Water Boys 2005 Natsu (WATER BOYS 2005夏)

Starring:
Eita as Tanaka Masatoshi
Koide Keisuke as Uehara Kensaku
Hiraoka Yuta as 名嘉尾悟
Emoto Tasuku as Koma Shunichiro
Konishi Manami as Uehara Kyoko
Sakai Ayana as Kakihara Rena
Takizawa Nonami as Buritani Michiru
Ukaji Takashi as Koma Toshimichi
Matsushige Yutaka as 名嘉尾大悟
Masuoka Toru as Uehara Kosaku
Watanabe Misako as Kakihara Haru
Kubo Akira as the head teacher
Mori Yoshiyuki as the principal
Nagumo Yusuke (南雲勇助) as Hotta Zenjiro
Tonesaku Toshihide as Hatori Manabu
Kashii Yu as Hanamura Kyoko
Ishii Tomoya as Ishizuka Futoshi
Tanaka Kei as Yasuda Takashi
Manabe Kaori as Sakuma Megumi
Nakayama Katsumi
Sekiguchi Kimiko
Nakajima Ben
Kanbe Hiroshi
Kumabe Youhei (隈部洋平)
Fuwa Hisashi (不破央)
Hiraizumi Sei
Ishihara Yoshizumi
Yajima Kenichi

Synchro Participants
Pe Jyonmyon (ペ・ジョンミョン)
Sano Yasuomi
Fujii Atsunori (藤井貴規)
Kawagishi Ginji (川岸銀次)
Sugiura Yugo (杉浦由悟)
Tashiro Koji
Tomikawa Kazuhito
Nakano Shintaro (中野真太郎)
Takahashi Mitsuomi
Taketani Atsushi (竹谷敦史)
Yanagibashi Tomonori (柳橋朋典)
Ueda Shinsuke (植田真介)
Kawasaki Ryuichi (川崎龍一)
Tamaari Yoichiro (玉有洋一郎)
Iwato Hidetoshi (岩戸秀年)
Sato Yuki
Kora Kengo
Kan Yuta (菅雄太)
Okada Yuki (岡田雄樹)
Takeuchi Tomoya
Nokubo Naoki (野久保直樹)


Tanaka Masatoshi is having troubles getting into medical school, something he blames on all the time he spent on synchro two years earlier. While on a research trip to a remote southern island of Japan, he is forced into coaching a newly formed three member boys synchro team. Tanaka has to come to terms with his past and begins questioning his future, while the three boy synchro team dream of life off of the island.



Can I be any more in love with Hiraoka Yuta? I'm not joking here. He is soooooo cute. OMG! I was in heaven watching this film. Yuta-kun in really, really, really skimpy speedos. I can't keep my tongue in my mouth. Let's just say the pause button was used tremendously just so I could get really good visuals of him. OMG! Yeah, Yuta-kun is now in my top 5 "I gotta have" list. Why does he have to be so young? I wonder if he likes older women....LOL! Okay, okay, okay....I'll stop dreamin'.



This film, other than eye-poppin'-candy galore, was just another Water Boys film. Same story, different time, with different guys other than Eita. The only difference in this movie was that not only did they have to save the festival but the town as well from land grubbers. Of course, there was a little bit of romance.....poor Yuta-kun didn't have a girl....and great choreography in the water. The ending sequence, to me, was just a little bit more risque than the last few series and movie. But nothing rated "R" about it.



Just a fun movie but nothing to get overly excited about (well, other than Yuta-kun in an overly skimpy outfit).



If I lived in Japan, I would be his #1 stalker fan. LOL! YUTA-KUN!!!!!!!!!!!

Swing Girls ( スウィングガールズ -2004)

Starring:
Juri Ueno - Tomoko Suzuki
Yuta Hiraoka - Takuo Nakamura
Shihori Kanjiya - Yoshie Saito
Yuika Motokariya - Kaori Sekiguchi
Yukari Toyoshima - Naomi Tanaka
Nagisa Abe - Reiko Shimoda
Noriko Eguchi - Shop Assistant at Muscial Instruments Shop
Hana Kino - Manager at supermarket
Fumiyo Kohinata - Yasumi Suzuki
Fumiko Mizuta - Yuka Yamamoto
Naomi Nishida - Masumi - student at music school
Mutsuko Sakura - Suzuki Mie (Tomoko's Grandmother)
Miho Shiraishi - Yayoi Itami
Issei Takahashi - Band Leader
Masaaki Takarai - Kubota-sensei
Naoto Takenaka - Tadahiko Ozawa (math teacher)
Yoji Tanaka - Manager of Pinball Parlour
Kei Tani - Morishita
Eriko Watanabe - Sanae Suzuki
Asuka Yamaguchi - Chika Kubo
Hidekazu Mashima
Yu Tokui
Chise Nakamura
Seiji Fukushi

It's a sweltering day during summer vacation in a remote town in northeast Japanc
The Yamakawa High School brass band clambers aboard a bus, off to provide moral support for their team at a local baseball championship. 13 girls, all of them losers, watch from classroom window. They're stuck in remedial math with Mr. Ozawa (Naoto Takenaka), but their minds are miles away and their ability to focus, . . . .huh? One girl, Tomoko Suzuki (Juri Ueno), stares enviously out the window at the musicians as their bus pulls away. Suddenly, she notices that a caterer's van has pulled up. The driver is beside himself when he realizes that he's missed the bus. As Tomoko watches, an idea takes shape in her otherwise vacant mind.....

"Teacher, I'm sure those guys are super hungry. I think we should take them their lunches."

Within minutes, the girls have ditched summer school math and boarded a local train, ostensibly off to deliver the lunches. Heady with their newfound freedom, they sample and then gobble down, one of the lunches, doze off and miss their stop. Before long, they're walking back to the stadium in the sweltering heat, complaining every step of the way. By the time they finally deliver the food, it has spoiled in the heat and the whole band, along with its director Itan (Miho Shiraishi), are rushed to the emergency room with stomach cramps. Only Takuya Nakamura (Yuta Hiraoka) escapes this fate, thanks to the girls who devoured his lunch on the train.

Before long the baseball team is practicing for another game, but the band that normally cheers the team to victory is still out of commission. Takuya Nakamura tries to throw together a new brass band, but his efforts only draw the 13 loser-girls plus 3 other misfits. A brass band needs a lot more than 17 players. Takuya's thoroughly discouraged until he realizes that 17 is the perfect number for a jazz Big Band.
Intense training sessions on school band instruments follow. The girls, who have trouble at first even making a sound, gradually start to play entire melodies and manage to limp their way through "Take the A Train." Gradually, what started as a scheme for cutting class gives way to actual enthusiasm for music.

Everything is hunky-dory, until. . . .

One day before the championship baseball game, the regular band troops into the rehearsal room, fully restored and ready to play. They thank the girls for covering for them and the girls feign relief at not having to perform in public. But on the way home, they burst into tears over their shattered dream. The summer ends on a note of frustration.

When school starts up again in the fall, the girls go back to their usual routines but they can't forget the pleasure and satisfaction they found in music. Still, they're too proud to actually join the regular school band. In an inspired moment, they decide to start their own Big Band, the Swing Girls. Since their former instruments belong to the school band, they'll have to get their own. Brass is pricey and even used horns add up. The first step in getting the band off the ground turns out to be fundraising. The girls try everything, from working part-time jobs at a supermarket, to poaching wild mushrooms in the forest, wreaking havoc wherever they go. Discouraged, some drop out and the Swing Girls dwindle to five, but they finally get their hands on a trumpet, a trombone, drums and a pair of saxes and make a meager start.

Their remedial math teacher turns out to be a jazz enthusiast and he coaches them through the "community noise pollution" stage into some real swing. Excited to see their friends' transformation, others return to the fold, and the Swing Girls finally achieve that Big Band sound. When they hear about a student music competition the girls decide to enter. If their audition video makes the grade, they'll have the chance to play on a real stage. They tape their audition against the spectacular backdrop of snow-capped mountains, but.......

If it isn't one thing, it's another. The Swing Girls future hangs in the balance. Will they ever get the break they need. . . ?




This movie was okay. It was rather dull at the beginning but picked up at the end. The only reason I stayed was because of my new found love Hiraoka Yuta. *sigh*

Okay there were some rather funny moments in the movie.....the high school band getting food poisoning, the drummer girl while eating ice cream stands up and rips her skirt then it falls off while a bike rider passes by he freaks out and loses control of his bike and down a hill he goes. I'll admit that part had me blow soda out my nose.

This movie is rather another high school coming of age story. There weren't any poignant moments or tender-heart scenes. Just an all out fun comedy. Now I'm not saying it was the best by any means. There were moments that could have been cut out. Some scenes that were supposed to be funny weren't. But I guessed the funny parts with the bad evened itself out enough for me to enjoy the ending, which by the way was....SUGOI!

Hiraoka Yuta


Fukushi Seiji

First Kiss (ファースト・キス -2007)

Starring:
Inoue Mao as Fukunaga Mio
Ito Hideaki as Kano Kazuki
Hiraoka Yuta as Yuki Akio
Matsuyuki Yasuko as Takagi Renko
Gekidan Hitori as Shindo Ichiryu
Abe Sadao as Nikaido Masaru
Takenaka Naoto as Banba Dai
Natsuki Mari as Fukunaga Rieko
Sakai Wakana as Saito Haruna
Warabino Tomoya as Shohata Takeo

Guests
Gashuin Tatsuya (ep1)
Marie (ep1)
Endo Yuya (ep2)
Kashiwabara Shuji (ep3)
Daito Shunsuke (ep5)
Watanabe Izumi (渡部いずみ) (ep5)
Iketani Nobue (池谷のぶえ) (ep6)
Shiba Toshio (柴俊夫) (ep6-10)
Sugawara Eiji (ep7)
Saito Yua (齊藤夢愛) (ep7-8)

A bitter-sweet and uplifting comedy drama about a young girl Mio and her brother Kazuki. To treat her illness overseas, Mio has been living away from her older brother Kazuki for the past ten years. After learning about the upcoming surgery, which she has only a fifty percent chance of survival, Mio decides to fly back to Japan to spend time with Kazuki. Looking forward to seeing his sweet younger sister, Kazuki anxiously awaits Mio's return in Japan. However, their reunion is nothing but full of surprises as Mio has transformed from the innocent sickly girl Kazuki remembers from ten years ago into a sassy woman with an attitude. Kazuki has difficulty dealing with his wickedly selfish younger sister, but soon learns about the truth of her medical condition and has a change of heart. --groink

Ya know, I've skipped this drama a thousand times. The synopsis didn't intrigue me one bit. Well, I'm coming to the end of all the dramas I can find so I'm scoping crunchyroll.com for something I might have missed. I sit at the computer and squint my eyes in thought...."Do I really want to watch this?" Okay, the girl has a heart problems which usually means that the drama will be some sort of tearjerker and I'm not really into watching a half of a romantic duo die. So I contemplated. I read the crunchyroll.com reviews for this drama. Nobody mentions death. Hmm? Maybe this'll be good?

So I get a wild hair up my butt and clicked on the first episode link. I'm hooked. Ohhhhh, am I hooked. I cried in the first freakin' episode. Hello?? Next thing ya know...I can't stand it. I'm practically rushing through all the episodes. Does Mio and Dr. Yuuki make it? To hell with the rest of the cast.....

Hiraoka Yuta....to die for!! I've seen him a countless times. Guess what I'm searching movies and dramas that I might have missed with him in them. Oh......I'm so hooked on this guy. He's so freakin' kawaii!!! I'm in "suki" with him..........*must find my Japanese book and translate that fully into Japanese and not half-assed.*

I loved, loved, loved this drama. God Bless the Japanese and their romance dramas because, and yet again I say this, they don't torture you till you've bled your last drop of blood like the Korean dramas. This was so sweet.........

I'm sooooo downloading the bittorrents for this drama....I must have it!!

Hiraoka Yuta

Medaka (めだか-2004)

AKA: Night School

Starring:
Mimura as Meguro Takako
Harada Taizo as Shiina Ryousuke
Eita as Sakuragi Taku
Sudo Risa as Kawahara Yukiko
Yamamoto Taro Yabe Hiroki
Kinouchi Akiko as Kawashima Taei
Hiraoka Yuta as Takasugi Junpei
Kuroki Meisa as Yoshizumi Asuka
Izumiya Shigeru Kariya Rokuro
Yamazaki Shigenori as Oyamada Osamu
Ichige Yoshie as Meguro Mizue
Kohinata Fumiyo as Taneda Naofumi
Asano Yuko as Kunimi Shouko
Hayashi Ryuzo as Morimura Seiji
Kato Koki as Takei Kou
Asahina Eri as Yamamoto Eri
Endo Yuya as Nemoto Yuuya
Sato Megumi
Sato Kazuya
Izawa Ken (ep1)
Kaku Tomohiro (ep3)
Koide Keisuke (ep3,5)
Sakai Wakana as Kariya Keiko (ep7)
Katayama Reo
Yanagisawa Takahiko
Masana Bokuzo


Takako Meguro's dream has always been to get married and quit her job. But one day, she finds herself working as a teacher at a night school. At first, she is unmotivated and doesn't take her work seriously. But she soon finds out that work at night school is tougher than she thought. There's a high-school dropout, a businessman, a cabaret girl, and many others—every student is either strange or extraordinary in one way or another. Half of the students are older than Takako, and she discovers that one of the students was her classmate in elementary school.

Now that she sleeps during the day and works at night, Takako is unable to attend drinking parties to meet guys. She starts to think that's how life is, and she should go with the flow.

But one night an incident ignites Takako's passion for her job, which explodes into an angry scolding of her students. --Fuji TV

OMG! I found a drama with Eita! I love him! He's just so my type! Tall, dark, and....oh, so gorgeous! HEHE!

I have to say that the Japanese like to shove down your throat school-life morality! I don't know how many shows that I've seen the teacher teaching hard-to-teach kids. Let's see....Gokusen and GTO are some examples. This one is a bit different as the "kids" are a mosaic of drop-outs of different ages.....a few older than the teacher herself. The setting....night school. Definitely different....but as the "kids" learn about themselves the teacher learns as well.

I've never heard of this drama until I literally fell upon it. This one is totally underrated. This one needs to be pushed to the masses!!

Endo Yuya


Hiraoka Yuta

Just had to add a few guys that you don't normally see up front and in leading roles but their supporting characters make major impacts....and they're cute too!

NANA (2005) and NANA 2 (2006)

(2005)
Mika Nakashima ... Nana Osaki
Aoi Miyazaki ... Nana Komatsu
Hiroki Narimiya ... Nobuo Terashima
Ken'ichi Matsuyama ... Shin
Saeko ... Sachiko
Yuna Ito ... Reira Serizawa
Momosuke Mizutani ... Naoki
Anna Nose ... Jyunko
Takehisa Takayama ... Kyosuke
Tomoki Maruyama ... Yasu
Tetsuji Tamayama ... Takumi
Ryuhei Matsuda ... Ren Honjou
Yuta Hiraoka ... Shoji Endo

Nana Osaki is a punk singer who wants to debut with her band as soon as possible to leave her ex-boyfriend, Ren Honjo, behind. Nana was the lead vocalist in their old band with Ren, and they lived together as lovers. When Ren is offered a chance to debut in Tokyo as a replacement member of the popular band Trapnest (T-Nest for short), Nana chooses to cultivate her own band, Black Stones (BlaSt for short) instead.

Nana Komatsu, the other Nana, is called Hachi (after Hachikō) as she has weak mental characteristics that resemble a puppy. With a habit of falling in love at first sight, Hachi has always depended on other people to help her. When her friends and then boyfriend leave for Tokyo, she decides to join them a year later after having saved enough money.

Nana and Hachi meet in a train by chance, both on their way to Tokyo. After a string of coincidences, they come to live together in an apartment numbered 707. Despite having contrasting characters and ideals, the Nanas like and respect each other.

While the Black Stones begin to gain popularity at live gigs, other issues need resolving, especially in the areas of romance. The story of Nana revolves heavily on the romance and relationships of the two characters as one seeks fame and recognition while the other seeks love and happiness.

I loved, loved, loved this movie. Matsuda Ryuhei was perfect as Ren. Nakashima Mika was perfect (and looked just like the manga version) as Nana. I loved the complexity and the sexiness between them both. Such a serious aspect for youth at that age. You could actually feel the tumultuous relationship between the two. Ahh! The train scene had me bawling like a big baby.

Miyazaki Aoi was the pefect assignment as the character for Hachiko. There was actually a time I wanted to beat the living daylights out of Shoji for treating Hachiko the way he did. Miyazaki's portrayal of Hachi was spot on while showing her quirky, naive side. That "oh so" innocent face was just perfect!

This was an A+ movie all the way.


(2006)
Mika Nakashima ... Nana Osaki
Yui Ichikawa ... Nana Komatsu
Kanata Hongo ... Shin
Yuna Ito ... Reira
Nobuo Kyo ... Ren
Tomoki Maruyama ... Yasu
Momosuke Mizutani ... Naoki
Hiroki Narimiya ... Nobu
Anna Nose ... Junko Saotome
Takehisa Takayama ... Kyosuke
Tetsuji Tamayama ... Takumi
Seminosuke Murasugi
Tetsuhiro Ikeda
Yasuhi Nakamura

Taking place shortly after the end of the first film, Nana 2 focuses more on Komatsu Nana (Hachi/Hachiko)and her love life. Romance develops between Hachi and TRAPNEST's bassist Takumi as well as with the Black Stones' guitarist Nobu. Meanwhile, Nana works hard for her band while trying to find happiness. Both girls struggle through life, and try to keep their friendship from falling apart. More information on the story at Nana.

The flipside.....of NANA 2 sucked. I was looking forward to the relationship scenario of Hachiko with Takumi. Well, first of all......Matsuda, Matsuyama and Miyazaki.......didn't reprise their roles. That was a definite minus since their parts were perfect for them. This movie went so downhill it's not even funny. Miyazaki's replacement was lost in translation. I love Kanata Hongo as Ryoma in Prince of Tennis but as a rock-n-roll bassist.....ugh! He was not even close to being right for the part. He was too young, too innocent, too something. Nobuo Kyo was believable as Ren but Matsuda played it better. The only good thing about this movie was Tamayama Tetsuji. I love this man and his part as Takumi couldn't have been played any better.

This movie isn't really worth watching other than drooling over TT. If you are a TT fan...go for it!!!

Tamayama Tetsuji


Matsuyama Ken'ichi


Matsuda Ryuhei

Check It Out, Yo!

It's a movie. It's Japanese. And I was pleasantly surprised that it was totally better than what I thought it was. LOL! The movie poster had me thinking this would be a totally stupid movie but gave it a shot. And yet again....NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!



Starring:
Ichihara Hayato ... Toru Isaka
Emoto Tasuku ... Akira Motobe
Hiraoka Yûta ... Tetsuo Tamashiro
Inoue Mao ... Yui Haebaru

This is a story about four high school kids who want to make a hip-hop band. Along the way, they go through a lot misery, self-doubt, self-awareness, and eventually happiness.

Toru has a crush on Nagisa, who is the girlfriend of a rival band. Akira and Tetsuo are Toru's friends who make up their band, 098. Yui is friends with all the boys but is in love with Toru and Akira loves Yui. (There really isn't a love traingle, per se. You'll see.)

Both visually and aurally satisfying, Check It Out, Yo! is a light, "feel-good" sort of movie. It's colorful, inventive, and energizing, and while it may not change your life, it certainly delivers plenty of belly laughs and a slew of intensely likeable performances.

So Check It Out, Yo!

Ichihara Hayato


Hiraoka Yûta