KIKU-TV Message Board
KIKU-TV Message Board
 All Forums
 Critics' Corner
 "Are You In Love?" (Asahi Homecast people ONLY!!!)
Author  Topic 

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 10/28/2002 :  04:18:35 AM
aka Dreams of Romance. aka koi o nan nen yasu(?)nde masu ka. This thread is for AHC people only, so we don't spoil the show by posting on the other threads. Even if this just means me and msittig. -_-;

Well, I'll say it: I love the show! Dunno if it's just because I love Hitomi Kuroki. She's super popular, huh??

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 10/28/2002 :  8:31:45 PM
I'm still in the middle of the first episode (I tape the dramas; church!), but I must say that Risa is pretty cute. I look forward to finishing the tape tomorrow.

In my opinion, both of the current KSCI dramas are pretty rockin. It's been a while since romantic both the subbed and unsubbed dramas were romantic comedies (my favorite kind). By the way, I wrote up a synopsis of what I could understand of the second Home & Away episode. Keep in mind that the last time I formally studied Japanese was three years ago, so my understanding is pretty rusty. Also, I don't watch with a dictionary in my lap like I used to:

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~takoyaki/archive/200210.html#p28

Did you catch the Eye Spy LA? They've had Joe on for the last two weeks, I hope Alex gets a turn next week. He's pretty crazy.

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 11/05/2002 :  9:16:11 PM
I'm a bit late, but wow. This week's Eye Spy stars Alex! He's such a wonderful singer... hee hee

I'm going to watch "Are you in Love?" again (when I ultimately encode the episodes into wmv format), but I might want to watch Home & Away some more. I saw a bit of it before I was forced to watch The Simpsons Halloween Special, but it was pretty good. I liked it when, um, what's-her-name stumbled into a Hanshin Tigers (?) club, mistakenly carrying someone else's Giants bag... er, lol!

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 11/07/2002 :  3:16:07 PM
I just finished watching this week's "Are You In Love?" tonight. Finally, the plot is heating up! I liked the conversation that Mrs Konishi had with her husband in bed:

Mrs Konishi: "Reiko said that all men fall in love with somebody else after they get married."

Mr Konishi: "Bah. She's been watching too many doramas."

And he's seeing Lisa on the side, to boot. So dramas do come true! Maybe someday I'll travel around Japan, like "Home & Away".

Speaking of Home & Away, I'll put up another (shorter) synopsis soon. I had a harder time this week figuring out what was going on between the mother and the daughter who got married. I'll have to watch it again with my dictionary.

And for those LA folks who didn't catch it, the Asahi Homecast broadcast is moving to a different channel. Starting December first, AHC is taking the 10-10:30pm slot on channel 44 every night of the week. Asian Stadium and Eye Spy LA are moving to Wednesday nights, and the dorama will be on from 10pm to 11pm on Sunday nights. More information can be found at the AHC web site:

http://www.asahihomecast.com/

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 11/17/2002 :  10:42:35 PM
I missed last week's dramas because I went to San Francisco on vacation. However, there was a silver lining because I found out that in San Francisco they still show HEY HEY HEY MUSIC CHAMP! My favorite show of all time, and the best way to learn Japanese, by singing along and reading the subtitles.

I did tape this week's shows, and I just finished watching episode five of Home & Away. Kaede starts out in a shipping container in the middle of nowhere (don't ask!) and walks down to an onsen in the mountains. Well, the onsen that had been drying up is renewed by Kaede when she accidentally steps into a hidden spring. The townspeople think she is a goddess (tenshoo?) come to help them, and she stays for a few days to help the daughter of the onsen-keeper work out some issues with her father.

The scenery is beautiful in this episode; dark forests, mountainsides covered with green, orange and yellow-leaved trees, rope bridges across tumbling mountain brooks. Visually stunning, it made me pine for a trip to Japan. If only I won Asahi Homecasts upcoming sweepstakes...

It's funny how I'm basically following the plot of Kaede in her travels, and yet I have no idea what's going on back at home with her brother and the two lady-friends. All-dialogue situations throw me for a loop (the main reason I had for disliking Shomuni Final).

I'll watch this week's Dreams of Romance tomorrow. Until then, peace!

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 11/19/2002 :  11:57:38 PM
I hate to prop this thread up by myself, kedo...

I stayed up late tonight to watch the fourth episode of Dreams of Romance. It was a very heartwarming episode, one in which the men were the stars/heroes. Mayumi gets on Ichiro's case because he turns down an acting role that he deems to menial, and Yuko begins to suspect that her husband has another love outside the house. In the end, they both redeem themselves (with a little twist on Ichiro's part), but I'll leave it at that so as to not spoil it entirely.

I'm enjoying the show more and more as it goes on. I guess I just like romantic comedies like that. I sympathize with Ichiro; deep down I would enjoy being a "house-husband" too. The domestic life is not that bad, but a lot of work I'm sure!

In regards to Home and Away, I'm in love with the opening theme "Hello, Everybody!" but I can't seem to find the mp3 anywhere. The best I could find was a RealAudio sample at the following site:

http://dat-net.jp/disco.htm

Triple Lei, where are you?

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 11/24/2002 :  07:05:43 AM
Aw, heck, I'm still here. I've been busy encoding these episodes in wmv format, and I think the entire series will fit snuggly on two CDs.

The 4th episode was great! I've been waiting for something to happen between Mr. Sawamura and Ms. Horikawa (er, I have a hard time remembering names ^^; ). Also I love how at least Ichiro and Mayumi are great together. I thought Yuko's husband straightened himself out (as in, just getting milk), but he had to blow it all... >:(

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/06/2002 :  11:32:52 PM
Just chiming in to show that I'm still around and kicking.

Asahi Homecast pulled off their schedule change flawlessly, but poor ol' me completely lost track of when/where the drama moved to so I missed last week's episode of Are You In Love... at least I can read the partial synopsis on the KIKU TV website.

In spot left vacant by Asahi Homecast's move, KSCI channel 18 has stuck more Japanese programming! Specifically a drama called Gokusen, about a mafia-family girl who tries to go straight and work as a school-teacher. No subtitles, I'm afraid to report. As I always do, I've compiled a litle info on the drama and stuck it here:

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~takoyaki/vault/jp_drama/gokusen/

In the KIKU Message Board downtime, I spent time over at the DefiniteAsia Forums looking for the Hello Everybody! mp3, because it's the catchy opening theme for the current Sunday afternoon drama, Home & Away. I'm happy to say that I found it and even linked it from my Brocco Li weblog.

Triple Lei, I'm very jealous that you can put the dramas on CDs. I will have to find out where you live and kidnap them, haha.

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/07/2002 :  9:16:58 PM
Yikes, looks like someone got lost in the transition. Luckily I have TiVo, so if you don't have TiVo and / or DirecTV, now's the time to get it! (well actually the time to get it, for our purposes, probably would have been last week or so...) I'm just sad I missed the first episode of that anime, Hidamari no Ki.

Anyways, I suppose I could somehow send you the episodes, either on AIM or even on CDs once the series is completed. The four parts total about 75 MB, which isn't too bad. The last dorama I successfully archived was "LOVE LOVE LOVE" (koi ga shi-tai), though it was on 4 CDs due to me not discovering .wmv format earlier... I hate that RealVideo format. Heck, it even took twice as long to encode!

Thanks so much for the Home & Away theme! I've heard great things about that band, day after tomorrow. One of the group members was from another group, Every Little Thing. And talk about luck, I have the HEY!HEY!HEY! episode with hitomi, aiko, and day after tomorrow permanently saved on TiVo! (though I don't think it was the theme song)

Do you remember a program called NNN Weekly Magazine? I loved that show... and if not for catching the music clips, I would never have seriously gotten into j-pop! Now they just show some un-subtitled UTB stuff... blah. I hoped it was just temporary, but I even checked the official KSCI 18 page at http://www.kscitv.com and it looks like it's gone! =( It couldn't have come at a worse time, too... I was hoping I'd see them cover hitomi's wedding... grr.

Edited by - Triple Lei on 12/08/2002 06:16:12 AM

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/09/2002 :  03:56:40 AM
Oh yeah, it seems the episodes are more chopped up since the move to 44. They don't play the whole intro theme (and I really like that theme...), commercial breaks are surprisingly early (based on background music), and flashbacks are sketchy at best.

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/16/2002 :  12:34:38 AM
You may be joking when you mention the TiVO, but I'm considering it more seriously every day. Especially after missing today's episode of Home & Away because I forgot to stick in a VHS tape before I went to work, grrrr. I would love it if you could send me those CDs when the drama finishes, I'll mail you a few bucks to cover the cost so it's fair.

Speaking of tonight's dramas, Dreams of Romance was a real downer! Everybody is doing the wrong thing, I just want to yell at them through the TV "don't go with him/her, you're ruining your marriage!" Argh. But in the case of Yuko, is it for the best? Darn these Japanese moral ambiguities, haha.

I do remember the NNN Weekly Magazine! They used to show short clips of the top J-pop videos, which were refreshing when they stopped showing HEY HEY HEY regularly. I miss it too. Personally, I don't mind the new UTB drama. Actually, I can understand more of it than Home & Away, and it motivated me to take my dictionary to watch it the other day. And I got my copy of Essential Japanese Grammar out of storage (just enough grammar to handle a light comedy drama!).

Actually, since Korean dramas have become to ubiquitous on the LA airwaves, I'm beginning to study a little Korean. But the truth is, they don't compare in quality to the Japanese ones (in my opinion!).

Edited by - msittig on 12/16/2002 12:37:45 AM

gymanime
Junior Member

Posts: 127
From: USA
Registered: Apr 2001

Posted - 12/28/2002 :  9:42:51 PM
There have been dramas that were not shown here in Hawaii, ( only on the mainland ) which I wish was shown here or should have been, since I don't know anything of a drama before having seen it! Not all dramas are shown here in Hawaii especially since around 2 years ago. I do wish KIKU's fortunes would change for the "great". Well!?!? , anyway and whateva.


Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/29/2002 :  9:17:49 PM
Yeah, well too bad. =P (plus I could have sworn we AHC people get far less English subtitled dramas...)

Anyway, the final episode just aired, though there's going to be a special on January 5 and 12. I don't know if it's a two-parter or if they're just showing it again, but it looks like you're just going to have to wait a while longer for those CDs. Sorry!

(oh yeah, if I were Yuko, I'd go with Mr. Shima... don't the kids like Risa anyway? ^_^ )

gymanime
Junior Member

Posts: 127
From: USA
Registered: Apr 2001

Posted - 12/30/2002 :  12:35:39 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Triple Lei:

Yeah, well too bad. =P (plus I could have sworn we AHC people get far less English subtitled dramas...)

Anyway, the final episode just aired, though there's going to be a special on January 5 and 12. I don't know if it's a two-parter or if they're just showing it again, but it looks like you're just going to have to wait a while longer for those CDs. Sorry!

(oh yeah, if I were Yuko, I'd go with Mr. Shima... don't the kids like Risa anyway? ^_^ )



Besides having KIKU TV with it's always subtitled programming ( except the TBS Sunday Morning newsmagazine and minus FUJI dramas due to cost and no subtitling policy, P*** Me Offff ! ), there are the cable NGN and NGN2 channels with Fuji TV Dramas with no subtitles and other stations dramas like NHK with subtitles or not as the case maybe.
You (?) mentioned that you receive anime, do you get new series regularly?


Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/30/2002 :  6:44:11 PM
Well we didn't always get anime... we got new programs when AHC changed channels. Just check out http://www.asahihomecast.com/ and look at the Thursday schedule... I don't know if that means Thursday is going to be the "anime" day or if it's going to be replaced by another drama when "Hidamari no Ki" is finished.

msittig
Starting Member


Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 12/31/2002 :  01:17:55 AM
No problem about the CDs, Triple Lei, you're doing me a *huge* favor! And I'm glad they are doing the specials: I can't believe the show left Risa out in the cold like that! She has to meet some cute (single) guy and settle down happily. I was happy for her mother, the father was just never present in the show so it's hard to feel anything besides happiness for Sakiko when she was re-united with that strapping young fellow.

I'm also happy that Yuko made up with her husband. Yes, the kids liked Risa a lot, and Shima-kun was quite a guy, but it was still worth it to see a model marriage work out despite the slings and arrows of life.

I taped Hey Hey Hey Music Champ tonight. Karaoke party tomorrow!

Triple Lei
New Member

Posts: 51
From: USA
Registered: Aug 2001

Posted - 01/05/2003 :  10:28:47 PM
Ok, so it's a two-parter.

I love these specials... the last one I remember is the "We have tomorrow!" special (which I actually made into 2 VCDs). It's sort of a "high school reunion" feeling for me!

The first part was generally light-hearted and very funny, though Sawamura is such a jerk! God I hate him! >:(

 

KIKU-TV Message Board

www.kikutv.com © 2001