The 49th Dorama Academy Award Results (Spring 06)

Here are the results of the 49th Dorama Academy Award for the spring 06 season as decided by readers of the magazine, "The Television", judges and drama reporters:

Best Drama: Iryuu - Team Medical Dragon
It's a clear choice for me in this category because there aren't any dramas which impressed me as much as Iryuu. Bengoshi no Kuzu comes as a distant second for me in terms of overall quality.

Best Leading Actor: Toyokawa Etsushi (Bengoshi no Kuzu)
He deserves this award because of his willingness to ditch his past image and ability to look convincing as a lecherous and frivolous lawyer. Sakaguchi Kenji has also performed relatively well in this season but compared to the radical change of Toyokawa, I guess that's where he lost out. Anyway, the leading actors weren't too impressive on the whole so I can only think of Toyokawa and Sakaguchi as deserving candidates to fight in this category.

Best Leading Actress: Amami Yuki (Top Caster)
I'm at a loss for words. I think Amami Yuki is a good actress but surely Top Caster didn't bring out the best in her? I would have thought that Murakami Tomoko's performance in Busu no Hitomi ni Koishiteru was much better. Another name worth mentioning would be Esumi Makiko in Machiben.

Best Supporting Actor: Ito Hideaki (Bengoshi no Kuzu)
I can think of at least three other names who deserves this award i.e. Koike Teppei, Kitamura Kazuki and Abe Sadao in Iryuu. That's not to say that Ito Hideaki doesn't deserve the award. It's just that the depth in his acting doesn't show unless he's with Toyokawa but there was some significant improvement in their chemistry as the drama progressed. On the other hand, the Iryuu trio I named above were very eye-catching from the beginning to the end especially Koike who convinced me that he has the potential to act well.

Best Supporting Actress: Horikita Maki (Kurosagi)
This is kind of ridiculous. Horikita's performance as Tsurara was plain especially if you have seen her better works like ALWAYS - Sanchome no Yuhi and Nobuta wo Produce. I would have thought that Takashima Reiko in Bengoshi no Kuzu, Inamori Izumi and Mizukawa Asami in Iryuu should have gotten this.

Best Newcomer: Murakami Tomoko (Busu no Hitomi Koishiteru)

Best BGM: Iryuu

Best Director: Iryuu

Best Script: Machiben

Best Titleback: Attention Please

Did anyone notice the absence of a best theme song award for this season? ^__^