What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

So here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and the amount of episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number on list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous reviews, click here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click here!

KDRAMA

Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (12/16): "Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol” is a romantic comedy about a pianist named Goo Ra Ra who hits rock bottom after her family’s sudden downfall. After she finds her way to La La Land, a piano academy in a small village, she ends up crossing paths and falling in love with the tough and mysterious Sun Woo Joon, who seems to be hiding a lot of secrets. Goo Ra Ra is an immature and mischievous pianist. With her bright laughter and sunny disposition, she’s a simple, confident, and lovable person, having the charm of making anyone laugh no matter how difficult the situation. Goo Ra Ra also enjoys making jokes and acting unpredictably even during serious moments as she has lived a life without fear, being able to gain whatever she wanted with money. Something happened that caused her to become bankrupt. She doesn't have anything now, and she is frustrated with her situation. Sun Woo Joon doesn't care what other people think about him, but he has a warm heart. He is free-spirited and doesn't have a specific dream or goal for his life. He makes ends meet by working part-time jobs. Goo Ra Ra and Sun Woo Joon meet at the small private piano academy LaLa Land in a country village.

We finally got that time skip that I high key always knew was coming but I was surprised to find out that it was only 6 months long cause the whole point of it was to age up Jun in order for the romance to not be so icky. Is 6 months that even long enough for Jun to become 20 and no longer a minor? Ugh even just writing that out sounds so creepy honestly and I will never not be bitter that the writers for this show went down this route making this drama like Record Of Youth in terms of disappointing their audience. I'm also not sure about where we ended this week cause Ra Ra is definitely in love with Jun so why would she be marrying Dr Cha unless it's all some big elaborate plot. Maybe she found out about her dad's secretary running off with her money and decided to lure him out with a wedding? Maybe her dad left a will that said the company and the remaining money would go to her and her husband so the secretary would come back once he saw that Ra Ra was getting married on social media? Either way there's something more to the story than we know. I do have to say that I'm also really confused about how much time is given to seeing Go Ara and Lee Jae Wook play Man Bok and Sun Ja. Like it was cute and all last week but now it feels like too much screen time is being spent on them cause who even cares that they couldn't be together cause of misunderstandings?? Meanwhile Si Ah's reappearance was clearly just meant to be the easy way of letting Ra Ra know about Jun's past while simultaneously giving Jun closure by knowing that Ji Hun would have wanted him to be happy. It was funny though to see Dr Cha admit that he lied to Ra Ra too but she barely had a reaction cause duh it's a bigger deal when the man you love lies compared to someone you're barely acquainted with.

Kairos (5/16): Living a precarious life as a part-timer at a convenience store, Ae Ri strives to support her mother who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. Unfortunately, her mother’s worsened physical condition leads her to forgo the long-awaited opportunity for the transplant, and just like that her mother disappears. Things were already chaotic enough for Ae Ri when she receives a phone call from a strange man claiming to be from the same world but 31 days in the future. Ironically, he desperately asks Ae Ri for help. Seo Jin, a father and a husband of a close-knit family, has been living a successful life as the youngest person to become a director at a construction company. One day, it all crumbles down with the kidnapping of his daughter and his wife’s suicide. On the verge of breaking down, he is given an opportunity to restore everything that was lost under one condition, help from a strange woman. To bring his daughter and wife back to life, he makes a phone call as the clock strikes 10:33.

We only got one episode of this show this week due to scheduling issues in Korea which of course sucks but let's focus on what we got which blew my mind and changed the game completely! As it turns out, Seo Jin's daughter was never kidnapped and neither did his wife kill herself. It was all an elaborate plot in order for Do Gyun and Hyun Chae to run away together (or so I assume) though why in the world she had to go through all this rather than just divorce the man is ridiculous!!! I'll be curious to know how much she knows and whether she's a pawn or a queen but either way I don't think there's a way to redeem her after this cause what sort of monster convinces her husband that their daughter died?? I don't care if he was emotionally distant or if she never fell out of love with Do Gyun, you don't do something like this! Meanwhile we also see that Tae Gyuk kills Ae Ri's mom because she was blackmailing Yujung Construction with what I'm guessing is proof of Ae Ri's father's wrongful death. With all these reveals, I am left wondering if maybe Tae Gyuk and Do Gyun aren't actually working for the same team. Maybe Tae Gyuk is taking orders from the CEO of Yujung and while Do Gyun's got this other plan in which he gets to replace Seo Jin in every aspect of his life cause I can't imagine that Seo Jin the happy worker bee he was would have bugged the CEO enough for him to want to destroy Seo Jin's life. I still wish that past Seo Jin would pay a bit more attention to Ae Ri but I guess if he does then there's probs no story to be had. It did look like she noticed Hyun Chae with another man though she didn't see that it was Do Gyun and I'm sure that Seo Jin's wife cheating is low on her list of priorities but I need her to think about it more cause we the audience know it's a crucial point!

Private Lives (12/16): Swindlers come across a secret of the nation and try to reveal the secret. They must go up against a large company by using all of their skills. Lee Jung-Hwan is a team leader for the major corporation. He looks like an ordinary company employee, but he is a mysterious figure. Cha Joo-Eun is a swindler, who has the looks of a sweet & innocent woman. She supports herself with her crimes. Jung Bok-Ki is a professional swindler. She often targets other swindlers. She is elegant and also charismatic. Kim Jae-Wook is Jung Bok-Ki’s partner in crime.

So I know the show wants me to think that Bok Ki is going rogue and playing her own game but honestly I would bet that she's got a plan in the works. I'm not entirely sure why I think that yet based on the fact that we know that Bok Ki and Jae Wook are super in love so I'm sure she wouldn't want him dead or hurt like Jung Hwan and Joo Eun but something about her makes me feel like she really wants to screw Jae Wook over rather than help him succeed so for now she's still on our side. I still wonder if there's a chance to turn Jae Wook cause I'm sure he's just with GK cause he thinks they'll help him get his revenge and like honestly I still don't understand why GK Vision Room is so powerful when a hacker and a bribed policeman/prosecutor would do the same trick. In one move Jung Hwan outdid GK and saved Joo Eun from being framed as an industrial spy and cleared her charges! I know I say that like it was easy but it was such a smart move for them to see that well if GK is choosing Byung Jun then we should pick Hyuk Jang and play the same game. They even got Myung Han on board and he was one of the harder sells based on how he was all about following the law to catch Jung Hwan and arresting him for fraud. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. I'm still not sure what role the police captain is playing but he's on the take with Jae Wook while the deputy chief is on GK's side and the chief is on Hyuk Jang's. I don't know if I trust Hyuk Jang yet but at least he's not out to kill us cause as Jung Hwan learned, his mentor and the man he probs saw as a father figure is ready to kill him if he doesn't kill Joo Eun and there's no way he's doing that. On that note, I absolutely adore what a team Joo Eun and Jung Hwan are now! They've got no secrets from each other anymore and they're both so competent that they can be trusted to go off and do their own parts in this game.

Search (8/10): Yong Dong Jin is a conscript sergeant in the South Korean armed forces. He is also the military’s leading sniffer dog handler and is just one month away from receiving his long-awaited discharge. But with just weeks to go until he can rejoin the civilian world, a mysterious case threatens to suck him into a long, troublesome intrigue. In the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the area between North and South Korea, a suspected murder in bizarre circumstances piques the army’s attention. The army leaders decide to form an elite search party to scour the DMZ for clues, enlisting Yong Dong Jin and his keen-nosed dogs. Also joining the team will be Son Ye Rim, a relatively green but highly promising soldier who received much of her training in the United States. However, as the party begins to investigate, its members quickly begin to realize that whatever it is they are hunting does not appear to be human…

Honestly this week's plot twist probs should have been obvious in hindsight especially since Dong Jin is our main character and not Ye Rim but either way as we figured out, there was a second target out there that was infected and it's actually Dong Jin's dad and not the North Korean man I assumed it was. As we found out, after the others attempted to kill Captain Jo, they tossed his body into a cave where he met up with the North Korean defector who was infected by this strange substance which got into Captain Jo and made him into this strange creature. About a few months ago or so, a wild dog bit Captain Jo and absorbed the strange substance but since he had rabies, the substance evolved and made people into zombies basically. What's crazy is that after all this time, Dong Jin still never knew who his father was which is why when he was shocked to realize that Captain Jo had a photo of him and his mom, I was shocked too. What I wasn't surprised about was the reveal that Joon Sung kept a copy of the 1997 tape as insurance and in the end when his dad disappointed him again, he sent it out to the media. I'm not entirely sure if I should be worried with how unworried Lee Hyuk was especially since he's somehow got a way to pretend like the video is fake but I wonder if the end result will be meaningless cause Captain Jo is still alive. What if Ye Rim is able to cure him and then he can tell the truth?

Start Up (8/16): “Startup” is set in South Korea’s fictional Silicon Valley, called Sandbox, and tells the story of people in the world of startup companies. Seo Dal Mi dreams of becoming Korea’s Steve Jobs. She’s an adventurer who doesn’t own much, but has a grand plan for herself. She also has experience in a wide range of part-time jobs and is a person of great vitality. Nam Do San is the founder of Samsan Tech. He was once the pride of his family as a math genius, but for the past two years, he’s been going nowhere with his company’s investments. It turns out that Seo Dal Mi remembers him as her ‘cool first love’, and he decides to begin a startup in the hope of turning Seo Dal Mi’s misunderstanding into reality. Han Ji Pyung begins a startup company to pay off his debt. A team leader at SH Venture Capital, his astonishing investment skills and sharp tongue earn him the nickname, “the Gordan Ramsay of investments”. Though he’s prickly to most others, he’s softer than anyone to one special person who granted him a great favor in the past. Lastly, CEO Won In Jae has everything society respects: the educational background, beautiful appearance, and money. She considers her background as a second generation chaebol a weakness and does everything she can to create success on her own and be acknowledged for her skills. However, she ends up being used and thrown away by her father, and in order to stop being a disposable piece on her father’s chess board, she throws herself into a startup.

We're halfway through this drama now and I'm honestly shocked with how this show is moving through plot like it's nothing and it's leaving me anxious as hell cause if things are so good now, they've gotta get worse at some point! Having said that, I'm trying to stay positive though cause nothing about this show gives me the vibe that this show will be anything but the complete opposite of Record Of Youth in that it looks at following your dreams in an idealistic way rather than drowning you in reality. I do have to admit that I was worried that Do San would have to lie again but he was able to quickly tell Dal Mi the truth about her grandma after he helped in his own way by building Noongil. It also kind of looked like Dal Mi realized that Ji Pyung was her actual pen pal by the end of this week based on his handwriting so I'm sure that she'll confront Do San next week which will end the final lie that was set up. To be honest, I'm not actually all that worried cause I think Dal Mi will understand why Do San lied and forgive him. I'll be more curious to know how she reacts to Ji Pyung and her grandma cause in the end Do San was a bit of a patsy/victim cause he didn't know that his name was being used but her grandma let the lie go on for 15 years and Ji Pyung was the one who started the whole thing. This leads me to gushing about Dal Mi and Do San cause honestly these two are couple goals! I adored their kiss on the rooftop and I adore how in sync they are at all times! Most of the time I think the best couples come from the whole opposites attract mantra but once in a while I see couples that parallel each other and I see exactly why other people love that trope. Whereas on paper I should like Ji Pyung and Dal Mi cause you would think that with him being so rational and her being so idealistic, they would balance each other out but in actuality, I think that if they were together, he'd stifle her creativity and she'd be miserable. Meanwhile Do San and Dal Mi sort of come up with dreams together and then work hard to have them come through in the end. Do San came up with the idea of an app for the visually impaired and Dal Mi figured out their hook. Do San protected Dal Mi from In Jae's stepfather only to turn around and be saved from him by Dal Mi in the end. They are each other's sandboxes and that makes me cry!!

FINISHED Stranger 2 (16/16): The prosecutor's office and the police find themselves on opposing sides. The prosecutors, including elite prosecutor Woo Tae Ha, want discretionary power over investigations. Meanwhile, the police, including Choi Bit, tries to get complete investigative authority that is independent of the prosecutor's office. Under this tense situation, Prosecutor Hwang Shi Mok and Detective Han Yeo Jin chase after the truth in a hidden case.

I finally got around to finishing this second season and I have to say that it was an interesting experience. Like practically everyone else who watched both seasons, I agree with the idea that the first season was on the whole better but unlike everyone else, my problems were slightly different than theirs. This season our mystery wasn't as streamlined as the previous one but I actually liked that we were tossed from case to case cause in real life that's something like Dong Jae's kidnapping would be solved. It also kept the plot from dragging cause every few episodes we were able to move onto something new just as the last got dry but I adored how the final answer ended up connecting back to the first case we started this season with. I also really liked that most of our original cast came back and I liked the red herring that that Hanjo group we were fighting last season was still around and doing sketchy things but they weren't the bad guys in the end which leads to the problem I had with this season. The whole season's premise could basically be boiled down to the police v. the prosecution. It caused Shi Mok and Yeo Jin to be on opposite sides and have secrets and I was really not a fan. The other thing that I think was unfortunate was the fact that unlike last season it felt like Shi Mok was pretty much on his own in terms of the prosecution while Yeo Jin had all her police colleagues and that felt kind of isolating. Having said all that, I did like the bittersweet ending we got that is high key setting up for a new season based on Dong Jae's final scene! I liked that Shi Mok and Yeo Jin got their guys but cause of the world they live in, they didn't end up in happily ever afters with Shi Mok returning to a prosecution branch in the countryside and Yeo Jin ending up in a new unit where the people blame her for whistleblowing. It feels very real in that this is exactly what would happen in real life and dudes if there is a third season, I'll be there! Honestly despite my problems with this season, on the whole I really did enjoy this season a lot more than most detective/investigation/revenge dramas in this vein so, like season 1, I'd give it a 9 / 10!

Tale Of The Nine-Tailed (12/16): The story features the mythical nine-tailed fox, or gumiho, Lee Yeon who has just settled in the city. Able to transform into human form, he goes about cleansing human spirits, all the while creating havoc. Enter the talented television producer Nam Ji Ah whose current show features urban myths. With nerves of steel, she will stop at nothing to secure unusual, if not dangerous, subject matter to showcase. She sets her sights on Lee Yeon who appears just too good to be true; irresistibly handsome, intelligent, fit; in fact the ideal guest. But his heartlessness will render doubt in her that he is indeed of this world. Step-brother to Lee Yeon is the captivating Lee Rang, reputed to be the most dangerous of all gumihos living among humans. Despite being half-human himself, he harbors a deep-seated contempt for all people. For sport, he will unleash his seductive prowess upon his human-du-jour, by promising to grant them their wishes, only to trick them into paying a hefty price for their earthly desires.

This week was actually pretty fun cause though Yeon and Rang reconciled last week in Rang's fear dimension, this week we got to see them back in the real world facing obstacles but this time together rather than apart. I loved the fake-out in which we thought that Yeon had forgotten all about Rang for Ji Ah only to twist things on it's head as we found out that not only did Yeon did reach out, the brothers came up with an elaborate plot and Ji Ah was in on it as much as she could. I was thrilled that Rang's deal was finally broken cause not only was it about time someone took care of the horrible CEO but it also frees Rang to be whoever he wants to be despite still having his mortality hanging over his head. Yeon's reaction to Rang dying was sweeter than I expected honestly but I also don't really understand why he thinks killing the Imoogi will help cause the Imoogi really has nothing to do with Rang's failing health. I was also really surprised that Ji Ah's parents were actually saved so early on but it left me wondering if they'll die again or if they've somehow been hypnotized by the Imoogi so that they'll strike when we're least expecting it. I also have to shout out the fact that Taluipa is still the absolute worst cause I will never understand why she's continuously playing these games. Why can't she just talk and tell Yeon how to stop the Imoogi instead of worrying in her little office about how he's not doing it correctly. The gods in these shows are always the most selfish and cruel and at this point I should expect this anytime there's anything akin to the afterlife in one of these dramas. Why do I have the feeling that by the end of this, the Imoogi is going to be in Rang cause he'll sacrifice himself for Yeon and Ji Ah's happiness?

The Spies Who Loved Me (7/16): Kang Ah Reum is a wedding dress designer who has been married twice. Her two husbands harbor many secrets and Ah Reum gets swept up in them. Jun Ji Hoon disguises himself as a travel writer, but he is actually a secret agent for Interpol. His job as a secret agent is a way for Jun Ji Hoon to support himself financially. He is currently divorced. He was married to Kang Ah Reum, but they divorced without Kang Ah Reum learning about his secret life as a spy. Kang Ah Reum now works as a wedding dress designer. She met Derek Hyun after her divorce and they eventually married. Her current husband works as a diplomatic official and seems gentle and warm. His secret is that he is actually a cold-blooded industrial spy. Derek Hyun treats his wife sweetly, but, for his job as an industrial spy, he will do anything. He loves Kang Ah Reum sincerely, but he also hides his true self from her.

This week I still don't know if we've gotten any more pieces of the puzzle outside of what we knew before but I'm awkwardly left wondering if I wasn't actually supposed to know that Derek was the head of this branch of Helmes from the start based on the comments I've read and the fact that the synopsis doesn't mention it. It's either that or people are doing the annoying thing again where they decide they love a character despite the writing for him (and it's always a him cause female characters get reamed over the coals even if they're absolutely perfect) just based on the actor and I think that might be what's happening here. It does suck that Ah Reum and Ji Hoon are hiding things from each other again but they both know who's sketchy on their own. Ah Reum realized that Tinker was the man who was snooping in Sophie's apartment and Ji Hoon found footage of Derek at Sophie's death site as well as evidence that he might have been spying on Ah Reum. What I'm curious about is why Ji Hoon is hiding this from his Interpol team cause it really would help direct their investigation. In terms of the spy plot, I'm still really confused. Derek, Tinker, Peter, and Sophie were obviously stealing nuclear fusion secrets from JHNK but I don't know how Dong Taek fits in and why he's the boss of Derek or whether that's just what Derek lets him believe. Did he know that Helmes was going to sell his secrets and therefore he would make bank and now is pissed cause he lost everything? I also don't know how Doo Bong fits in but I'm starting to feel like he's not just a separate problem of his own cause he was getting sketchy phone calls too. I also really hope that we don't go down the route of our team has a mole cause I do like all of Ji Hoon's team minus Young Goo who is the literal worst agent for allowing his crush on Seo Ra to constantly get in the way of their spywork. I seriously rolled my eyes so hard when he put tissues in to block out Seo Ra's flirting like what if something important is said here but you don't hear cause you're jealous?? I also don't get why the recording device in the room only catches half the info cause it's like Doo Bong directly said that Peter was part of Helmes (before the device broke conveniently allowing them to miss that Derek was his boss.)

CDRAMA

Begin Again (10/35): It tells the story of a domineering female CEO and a warm doctor who turn a fake relationship into reality due to practical reasons. Having exchanged their 'I do's', they start on a new chapter of their lives as they learn to fall in love. Lu Fangning is the general manager of Luning Group, a large corporation in the business of home furniture. Lu Fangning is a woman who has it all - talented, beautiful and rich. Nearing her thirties, Lu Fangning succumbs to family pressures and decides that she urgently needs a husband with whom she will have a child. Coincidentally, surgeon Ling Rui appears in front of her. Ling Rui is not only blessed with good looks but also has an angelic heart, which makes him the perfect candidate in the eyes of Lu Fangning. She schemes her way to his life and they finally become husband and wife. Lu Fangning eventually realizes the error in her ways and strives to be better. However, keeping a marriage is not as easy as it seems.

Every week we really seem to be moving 2 steps forward one step back in terms of Fangning and Ling Rui's relationship but it's honestly so cute to watch. Ling Rui is in love with Fangning so he seems to constantly get exasperated by the fact that Fangning is not there yet. What he needs to do is take a deep breath and go with the flow a bit more cause it's obvious that as time moves forward, Fangning will love him. I also totally understand his anger with her when realizing that she wants a child from him but that it doesn't matter who gives it to her and that she doesn't want the father to be in the child's life. It set off all sorts of anger and sadness in Ling Rui and it leaves me laughing once more about how so many relationship drama could be solved if people communicated. Why can't Ling Rui tell Fangning that I really like you and I don't know if I want to get a divorce in a year or if we have a child, I want to be in that child's life! Either way I was living for that awkward dinner with Simon's ex where they were low key pissed at each other but pretending everything was fine cause I'm always of the mind that personal problems should be saved until you're out of the public eye. Even better was the role reversal on the whole class reunion scene where in most dramas it's the male lead swooping in and showing himself off and making the female lead's classmates jealous but here it was Fangning who tried to protect Ling Rui. Even sweeter was when he stepped up to protect her in return. In other news I was actually really surprised that the show ended up pulling the trigger on Simon having a crush on Fangning (which is probs why he ran away all those years ago cause once he realized it he must have been embarrassed) but I also really like that the show seems to be setting up a love interest for him anyway so that once he gets over Fangning, there's still happiness in his future unlike most second male leads.

The Blooms At Ruyi Pavilion (26/40): Fu Rong who's the second daughter of the Fu family unexpectedly had the ability of "foreseeing dreams" after a serious illness. She predicted that she would marry to Prince Su, Xu Jin, and finally suffered the fate of being buried. However, Xu Jin also has the ability of foreseeing dreams. Although Xu Jin also predicted the same tragedy, he doesn't want to avoid it but try his utmost to change the destiny. These two people begin the sweet game of "framing one another."

Well we've finally moved on from Rong'er and Xu Jin misunderstanding everything the other does and we're back to the tried and true plot of them constantly being barraged by the Emperor for Xu Jin to pick a legitimate wife cause god forbid one of these shows not thrust more wives on their male leads over and over again. Like why don't you just marry another woman and stop forcing others to do it? Xu Jin literally has two brothers and an uncle who are unmarried so if the Emperor wants to play matchmaker, why not with one of those?? At the very least it does look like Rong'er and Xu Jin have changed their future dreams a little bit cause the Princess has realized that Rong'er is a good person and from now on probs will not try to force Xu Jin to marry her so I'm sure that they'll be able to save Xu Jin from dying too. We did find out that Duke An shoved Ru Yi into the knife that Rong'er's maid was holding so it's clearly his fault that she died and I'm furious that Rong'er is treating him like a friend when all he wants is to kill her husband and marry her himself like a creep. Even Xu Jin is starting to get that vibe from him and I'm loving the jabs that he keeps throwing though Rong'er still seems to trust Duke An's words over Xu Jin's and that's exasperating cause it's like you knew this man as a child so you don't know who he is now. I also kind of adore that Xu Jin's little brother and Rong'er's ex best friend are sort of falling for each other but it leaves me wondering if both will end up reconciling with Rong'er and Xu Jin cause I really want more friends for them!

JDRAMA

Kono Koi Atatamemasuka (3/10): 21-year-old Kiki Inoue works part-time at a convenience store. She spends her days in a state of torpor. One day, Kiki Inoue meets Takumi Asaba, who is the CEO of a convenience store chain. She has a social media account where she reviews sweets. Her social media account has caught the CEO's attention. Takumi Asaba gets her to work on developing sweets to sell at his convenience store chain. Meanwhile, Takumi Asaba became the CEO to turnaround his company that's ranked lowest among convenience store chains. While talking about developing new sweets, they become attracted to each other.

I went into this drama expecting light and fluffy and that's exactly what I got! It's actually a mix of something like Backstreet Rookie, Dating In The Kitchen, and Panda & Hedgehog so you can tell I'm super into the whole creating deserts part of this show but I'm not sure how I feel about the main romance yet or whether I even know who the male lead is. Like at first glance it was obviously Asaba right cause he's not only in the synopsis but he's also the man that Kiki meets first and the one she gets a crush on. The only thing that's holding me back is the fact that he seems to still be hung up on Riho and unlike kdrama second female leads, Riho seems like a really good person so I really wouldn't mind if they got together. In that same vein, it's kinda strange that Kiki saw Asaba as an old man and he sees her as a kid not to mention the fact that I'm so beyond over CEO/employee romances at this point in my life and I prefer when the romance is between equals so of course I'm over here shipping Kiki with Makoto like an idiot! It's funny how I practically never get SLS for kdramas and cdramas but when I watch a jdrama, almost half of the time I'm in SLS territory. I think it's cause I prefer soft male leads but jdramas really like their male leads to be cold. In other news I am curious about the politics in this show cause it really feels like Asaba is playing 3D chess right now and though Riho seems to have an idea of what he wants, Kiki is clearly being used (over and over again) and there are weird moments in which I'm left wondering if Asaba is even a good guy or not! As a sidebar I do hope we get a lot more fun competitions and desert competitions as that was hands down my favorite part of this show so far!

Neechan no Koibito (2/9): When Momoko Adachi was in high school, her parents died in an accident. She was left with her 3 younger siblings. To support her family, Momoko Adachi gave up on going to a university and picked up a job at a hardware store. 9 years later, she is now 27-years-old. Her 3 younger siblings are 20, 17, and 14-years-old. Momoko Adachi places her sibling's happiness before anything else. One day, she meets Yoshioka-san at work. She is attracted to Yoshioka-san, who smiles all the time, but he has a secret.

I was fairly interested in checking out this show based on the synopsis alone but after watching the first two episodes, I was mesmerized by the whole melancholy tone of this show. I mean it's not exactly depressing but it feels like it's seeped in sadness and I have to tell you I'm always so surprised and ten times more interested when a jdrama has a unique tone so I was waaay more on board than I thought I would be. It feels like every person in this show went through an ordeal before it started and I can't decide what this show is trying to be. The synopsis made it feel like it was going to be a family drama with romance sprinkled in but it actually feels like it's an office drama. Like for all the emphasis that this show and the synopsis places on Momoko's brothers, the brothers don't feel like real characters yet as we see them less than Momoko's coworkers! Of course I'm really into the cute vibe that Momoko and Manato have but like raise your hand if you're almost completely sure that Manato's going to have been the driver that killed Momoko's parents like me. I mean it's such a star-crossed lovers trope by this point that I sorta expect it but at the same time I want to believe that it's not true to avoid the sadness! We know that Momoko's parents died 9 years ago but Manato's dad died 3 years ago so I assumed that whatever he did to put himself in jail must have happened 3 years ago after he snapped but all that might just be my hopeful thinking! 

Shichinin no Hisho (3/8): Toto Bank President Ichihara is in a hotel suite romancing his secretary Nana when he suddenly loses consciousness. Four women arrive to perform CPR, but their efforts to save him are in vain. They calmly rid the room of evidence, then ensure the deletion of all records pertaining to the president’s stay. Previously, the president had stipulated that should he die suddenly, his death must be be made to appear as if he had died at home. Keitaro is a former litigation clerk who worked as a political secretary and is now running a ramen restaurant. He ordered the four women to deal with the situation happening in the hotel room. Together restauranteur Keitaro, housekeeper Satsuki and secretaries Chiyo, Nana, Fujiko, Saran and Miwa, form a shadow corps, whose mission it is to help the weak and punish evil-doers. With their combined skills and experience, they are a force to be reckoned with. 

I really had no idea what kind of a show I would be getting when I started this but ironically it ended up being the exact kind of con artist show I adore. Like our heroes aren't out here to steal money from marks but our heroes do work together to scam bad people and help victims get their revenge so I think it counts as being a show similar to Confidence Man JP and Leverage (the American version.) So far this is a procedural though I'm almost completely sure that there's probs going to be an overarching plot especially after episode 3 when we met that politician. I also wonder if every week is going to shine a spotlight on one of our seven secretaries so that we get to know them a little more outside of the few minutes we get every episode. Like so far we know that Chiyo lost her brother and is in debt to Ban (I think), Nana is from a poor family and was sent to work in the city by her parents, Sa Ran is Korean and in Japan to find her birth father, and I'm fairly certain that Fujiko has had some sort of boy trouble just based on her reaction to a mark's husband cheating. I love the cases we get though I'm not sure if it's the length of these episodes or the fact that we have so many characters to follow but it does feel like cases are solved a bit too easily sometimes. I also wasn't sure if I liked Nana joining the team cause she irritated me with her naivety (and the fact that she was the mistress to the married bank president) but I'm hoping that she'll end up growing on me soon enough as she learns to be a shadow secretary like the others.

FINISHED Sixteen Shoukougun (8/8): The story centers on a high school girl who stronger and cooler than any guy, the prince, and her beautiful best friend, the princess.

The finale for this show aired this week and it was pretty much what I expected but that's not a bad thing at all! I did wonder for a hot second if the show might actually give us a tragic end to this dark tale about obsession with Asada dying to save Mei after she tried to kill herself out of some sort of need to sacrifice herself for Ibuki's happiness. Fortunately that didn't happen and we got a happy ending for every member of our foursome. Ibuki finally admitted her feelings for Asada and they became a cute couple, Mei let Ibuki go and made new friends as did Sakurai and I imagine some time in the future, those two will fall in love. I do think that the episode did drag a bit in the middle when Ibuki dreamt that Asada was dying and we saw the same interaction again in the hospital but I guess I understand why it was necessary cause it showed Ibuki that she needed to go after what she wanted cause you never know when things will change. I think overall I'm not sure if I enjoyed this show or not but I do know that I was half in love with the actor who played Asada though I was surprised to find out that he was 20 cause he did look older and I'll definitely be looking forward to what he does next. It was pretty much him and his cute relationship with Ibuki that kept me around! Overall I'd give this show a 7 / 10!

Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari (4/7): Mami Shirasawa became a lawyer at the young age of 20, as she chose to take the preliminary judicial examinations. Now with a large law firm, she has yet to be assigned a case, despite her competence. When a colleague drops a case, Mami is eager to take it on. Her first client is Yoriko Watanuki, a woman who was sexually assaulted by the son of the owner of a large construction company. Predictably, the accused has denied wrongdoing and had tried to cover his tracks by using his money and influence and by twisting the victim’s words around to suit his purposes. Mami comes to learn that her client has likely been defrauded by an on-line revenge agency, whom she paid up front, but has yet to see any results. In order to take legal action, Mami instructs Yoriko to determine who at the agency is responsible for the theft. The guilty party is one Kensuke Kuroiwa, a petty con artist. In an unlikely turn of events, lawyer and con artist team up to exact revenge upon Yoriko’s assailant.

This might have been one of my most favorite new finds from this batch of jdramas that I checked out this week and though it does feel extremely similar to Shichinin no Hisho in terms of plot, this show as it turns out is more of a straight forward con artist show. Part of my interest towards this one might be chalked up to the fact that I think the leads have great chemistry and part of me is wondering if they might be a future ship but the rest of me finds the cases to be more fun and less rushed than the ones in Shichinin no Hisho. It does super suck that Mami ended up being disbarred cause of some bad guys and it's super weird that she really doesn't seem to care much even though we saw in her backstory why becoming a lawyer was so important to her. Maybe by the end of the season after she clears her father's name, she'll get her license back? Either way disbarring her for one supposed mistake was a lot. As I said I do enjoy the cases we've had and I adore how smart our leads are. They are able to play off each other and support each other's weaknesses with Mami's book smarts and Kuroiwa's street smarts. It also seems like at the end of each episode we're flashing forward to the present day and I'm a tiny bit worried that Mami hasn't learned anything from Kuroiwa in that she shouldn't jump first without scouting the scene and that somehow the buck will be passed to her so the police think that she took over her father's empire cause honestly that feels like a perfect bad guy move.

xoxo Allie