Tonbi (2013)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: family, drama
Cast: Uchino Masaaki, Sato Takeru, Fukiishi Kazue, Tokiwa Takako, Asou Yumi, Nomura Hironobu, Kato Takako, Otoo Takuma, Bengal, Emoto Akira, Takahashi Kazuya, Hashimoto Mami,
Synopsis: Ichikawa Akira is successful young man who was brought up by his father Yasuo after his mother passed away from an accident when Akira was 3 years old. Raising Akira was not an easy task for Yasuo who did not have parents around in his childhood, but with his love for Akira everybody knew that one way or another they will survive.
Rating: 5/5
Drama is based on same-titled best-seller by Shigematsu Kiyoshi. The cast is amazing for the drama.
Yasu is not the smartest pencil on the box, but I can say that he makes it up with some other things.

Loss Time Life (2008)

Country: Japan
Genre:  mystery, life&death, human, surreal
Format: drama, but all 9 episodes have different stories and so do Specials too
Synopsis: The main idea - there are people who take life for granted, thinking they have time and do unnecessary-pointless things. What if when you die you are given extra time - additional time as they do in soccer? How would you spend the last hours of your life when there are 4 man always reminding you that the clock is ticking...
Rating: 2/5
I am going to make each drama detail-review separately with casts, it is a little bit easier to understand then - But I will put only one rating to all of it.. sorry for possible spoilers too!
I liked that they made it like sport overcasting - I do not know much about football nor footballers, but it was fun in drama. I bet those who know a bit about football and "its legendary players/moment", will have more interesting time watching it. I like those weird comments they make and referees are funny - I consider them as one of the highlights =D Especially during the commercial break. Drama also has a documentary-touch in it, which makes watching it really awesome.  

Episode 1. "Cameraman"
Cast: Eita, Fukiishi Kazue, Koichi Mantaro, Oshima Yoko,
Eita plays an cameraman, who takes photos of disasters, for example fires and hostage dramas,  for newspapers (which I find really disturbing and sick). Being an awarded photographer he wishes to dye on the scene of crime while taking a great photo. After his first-page-photo gets changed with heartwarming amateur photo,  he decides to take an even better photo for photo contest, but situation gets complicated with him being the foresight of the gun.
- Nice and interesting episode to start drama. It explained very much about the whole drama. It had the most documentary look - some moments it seemed that Eita did not know they where filming xD  He gets yellow card for saying "I was killed/ I died". Ends with a big twist so you start to wish that he will stay alive. 

Episode 2. "Detective"
Cast: Koyama Keiichiro, Hiraizumi Sei, Waki Tomohiro, Yamaguchi Miyako, Tanaka Tetsushi
Tsunami Kouta is young fresh detective whose dream is to catch villians and resolve crimes. His dream gets crushed when he finds out that his supervisor is old detective Gomi, who spends time on drinking tea. Finally, they are one step from arresting a criminal, but the criminal is fast and does not use gun for the first time in his life.
- So Kouta gets "loss time". It is very interesting to see how he tries to see some threads in this mess, which takes him back to armed bank rob years ago. The main sentence is "Only the dog who chases tirelessly gets feed", sadly it comes with big losses. the saddest moment is Kouta's phone call to mother. He gets red card for wanting to refuse from loss time.

Episode 3. "Sukiyaki"
Cast: Tomochika, Matsuzawa Kazuyuki, Tajima Yumika, Nagashima Shugo,
A mother who sacrifices everything for her family and also saves from everything. She must pay hard to make her family the best sukiyaki in the world. - It is sad episode, because I think she is the only one who really becomes discouraged and feels helpless - and that is not because of the dying, but because she is afraid how the family will survive without her. She literally saves from everything - all things you know in the world, she will make an cheaper alternative for it. You can see a race of the crazy housewives and how mean they can be.  

Episode 4. "Nurse"
Cast: Ueno Juri, Shitara Osamu, Rokkaku Seji, Nukumizu Youichi
I think it was the funniest episode. Matsunaga Yukiko is a nurse, whose boyfriend has dumped her and she finds the suicide to be the only possibility. At first she wants to re-kill herself, but she gets yellow card, like that would stop someone who knows nothing about football. She meets with Omoto who also wants to jump from the same roof as she did. Main sentence is "Even one loss is not the end of the world". The end is rather unexpected. - I do not understand suicides, because I do not see any reason to be enough to end one's life.

Episode 5. "Childhood friend"
Cast: Ito Atsushi, Minami, Iketani Nobue, Yabe Kenji,
This is the most cliched episode. It is cute, but usual story that guy, Hajime, has promised to become mangaka in childhood. Life roads have gone apart and girl, Yukari is going to be married - right when she hears that Hajime has debuted as mangaka. By chance they meet again, but time is limited.

Episode 6. "Hero Show"
Cast: Tanaka Naoki, Tanaka Kei, Yasuda Misako, Takagiri Hairi, Harada Atsushi, Hatano Hiroko, Okuda Tatsuhito, Hayakawa Ryo
It was the weirdest episode.. Koichi is very egocentric and he cannot fulfill any of his dreams. He wants to be world-famous actor, but non of his dreams include his wife Yoko. - Koichi was the woooooooooorst actor ever! and whoever played the part of SunVisorX was amazing =D There are really cute animations included to episode and in the end you want him to have extra time, but surprise-surprise - I did not understand a thing what happened to him in the end - did he die? did he got extra time? what it was?? 

Episode 7. "Wife of a mob member"
Cast: Tokiwa Takako, Hamada Gaku, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Nomaguchi Toru,
Ruiko is a yakuza-family's member. She hears that her husband has been taken by another yakuza-gang and she is going to take a revenge.  - It is a little bit sad. I say spoiler - she is fighting for  her love, but it comes out that all this time her husband wanted to have a normal life with normal family and in reality she was the real target. - Tokiwa Takako is very elegant and I looooove her kimono. I like that Ruiko has pride and she does not let herself fall, but it is too sad to see how she is trying to not express her real feelings.

Episode 8. "Director"
Cast: Maki Yoko, Iwasa Mayuko, Takeno Isao, Omiya Taro, Yajima Kenichi, Nukumizu Youichi
Actually, this was my favorite episode. Horiike is a company section director, who is real workaholic and has committed all her last years to her job - not because she wants to work so much, but she has a great sense of duty. Even so, she gets fired when she gives wrinkles what to change in the company. - This episode shows the most how irresponsible, mean and two-faced people might be. Horiike dies from heart failure, which occurred because of too much work, stress and less sleep time. This is something that most likely will happen to me if my current life-style continues O.o. I liked that she was very rational and knows what to do. She is the only character who showed the most sides of herself in the whole drama. Sentence is "Getting fired is like heartbreak in relationship". You can also meet again with Omoto - so sad that he is rather stupid.. Even though Horiike gets yellow card for changing clothes, the referees finally allow it - they are too sad. In the end, all she wanted to do, is to be happy - I liked that she sometimes thought that maybe going with her boyfriend would have been a better choice.  

Episode 9. "Hikikomori"
Cast: Oizumi Yo, Haruyama Mikisuke, Koide Saori, Tajima Reiko, Oshima Yoko, Nukumizu Youichi
Miura is a guy who has no desire to live, but also does not make a suicide - by the way, he has not gone out of the house for 12 years! New judge is Omoto and even referees are having hard time with understand the loss time as the clock seems to be broken - or is it?  - Miura is sooooo useless -.- he annoyed me so much, so I liked the end result :) 

Special/ Overtime "Omoto Yuzo Monogatari"
Cast: Kuriyama Chiaki, Kajihara Ken, Sakai Wakana, Tamura Ryo, Nukumizu Youichi, Tajima Reiko, Oshima Yoko
From the title it seems like Omoto will die, but no. The Special episode explains everything about Omoto.. and his wife, his former job etc. It is just like another episode. Nukumizu is amazing actor - he is so talented and funny! Omoto's life story is cute and the end is veeery cute. Sakai Wakana is adorable and I like that she plays stupid person this time xD All in all, it connects many previous episodes together and makes you realize what was going on.

I hope it can make you understand your life priorities - I wish I could tell it made my mind clear from this point, but with current life tempo I cannot have any other priority than school and entrance exams, BUT I know that the most important in the life still is family, love and friends ^^

Long Love Letter (2002)

Tagline: Drifting classroom
Country: Japan
Genre: surreal, sci-fi, romance, school
Format: drama, 11 episodes
Cast: Kubozuka Yousuke, Tokiwa Takako, Yamada Takayuki, Yamashita Tomohisa, Suzuki Emi, Karina, Osugi Ren, Misukawa Asami, Tsumabuki Satoshi,
Synopsis: Misaki Yuka and Asami Akio meet by chance at a bookstore. Even though they feel connection between each other, they are unable to meet again. One year later, Yuka is working in her dad's flower shop and Asami as a math teacher in Motokura high school. They meet again when Yuka goes to the school to collect money from a client there - re-encounter does not go as well as they hoped. Yuka receives a call from her former student to meet with her day after that. Next day Yuka goes back to the school (she did not get the money day before) - Asami wishes to clear the misunderstanding between them when suddenly an earthquake occurs. When they open their eyes again, they find that everything but school has turned into sand - or is it the school that has disappeared from its place?
Rating: 4/5
Really highly rated drama! It would have been a total killer if it would not have had one tooo annoying point in it, but more about it later. You can read about the end of the drama from SPOILER-review.

The main main character is more actually Asami, but I know that it does not seem to be so according to the synopsis. Asami is played by Kubozuka Yousuke. He is really amazing actor (well, it is his first drama I have seen) - all emotions are well played. As Asami is one character who goes through all kind of different scenes - he is being jealous, angry, sad, in love etc. Really cute - especially "Let's go on a date under the desert moon" *romance level 100* He tells most of the truths in the drama like "As long as you live, you have hope!". His and Yuka's love story in it is really cute form the start. When in Code blue operation with drill (construction drill) was sick, then prepare yourself to ultimate sickness as they perform an operation with paper knifes and spoons.

It is weird how things start to happen first with Yuka - that's why in the synopsis she is most mentioned. She gives the feminine aura to drama as she really starts to act as a mother by protecting the students. Her background is later explained, but it is difficult to understand her feelings towards Fujisawa, the former student of her.
Takamatsu is the main character among the students. He is really insensitive and stupid when it comes to Kaoru, his girlfriend, but he is only character whose mental growth is clearly shown. As well he is the one who wants to go back to the so-called reality the most as he starts to regret his foolness in the real world. What I did not know was that Yamada Takayuki is the same actor who played in The Seaside Motel as Asakura Yousuke (room 202). AMAZING! Kaoru stays in the real world, that's why they start to think about their relationship more - it is sweet how much Kaoru loves him.

Otomo Tadashi, played by Yamashita Tomohisa, is smart yet lazy best-friend of Takamatsu. He is popular, but does not have a girlfriend and he is regularly (mentally and almost sexually) abused by his teacher Sekiya. Tadashi is a little bit scary character by his talk - he mentions the most about killing and suicides, but at the same time he also talks the most about girls and sex. High point of him is when Takamatsu tells him "Don't jump on her!" when Nishi is unconscious in next bed and he answers "I am not that desperate!".

Others - Sekiya is way tooo crazy - even in the real world she has mental issues, which deepens with shock. Kamo is the genius of the drama - her IQ is 230 and she really finds out everything with out leaving the place (okey, GPS scene is an exceptition), but in the end, she comes to the same result with out leaving school as others are spending outside researching. Nishi is a girl whose leg is injured - she sets many things into motion like some happenings, Tadashi's heart etc, but she is really scary when she is having a revelation - I have never liked it when people start talking nonsense without remembering it later.
(Question!! - Is Ikegaki played by Kanjani8's Murakami Shingo? I have not seen videos of him from that age, but Ikegaki is pretty similar to him - there is no information of Ikegaki's actor on the Internet, so I would be happy if some Kanjani8's fan would tell it to me! ^o^)

Drama contains several messages to people. One, which is most talked about, is "Only this moment matters! Live for the moment" - in drama they start with it, but in the end they find out that other way is possible too, as it is rather difficult thing to do. I think you should live for the moment, but think for the future - another weird thing about me. This drama definitely makes you think about the situation when some people you used to know are not anymore with you. Other thing is that we all must keep the nature - we cannot use all resources and we definitely cannot pollute our nature with all kind of chemicals! It is true that deserts have widen with recent years, so we really must take care of areas close to deserts (It is easy for me to say as I live so far from it)
But now to the reasons why it lost its 5th star. It might be a spoiler, but they show what happens with human - how they evolve into something spiderlike things. When I first saw them I was like "WTGYOZA! YOU JUST RUINED THE DRAMA!" I understand that it had to be more science fiction with it, but it more was similar to "Boogeyman" (2005, USA) when you finally see that Boogeyman is a really failure puppet. I seriously hated those spider-like-humans as much as that lamb meat in my rice. In some way it is just another sci-fi about 21st century, which were so popular before 2000 and some years after it. Also the jump in the last episode is actually impossible - and that scene was anyway bad, because you can see it how they all jump down not forward. I think the last episode is the worst episode of the drama.

You never know what happens next in this drama and that's why some things at first seem impossible - why and what really happened to that school? how can they navigate in desert? How much to the future they went? How much fuel the car has?? At first I thought they have not noticed so-called "mistakes", but actually they will give answers to all those questions above, except that Kamo's laptop must have had a serious killer-battery as she used it all the time without recharging it first...
Finally, the drama is very interesting, because they soon find out that they are not the only ones in that desert and it is cool to see how they try to survive, when one by one people go crazy, die or have a serious mood-changes. Also drama shows different sides of life - romance, friendship, protecting nature, school, different people in extreme situations etc. I recommend it to watch as another drama not as a sci-fi, because if you concentrate too much on the surreal part of it, it gets weird.

SPOILERreview: The end is a little bit difficult to understand, but from my point of view this is how it was: they actually stayed into that desert, but they were able to recover nature, so that grass started to grow again (but it is weird that there was no possibility for other animals to come out, which means that they all became total vegetarians and the children of those 21 people will be kindred in future)   About those letters and "the past" clip which was shown - it was third parallel- the past, which would have been if some things would have not happened as they did. It is rather complicated, but just think that we never know what is real in this world and what is not - maybe every time you have to make a decision, the world actually divides itself between your decision and the parallel-what-might-have-happened. Easily said, it is another level of philosophy.