GiraGira ( ギラギラ -2008)

Starring:
Sasaki Kuranosuke as Nanase Kohei
Maya Miki as Sonobe Yuki
Hara Sachie as Nanase Momoko
Miura Shohei as Shoji
Sato Tomohito as Ichikawa Kenta/Hideyoshi
Abe Tsuyoshi as Eiji
Ashina Sei as Yuuna
Tanaka Yoji as Fukami
Kotegawa Yuko as Jinguji Rena
Ishibashi Ryo as Katsuragi Taisei
Yamazaki Hajime as Tahira Hiroshi
Yuki Jutta as Toma
Sakimoto Hiromi as Yuki
Sakuragi Ryosuke (桜木涼介) as Akira
Nishiyama Sosuke as Rikuto
Yuji as Ken
Matsumoto Hiroya as Ren
Nagamachi Taro as Ryo
Matsushita Kouji as Leo
CHIKARA as Sakuya
Suzuki Mie (鈴木美恵)
Fujisawa Karin
Shikanai Daishi as Haruki
Guests
Igarashi Shunji as Eagle (ep1-2)
Hara Mikie (原幹恵) as Sayo (ep1-2)
Toda Keiko as Asaoka Misa (ep1)
Mitsuya Yoko as Kyoka (ep3)
Kobayashi Emi (小林恵美) as Saki (ep3)
Nonami Maho as Kazuki Sarina (ep4)
Kikawada Masaya as Sachiel (ep6)
Nishihara Aki as Hime/Oohara Maiko (ep6)
Wada Masato as Kazuma (ep7-8)

Based on a hit manga, this adaptation depicts the life of a married man Nanase Kohei after he returned to his former job as a male host. He woos the clients with his gentle and caring nature, and soon retrieves his former credit as the ace of the club. However, the transition back for this middle-aged man is not without its challenges. Afraid that his wife will find out about this job, Nanase is also garnering jealousy and displeasure from the younger hosts. Throughout the course of his employment, he demonstrates to others that hosting should not be the vulgar occupation it has become where the entire goal is to make the women frivolously spend money, rather, it is about a human connection that is so often overlooked.

This was a pretty good show. Not the overly best. It started out really interesting but got sorta of boring near the middle. It was the same old, same old where Kohei had to save the day and the woman. I wanted to see more character development with Shoji and the other hosts at the club. More so of Shoji since he was the closest to Kohei.

The ending was sort of abrupt and ended differently to that I thought it would. It was a happy ending but sort of lame. This show was a great boredom buster if and when I ran out of my other dramas to watch. I will say there was plenty of eye candy galore and was pleasantly surprised to see Wada Masato (Shigeshoshi) in the last two episodes. I am so looking forward to his dramas. He is a great actor and hidden talent in the Japanese TV world. If I were to see him on the Tokyo streets one day, I'd be all over him like "a fly on poo."

Another talent, that is starting to show up more often than not is Igarahi Shunji. Cute, not handsome, but something about him draws your attention to him. And he, too, costarred with Wada Masato in Shigeshoshi.

Miura Shohei


Wada Masato

The Prince of Tennis (2006)

Starring:
Kanata Hongo - Ryoma Echizen
Yuu Shirota - Kunimitsu Tezuka
Hiroki Aiba - Syuusuke Fuji
Hiroki Suzuki - Syuuichiro Oishi
Masato Wada - Sengoku Kiyosumi
Osamu Adachi - Eiji Kikumaru
Hirofumi Araki - Sadaharu Inui
Yoshikazu Kotani - Takashi Kawamura
Masaki Kaji - Takeshi Momoshiro
Kousuke Kujirai - Kaoru Kaidoh
Ryuuji Sainei - Keigo Atobe
Rikiya - Egate Mcleod Higaki
Goro Kishitani - Nanjiroh Echizen
Hitomi Shimatani - Sumire Ryuuzaki
Sayuri Iwata - Shion Higaki
Kouji Date - Choutarou Ohtori
Tokio Emoto - Gakuto Mukahi
Genki Ishii - Jirou Akutagawa
Daiki Nakae - Yuushi Oshitari
Junpei Suzuki - Shishido Ryou
Kazutoshi Yamakawa - Munehiro Kabaji
Yasuka Saito - Shinji Ibu
Yuuki Fujiwara - Akira Kamio
Daiki Sano - Aoi Kentarou
Eiji Moriyama - Genichirou Sanada
Juri - Hikaru Amane
Mitsuyoshi Shinoda - Sasabe
Kenta Kamakari - Sasabe's friend #1
Takashi Nagayama - Sasabe's friend #2
Yusuke Ishibashi - Referee
Shun Takagi - Masaya Sakurai
Ruito Aoyagi - Bystander
Ryou Washimi - Bystander
Takumi Saito - Bystander

Kanata Hongo stars as tennis prodigy Echizen Ryoma who, after winning four consecutive victories in the USA, is brought back to Japan by his father and enrolled in the prestigious Seishun Academy Middle School, famous for its tennis team.

Ryoma soon finds himself the only first-year on the school team, playing alongside school captain and national player Tezuka Kunimitsu, cool-headed Oishi Syuichirou and the acrobatic Kikamura Eiji. He also attracts the attentions of Higaki Shioin, a strange and quiet girl who watches him attentively from the bleachers. Can Ryoma successfully juggle sports, school, girls and life in a new country to earn the title Prince Of Tennis?



This is my second time to watch this. I really wanted a refresher course but maybe I should have rewatched the anime's instead since they are more closer to the manga than anything else.

I'm not saying this is a bad movie. Not at all. It's just hard to fit a year's worth of manga into two hours. They did their best. It was fun to watch but if you have read the manga and watched the animes...well, this would be a disappointment. Luckily, I saw this first before anything else. So I wasn't a wee bit angry. And I'm still not.

I hope they make a PoT 2. They need to finish the manga out....even if we have to have a 3rd movie. They pulled a 3rd Deathnote out of their asses...they can do the same for PoT.

I love the manga/anime series so much! I hated the fact that it ended. I, actually, balled like a baby. I was a blubbering idiot. Yeah, I know you're laughing. *Ha-Ha*