Quick Review #75: 1122 Ii fuufu - Spring 2024

Title: 1122 Ii fuufu / 1122 いいふうふ (1122: For a Happy Marriage)

Rating: 8 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who want to watch stories about married couples who try to repair their marriages but without hysteria and/or those who are fans of the leads Takahata Mitsuki & Okada Masaki

* Currently showing on Amazon Prime Video (subject to geographical restrictions)

Liked:

- While the overall flow of the story was predictable since this topic of marriages with issues is hardly new, the way this drama handled this theme was quite comfortable to watch since there was hardly any hysteria even in confrontational scenes. On the contrary, the silent and somewhat subdued handling of these scenes came across more powerfully than a full-blown outburst as words and facial expressions turned out to be more damaging and impactful. In a way, this felt more natural and believable as things which could happen in real life between married couples.

The two main couples featured in this drama had vastly different problems yet similar in a way because they all experienced issues due to a communication breakdown. It is easy to say that you should speak your mind but the closer you are to someone, the more difficult it can be to say what you think and feel. Moreover, the worry about how the other party will receive and react to your message will probably prevent people from taking the plunge to be frank. As such, even for people who aren't married, they can probably empathise and feel for the characters since we all would have encountered similar problems in our interpersonal relationships.

The dialogue between the characters is also worthy of mention as it flowed naturally without feeling like it's stuffed with quotable quotes or things that people would not say in real life. It can get preachy if lots of lofty ideals are packed into the dialogue as well-meaning but unneeded advice.

- The acting from Takahata and Okada was superb. Not only did they look good as a couple, their great chemistry as a couple who had issues with their sex lives and tried to repair their marriage was so engaging to watch. Fans of the two of them will be delighted to see how pretty and handsome they looked in the drama - kudos to the styling team. And since the lead couple Ichiko and Otoya had their lovey-dovey and comical moments along with the seriousness of the story, it was great to a fine balance struck between these varying aspects of their characters' lives. I especially liked their interaction after their characters submitted their marriage application - so sweet!

On the other hand, Nishino Nanase and Koura Kengo's pairing might be quite gloomy to watch due to the state of the marriage and family situation but I thought that their subdued acting was something that could grow on the audience with time.

There were also quite a number of surprise cameos of which I liked Narita Ryo's role the most. He had such good rapport with Takahata even though it was just 2 scenes in the entire drama.

- The theme song by Spitz was such a perfect fit for the drama - gives off a warm and fuzzy feel like the winter sunshine while the title (literally means the song of repair) and lyrics reflected a key message in the story. Marriage is not really a goal in a relationship. It is just a milestone after which you still have to keep working on, putting in effort and doing repeated repairs in order to keep it going. The moment you take things for granted and expect everything to still work while not putting in effort, everything will just fall apart whether you mean for it to happen or not. I guess this doesn't just apply to marriage but all types of relationships in general.

Disliked: 

- The last two episodes of the drama felt a bit awkward and rushed because there was so many developments crammed within until it felt like I was getting giddy with the twists and turns. As such, I felt that these episodes deviated quite a bit in terms of style as compared to the earlier ones which took things slow and logically. I also wondered if it was due to the desire to fit the original manga's material within a single drama so the scriptwriter had to speed up in the concluding episodes.

- The premise of the drama may be quite eye-catching at first because of the "officially recognised affair" setting in the lead couple's marriage but developments after that may seem a bit predictable for those who are looking for an unconventional tale. I also thought that there could have been more information about Mitsuki and Shiro's relationship because knowing their dating days and how their marriage soured could give a clearer picture. As things stood in the drama, it felt like most of the blame was on Shiro though. Likewise, I also wondered how Otoya and Mitsuki got together but this was not featured in the drama. In a nutshell, the story feels somewhat incomplete due to these missing bits.

Preview of "Bunt Man" - Autumn 2024

Title: Bunt Man / バントマン

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 12 October 2024

Timeslot: Saturdays at 11.40pm

Broadcast by: Tokai TV

Theme Song: "Shougai HERO" by Suzuki Nobuyuki

Cast: Suzuki Nobuyuki, Kurashina Kana, Hirahara Tetsu, Akutsu Nichika, Ishikawa Ruka, Wada Masanari, Kumagai Mami, Asaka Mayumi, Moro Morooka & Bandou Juuzaburo

Preview of "Watashitachi ga koisuru riyuu" - Autumn 2024

Title: Watashitachi ga koisuru riyuu / 私たちが恋する理由

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 12 October 2024

Timeslot: Saturdays at 11pm

Broadcast by: TV Asahi

Original manga by: ma2

Theme Song: "because" by timelesz

Cast: Kikuchi Fuuma, Kumada Rinka, Shimekake Ryuuya, Saito Nagisa, Kaku Sou & Yamazaki Hirona

The gradual blurring of boundaries in Japanese drama seasons - its causes and potential implications

For those who may not be aware or familiar with the Japanese drama broadcast schedule, the year is broadly divided into 4 quarters of 3 months each based on seasons:

January to March - Winter

April to June - Spring

July to September - Summer

October to December - Autumn

As such, the start date is usually taken to be the determining factor as to which season the drama in question falls under. However, this classification method is becoming more of a challenge to apply and the boundaries being increasingly blurred as the start dates of dramas are getting spread out more so than ever as seen in more examples of dramas supposedly being classified under one season but having start and end dates falling outside of the three-month period. 

If you have been following this blog for some time, you may have wondered about the classification of such "outliers". Just to clarify, my basis of classification is mainly based on start dates following the above-mentioned boundaries but there have been some instances when the TV stations pegged outliers under specific seasons so I tried to follow accordingly e.g. a drama begins on 30 Jun but is classified as a Summer drama. As for those which did not start in the first month of the respective seasons i.e. January, April, July and October, I would have tagged them accordingly based on their respective start dates. This happens quite often for NHK and WOWOW dramas which usually do not last an entire three months and they typically do not follow this 3-month system practised by the private TV stations. Nowadays, I also apply this classification for the OTT dramas from Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video since their start dates are varied and do not follow the seasons.

This article from News Post Seven looks into this trend of staggered start dates for new dramas from the key TV stations by examining the causes for the phenomenon and the potential implications. It begins with introducing an unusual example observed in the Summer 2024 and Autumn 2024 seasons where one drama ended and one drama started on the same day and at the same time.

This happened on 6 October 2024 at 10.30pm when TV Asahi's Summer drama "Subarashikikana, Sensei!" starring Ikuta Erika aired its finale and NTV's Autumn drama "Wakakusa Monogatari - Koisuru shimai to koisenu watashi -" starring Hotta Mayu started its run. The reason why this happened was said to be due to the Paris Olympics broadcast and TBS' Sundays 9pm timeslot.

Usually, Summer dramas are supposed to wrap up in September but "Subarashikikana, Sensei!" delayed its start by more than a month as compared to its competitors in the same season i.e. 18 August. Its timeslot of Sundays 10pm was actually used for the live broadcast of Olympics events on 4 August while other TV stations did the same at the same time on 28 July and 11 August. TVer was also doing almost-full coverage for the events live at the same time during the Summer drama season. This would have affected the real-time ratings of the drama broadcasts across the board so the delayed start was said to be meant to mitigate the effects of these "distractors".

At the same time, TBS ' signature timeslot at Sundays 9pm tends to have "extended" episodes which would eat into TV Asahi's potential viewership for the Sundays 10pm timeslot. Looking at this summer's "Black Pean Season 2" starring Ninomiya Kazunari, 4 out of 10 episodes were extended beyond 10pm. As such, to avoid this strong competition as much as possible, it was also seen to be why TV Asahi chose to start their drama much later in the season.

In fact, TV Asahi seems to be intent on avoiding overlapping with TBS on Sunday nights because not only did they arrange for their Autumn 2024 offering "My Diary" starring Kiyohara Kaya starting from 20 October, they also pushed back the start time of this drama's timeslot by 15 minutes to 10.15pm. While TV Asahi's official reason for the change in timing was attributed to their new programme "Udo Times" showing from 8.56pm to 10.15pm, the move was still seen as a tactic to avoid clashing with the highly popular TBS Sundays 9pm timeslot and gather as much real-time ratings as possible.

The situation with TV Asahi and NTV would also not have happened if not for TV Asahi pushing back the finale of "Subarashikikana, Sensei!" by 30 minutes for the 90-min extended first episode of "Udo Times" on the same evening. As such, what was initially meant to be a partial overlap became a direct clash between both dramas on 6 October 2024. In case you are wondering, as at this point of writing this post, the rating for "Wakakusa Monogatari" is still unknown while "Subarashikikana, Sensei!" got 3.1% for its finale - so we don't know yet who was the victor on that night.

 

Although there are as many as 16 different timeslots in the golden/primetime timebelt (7pm to 11pm) among the key TV stations, none of them actually overlap with one another which is believed to be a unspoken mutual understanding among the TV stations to avoid competing with other dramas in the same timeslot and get higher real-time ratings. From this autumn though, FujiTV and TV Asahi will be vying for viewership in the Tuesdays 9pm timeslot. 

 

The situation that happened this time certainly isn't unique to the two TV stations in question and very likely to happen again. All the key stations are making decisions on broadcast dates to suit their individual programming strategies while grappling with the fact that real time ratings are lower than before across the board due to the change in viewing preferences from real-time viewing to recordings and on-demand viewing. As such, the issue of overlapping timeslots for real-time broadcasts actually would not matter that much if viewers are watching their favourite dramas at their own time. In my case, I pay attention to the schedule for the sake of knowing when to keep a lookout for the latest episode to be released/updated on the portals I use. While TVer usually does have "live broadcast" of the key stations in the evenings, I don't bother tuning in live because the timings usually don't work for me.

In the face of such "delayed" and "ad-hoc" viewing habits, it has become more important than ever for the TV stations to secure real-time ratings. As seen from the trend of staggering start dates and timings, it is obvious that the TV stations are trying their best to get higher ratings over their competitors since this will affect their advertising revenue. On streaming platforms, you usually don't see the ads unless it operates like YouTube where your viewing experience is interrupted from time to time with paid ads. 

Based on TVer's feature page for Autumn 2024 dramas, you can see that the start dates for this season range from 1 October to as late as 4 November. Obviously, if a drama starts later in the season, it will end late or even "eat into the next season" if it cannot finish within the three-month period. Unless it's a planned schedule where a drama stretches over 2 seasons such as "Anata no ban desu" or "Aibou", the staggering of start dates will no doubt have a ripple effect on subsequent works or the competing shows in the same timeslot. If the reason for the change is mostly due to one-off or exceptional events like the Olympics, prior planning can be done to mitigate the impact of lower ratings. However, for ad-hoc stuff or unexpected events like extended news reporting for natural disasters, how to adapt the programming to fit in these "disruptors" will be a great test to all TV stations.

As what the article pointed out, the start dates and timeslots of the dramas probably don't matter as much to the viewers these days than to the key private TV stations. For one, NHK and WOWOW have all along been dishing out dramas on irregular schedules as compared to the other key TV stations although I would say that this may be more related to most of their dramas being shorter than half a season rather than a calculated move to avoid competition. And beside, their business model doesn't rely on advertisement income and real-time ratings. To them, timeslots aren't probably not as big a consideration when it comes to the programming schedule. 

As for OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, what's most critical for them is the release date. And since most, if not all of the things they produce are released at one go, the timeslot is not an issue since people watch the shows at their own convenience anyway. However, Disney+ tends to like the practice of releasing shows on a weekly basis so they might have more to consider in this regard i.e. the day of the week when a new episode is uploaded on top of the release date.

One other thing to consider will be the drama awards and ratings ranking. As it is right now, "Subarashikikana, Sensei!" was left out of some ratings ranking tables for the Summer 2024 season which I saw online because of its unusual start and end dates. In addition, it was not listed as a nominee for voting in the Summer 2024 season for The 121st Drama Academy Awards because it had not finished its run by the time the voting exercise started and ended. Does that mean that this drama will be considered in the Autumn 2024 pool even though it had only 1 episode shown in October? So for a drama which starts in the final days of the current year and runs mostly in the next year, will it be considered a current year or next year's drama?

What's obvious now is that as the boundaries between the seasonal dramas get increasingly blurred, there may come a day when determining which season the drama falls under becomes difficult to judge. From the perspective of the viewer, will this have an impact on your choice of dramas to watch? Or will it be a non-issue after all? As for the TV stations, while timeslots will be critical in determining advertisement income, perhaps the more critical thing is to make sure that your shows are so good that people will be inclined to watch it in real-time even if the timing may be very inconvenient.

Quick Review #74: The Legend & Butterfly (movie)

Title: The Legend & Butterfly / レジェンド&バタフライ

Rating: 6 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who want to see a fictitious love story featuring historical figures and/or are fans of Kimura Takuya and Ayase Haruka

*Currently showing on Amazon Prime Video (subject to geographical restrictions)

Liked:

- Given that there is very little information about Nouhime and her marriage with Oda Nobunaga, the story was no doubt more fictitious than factual. On the other hand, this allowed the scriptwriter to have more leeway in fleshing out Nouhime and be more "adventurous" in crafting the love story. While the focus of the movie was ultimately their love story over more than 3 decades, their lives were no doubt intertwined with the historical events especially Oda's attempt at unifying Japan so there had to be scenes featuring the key events of the Sengoku era. 

The good thing was that these historical scenes did not overwhelm the main plot so I liked the fine balance between both aspects of the story. Although the historical inaccuracies or fictitious parts in the love story e.g. Oda and Nouhime were depicted to have "divorced" for 7 years in the movie might not go down well with some people especially those who are very familiar with their history, I think that the movie still stayed on course to deliver what it intended.

- It was obvious that a lot of money and effort was put into the set and costume design so the movie was a visual feast on the whole. Some scenes did look a bit more CG-style than the others though.

- The later part or should I say the last hour or so of the movie was where you would see the best emotional acting from Kimura and Ayase in the entire story.

Disliked: 

- The problem with a story spanning decades of someone's life is that, can the actor/actress pull off the look from young to old? Would it have been better to get a younger or older actor to "share" the role? The issue here is, Oda and Nouhime were said to have gotten married at the young ages of 16 and 15, or at the very least, as teenagers. Obviously, it was a stretch to see Kimura act "young" and behave like that as the teenage Oda. On the other hand, Ayase's look as Nouhime from young to old hardly saw much transition (at most the clothes and her makeup) so it was difficult to reconcile the age Nouhime was supposedly at with how she looked onscreen. I thought this was quite difficult for the viewer to get immersed into the story because of the mismatch in looks and age.

Perhaps this was also why that I found myself enjoying their acting more towards the end of the movie when their real ages and looks finally aligned with what they were supposed to be at in the story.

- While the movie had a stream of capable actors in the sidelines, I felt that they were not given the room to show their full potential. In particular, Ito Hideaki and Nakatani Miki's roles were supposedly important but then this didn't show through in the movie. Given that I had read about Nakatani's preparations for this role in her book, I found it difficult to understand how it could be that she only appeared so few times in this movie. Perhaps it was the post-editing that left out a lot of their scenes but still, it just felt like a waste of talent to me.

- I don't know if anyone had the same thought as me but the "diversion" in the final stage of the movie simply reminded me of a mash-up of the movies "Titanic" and "Pirates of the Carribean". While I get the intention of these scenes were meant to show the "what ifs" when there was a fairytale ending, I just thought that the style of this narrative was so different from the rest of the film and felt so out-of-place.

Preview of "Kyurosu no onna Sukuupu to iu na no kyouki" - Autumn 2024

Title: Kyurosu no onna Sukuupu to iu na no kyouki / キュロスの女　スクープという名の狂気

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here
Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 7 October 2024

Timeslot: Mondays at 11.06pm

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Original novel by: Honda Tetsuya

Cast: Kiritani Kenta, Kageyama Takuya, Reika, Tamura Hono, Mashiko Atsuki, Naenano, Miura Kouta, Kawashima Umika, Okabe Takashi & Aikawa Sho

Preview of "Ano kuzu wo nagutte yaritainda" - Autumn 2024

Title: Ano kuzu wo nagutte yaritainda / あのクズを殴ってやりたいんだ

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 8 October 2024

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: TBS

Theme Song: "Meriba" by PEOPLE 1

Cast: Nao, Tamamori Yuuta, Okazawa Sae, Koseki Yuuta, Kura Yuki, Tamai Shiori, Watabe Atsuro & Saito Yuki

Preview of "Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu" - Autumn 2024

Title: Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu / 全領域異常解決室

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 9 October 2024

Timeslot: Wednesdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: FujiTV

Opening theme song: "TipTap" by Shimizu Miisa

Ending theme song: "Endless" by TOMOO

Cast: Fujiwara Tatsuya, Hirose Arisu, Kakizawa Hayato, Fukumoto Riko, Komiya Rio, Narumi Riko, Sakota Takaya, Yusuke Santa-Maria & Kohinata Fumiyo

A look at how talent agencies supposedly perceive the Japanese dramas produced by the key TV stations

Note: this article from Pinzuba News began with NTV having to cancel its plan for its Spring 2025 drama supposedly due to a disagreement with the original book's author and publisher of the book over the real-life adaptation plan. The leads for this drama were rumoured to have been Ikematsu Sousuke and Hamabe Minami who last worked together in the movie "Shin Kamen Rider". 

NTV's vice president talked about this issue during a regular press conference on 30 September 2024 but did not give details on what happened and simply said that changes to the programming plans were common. However, it is believed that the TV station has become more cautious about its approach towards making real-life adaptations and bit the bullet early this time especially after the controversy over "Sexy Tanaka-san" and the unfortunate outcome that led to the passing of its author.

And so...from this incident with NTV, there were interviews conducted with various unnamed personnel from talent agencies about how they view the dramas produced by the key TV stations based in Tokyo i.e. FujiTV, NTV, TV Asahi, TBS and TV Tokyo and the agency management's attitudes towards letting their artistes appear in those productions. NHK was also mentioned in the article but technically speaking, it is not quite the same as these key stations since it is a national broadcaster with subscription income after all as compared to the key stations which depend largely on advertising income. 

It is interesting to see the industry insider's view on these TV stations especially with the increasing influence and popularity of international streaming platforms nowadays that is giving them a run for their money. As such, I have highlighted and organised the key viewpoints raised in the article:

NTV

* Generally viewed to be the worst among the key stations due to its poor production quality and cheap-looking sets which are largely attributed to its low budgets

* However, they do a good job at promoting the dramas with its constant airing of trailers and there are many opportunities for the cast to appear on its infotainment and variety shows for the sake of promotion. This increases the exposure for the artistes and give the impression that the artistes are very "active" and can be seen "everywhere".

FujiTV

* Seen to have a bigger budget than other TV stations

* However, the quality and success rate of its dramas fluctuate too much so it can be risky to appear in their dramas. For example, "silent" was such a hit but the same staff lineup, scriptwriter and director failed to replicate this success for "Umi no hajimari" especially in terms of its real-time ratings for the core age group of 13 to 49 years old.

* The scale of production for their brand name "Mondays 9pm" timeslot seems to have gotten smaller as observed from their choice of lead actors in recent years i.e. those who would have usually played supporting roles in most productions and are seen to be inadequate or not "big" enough to lead a primetime slot like this. 

* Its branding strategy and target audience also seem to be unclear and inconsistent as seen from its "constant changing goalposts". For example, one season had shown "Kazama Kimichika - Kyoujou 0 -" starring Kimura Takuya but the following season featured a much younger lead and obviously targeted younger audiences i.e. Mori Nana in "Manatsu no Cinderella".

* FujiTV's producers have a lot of say in deciding the lineup so the inconsistent programming strategy is said to be due to the producers "doing what they want" instead of sticking to a preplanned strategy guiding the overall direction.

* There has been talk that many actors are rejecting lead roles in the Mondays 9pm timeslot because of the likelihood of having to bear the responsibility of poor performances in terms of ratings. The preference these days is to take on supporting roles instead if the actors are approached to appear in this timeslot's drama.

TV Asahi

* Known for its preference to dish out sequels of its long-running series which can even run for decades

* Its strategy is viewed as one obviously targeting "seniors" so the offerings are not so appealing to the younger viewers. As such, there is reluctance by the talent agency management to let younger actors appear in their dramas since there is little benefit for these actors. 

* While the "Aibou" series was cited as one with a well-planned storyline with new developments, the other long-running dramas go by a predictable formula which tends to be well-received by the senior viewers.

* Despite these complaints, it is viewed that their dramas are generally well-produced.

* Most preferred timeslot is Thursdays 9pm.

TBS

* Most sought-after by the agencies due to its high production quality and relatively consistent ratings performance.

* There is a lot of effort put into the refining of the scripts.

* Most preferred timeslots are the Sundays 9m and Tuesdays 10pm timeslot which are considered brand name slots and have stable ratings. Those pushing for their actors would prefer the Sundays timeslot while the Tuesdays timeslot which features a female lead would be preferred by those managing actresses.

* The budget for a Sundays 9pm drama is said to be in the range of JPY 40m to 50m per episode which is about double of what other TV stations are spending.

* Has a very clear target audience for its dramas thus its reach and impact do not fluctuate that much.

NHK

* Its Taiga and morning dramas are the preferred timeslots for agencies.

* However, the pay for their dramas is somewhat low especially for supporting actors. As such, the agencies are banking on the exposure in an influential timeslot to get exposure and opportunities for CMs - a huge source of income for the agencies.

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Just to add on for TV Tokyo which was not mentioned in this article - all along, they have been seen as a maverick in the industry. Generally, they are quite nimble and actually has traits which can be seen in other TV stations as well. For example, they do quite a bit of real-life adaptations and also have long-running series like "Kodoku no Gurume". As such, I would say that they are a bit of everything and have a liking for unconventional and experimental concepts at times. If you are interested, you can take a look at my previous analysis of TV Tokyo here.

I do agree largely with the views expressed above. As for NTV, I think that while they had interesting offerings from time to time in recent years, their lineup is definitely not as attention-grabbing or headline-worthy as compared to the radical and sometimes controversial stand they took in the past with social-themed dramas like "14-sai no Haha" or "Ienakiko" back in the 90s. On the other hand, it is clear that TBS is a favourite among agencies now and it seems that putting in a lot of time and effort along with the right branding have served them well in building up a good reputation. 

However, it can also be observed that since real-time ratings are very low these days, agencies are looking more strategically at what appearing in a drama can bring for them i.e. exposure and CMs. As such, even if the drama does not do brilliantly in real-time, if it does well enough on OTT or helps the cast become popular and well-known, the agencies would probably have considered that to be a worthwhile investment after all. Perhaps this is why they still push for their artistes to appear on NHK despite the low pay - the nationwide exposure is a very appealing factor for them after all.

The thing about FujiTV's Mondays 9pm timeslot is, it used to have a very clear direction i.e. mainly love stories targeted at OLs. However, the change in direction in the past decade or so could be seen as a move to incorporate variety in its offerings and expand the target audience given that the pool of real-time drama viewers has shrunk. It seems to have gone not so well though especially since the industry sees it as them being misguided and in a mess due to the lack of a consistent direction. 

As such, perhaps this is a question for all TV stations then. Should you focus on building a branded timeslot with largely similar style offerings but risk being seen as predictable and boring or should you try to do a variety of formats and adopt a trial-and-error method to find success which may be elusive?

Preview of "3000 man" - Autumn 2024

Title: 3000 man / ３０００万

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 5 October 2024

Timeslot: Saturdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: NHK

Total number of episodes: 8

Cast: Adachi Yumi, Aoki Munetaka, Kaji Masaki, Kudo Haruka, Nozoe Yoshihiro, Mochida Shoji, Hagiwara Mamoru, Manaki Reika, Mimoto Youta, Morita Kokoro etc.

Dorama World's social media channels - the way going forward (3 Oct 2024)

To date, I have relied mainly on Twitter / X and Facebook to get the word out whenever there are new posts on the Dorama World blog. However, there have been various issues over the years with these platforms which are making them no longer as effective and useful as compared to the past:

Twitter / X

Since Twitter had an ownership change, things have been pretty messed up so I took a break from this platform for a while since my posts were just not getting out to my followers. Even after resuming activity here this year, it is so disappointing to see that the issues of posts totally not being seen by the followers or only seen days later still persist. Free features in the past such as analytics are now only available to those who have a paid account. At present, what I can tell is that less than 10% of the posts can be seen by my followers so this is a very frustrating situation to be in.

Facebook

It's a different situation on Facebook as their so-called censorship is simply incomprehensible and downright ridiculous. They had removed many of my posts in recent months, some even within minutes after being posted for reasons such as them being "spam posts" and the links do not match the descriptions. The posts on both Twitter and Facebook are the same - they merely contain the title of the blog post and the URL to the post. I cannot understand how this is spam or that there is a mismatch between the link and the blog post title. 

While I have no intention to drop these social media channels for now, I am pondering over their long-term effectiveness especially since my main purpose in maintaining them is to inform readers/followers of updates to the blog. As such, in order to ensure that my messages get delivered as intended, I will use the following portals from now on along with the existing two:

Instagram

Threads

For those who may not know or remember, how I came to have these accounts was because of the mess at Twitter since summer last year. Threads was touted as the "replacement" for Twitter when it first burst onto the scene so I signed up for an account to try it. And in order to have a Threads account, I needed to create an Instagram account. As such, Dorama World's accounts on these two platforms have been in existence for some time - just that I haven't used or publicised them actively.

The thing about Threads in its early days was that, the character limit made it difficult to write longer posts, there was no Web version then (typing on the phone was such a pain) and URLs couldn't be pasted into the posts. It seems now that the second and third issues are not a problem anymore so I'll give this platform a try again. Note that there are some old posts on the Threads account i.e. short reviews of dramas and movies and thoughts about various things that I did not post on the blog so in case you are keen, please check these out.

I am fully aware that there is no single platform which will satisfy everyone's needs. And to be honest, using all 4 platforms in the long term is not sustainable. While I try to figure out what would be the best strategy going forward by testing these platforms, it would be great if you could choose whatever works best for you as well and follow me on your preferred platform. Should you decide not to use any of these social media channels to keep track of my updates, I kindly ask of you to visit the blog from time to time to see if there's anything that interests you.

Thank you very much for reading this and I look forward to your continued support here!

Preview of "Wakakusa monogatari Koisuru shimai to koisenu watashi" - Autumn 2024

Title: Wakakusa monogatari Koisuru shimai to koisenu watashi / 若草物語　恋する姉妹と恋せぬ私

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 6 October 2024

Timeslot: Sundays at 10.30pm

Broadcast by: NTV

Theme Song: "Dramatic oideyo" by Ikimonogakari

Cast: Hotta Mayu, Nimura Sawa, Hata Mei, Nagahama Neru, Ichinose Hayate, Fukada Ryuusei, Sakata Masanobu, Idegami Baku, Namase Katsuhisa, Sakai Wakana, Usuda Asami, Watanabe Daichi, Sakai Maki & Tsutsui Mariko

Quick Review #73: Futsugou na kioku (movie)

Title: Futsugou na kioku / 不都合な記憶 (Previously Saved Version)

Rating: 2 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who are fans of Ito Hideaki and Araki Yuuko

Liked:

- Ito Hideaki's acting which showed the contrast between the normal and abnormal sides of his character Naoki well.

- The visuals in the space residence were sleek, modern and great to look at but a tad cold due to the dark colour scheme. Comparatively, the scenes on Earth or rather in tropical Thailand were warm, had a slight retro touch to reflect that the timeline was in the past and some rough edges to give it a softer touch. This contrast was probably done on purpose also to reflect the change in the relationship of Naoki and Mayumi on Earth vs. in space - from sizzling hot to icy cold.

Disliked: 

- While the story was said to be a sci-fi suspense tale, I found that it was more on the sci-fi side than suspense especially since it was too easy to guess where the story was heading towards. And to have the story end on such an anti-climax note despite teasing for something major or unexpected waiting to happen during the final clash between the couple, the movie simply ended too abruptly and in an unsatisfactory manner. The first hour of the movie was extremely tough to sit through because it was so prolonged and repetitive. As such, to be given such an underwhelming ending made me feel that I wasted 2 hours on this movie. 

The fact that why Naoki behaved in such a manner and why Mayumi chose to put up with him for a long time was never explained properly. Although it was mentioned that they both were "lonely" people and were probably suited for each other to fill that void in their lives, I thought that a bit more information on their backgrounds could have helped me to understand and empathise with them a bit more. Otherwise, this felt like any other story about a married couple, just that part of it happened to be set in outer space and in the futuristic era.

- Araki Yuuko's acting in the first half of the movie was so boring and bland although I would say that it wasn't entirely her fault since the story's setting required that kind of emotionless performance. However, even when armed with full knowledge of what had happened from the start when Mayumi first met Naoki, the transformation in Mayumi's behaviour and mentality seemed too little and not compelling enough. While fans of Araki would be happy to see her getting lots of screentime and looking gorgeous in this movie, I felt that this was definitely not one of her best performances when it came to the acting. And because of the limitations in her character development, the chemistry between her and Ito was also lacking especially when she seemed overpowered by him so many times. It's just a pity though because if she managed to hold her own against Ito on screen, it would have looked like a more interesting battle between the two characters.

Preview of "Munou no taka" - Autumn 2024

Title: Munou no taka / 無能の鷹

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 11 October 2024

Timeslot: Fridays at 11.15pm

Broadcast by: TV Asahi

Original manga by: Hanzaki Asami

Cast: Nanao, Shiono Akihisa, Iura Arata, Kudo Asuka, Satou Honami, Takahashi Katsumi, Ando Tamae, Doi Shiori, Miyao Shuntaro, Nagata Takato, Suzuki Rigaku & Souma Yukimi