Live in Japan II (2005) just before they broke up. This is one of the only lives (DVD) that I didn't have the chance to watch so far. Also, the fact that it features most songs from their album Need Your Love, I'm excited to hear their live versions from that album.

It was held in Budoukan Hall and so, familiar settings, except the stage is different from the Final Live , basically coz the Final had to be designed in order to put in as much people as possible.



They begin the live with For The Future, a prominent track and also single from NYL album, pretty suitable to move the crowds.


Yes, as always, I love watching Ryo playing his guitar. He's cool. lol...


And this album also features a lot of great solo guitar sounds. So, it's nice to see him showcasing his skillz, with what he's good at.



Tomiko is great too, her vocals. Other than the occasional hard to avoid high high pitch vocals, she's doing fine there.

and i kinda like it when thy decided to hold an acoustic set in the live, sitting/settling down a bit and also interacting more with the crowd. It feels like old times. This also gives them a chance to introduce the band members known as the Great Tour Band *then*, with the old members. Year 2009 with their comeback Revival Live, they have a new band.

I'm so happy they did an acoustic version of Week!. I mean, it sounds so much nicer in acoutics rather than the usual pop/rock version. and the funny part is that they decided to put in little bit of humor and surprise when they suddenly stopped in the middle of the song after the first chorus. Like, they just literally stopped everything. They even possed like a dummy, all rigid. Except for Tomiko of coz, she has to keep interacting with the crowd lol...

And being a naughty girl, she went to give them a tickle. LOL...


Ryo trying to act totally calm but...

No way you can stand a tickle from Ban chan ^^

And then I saw the keyboardist's pose. Like what the heck?! T_T

The cheery mood then turned to solemn, with the next track, Yotaka no Yume. It's basically a song that touches on war and how the night hawk loses its way (it's like a metaphor for war planes i guess). But i LOVE this song.

And this performance? Filled with power and strong emotions emitting right from the start till the end.



Head banging, hair covering face...


guitar jamming....(again, great solo tune from Ryo)


I especially liked her long sorta scream towards the end (well, it's not a scream really, but the way she held that last pitch long enough was amazing). Overall, if there is one song that is energy draining, both to the vocals and hands (guitars/drums), this is definitely one of the tops for them. Well, next to Kyuusou Ryodan, i gotta salute the drummer for the continous intense drumming (now that is what I'd say exhausting T_T) but it is amazing how he pulled it off *live*.



The next track is Need Your Love, the title track for the album.


Great choice of backgrounds.

I think the backgrounds of sceneries, seasons, vast expanses of the earth and skies kinda makes the song more meaningful in a way.

And i like how they speed up the slides of the sky here. Good stuffs.

nice...and this is just halfway through the show.

I'll continue the other half later tonight, I'm still watching an blogging bout it as I go.

Ok, it's been ages since my last post. Well, let's just say that I have time to watch stuffs but not enough to blog about them ^^ considering how busy I was with uh...reports and etc.

Now, the new drama season started like 2-3 weeks ago. A new bunch of fresh series are currently showing everyday. This is *obviously* one of those that I decided to follow. Just for the sake of having a really cute youngster in there, and also a handsome guy. ^^

Story is about Chisako, a girl whose father has a debt of 1 million yen, and hence, she has no home, always on the run, and wearing wigs while outside, just to avoid the yakuzas (Japanese form of gangsters). One day though, while being chased by them, she met a guy who is willing to pay off the debt, but with a condition. (You don't get nothing for free in this world, people).

Apparently she was tricked into marrying him and has to fulfill several other rules regarding his family if she didn't want to pay the $$ back. And he has only 1 month to live, as foretold by a machine he invented. (he's some president of toy-producing company).

After that 1 month, she was sent to a house, which looked more like a castle than a normal house, where she has to serve as a *mother* to 6 of his adopted children. Now these *children* of his is not blood-related and has their own problems and such.


Seeriously, this kid here....this KID here. He's cute. He IS. C.U.T.E.

That's all I can say about him. go figure lol...

oh this scene where they had a basketball competition was funny as hell when that mysterious maid of their just jumped up and scored big time.


Just one of the tricks they played on her in the castle to get rid of her.


I'm up to ep 2 only atm, gonna watch ep3 tonight. ^^
So far, it's fine. It's not exactly fab or very interesting/exciting but good enough to keep me watching. I think I'm just follow like 2-3 dramas this season, sadly though as compared to 4 last season. These 2-3 dramas are:

Atashinchi no Danshi
Konkatsu
BOSS
maybe Majo Saiban (if i have the time)

Credits to Haruma livejournal club for the subbed version.

Starring:
Ueno Juri
Miura Haruma


Story begins with young Naoko (Ueno Juri) and her parents moving to a fishing village from the city mainly because of her health (she has asthma) so maybe living in the countryside might have cleaner air? Anyways, during the journey to the island in a rented village boat, she slipped into the sea but was saved by the owner of the boat, who happened to be Yusuke (Miura)'s father. His father however didn't make it out alive.



Years passed by after the unfortunate incident and both of them have grown. Naoko met Yusuke again in the athletic events, (i'm thinking they are in different schools, coz if not, why is it that Yusuke never met her before) Naoko told him how she was saved by his father and Yusuke, coldly replied how he had forgotten about that matter. When in fact, he had never forgotten and still blamed Naoko for the loss of his father.


Naoko has a strangely strong affection towards Yusuke. Maybe because in some ways, she felt connected towards him. the feeling of guilt for causing his father's death and also the urge to seek his forgive.


Through the coach's letter to ask for Naoko's help in the summer training for the upcoming national marathon relay, Naoko decided to join the team as the manager (assistant to the coach). And then, the awkward journey began for both Naoko and Yusuke.
There isn't much conversation between them both, actually...but their body languages and facial expressions are enough to convey their feelings.


The movie is focused on the training sessions, relationships between the boys and of course, their doubts and spirits to win were shown rather clearly. Their relationship with the coach is well portrayed too.


And of course, the ending is...(^^)

It is not shown clearly whether anything might bloom from both Yusuke and Naoko in the end, but we can see how their characters began to accept each other for who they are. As the coach said in the movie, time had stopped for both of them ever since the accident, but they were walking in the same path. In some ways or another they are similar.

I like the pace of the movie, it's not too draggy and even with 2 hours, it didn't felt long. And they portray the sports really well too.

P.S
It's nice to see both running Juri and Miura in this movie LOL...

This is my fav part in the the whole episode- funny stuffs...

You know what....this guy, he looks a bit like my direct junior...(random thoughts^^)

dummy...

the extent they go to just to make Mei smile...(more like making her having 'cold sweat'...though)

oh i never actually expected this drama to be good, you know. I mean, it's not even one of those highly anticipated drama or heavily promoted like say..VOICE, Mei-Chan's Butler and Triangle etc...BUT

BUT it got itself one of the highest viewers' ratings for the first episode~ 16.1% !!!!!

So yeah, i wasted no time and got it once it's available. Another reason i wanted to catch this is becoz of Kanno Miho. I first watched her in this series called...(Love, Love, Love) something along that line and she was eccentric. She's fit and really suitable playing a freaky character i tell you. And in Tomorrow, with none other than Yutaka Takenouchi (another one of my fav actors) ^^ Although i survived through Tomorrow despite it's pretty plain storyline, i think it's pretty enjoyable to see both of their interactions in there. Ill write up a review soon.

So Kiina is basically about this woman, who fails miserably in her love life, seldom sleeps but goes on an eating binge everytime she was heartbroken. Yet, she's practically a genius. Although being an eccentric, weird and acting awkwardly, her character's so loveable. Being a detective, working in her own department dealing with supernatural cases (but mind you, the story's based on true facts over the years with scientific proves) so i really like the plot a lot. Then, there's this newcomer who studied abroad and came home to join forces, hoping to get into the elite forces, yet he was thrown into Haruse Kiina's wagon as her assistant. Despite his initial annoyance and reluctance towards Kiina, he slowly grows to undertsand her way of working.
Of course, there are humorous scenes and subtle moments. but yeah, i like this drama and i really HATE to say this, but i prefer this over VOICE now. The first episode alone OWNED the other two episodes of VOICE like...without any effort. Basically becoz this drama is a detective story and it's based entirely on factual histories and so, it's just more believable than VOICE, which without much evidence the characters come up with solutions. Which to me, is kinda...OFF.

So Kiina rulez over VOICE atm. And i hope it'll continue to catch people's attention, well...judging from its ratings, it is anyway...xDDD

First episode was fine, 2nd episode was mediocre. Well...the characters...i don't know, i just don't seem to have much affection towards them. Like...there's always something about a character or the way the actors/actresses act that make you really like them and will watch the show like countless times even after you've seen the ending.

However, in this show which i have anticipated since last year seemed to be disappointing.


I like Eita. I like Toma. And Satomi's fine. And even though i like them, the plot of the show isn't helping much. Seemed recycled and nothing much insteresting. And the worst of all is that it doesn't even touch much in Medical!!! I mean, they're Forensic students, mind you...and you'd have expected them to maybe cut the bodies up and examine them, run tests and etc...


But all you get is a glimpse of the dead body lying on the gurney and THAT'S IT. Literally. So why must they even make it a Forensic centered show with Forensic students when they practically did nothing in the Medical department to solve the cases. They're more like Detectives! They should've just made it a Detective/Mystery show. I mean, Galileo is better in this case becoz at least, the bizarre cases still lingered around Physics and Science, although i never could understand how the Prof can solve the cases just by writing some equations. I think the only thing that's keeping me watching this show is the fact that it has Eita and Toma in there. If it's not for these two actors, i don't think i'd waste my time watching it.


The third episode though seems to be more personal as it touches on Satomi's mother's death 15 years ago, the one thing that had bothered her and prompted her to get into Forensic Department.

The humor side of this show is pleasant to watch though. Seeing how Eita and the guys ganging up to tease Satomi, the only girl in the group is nice to see. I just hope it gets better and maybe involve some serious cases of deaths like murder.

Arifureta Kiseki also means Ordinary Miracle. Basically a woman, played by the Gokusen gangster teacher, Nakama Yukie and a man, (Kase Ryo) met by chance or fate, depending on how you'd interprete it, while trying to save a man from killing himself in front of a train. After that they exchanged mails and that was where they started their journey.

The first episode didn't offer much yet. The problem with it is the SLOW PACED setting that i can't help but really wanted to hit the fast forward button Which i admitted in doing maybe 2-3 times...it helps to get the pace going anyway.

Seeing Nakama Yukie in a more passive manner for her character this time is refreshing yet it seemed bit awkward. and Ryo Kase looked like he's lost in translation. (maybe it's the character) but still...the both of them somehow don't look like their minds or spirits are in the story. They felt distant. Nothing much interesting at all in the first episode. (i wonder if i should continue watching).

(i just wanted to give it a try out of curiosity)