Himitsu no Hanazono – R

Broadcasted in 2007
11 episodes
Overall Rating: A

The title translates to “The Secrets of Hanazono” but another name is “The Secret Garden” (Wikipedia). Yumiko Shaku plays a fashion editor name Kayo Tsukiyama who lets many people take advantage of her kindness. This includes finishing someone’s column, researching a topic for someone else, and staying late in the office to do someone else’s work. However, she finally has enough of it and decides to quit. As she prepares herself to give her boss the resignation letter, her boss suddenly announces that the magazine is going out of business. Ryoko Kawamura plays by Miki Maya is the boss. She sees Kayo as a hardworker and has arranged another job for her as an editor in the comic-book/manga department of the company. Kayo’s first assignment is to work with the famous manga artist Yuriko Hanazono. What she doesn’t know is the many secrets of “Miss” Hanazono and how much it’ll change her as well.

2008 JDramas – Who Will Rise, and Who Will Fall?

Here is a list of various Jdramas from Tokyograph that will aired in Japan this year. As to if these are all of the drama for the year, I do not know. Tokyograph is a blog that talks mainly about Japan’s pop culture and among the frequent topic is Japan’s dramas. I’ve many times used their insights to pick what to watch next. In fact, I discovered Liar Game from that very blog. I have separate each entry by having the drama’s titled all in blue. Those in red are the ones that I see potential in. Again, I hope you’ll find this useful like my previous list. Enjoy!

1st Drama of 2008 – Honey and Clover

My encounter with the show Honey and Clover is such a big coincedence that I’m not really sure how it happenned. I was going through crunchyroll, one of my favorite drama viewing site, when I came across an anime called Honey and Clover. Being a person drawn to interesting title (like 9 Ends 2 Outs), I decided to check it out. The show revolves around a group of art students name Takemoto, Hagumi / Hagu, Yamada, Morita, Mayama, and their art teacher Hanamoto / Shuu-chan. The minute I figured out that the show is about art and art students, I knew this was the show for me. Why? For I am an art student myself!

(from the left) Morita, Takemoto, Hagumi, Yamada, and Mayama

My Two-Face Girlfriend – R

Released in 2007
Directed by: ?
Overall Rating: B

My Two-Face Girlfriend is another movie about love. What’s different about it is…it’s a love story about a girl with multi-personalities. Starring Bong Tae Gyu as Gu-chang and Jeong Ryeo Won as the multi-facetted girl, the story starts of with Gu-chang at a restaurant with his friends. After some light but painful conversation, viewers learn of Gu-chang’s sad fate – he hasn’t kissed a girl his entire life or has a girlfriend for that matter. He also doesn’t have a job and must depends on his mom and sister for money, and he lives with them too. His current lifestyle is partly due to his lazyness. This all changes for the…somewhat betterness…when he meets Ani. Ani is a sweet and innocent girl. In fact, the way that the two met was because Gu-chang stole Ani’s wallet. What Gu-chang doesn’t know is that Ani has another side to her. When drunk, an evil version of Ani comes out. Calling herself Hani, she is violent, tough, and can defeat anyone. Not one to be so easily defeated, Gu-chang remains faithful to Ani despite her bad side as she is his first and only girlfriend.