Nodame Cantabile is a romantic comedy and I really recommend people to watch it. For starters, this is one of the rare times in which I remember the lead character’s names. In certain cases like Galileo, I seem to not be able to recall the character’s names.

There are two leading characters, the first being Nodame, which is short for her real name, Noda Megumi. (See I remember even the full name). Nodame’s ambition is to be a kindergarten teacher and she is in the piano division in the music academy. She composed a “fart song” for her future students. Who the hell wants their kids to learn a fart song, I don’t really know.

The second is Chiaki-senpai, where senpai just means senior. Nodame is Chiaki’s junior, so she calls him Chiaki-senpai. Chiaki’s dream is to go to Europe to be a professional conductor. However when he returned from Vienna when he was young, there had been an emergency landing and he has an aeroplane phobia since then. Hence he is unable to fulfil his dreams because he can only stay in Japan.

The whole drama is a manga adaptation, so be prepared for manga style things happening like Nodame getting whacked and flying a huge distance before hitting a big rock.

The whole drama is about Nodame’s love for Chiaki and how he eventually “accepted” her love for him. It shows how Nodame helped Chiaki overcome his fear of planes, and eventually Chiaki is able to fly to Paris to further his studies as a conductor. It also shows how strong Nodame’s love for Chiaki is, because Nodame decided to immerse herself in music more and even attended competitions for him, something she said she will never do. In a way, she is giving up on her kindergarten teacher dream by working hard. (She has natural talent at piano also).

There is this character called Stresseman (Hope I spelled it correctly), who’s got to be one horny ah pek. But he is actually the Maestro, one of the superb conductors around the world. He’s super lame because he keeps going to parties and immense himself in the company of female escorts. He also likes reading Japan’s Magazines, the kind where skimpy clothing rule.

There are two episodes of SP to be watched after you complete the 11 episode drama. But that’s for another post. I give this drama 8.5/10. I enjoyed laughing at it. Seriously.

Galileo, isn’t about the real Galileo. Galileo is more of a nickname for a brilliant professor in one of Japan’s universities. His name is Yukawa Manabu and he has been helping his ex classmate with police work. After his ex classmate got promoted, a rookie who took over him, Utsumi Kaoru continued bugging Yukawa for his help.

Galileo is super smart, and he can scientifically solve many different crimes and understand how things work in a scientific manner. One of the episodes even show resonance when the water gushing through the pipe has a frequency that matches the natural frequency of the house, creating large vibrational motion.

One thing I don’t understand is how can he always find something to calculate and write equations on? I distinctively saw a dx/dt in one of the episodes.

The episodes are mainly standalone, so you can watch them alone. Only episodes 9 and 10 are linked, and it’s because its the finale so there is a bigger case. In the last case, Galileo is faced with a Nuclear Ticking Bomb that is set to explode in 3 hours. In that 3 hours, he can actually do many things that fascinates me and convinced me that it is truly a remarkable work of fiction. I mean, how can you solve something faster than the computer. Especially when you have to type things like fprintf();.

This JDrama has many scientific elements inside, though I cannot confirm that they are true, though that of the resonance is true in a way that I’ve learnt it before, from JC and now in University. I suppose they have some element of truth.

Maki had a cameo in Episode 6, but the amount of screen time is zentei ni little. Not that it’s a must to have her act, but if there is eye candy, why not? Jiahao also informed me that some famous actress also acted in the series, in particular in Episode 7 as the beautiful wife.

If you have time, perhaps you should watch Galileo? However, some people may think it’s boring. That, I cannot guarantee. That’s amusing though. ^_^

Kanzaki Nao is a really honest and innocent citizen. She is probably the most innocent character ever in all of Drama-world. I mean, at the start, they show how innocent she is by showing her returning a 100 yen coin she found to the police station, and making a police report for it. A 100 yen is probably about 1 US dollar? However the best nonsense got to be her receiving a prank call about her brother having some trouble, and she actually believed it till she realized she’s an only child. -_-"

All the troubles begin when Nao receives a package containing a letter and a 100 million yen (equivalent to a million USD). The moment she opened the letter, it is deemed that she is voluntarily participating in this game called the Liar Game .

In the first round, she has to cheat her opponent of as much money as possible. At the end of 30 days, the Liar Game team will return to collect a 100 million yen from both participants, and any money left over will be the prize money. Hence, the cheated victim will have to get a loan to pay back the money.

She gets cheated immediately because her opponent was her former teacher, and she actually handed over a 100 million yen to him to put in the bank "later". With the help of a convicted swindler Akiyama Shinichi, she manages to get the 100 million yen back, as well as successfully win another 100 million yen as prize money. But due to her innocent nature, she saves her former teacher by giving him back the 100 million yen.

That, is the first round of the liar game. Nao actually ends up in a few more rounds. She proceeded to the 2nd round because she couldn’t pay the opt out fee (she returned it to the teacher) and by some turn of events, Akiyama took over another participant to end up with Nao again. There is a reason why Akiyama helps Nao so much, and is in the sub-plot I won’t reveal.

Basically the second round is Minority Voting. As long as one votes in the minority, he/she is safe. Else, he/she will leave and incur a 100 million yen debt. It sounds disgustingly dangerous, but by Akiyama’s strategy it seems actually easy. It’s all mathematics and trying to find a way to last till the end.

Nao finishes and manages to exit from Liar Game. Some events lead her to go to the resurrection round, which is the restructuring game. By voting who to keep in the game, the person with the least number of votes will be restructured, and won’t have a chance to pay back the 100million yen incurred in the former round.

Nao eventually ends up in round 3, a smuggling game which I don’t know how to describe. Eventually Nao manages to create a win-win situation, and wins over certain selfish people to get a harmonious result for everyone to draw.

Liar Game is exciting and you may get irritated because the people there are so bad to innocent Nao. The main moral of the story is, if everyone works together and not backstab each other for selfish reasons, everyone can be saved. It’s those selfish people that spoils everyone’s chances by wanting to earn more money.

I watched this JDrama initially because my favourite Jap actress was inside, but actually she only played a very minor role. However from the first episode onwards I was hooked, and I must admit, this is a good touching drama that anyone should watch when they have time. However, there are certain points in time when it’s getting too draggy and slow.

The entire drama is 11 episodes, with two more separate episodes, the first being the “Another Ending” where they show the love stories of the supporting casts, as well as the Guitar Otoko, who is actually Densha Otoko’s Otaku friend aka as Sea Turtle. The second is the SP (Special), where Densha Otoko is hunted by a company and at the same time, he wants to prove his love to Saori. The special is quite touching in my own opinion.

The main story is like this. Densha Otoko is a nickname for Yamada-san, who is an Otaku. An Otaku is someone who’s obsessed with anime blabla and has many figurines at home. In short, being an Otaku is rather “derogatory” in nature because people think you are weird and somehow you will feel that Otaku’s are a lower caste.

Yamada-san, on his way home, saw a pretty lady, Saori-san. A drunk came to disturb her, and he plucked up the courage to voice out and stop the drunk. As a result, Saori asks for Yamada’s address and sent him a present of two Hermes Cups.

Yamada, who’s like any normal guy who feels inferior, wants help and turns to a message board or forum and the participants there helped him with many things, like the Densha Otoko remodeling project, where he changes his image before meeting Saori-san for the first date, as well as giving him courage to call Saori-san.

Through the 11 episodes, there are many ups and downs, and Yamada-san proves his love and concern in many different touching ways. In fact, I understand why Saori-san will fall in love with an Otaku, because he is really sincere. I’m sure he puts many men to shame. I know it’s a drama, but it’s based on a real story. Densha Otoko happened in Japan and they made it into a drama. Furthermore, the things he did, (other than the SP which is purely fiction) are not those out of the world kind, but simple actions that really touch people. He gives hope because it doesn’t matter how tall you are, or how handsome you look, you can always win the heart of the fair maiden.

I’m really touched after watching the whole series including the SP, and I think people should watch it too. So watch it, and feel.

Dragon Zakura, (Wiki), is a JDrama that talks about the education system in Japan. In a way, I find it refreshing and nice because I think it can be used to talk about education systems around the world.

In Dragon Zakura, there is a school where the average score is in the thirties, and students from that school end up with lousy futures because no university will take them in, nor any companies will hire them due to their lousy score. According to Sakuragi (the lawyer turned teacher for a year), they are baka students.

I guess I can relate to it because there are many elements that are prevalent in every society. For example, treating students from lousier schools as inferior. Just look at the Elite Schools vs Neighbourhood Schools problem in Singapore. It exists, and people have the annoying perception that people from lousier schools tend to be hooligans as compared to those from Elite Schools.

I love this drama series because I strongly believe that anyone who works hard can make it to any goal, it is just that the amount of effort is different. I believe that one should not look down on others simply by looking on school standards, and I like it when the twin from the lousier school made it into Tokyo University (Todai), but the other twin from the prestigious school, and always toted to be the brother that’s going to make it into Todai, didn’t.

This just shows that it’s about the effort, and if you look down on people, one day they may climb up to over your head and then it is too late to regret.

The aim of Sakuragi is to produce 5 students who will make it into Todai by one year. Yajima Yuusuke (Yamapi from Prodai) is the first guy he enlisted into the special class. Ogata Hideki, Kosaka Yoshino and Kobayashi Maki came after that. Mizuno Naomi (Nagasawa Masami from Prodai) was the “last” one, until in the middle of the series, Okuno Ichiro was enlisted. This is the twin that made it.

In the end, only 3 students ended up being eligible for Todai, and only 2 continued Todai studies. Yajima didn’t have the money to pay the university and hence is self studying to be a lawyer. The other three are “going to” work hard and enter Todai on their own. I guess in a way, it is a happy ending, but I feel sad because I thought there would be at least 5 of them who made it.

In a way I feel that it is particularly nice and heartwarming to see that people who put in effort will be able to find success. The drama also reinforces certain concepts in me, like no matter what we decide to do in life, we can make it magnificent. We do not let ourselves slump and slack and rot our life away. Hence I ask myself, what am I going to do with my life? What is my life for? I guess, I have to find out, I have to indulge myself in friendships, play a part in their lives, be there for them, and justify my own existence?

Dragon Zakura is a nice JDrama. Opps.