yuya) is a silent boy, who loves to watch bugs.
Rating: 2/5

It is weird... really weird. It shows their time after school day.. and mostly they don´t do anything special, just sit there and talk, mostly about band, ero-things, girls and Tommy.
But in some way, its weirdness made it funny.
As some of you might know, then Masuda, Kato, Tegoshi and Kusano are (were as Kusano "left" the agency) in a band called NEWS. It was Kusano´s only acting he did. And in addition, the song you can hear there (from recorder) is actually sang by Masuda himself - he was asked to sing as bad as he can.. .
I liked that it showed their problems. But in the end, it was just a drama without beginning and end.

Waraeru Koi wa Shitakunai (2006)

Country: Japan
Genre: romance, Christmas
Format: drama 3 episodes
Cast: Yamasaki Shizuyo, Koumoto Junichi, Masuda Takahisa, Sakai Wakana, Natsukawa Jun, Matsuo Toshinobu, Okada Yoshinori, Ogi Hiroaki, Yahagi Ken,
Synopsis: Suzune (Yamasaki Shizuyo) is an elevator girl, she is not the prettiest one, but she falls in love really quickly. Suzune´s friend Tonaka Ippei (Koumoto Junichi) is a manager of cake shop, but he is hardly managing to cope with his job. Yukiko (Sakai Wakana) used to be news announcer, but must work now in variety show. Akai Santa is "Happy Delivery" man, who is mostly controlled by his 4 older sisters. They all are missing love in their lives and during the Christmas they have started to feel loneliness. Without knowing, they will become related to each other in one or other way.
Rating: 5/5
This is my Christmas special drama. I watch it on every Christmas now. It is beautiful and sad, but it kinda gives me a courage to keep trying harder. I like Suzune´s saying "Even if I fail 99 times, I know 100th I will succeed" and her thoughts about confessing to people you like. To some people it happens that they cannot move on without a real end, they want to be sure that there won´t be any "if"-s in future. "If that person is really necessary for you, you will see him again someday, but if not, then he/she is not meant for you". I guess this drama is something that has a bit of similarity with all of us, so it is easy to relate to some characters or situations.

The short drama is also very humorous and keeps you laughing for a long time. Characters´ thoughts are shown out to viewers and it adds so much more to the story. In addition, look forward to actor's face expressions. The drama is technically great too. I like how the timeline is shown, so you must watch the clock and think about the time to understand the right order of things happening. If you do not pay attention, then it might get a bit confusing and you might miss some hints that they are giving you. Lastly, I think it has one of the best soundtracks ever! Not only the theme songs, but the whole sound is great, funny and gives you exactly the right feeling while watching it.
There are four main-characters, who in some way or another are related to each other. The action is set during the Christamas mostly in big shopping center where a lot of people go to make the shopping for the holidays.

Most of the time the link between characters is Suzune, who is also known as "Love Terminator". She is much bigger than average Japanese woman and not exactly the beauty-queen by her appearance, but she happens to fall in love much easily than most of people. She tends to over-react and is very fast-forward when it comes to liking somebody. I must say that actually there is something beautiful in her, both by appearance and personality, but most of the time she makes a fool out of herself with her actions. Besides, she is very un-professional when it comes to work. During that Christmas, one of Suzune's eye-candies became Ryohei, who is intern at the shopping center. He is cute and goodhearted and a bit naive with life, but I understand his feelings when things come to Suzune. And as I said that she falls in love very easily, then there are more Santa, who becomes her love of her life and Shigeo, who becomes the first man to be interested in Suzune.  

Suzune's great friend is Tonaka Ippei - baker and an owner of the bakery store at the shopping center. Similar to Suzune, He is bad when it comes to love, but at the same time, he does not fall in love as easily as she. He is also bad when it comes to saying right things. Once he gets nervous, he can say very wrong things in wrong place. Everyone misunderstand Tonaka's  name for "Tonakai"m which in Japanese means "Reindeer", that´s why he gets so irritated for calling him "Tonakai" and that´s one reason why he is dressed as a reindeer in the end. To know the other reasons, watch the drama.
Despite, not falling in love easily, this Christmas he ends up falling for Rika, who is cute-looking lady working in a store. She is shy and decent woman, but her love for sweets is enormous.  I totally understand how she gets excited when she is talking about sweets and cakes. Anything and everything, which tastes sweetly, is my addiction and eating 6 pieces of cake is not a problem.

The last characters are Yukiko and Santa. They have about 6-8 years age-difference as Yukiko is 29, but Santa is some years over 20. Santa is most of the time abused by woman, since he is too nice and good-looking. Growing up with 4 older sisters, has made him afraid of older women and love is not in his priority. He is working as Happy Delivery delivery-man. I really started to think how is that possible that Santa is perfect, while his sisters are like... well you will see once you watch it. It is the same mystery like it is with Goofy and Max(imilian) from Disney channel (high five for Disney fans). In addition, there is a name-twister in Santa's name too as literally it means "Red Santa".

Yukiko is facing the biggest changes in her life and as we know not all the Christmas are merry and jolly. She gets fired from her usual job in the TV and put into variety show that is not her specialty at all. In addition to having problems in her love-life, she tends to drink too much and has most of the time a bitch-attitude to protect herself. I guess Sakai Wakana is my favorite on-screen love-interest of Masuda Takahisa. The look very good together and their characters have good chemistry.
Overall the drama is very beautiful and worth every second of watching, but unfortunately I guess it is also very under-rated drama as it definitely does not have the popularity it should have.

There are some good sayings to put behind your ear and make them your everyday motos:
"If there is no ending, there won't be a new beginning"
"Life is a roller coaster"
"you cannot achieve happiness, when you are scared"
"If you smile, only good things will happen"

Spoiler-Review: I hoped that Suzune understands Shigeos feelings, as he acted was exactly like male-version of Suzune, except that Shigeo had some looks and money, but at the same time I understand that you cannot make yourself fall in love with someone when you just do not have the spark. In addition, I think that Shigeo was maybe a bit too fast with the proposal.
In addition, I was hoping to see that Suzune and Tonaka end up together as they understood each other the most and were matching very well, but I guess this is what you call a great friendship.

RESCUE (2009)

Country: Japan

Genre: rescue, action
Format: drama 9 episodes
Cast: Nakamaru Yuichi, Masuda Takahisa, Yamamoto Yusuke, Shoei, Kaname Jun, Tanaka Yoji, Yamamoto Koji, Ishiguro Ken, Takahashi You, Ichikawa Yui, Fueki Yuko (Yoo Min), Ebata Hiroki, Nishihara Aki,
Synopsis: Kitajima Daichi (Played by Nakamaru Yuichi) was saved by a Special Rescue team as a child, now he and his friend Tetsuka Yutaka (Masuda Takahisa) enter Special Rescue Team trainings to become a member of Super Ranger.
Rating: 3/5
First star for cutting their hair. As many of you might know Nakamaru Yuichi and Masuda Takahisa had longer hair since young age and they had to cut their hair just to get the role. I liked them with longer hair too, but the star is for willing to do the chance. (And as I have seen they still have shorter hair since then xD) Another star for ... half-naked scenes. There were many bathroom scenes and scene without shirts. (If you have seen Masuda Takahisa´s muscles, then you should know what to wait for)

I liked the drama for showing the hard life of rescuers. As a average person we might never understand how much are they trying to give their best. It was a great contrast to show characters´ personal life too (Oke mostly it was just drinking beer in a pub xD).
Usually I am not a big action fan, but "Rescue" really got my attention, especially because the emergencies were real (as they might happen). Another thing is that they must had a REAAALLY BIG budget to make all those explosions and fires.
The series was made with collaboration of real rescue squad of Yokohama, so the actors received a rescuing knowledge too.
It was filmed in winter 2009, so respect to actors for coping with the cold.
I liked the theme song too - "Rescue" by KAT-TUN.

Dance Drill (2006)

Country: Japan
Genre: School, romance, dance, sports
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Eikura Nana, Kato Rosa, Masuda Takahisa, Kokubun Taichi, Kanno Miho, Morita Ayaka, Nishihara Aki,  Yuki Saya
Synopsis: During the last summer vacation of high-school girls, who have found themselves in a point of uncertain future, decide to start cheer-leading. Soon it will be all they live for.
Rating: 2/5
I am not a big fan of those girly things as cheer-leading. As most schools in most places cheer-leaders are those who are pretty, talented and sometimes full of themselves, these are also my memories with cheer-leading. But "Dance Drill" is different as those girls are not the beauty queens nor so talented or smart. They are the so-called lower students who are facing dropping out from high school. But about their dancing skills I must say that good things come only with great practice. Only their last performance of all cheers is worth watching XD Sorry for being so harsh.  But it is great to see them practicing so much to get were they want to be!
Aikawa Kaname, acted by Eikura Nana, is the leading lady who is the worst student.
I did not like Ishibashi Wataru (played by Kokubun Taichi) role, because it looked like the author of drama just tried to make the teacher more interesting. It sure was interesting to see traditional Japanese dance, but it would not mean anything if they would have left it out. All the points I gave were because of Suzuki Carlos Saburota´s (Masuda Takahisa) character and his love towards Aikawa Kaname (Eikura Nana).

 I totally loved Saburota´s character - he was such a sweetheart (even though he was peeker/stalker at some times xD In a good way)! For Masuda´s fans I say that do not cry very much in episode 5. He actually did not get his hand broken - but these are really well-made scenes O.o 
There is one great conversation between Carlos and Kaname. Kaname asks if Carlos does not feel embarrassed by all those confessions, because everyone are laughing, and Carlos answers that he himself is laughing too and otherwise in future he would regret not telling Kaname about his feelings. So if you love someone - then make sure to tell them that! In one moment it might be too late and you will never be able to say it. It is better to try and get hurt than not say it and regret it for all your life. This drama also teaches how important it is to care for your friends. "One for all and all for one" like The Musketeers said!
SPOILER*  it was really cute that finally Kaname showed some feelings too - but sadly it was too late :S  I totally cried in the end when Carlos went back to Brazil and said good-bye to Kaname (When it comes to dramas/movies, I can be a real cry-baby).

Gachi baka (2006)

Country: Japan
Genre: School life, friendship,
Format: drama 10 episodes
Cast: Takahashi Katsunori, Masuda Takahisa, Tegoshi Yuya, Kurokawa Tomoka, Inoue Waka, Watanabe Natsuna, Sawamura Ikki, KABA-chan, Sakai Ayana (Quests:Yuki Saya, Inoo Kei, Hojo Takahiro)
Synopsis: Gondo Tetta (Takahashi Katsunori) is a former boxer, who starts as a teacher. He gets to be a homeroom teacher for 3E class - students who are failing in studying and sport. Tetta starts his mission of showing students that school is not a place just for studying, but it also teaches to live.
Rating: 4/5

Drama has many many highlights that make you addicted to it. Of course some of the stars came from that we can see Masuda Takahisa and Tegoshi Yuya in fighting, crying and love scenes! A lot to watch in one drama! "Gachi baka" shows that teachers job is not just to make clear specific subject, but they must help students make right choices in life. It reminds me one of my teachers, who at many times is a big pain in the ***, but actually all she does helps students in future! (Don´t say, I am just looking the positive way! xD) I seriously hate teachers who do their job just because of money, reputation and 3-month-vacation in

summer. Especially homeroom teacher should be someone who is at least aware of student problems and he/she should stand for student. There are many students who do not get help from their families and then it is really important to have at least school´s backup. I was kind of annoyed by Tetta character, but I understand that only his persistent attitude helped students. and I did not like the fact that he beat Utsugi Minoru (played by Tegoshi Yuya), but that is another matter and Minoru really needed those punches.Tetta's biggest problem is that he is too friendly with students, which for me sometimes crossed the line. "This" and "that" have a really big difference. Other than it, he has a wide range of friends, which comes in hand many times. Other teachers/workers in that school only think about school's reputation and their best students. They are the reason why I was unable to add the final star to the drama, because they were toooo annoying. They were too stuck in those old school rules and always blame 3-E class in problems. Their moto was something like this "Expel the problematic student - no student, no problem!" They would rather destroy students lives and dreams than do something to help them. The problems which are handled in drama are really accurate and realistic and I really like the way they have solved them.  
As for students, there are three main-students with who and whose friends things happen. Minoru is

the class' introvert. He is more like a bad-ass who is not interested in anything and does not give a single f*** about what happens around him. But that is all just his outside. Inside, he is actually really caring and he always says some annoying truth to people with the attitude of "I'm so cool, but I could not care less about your problems". With each episode you can see how he starts to open up again and be more sociable. His story shows the pain of having your dreams crushed and no body cares about it. The same problem almost happens to another character too, but it is slightly different. Everytime I watch it, I remember the moments were my dreams had to be postponed (of course at that moment I felt that it was the end of my dreams, but I am really persevering person) .

 I must say that in "Gachi baka" Inoue Kouta role is one of the best roles Masuda Takahisa has ever

played. I have seen almost all roles he has played  and that´s the best in my eyes. He played out Kouta´s appearance and attitude. Kouta & CO consists of 4 guys - Kouta, Miki, Hiro and Masashi, who show the meaning of true friendship where things like family background and money do not matter. Later they drag Minoru into their group too. Kouta is totally different from Minoru - he never shows out his problems and always hides them behind a smile. Even though, he is really goofy and "baka-character", he is really sweet, there is so much more in him and also he is willing to do everything for Kana.
Kana suffers from really serious trauma, which makes her a real bitch at times. She is considered the most beautiful, smartest and elegant girl in the class. The only one she really trusts is Hanako, but she
can be the worst friend ever. At the same time, I cannot really hate her - maybe due to the fact that Kouta has serious feelings for her, which leads us to the fact that she, Kouta and Minoru form a love-triangle. The saddest thing about it is that I cannot have the favorite pairing as I understand everyone's feelings and actions. Minoru and Kana are neighbors and have known each other forever, but due to things that happened they have awkward moments and intense silence between them, which is made even weirder by the fact that Minoru has (almost) girlfriend Saya and everybody are aware of Kouta's feelings, but about that more in SPOILER-review.
It is a really nice school-drama, which makes you laugh and cry. For no special reason I ended up crying in every episode when I re-watched it. For ending, it is another drama where running is the fastest way to get from point A to point B.

SPOILER-review: I only want to tell out my feelings about Kouta-Kana-Minoru relationship. You can feel from the start that there is or has been something between Kana and Minoru. But Kouta is the one who was able to make Kana smile again. But you also can see the how Kana tries to like Kouta as much as he does about her, but there is a song called "first cut is the deepest" which is really accurate for Kana. I seriously heard how Kouta's heart broke when he truly understood that she and Minoru have actually mutual feelings for each other. ... .. and I start to cry again.. he is on the position 4 in the "TOP 5 Guys whose heartbreak broke my heart".