警部補 矢部謙三

Keibuho Yabe Kenzo



The credit hogger and wig wearer of Trick fame now has his own dorama spinoff!



The otaku assistant, Akiba, is still with Yabe, following him diligently and is always grateful for his abusive punches.



From Ep 2 onwards, he is filmed hiding one corner doing the opening narratives for Yabe and makes Yabe wonder why he is always talking to himself.



His Tokyo University assistant, Kikuchi from Trick Season 3, now stars as his superior, sidekick to the Chief of the Police Department, and is always getting on the nerves of Yabe and the gang.



So much so that they coded him with his trademark action..



And Yabe schemes to indirectly hit him all the time (thou Kikuchi finally got smarter from Ep 5 onwards).


Aiming Akiba's angle..


Punches Akiba, who in turn spins to punch Kikuchi.



Thankfully for his desk-bound admin cops, Katsura (always enthusiastic to go on-scene with her "dekapedia", sharp observation and super loud voice) and Sakuragi (would rather stay in office but has pretty good investigating skills), he is able to get off the hooks of big cases thrown to him by his equally "scaredy-cat" superiors.

Also, to link the show with Trick, the team added in visual cues reminding audience of the Trick relevance. (There's a Trick museum exhibition in ep 3 or 4 but dunno if its for real.. I would so like to go~)


The landlady and Johnny


Yamada getting ridiculed in the background

Especially in Ep 5, Yukie makes a guest appearance!


EHHEHEHHEHHEHE~


Sakuragi found Jirogoo's door lying in the middle of the road.


Even Jirogoo's car model has a missing door!


I dunno wat Naoko is doing...


Are?


Katsura did exactly the same thing as Naoko at the village entrance!

Its a super funny show which made me chuckle at all episodes, esp Ep 5 with Yukie's Naoko appearance. Although the cases are jus plain murders, robberies, etc with no supernatural phenomenons involved, it sort of shows what Yabe does other than always appearing in Trick's cases. And the Katsura-Sakuragi-Akiba team does a good job covering up for the rest of the useless force.

I highly recommend this since its only 6ep but I'm not sure if the show would be fun without watching Trick as a background. Shouldn't be a big problem I guess.

TRICK 新作スペシャル2

Ueda and Yamada are back!!

Well, even thou its only for 106 min of this 2nd Special. But its rather fast that the subbers completed this in probably 2 weeks! Woohoo~


Introduction of Ueda's toy (The Ueda look-alike on the right neatly tucked in bed)

The couple returned for this instalment of Trick in conjunction with their 10th anniversary celebrations, together with Yabe, Akiba and Satomi, bringing along the usual laughters, thou the plot is rather normal.


Super Bad Bed Habits (Notice the drawing on the screen.. ITS HUGE BOOBS!! HAHAHHAHHAHA!! Another pun on Yamada~)

A small village in Okayama has a local tradition where lovers take an oath together during the festival days. If so happens that the couple separates, the party who was dumped will die in 3 days.



Ueda Jiro is requested by Shuichi to visit the village and conduct an experiment on the superstition, with a reward of 5 million yen for his physics research. Ueda in turn conned Yamada that there is a competition with a 100,000 yen reward being held at the village.


Shuichi served *Ahem* Bun to Ueda..


Which ends up being grabbed by Yamada and dashing to one corner eating in hopes of enlarging her flat busts.. 以型補型..

Ueda and Yamada arrived at the village together with Higashizaki Ayano, a strange woman from one of the two influential families in town in earlier days but have since met its downfall, who had left 20 years ago after the death of her husband and son.


Satomi rolling $$ into her pockets again.

As the festival proceeds, girls around Shuichi started dying one by one mysteriously. Rumour has it that its the curse of the oaths taking effect but in reality, its jus a revenge plotted 20 years back.


Hannin wa..


Pop!


Jirogoo, the mysterious self moving car belonging to Ueda. Interesting that Yamada and Ueda are not bothered by the seemingly supernatural phenomenom and Ueda even treats it like a pet!

There isnt much "supernatural" tricks used for this, just some normal crime scene alibi bluffs and a physics trick which Ueda (finally!) cracks and Yamada reverses the roles by claiming credit. So the story resembles more a crime scene investigation than the usual cultish Trick plots.

Yabe and Akiba also were missing for most part and Hiroshi's hair is FLAT! (He actually looks younger..)

Waiting for the movieee...

メイド刑事

Wakatsuki Aoi (Fukuda Saki)was a former nee-san of a Bōsōzoku gang, until she met Kaido Toshiaki (Harada Ryuji), Head Officer of Kyoto Police Force.



Toshiaki took Aoi under his wings after he defeated her in a confrontation, and from then on, with the care of him, his butler and his chef, Aoi became a part of Toshiaki's family helping out with the chores as a maid.



Working for Toshiaki, or indirectly the Kyoto Police Force, Aoi, with her maid skills, was sent to infiltrate into houses of suspects or victims where the Police aren't allowed access, and collect leads regarding the cases.



The show didn't present the cases and clues clearly and so it isn't that fantastic in the investigating aspect. However, Saki-chan is rather funny with her Sailormoon transformation-like ritual that she always do upon disclosing her real identity as an undercover maid deka for Kyoto Police Force. And there's a certain degree of erotic-ness from Ep 2 or 3 onwards, with all the extra-marital affairs and even a hentai submissive otaku company director.

Watch it probably to see Saki-chan in different get-ups, Bōsōzoku, maiko, among others.

One Piece World Collectable Figure Vol. 2

Now my pre-orders are arriving too fast too furious again..

Vol. 2 of the World Collection Series from Banpresto features the Thriller Bark Arc, with Hogback, Victoria Cindry and 2 of Perona's Negative Ghosts, thou Perona herself will only be featured in Vol. 3.

Luffy's crew has Luffy, in THE SAME POSE AS Vol. 1!! 'Cept diff color clothes. WHAT IS THIS!?!?!?, Chopper with his big cross, Robin, Franky, and the soon-to-be recruited Brooke.

Space crisis again...

魔女裁判

Spoilers ahead

Poster

This drama was broadcasted in conjunction with the introduction of lay-judges for serious trial cases in the Japanese jury system starting May 2009. The lay-judges are chosen from the electoral register, with pre-requisites of at least 20 years old and with a secondary level education. Chosen citizens who do not wish to serve in the panel will be fined 100,000 yen.


Court Layout

From Wikipedia
"The Japanese system is unique[citation needed] in that the panel consists of six lay judges, chosen randomly from the public, together with three professional judges. It therefore places a large amount of judicial power on randomly chosen members of the public.

The verdict requires the numerical majority of judges as well as at least one professional judge in favour of the majority to deliver the verdict. Therefore, three professional judges as a collective have a veto on the majority verdict delivered by the lay judges. The Ministry of Justice specifically avoided using the term "jury" (Baishin-in) and use the term "lay judge" (Saiban-in) instead. Therefore, the current system is categorically not a jury system though this misunderstanding persists in common law countries due to lack of understanding of civil law criminal procedure."

The drama was actually quite slow-paced in the beginning and I keep wondering if Ikuta Toma is a eurasian since he looks very much like one.



Yoshioka Toru (Ikuta Toma) is a 24 year old part-time designer who was selected to be on the jury panel for "The Witch Trial" along with 7 others from all walks of life. Kashiwagi Kyoko (Ishida Yuriko) is charged with the murder of her husband, hitting him on the back of the head with a brick and then shoving his head into the fireplace.

As the plot progresses, one by one, the saiban-ins started acting in a suspicious manner, with fear of their darkest secrets being exposed, while casting votes for which they cant explain their grounds. It appears that a professional underground organisation, headed by Kurokawa Ryuichi, is blackmailing them for its client.

The story only got better around the 5th and 6th episode when Toru starts his counter-attack against Kurokawa's underhanded coercions and when all the votes started switching sides.


Saiban-ins


Ikuta Toma as Yoshiyoka Toru, codenamed Mr Orange, was tricked into placing a big order for the printing of his t-shirts and hence incurring a one million yen debt.


Kato Ai as Watabe Izumi, a regular housewife, codenamed Ms White, was blackmailed with the safety of her daughter, and later on, tricked into bribing a public official of a prestigious primary school that she enrolled her daughter in.


Hirakata Genki as Soma Suguru, a law school undergraduate, codenamed Mr Blue, the only one saiban-in who was not blackmailed, probably due to his law background.


Nakamura Yasuhi as Tatokoro Hideo, a teacher and family guy, codenamed Mr Purple, the first saiban-in that was shown to be extorted with photos of his gay exploits and forced to work under the direct instructions of Kurokawa.


Suenaga Haruka as Okudera Rika, a hostess by occupation, codenamed Ms Donperi, was a former "soap lady" (probably some ero video series) and had kept this secret from her fiance.


Matsumoto Jun (not to be confused with Matsumoto Jun of Arashi) as Utsumi Nobue, a house keeper/nurse, codenamed Ms Pink, who had been secretly taking money from her employer's account.


Nakamura Kaori as Nedzu Yoshiko, an office lady, codenamed Ms Brown, is one of the two reserve saiban-in who will be activated should one of the regular saiban-ins fall ill during the trial and unable to attend or choose to drop out during the proceedings. She was intiminated by Kurokawa's gang who attempts to release her whereabouts to her abusive ex-husband.

Yamaya Hatsuo as Izutsu Hajime, the other saiban-in, codenamed Mr Brown, was seduced by one of Kurokawa's underlings.


Higa Manami as Motomiya Kaori, Toru's journalist girlfriend, who was used by Kyoko and Haruka to mislead everyone.


Hmm.. the twists are pretty good but the show's kind of draggy. A bit messy I would say.

チャンス！

Spoilers ahead


A tanpatsu sponsered by NTT Docomo, Chance! depicts the lives of 2 ladies, Kawamura TAMAKI (Horikita Maki), a fresh grad who struggles to look for a job in the tight market and landed a post as customer service officer in a travel company; and TAMAKI Saori (Kuroki Meisa), a superstar employee in the same travel company working in the planning department.



On her 2nd day of work, Kawamura TAMAKI was shoved the task of leading a mystery tour as there was no other people around when the emergency call came in. Kawamura, reminded of her supervisor's words, that freshies do not have the choice to consider, accepted the task despite it not being in her scope of work and accompanied a tour group the whole day, making a fool out of herself on the way. To make things worse, she was reprimanded by her supervisor when she got back to office and was told not to return.



Depressed, she took the opportunity to join, under disguise, the Tokyo day-tour led by the travel company's popular tour guide, Inoue-san. The cover was blown immediately and Kawamura was roped in to assist in bringing the group around, while trying to understand what makes the sarcastic Inoue-san so popular. Inoue-san explained, at the end of the tour, that what makes the participants happy, is what makes him happy.

But as luck would have it, the participants in the previous tour group enjoyed themselves with her accompaniment and reflected to the travel company, thus giving Kawamura a transfer to the short-handed planning department.

TAMAKI Saori, having just finished a New York tour, reported back to office on her cellphone before noticing her ex, Kusaba Fumiya, who went to New York in an attempt to advance being an artist and has since lost contact, getting into a cab. Frantically, she chased behind in another cab until her cab was stopped by Kawamura's police brother, who lost his bike while booking Saori's cab driver.

Failing to confirm if that man is her ex, Saori returned to office and in the life-changing moment of fate, Kawamura TAMAKI bumped into TAMAKI Saori along the aisle and took each other's company-issued identical phones by mistake.



Almost instantly, Kawamura received a call on her cellphone from the company director requesting her to come up with a tour itinerary to an overseas company. Not realising that it was for TAMAKI Saori, Kawamura TAMAKI took to the task and met up with the client with her proposal.



TAMAKI Saori, on the other hand, was busy with her wedding when she spotted Fumiya across the street.



In her full wedding garb, she took off chasing after the cab down many streets, taking a break with Kawamura's brother along the way, and found Fumiya in the same cafe they had agreed to meet 2 yrs ago with Kawamura TAMAKI.



Fumiya took his leave and Saori continued chasing, till the hotel where the proposal presentation is supposed to be held. She was pulled to present by the travel company director without knowing what was going on, entered the room to find Fumiya there. She managed through the presentation with her cool demeanor, althou the clients were not satisfied with the usual tour package she had introduced.

Kawamura, who had earlier refused to give Fumiya her proposal as he had specified that his clients are sick of the usual touristy places, had only an hour to revise her proposal before the presentation is expected to commence. She roped in the help of her fellow customer service colleagues, Inoue-san and her acquaintance over at the personal assistance department, and rushed out a proposal within the time frame.



Kawamura hands the proposal over to Saori as Saori was the one the clients wanted and that she does not know English, but Saori declined, stating that a tour guide should follow through a tour till the end.



In all jitters, Kawamura presented her proposal, with Saori graciously offering to translate. Her tour, which was basically the tour she went with Inoue-san, was met with tremendous response from the clients, in the sincerity that was presented and the enjoyment on the faces of the participants.



After the presentation, Fumiya congratulated Saori on her wedding although he was disappointed to meet her again under those circumstances.



Kawamura had her big break with this whole misunderstanding and rose to be another of the company's superstars.

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Interesting short story that teaches one to grasp any opportunity that comes along the way.

And I was bored waiting for Majo Saiban and Maid Deka..