Jin

I understood just enough to LOL.

Live-action "Beck" movie trailer subbed

Thanks to http://subs-scans.skewedstudios.com/.

"Magerarenai Onna"

Just watched first two episodes and they were really good.  It's about a 32 year old paralegal who has failed the bar exam 9 years straight.  She lives an uncompromising lifestyle with an OCD-like compulsion in saving money,  scheduling her life around studying, and defending others in need.  Will she find happiness getting married to her longtime boyfriend?  Becoming a lawyer to fight for justice?  It's well written and well acted all around.

Utada concert in SF

A big dream came true when I got to see Hikaru Utada live in concert yesterday night!  It was at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and it rocked.  She looked and sounded great.  She gave outstanding performances of all of her songs, past and present,  Japanese and English, from "First Love" to "Devil Inside" to most of her songs from her current album "This Is The One."  The band was awesome too.  We even got to hear her play the keyboards on an acoustic version of "Sakura Drops."

"Yamato Nadashiko Shichi Henge"

Another season of jdrama begins and I have found a likely contender for a must-see, "Yamato Nadashiko Shichi Henge" a.k.a, "Perfect Girl Evolution."  It stars Kamenashi Kazuya from "Nobuta wo Produce" and "Kami no Shizuku" and singer from KAT-TUN.  It's about a group of four handsome college guys who are offered free rent at the mansion of a rich family friend in exchange for making over the friend's niece into a young lady.  But the niece has some serious issues about her looks.   It's based on a manga that has already been adapted into an anime that is also known as "The Wallflower."  Wouldn't mind living with four hot guys in a mansion...

"Ohitorisama" ends

Just watched the tenth and final episode of "Ohitorisama."   It's a nice, innocent, comedy-romance, the couple is just so darn cute.  I want to see Teppei Koike and Alisa Mizuki in something else very soon.

myspace music is no imeem

Got an email from imeem that my playlists are back.  So I signed up for myspace and looked up my playlists.  All the jmusic is gone.  There are some songs from Utada's new English album and the one song I had from Jin called "ABC."  I miss my playlists!  All that free access to music was too good to last.

Wii gets Netflix instant streaming

News from Engadget: finally, the Wii gets the nod from Netflix.  You need to use an instant streaming disc from Neflix though.  It's coming in the Spring...already waiting for my disc to be shipped.  Now I can have access to all the movies I didn't really want to watch with poor quality...yeah!

"Kimi ni Todoke" ep 14

I want friends like Chizu and Ayane who will stick up for me like they did for Sawako.  I'm afraid Sawako will still treat Kurumi like a friend though.  Pin is hilarious again in this ep.

"Saigo no Yakusoku"

This is a recently aired jdrama SP (or TV movie) that stars all the guys in the supergroup Arashi. Matsujun's hair is a little bit much, but his eyes are still cute. I watched the first half hour or so RAW on YouTube. From what I can tell, it's about how the denizens of a high tech office building being held hostage with a time bomb somewhere in the building. Can't wait for the subs! Here is part 1 of 12.

EDIT: It looks like the videos were taken off youtube. Here is a site for streaming with English subtitles: http://www.mysoju.com/saigo-no-yakusoku/

Live-action "Beck" clip; "Kimi ni Todoke" ep 13

The upcoming "Beck" movie based on the manga has a website up with a tantalizing too-short clip of the band members.  One of them is Hiro Mizushima of the recent "Tokyo Dogs."  He is perfect to play Ryusuke.
"Kimi ni Todoke" continues to dangle Sawako and Kazehaya's coupledom in front of the salivating masses.  Their relationship takes a mini-step forward when Kazehaya confirms she doesn't like Ryuu.  And Kurumi's web of lies is shredded by Ayano.  Chizu can't even fathom Kurumi's plot because she is so straightforward.  I like when Pin thinks Kurumi likes him and Kazehaya overhears it.  All the supporting characters are nicely developed in this series.