Pocky Dessert

Filipino food for lunch

Too much pork! But the flan was awesome.

Yet another J-dorama, Voice

Still in J-dorama addiction mode. Another one I found to be really great is Voice.

It's a story about 5 med students, studying forensic medicine. You would think CSI, but this is still dorama (although one of the students is a fan of CSI, having posters and DVD boxsets at his place). The premise of the show is that forensic science can convey the last word, the "voice," of the dead, hence the title "Voice." Aside from Daiki's anime-like power of deduction, it is actually a pretty touching drama. Each forensic case has very emotional meaning and touching story. Episode 3 even made me cry. LOL. Yeah, forensic is not about solving a fancy murder case, but it's about finding closure for the family members of the dead.

But hey, why am I watching this? Yup, of course there's a Kamen Rider connection here. One of the students, Hanei Akira, is played by Sato Tomohito, which is also Kagami Arata, aka Kamen Rider Gattack in Kamen Rider Kabuto. (he's also in Hotelier, as son of the hotel owner).


Another great J-dorama. Very touching stories. Another reason that J-dorama is very addictive.

Love Shuffle

More addictive J-dorama. Love Shuffle, starring Tamaki Hiroshi, aka Chiaki senpai, now as Usa-tan... LOL

Storywise, basically they're rotating their partners. This diagram from dramawiki explains it better.

So, why does it interest me? Tamaki is hilarious. The screenshots below speak for themselves.


Yeah, LOL. Thank God for fansub! Usa-tan, がんばって.

Everybody's a butler

Browsing throughout various J-dorama, I found this, "Happy Boys."

Guess what, Seto Koji, the middle one, is Kamen Rider Kiva. Kato Keisuke, the one on the right with glasses, is Kamen Rider IXA. LOL. It's official, the last 3 Kamen Riders are butlers!
First, we have Mizushima Hiro who's Kamen Rider Kabuto, and also an S-rank butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji.


Then we have Takeru Sato who's Kamen Rider Den-O, and also Rihito's brother butler-in-training (picture in my Bloody Monday post).
Then, we have Seto Koji who's Kamen Rider Kiva, and also Segawa Kyoichi, butler in training in Happy Boys.


And, the record holder, Kato Keisuke, who's Kamen Rider IXA. He's a cool quite butler-in-training Kitamura Kosuke in Happy Boys, and also a butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji.


Wow, is this a continuing pattern? It would be perfect if in the next Kamen Rider series, the main character's real job is a butler. LOL.

Bloody Monday

Currently I'm watching Bloody Monday, a J-dorama. It's actually based on a manga by the same name, about a young hacker, Fujimaru Takagi, being involved into a terrorist plot, and all the suspense, twists, and turns. It's so addictive because every single episode leaves you with yet another cliffhanger, just after a major confrontation/plot resolved, leaving you in suspense and thirst for more. Luckily the fansub are complete, so I can enjoy it at my pace without having to anxiously waiting for the next episode (like Gundam 00).
First thing first, I got interested on this dorama because one of the actor is the same one playing Kamen Rider Den-O, Takeru Sato. LOL.

He's playing as Otoya, Fujimaru's friend. Here's him in Kamen Rider Den-O, and also Mei-chan no Shitsuji (as Kento, Rihito's brother).

Oh, and he's also in Princess Princess D, as one of the Princesses. Man, he's like all over the place. Kids, teenage girls, and adults all ages will probably recognize this guy now. The cool part is that his characters are all different. Ryotaro Nogami (Kamen Rider Den-O) is a clumsy person that actually doesn't really know how to fight, while Kento (Mei-chan no Shitsuji) is a very outspoken character, while Otoya (Blody Monday) is a cool yet caring friend.

Okay, putting that aside, I find Bloody Monday to be very captivating. It constantly put you in suspense, and like I said, after a conflict resolved, by the end of the episode, you are presented with yet another cliffhanger. Betrayal and death are the common theme here. The good people are turning bad one by one, and then characters are dying one by one too. When you think things are getting better, don't worry, it's J-dorama, so things will turn back for worse. LOL. Really. I can't believe that terrorist group managed to convince so many people to join them, despite them killing their own members for a punishment of failure.

Even better, the hacking part of the dorama is actually pretty realistic compared to most American TV series and Hollywood movies. Falcon, Fujimaru's hacker nickname, actually brings a Linux bootable flash drive with him all the time. Everytime he wants to do some hacking, he booted from the USB drive, into a Linux command line. And he's not running a fancy graphical program either, all the hacking are done via terminal, with Falcon typing command lines. Sure, not as exciting as some Hollywood movies with "hacking programs" magically built-in into the computers with a big "Hack" button, but it's more realistic. Also, when Falcon is hacking into a system, they show him making a VNC connection via terminal command line, a real protocol to remotely connect to another PC. Falcon also managed to hack into a system running Vista using his Linux bootable flash drive. Very geeky stuff!

Alas, there are still some silly things that a real hacker won't do. Falcon put a file into Windows' Recycle Bin to "delete" it and removed his trace. This is the last thing anybody would do in real life to "remove" their trace since files in Recycle Bin in Windows are not actually deleted and can be recovered easily. Also, some of the command lines that Falcon uses when he's "hacking" are actually simple DOS commands. Sure, today most people won't recognize DOS, but I just chuckled when I saw those. Lastly, Falcon is always taking his pretty large HP laptop with him, and for whatever reason never runs out of battery, even when he's hacking wirelessly. In some cases, he doesn't even have time to turn off his laptop, so presumably the laptop is running all the time. HP must have given him some fancy super battery there. LOL. Oh yeah, all the computers are HP, even the ones in the internet cafes. Oh, and Sandisk also participate in the dorama by supplying SD cards. Yeah, brand recognition man. It would've been cooler if Falcon is using the tiny Sony Vaio TT or the tiny Vaio P. Oh, and I don't see Apple. Usually the good guys use Apple stuff, like L in Death Note.

A very exciting dorama full of suspense! It also brings a point that regardless of policies, tools, technology, and whatnot, humans have emotions, and one can manipulate others by playing with their emotion. Example is one of the jail guards, convinced to kill his own co-worker, and this all because his wife cheated on him with another man. Oh, and don't forget the constant betrayal of people that you think would never turn bad, and they all have their reasons. Very thought provoking!