Tamaki Hiroshi and Yoshitaka Yuriko are Dating!

(Source: Sanspo) Tamaki Hiroshi (29) and Yoshitaka Yuriko (20) have admitted that they are dating each other! They met while working on a drama and as they got along well, their relationship progressed. The drama was TBS' Love Shuffle, which aired earlier this year in January. The banner for the drama is below.

Kamenashi Shock! Mr.Brain ratings dropped to 16.3%!

(Source: Entame) [Sorry for earlier erroneous translation! thanks to the person who left the comment for me!!] The 4th episode of Kimura Takuya's new dorama, Mr Brain, aired on 13th June 2009. Kamenashi Kazuya was the guest star in Episode 3 and that episode was the only episode that did not break the 20% ratings ceiling.

The ratings for KimuTaku's new dorama so far is as follows:
24.8％→22.0％→16.3％→21.0％

The episode with Kamenashi was 16.3%. This is bad news for him!!

Kuroki Meisa wants to run topless along the beach

(Source: Sanspo) Kuroki Meisa's new dorama, where she acts as Kawashima Yoshiko (the cross dressing Manchurian spy, read more here) airs on 6th December! At the press conference for the dorama, Kuroki Meisa revealed that if she became a guy, she would love to run topless along the beach! The dorama is about a Manchurian princess who grows up in Japan and spies for the Japanese. She is hailed as a heroine in Japan but as a traitor in China!

Hayami Mocomichi likes Toy Figurines

(Source: Sanspo and Wikipedia) Hayami Mocomichi (24) attended the press conference on 6th October 2008 for his new dorama, Oh my girl!! in Tokyo! The drama airs on the 14th , Tuesday nights at 10pm.

He stars as Yamashita Kotaro, a guy who was living a peaceful life as a publisher part-timer pretending to be a mobile phone novelist until two females suddenly appeared in his life. One is his six-year-old celebrity niece and the other is the little girl's stern manager. As he is forced to live under the same roof as the little prodigy, their differences soon manifest and disputes ensue. However, through co-habitation, Yamashita slowly comes to appreciate having a family and the warmth it brings, all the while developing a love-hate relationship with Fuji Mineko, the manager.

When asked about the childish side of his personality, Mocomichi revealed that he likes toy figurines, and that he has over 100 of them at home.

In case you were wondering, that cute little girl with the dog is Yoshida Riko! She's freaking 9 years old.

Sorry for being M-I-A................... been doing lousily this semester but from now on i've decided to heck care results and just have fun~! I'll work hard next sem ^_^ *pom poms*

JDorama Rankings! : Koizora starts off with a measly 5.6%

(Source: Entame) Hath the path from the big screen to the small one always been so fraught?! Anyway, Koizora's first episode which aired last Saturday, 2nd August 2008, reportedly garnered in a measly 5.6% of ratings. This places it at the bottom of JDorama rankings for the week - 28th July - 3rd August!

1st 15.7% CODE BLUE (starring Yamapi, Aragaki Yui and Toda Erika)
「コード・ブルー～ドクターヘリ緊急救命」
(who would have expected, after all the hammering it got...but just goes to show that the other summer doramas are equally weak or weaker!!!)

2nd 14.4%「太陽と海の教室」

3rd 14.0% Shibatora (starring Koike Teppei)
「シバトラ～童顔刑事・柴田竹虎」
(read more about Shibatora here)

4th 12.9%「ヤスコとケンジ」
5th 12.8%「その男、副署長」
6th 12.2%「モンスターペアレント」
7th 12.2%「33分探偵」

8th 10.9% Maou (starring scandal-ridden Satoshi Ohno and Ikuta Toma)
「魔王」

9th 10.3%「ゴンゾウ～伝説の刑事」
10th 10.3%「Tomorrow～陽はまたのぼる」

11th*9.4% Seigi no Mikata(starring Yamada Yuu, aka Oguri Shun's gf)
「正義の味方」
(read more about it here)

12th*9.1%「あんどーなつ」
13th*8.1%「四つの嘘」
14th*8.0%「ロト6で3億2千万円当てた男」
15th*7.4%「打撃天使ルリ」
16th*6.9%「学校じゃ教えられない！」
17th*5.6% Koizora「恋空」

CHANGE's Last Episode scores 27.4%, with a momentary leap to 31.2%

(Source: Sanspo) KimuTaku's prodigal venture, CHANGE, aired its last episode on the night of 14th July 2008, Monday. It scored its highest viewer's ratings of 27.4%, with a momentary to 31.2% at 22:15 hours. The KimuTaku midas-touch seems to live on. ^_^

Aragaki Yui's new single- Make my day

(Source: Oricon) Aragaki Yui's new single, Make My Day, goes on sale next Wednesday, 16th July 2008! Which is also the day your MFGB granny here leaves for Japan on her school trip! Yay!! In any case I must say the single cover looks really nice + happy!

"Make My Day" will be the theme song for the FujiTV dorama Hachi One Diver. A survey was also carried out and it was found that Aragaki Yui is very popular amongst 20-something guys. Is that so surprising? Ha ha.

Happy weekend people!

Code Blue's ratings drop to 16%!

(Source: Widegeinou) The Thursday night FujiTV dorama starring Yamapi, Toda Erika and Aragaki Yui raked in 21.2% in viewer's ratings for its first episode, but its second episode saw a fall in ratings to 16%. Netizens online have been blaming the drop on a "mis-cast" of characters, saying that the actors and actresses are too young.

In reality, it is said that the flight doctor cadets that they are playing are supposed to be in their late 20s or 30s, and that the actors have not been able to portray that level of maturity. (Toda Erika is 19, Aragaki Yui 20 and Yamapi 23.)

There were also complaints about Aragaki Yui's hairstyle; her fringe is said to be a nuisance for any real doctor trying to do his/her job.

Code Blue's first episode scores 21.2%!

(Source: Sanspo) FujiTV's new dorama Code Blue started airing on Thursday, 3rd July 2008, and received a whopping rating of 21.2%! Is this due to Yamapi or Aragaki Yui? Hmmmm (well because Johnny won't release pics of Yamapi Sanspo only put up a photo of Gakki...)

Happy weekend people!

[Code Blue] Press Conference

(Source: Sanspo) Yamapi's (23) new dorama Code Blue starts airing tonight (Thursdays 10pm) in Japan! The official press conference was held yesterday , 2nd July, at Tokyo FM Hall and this is the only photo released by Sanspo. As expected, Johnny Kitagawa has deprived fans of photos of Yamapi, so we're only left with Aragaki Yui(20) in her trademark long shapeless dress outfit. Code Blue also stars Erika Toda(19), better known as Amane Misa from Death Note (haha, at least to me).

Last Friends SP garners 17.4% in VRs

(Source: Mainichi) Mainichi's always using the same photo for Last Friends-related news. Anyway, VRs = Viewer's Ratings and compared to Last Friends' Final Episode's VRs of 22.8%, 17.4% is rather low. Viewers also commented that the ending of Last Friends [i think they refer to the last episode, and NOT the SP] was 'confusing and ambiguous'. The company president, Yutaka-san [豊田皓 --> anybody know how to read this Kanji? did not appear in my google results] admitted that it was a bit 'confusing and ambiguous', but nevertheless thanked the viewers for their support while explaining that the themes and issues addressed in the dorama were "difficult" ones.

Maou to start airing on 4th July

(Source: Sanspo) The highly anticipated dorama (at least for the likes of me) which stars Arashi's leader Satoshi Ohno (27) and Ikuta Toma (23) will start airing on the 4th of July 2008, Friday at 10pm, as announced at its official press conference held yesterday in Tokyo.

Ikuta Toma remarked that, " Although Ohno was very gentle in real life, once he gets on the stage (or when he starts acting) he becomes meccha meccha kakkoii. [very very COOL] How cunning of him!"

I thought that was a funny comment! ^_^ also, notice there were NO PHOTOS at all regarding this official press conference (as compared to like, Yamada Yuu's Seigi no Mikata one i posted yesterday.) Could it be Johnny-Kitagawa-Dai-Maou controlling the photographers or something?? I've picked up Komatsu Nana's habit of the "Dai-Maou" thing. Okay irrelevant.

Yamada Yuu's new Dorama - Seigi no Mikata [Justice's Friend]

(Source: Sanspo) Seigi no Mikata - Justice's Friend/Ally/Supporter, to be exact. The official press conference was held yesterday, 25th June 2008, at NTV's premises to announce the start of the dorama on 9th July, Wednesday at 10pm. Seigi no Mikata was originally a comic regarding an "extreme" and evil sister, played by Yamada Yuu, who picks on her younger sister, played by Shida Mirai.

For now, any interview/public appearance involving Yamada Yuu necessarily entails some questions about her lover-boy, Oguri Shun. When asked who was "Justice's Ally" (or the one who stands on the side of justice) for her personally, Yamada originally said her brother, who is also a model and actor.

'What about your "ikemen-boyfriend"? ' asked the reporter. "Mmm, maybe." Yamada replied, laughing. Click on the picture below to go to the drama's official site. The design looks a bit tacky though.

CHANGE breaks back into the respectable 20% region

(Source: Mainichi) CHANGE airs every Monday -as my learned reader would have already known - and its most recent episode which aired on 23rd June has staged a comeback in viewer's ratings, scoring a respectable 20.9%.

What with all the hype surrounding "Last Friends", which managed to pull ahead of CHANGE in its last few episodes, this has got to be good news. CHANGE has also had 2 consecutive episodes with 19% viewership - not a good thing for the 20+KimuTaku.

Has anybody been following the series? I watched Episode 03 and it's not all thAT great. But why should we blame it on KimuTaku man sometimes we watch shows for the show and the guy... but that's an old and worn stand that needs no more revisiting.

Maou and Code Blue face off this Summer [and Doppelganger: Kobayashi Ryoko, Shin Min Ah and Inoue Mao]

(Source: Idolgravure) The original title of this post is : Ikuta Toma to beat Yamapi in Summer-Dorama face off? But then personally I thought Ohno should have some credit to bear in this (being his first dorama and all :p ) In any case, OhToma's Maou has been scheduled to screen on TBS' Friday 10pm slot, whilst Yamapi's Code Blue is to air on Thursdays at 10pm on Fuji Channel. People have thus been saying that there'll be a fierce Johnny's face off between "Fri 10 X Thurs 10". (this sorta loses its oomph in translation: "金10vs木10")

Toma got his big break in Hanazakari no Kimi Tachi, but his recent Winter dorama , Hachimitsu to Clover averaged only a viewer's rating of 8.9%. Will Maou fare better?

Incidentally, I finally got down to finding out who was playing Shin Min Ah's character in Maou. This girl you see below on the left (Kobayashi Ryoko). I think she looks like a cross between Inoue Mao and Shin Min Ah (the Korean actress who played Kobayashi's role in the Korean version of Maou).

Inoue Mao and Shin Min Ah (below, respectively)

But maybe the photos aren't so nice. But I'm late for class!! AHH gotta zip off

Last Episode of Last Friends garners 22.8%

(Source: Mainichi) The last episode of J-Dorama Last Friends aired yesterday night (19th June 2008) and managed to garner a viewers' ratings of 22.8%, the highest for the drama so far.

As reported in my previous post about L.F. to hit the big screen, there will also be a special episode to be aired next week. As opposed to other doramas like KimuTaku's CHANGE and Nakama Yukie's Gokusen 3, Last Friends has been able to maintain momentum and retain the audience's interests.

TBS' Koizora male lead, Seto Kouji's Lubbu-Lubbu Puricura

(Source: Agazou) Seto Kouji plays Sakurai Hiro in TBS' dorama version of the hit-movie, Koizora. He has big eyes.......

Last Friends to hit the Big Screen

(Source: Entame) Osaka Sports reported that the decision to make a movie-version of popular J-Dorama "Last Friends" has been made! The dorama's themes are concerned with modern-day social problems like child abuse, domestic violence and homosexuality, and started out with a viewer's rating of 13.9% (for the first episode) and peaked at 20.7% in the second-last episode last week, pulling ahead of KimuTaku's CHANGE. (The last episode airs tonight.)

Related personnel commented that "nobody had thought that Last Friends would be able to rake in higher viewer's ratings than KimuTaku's CHANGE. Although the 19th (of June) was meant to be the last episode, we suddenly had a phone call asking us to add on a special episode/version of Last Friends, in the way that KimuTaku's HERO was made into a movie."

Apparently plans for the movie are already underway. Following in the steps of "Journey to the West" and "HERO", it's been said that the transition from the small-screen to the big-screen has rarely seen failure.

Shibatora Manga to be adapted into J-Dorama, starring Koike Teppei and Ohgo Suzuka

(Sources: AnimeNewsNetwork and Idolgravure) Yes, Ohgo Suzuka is that girl who looked more Sayuri than Zhang Zi Yi (I'm so not a fan of that woman) and who is, according to her Wikipedia entry, an award-winning child actress! What a baby-faced couple for manga-turned-dorama Shibatora! It is scheduled to be released in summer this year.

Koike Teppei is slated to play Taketora Shibata, a "rookie cop who has the ability to see anything at a crime scene." According to Idolgravure, this is a well-suited role for Koike because both him and his character are supposed to be cutesy pretty boy types. Ohgo Suzuka will play his accomplice, and I think her character's called Mitsuki. (Neither source explicitly stated this.)

This will be Koike's first time playing the main character in a drama-series. "Although I would like to continue playing side roles for awhile in order to gain experience, since I am undertaking this role (of Shibata) I will be giving my all to work hard for the role." He said.

This is said to be the first source of pressure for Koike. The second source of pressure comes from "Johnny's siege". Here is the list of summer doramas to be released, which will be Shibatora's direct competitors:

1. Maou, starring Satoshi Ohno and Ikuta Toma (click here to find out more about this dorama)
2. Code Blue, starring Yamapi
3. Yasuko to Kenji, starring Tokio's Masahiro Matsuoka and Kanjani8's Ohkura Tadayoshi
4. 33 minute Detective Work [literal translation from: 33分探偵], starring Domoto Tsuyoshi

Tough fight! By the way, did you know Koike Teppei was apparently rumoured to be going out with Ayase Haruka? O_O and another actress called Takizawa Saori. *shrugs*