Tsubasa Honda: "Koinaka" drama episode 9(final) recap and screenshots

 Start Date: Monday, July 20th on Fuji-TV at 9:00 pm

Main Cast:

Tsubasa Honda as Akari Serizawa

Sota Fukushi as Aoi Miura

Shuhei Nomura as Aoi Shota

Taiga as Kouhei Kanazawa

Sakurako Ohara as Nanami Miura

Mizuki Yamamoto as Mirei Tominaga

 Karen Otomo as Kokone Yamasiro
Yui Ichikawa as Ruiko Saeki

 Thought the series was going to be another episode or two longer but this was the finale, wonder if they stopped the series a bit short for certain reasons? If one of the reasons was quality then it's a good thing this was the final episode as this one of the worst episodes I've ever seen and I've seen thousands of them. Will try to make this short, not because I'm lazy tonight but this was honestly such a horrible show, as a matter of fact the last few episodes rank right up there with some of the worst ever for J-dramas.

 Episode 8 ended up with Akari travelling to Toyama to see Shota and give him her response to his proposal. Miura knows why she went there and he also manages to make it ti Toyama, though he was stuck in Tokyo traffic with seven minutes to catch the train there he somehow manages to catch the train. It's things like that scene which boggle your mind, Miura is in the middle of traffic, has to get to Tokyo Station, battle the crowds, buy a ticket and board the train.... all in seven minutes?!
 Think the script was written by a five year old as when he arrives there Akari first meets with Shota to give him her answer which was no. Then she meets up with Miura and though he never formally proposed to her they're now getting married and quickly too as the marriage takes place just a few days later it seems.
 Another bothersome thing was the way Shota acted, here the love of his life turns down his proposal yet he's still so happy for her and Miura, it just made no sense why he acted that way. Fluffiness was brought to a new level this episode as really the only event that took place was the wedding which dragged on and on and on.....
 One other thing that bothered me to no end was the theme song, don't know who sang and after hearing it so many times don't want to know who sang it. Every episode you would hear it at least twice, so for about seven of the 45 minutes you would hear that theme song which is so bad, boring more than anything else. In this this last episode the sow was 56 minutes, we heard the song or an instrumental version for 15(!!) minutes, talk about filling time.

 I don't like to be negative on my reviews, try to watch things that I think will be good and usually do watch good things as most of the reviews here are positive. However there's no way to beat around the bush with this drama, it did start out well and truly wanted to like it but don't think I've ever seen a drama fade as bad as this one did. First three episodes would give it a rating of 8/10, really showed some promise. The next three would give it a 6/10 but the last few would give a rating of 2/10, they were truly some of the worst episodes ever for a drama.
 Don't blame the cast for this being a bad drama, they did an acceptable job but when the script and direction is so bad then there's not much the cast can do. My advice would be to skip this if you were having ideas about watching it, there's just so many good dramas out there so don't waste your time with this one.
 Tsubasa was fine in this series and as you can tell by the screenshots she's never looked better, she was the #1 reason I watched this show. If you haven't seen them would recommend her dramas "Piece" or "Vampire Heaven", both were really good but especially that first one.
 Next few reviews will be much more positive as I'm watching a few other shows, few are newer and two are somewhat older but all have been good watches. Sorry for the bad review but have to be honest, this was really one drama that could have been so much better and kept thinking it would get better as it went on yet the complete opposite happened.

Tsubasa Honda: "Koinaka" drama episode 8 recap and screenshots

 Start Date: Monday, July 20th on Fuji-TV at 9:00 pm

Main Cast:

Tsubasa Honda as Akari Serizawa

Sota Fukushi as Aoi Miura

Shuhei Nomura as Aoi Shota

Taiga as Kouhei Kanazawa

Sakurako Ohara as Nanami Miura

Mizuki Yamamoto as Mirei Tominaga

 Karen Otomo as Kokone Yamasiro
Yui Ichikawa as Ruiko Saeki

 On a few of these recaps have mentioned this show may have been better as an eight episode series due to all the filler in each show. Upon further reflection think it running ten episodes is still fine but having the episodes 27-30 minutes would have been perfect. Those dramas that are that length are usually among my fave ones, there's no time for filler and the story moves right along, this series seems most episodes are good for 2/3, the other 1/3 is just so slow and boring so a half hour show would have been perfect.
 Hopefully there's just two episodes left, if there are will combining the two into one post, if it's 11 episodes will be doing a review for the 9th episode, whatever length the series is will be putting the final two episodes into one bigger post. Should have been doing that right along as though this was a bit better of an episode really not all that much happened or at least not much as usual for the final 1/3 of the show.
 Episode 7 ended up with Shota hugging Akari in a hospital room after a mini fair at the hospital for a patient, during the hug Miura walked in leaving us and him wondering what's going to happen. What happens is that Shota proposes to Akari, this takes place in the first minute of the episode and by the end of the show we still don't know what her answer will be.

 Though Shota has done a few underhanded maneuvers to be with Akari he's changed his ways since becoming a doctor and Akari has noticed this. They did break up a few episodes ago but Akari is changing the way she views Shota these days, once again she has strong feelings for him but are they going to be strong enough for her to accept his proposal?
 The relationship between Akari and Miura is just going so-so, he knows of the proposal and deep down though he probably loves Akari more he realizes that in the long run Shota may be better for her. Another thing going on with Miura is that he's entered a rookie architect contest, he asks Akari to show up at the awards and presentation show on August 31st. That's the date though where she is supposed to say yes or no to Shot's proposal.
 Shota had given Akari a train ticket to travel that day to Toyama for their fireworks show, he told her to show up only if she's willing to say yes. First though she does attend Miura's presentation but right after he finishes she leaves and takes the train to see Shota, we still don't know what her answer will be yet. At the show Miura didn't win the grand prize but did win a special award, during his speech he said he designed the house with the love of his life in mind. One of the judges told Miura to stop wavering, if he's that much in love with her to chase after her and try as hard as he can to win her back.

 Chasing after Akari is what Miura does as the show comes to it's conclusion as next episode there will be a three way match at the Toyama fireworks show, who will Akari end up choosing? First half hour or so was fairly good but after that the architect show really dragged as it lasted well over ten minutes and we barely got to see Akari at all.
 Which is why there's so few screenshots of Tsubasa here, easily the fewest I've taken for any episode which when you look as jaw-dropping as she does it should be a crime she wasn't in more scenes. Back next week with another recap unless there's just the two episodes left and if that's all that's remaining will let you know or then again I could have my usual change and continue to do a review for each episode.

Tsubasa Honda: "Koinaka" drama episode 7 recap and screenshots

 Start Date: Monday, July 20th on Fuji-TV at 9:00 pm

Main Cast:

Tsubasa Honda as Akari Serizawa

Sota Fukushi as Aoi Miura

Shuhei Nomura as Aoi Shota

Taiga as Kouhei Kanazawa

Sakurako Ohara as Nanami Miura

Mizuki Yamamoto as Mirei Tominaga

 Karen Otomo as Kokone Yamasiro
Yui Ichikawa as Ruiko Saeki

 Most of these episodes have started out quite slow, seemed that the first 1/3 of most shows contained too much filler and dragged by. This episode was the complete opposite though as the first half was quite good but then it faded horribly in the second half where the fluffiness and sentimentality was kind of sickening. Though there had been a lot of filler in the last few episodes there wasn't too much of that fluffiness, it really dragged this episode way down and may make for a short recap.

 Shota has had as a patient a teenage girl that has been staying at his hospital, a girl who Akari has been tutoring. At the conclusion of the last episode the girl who is named Kokone had passed out, Akari happened to be right outside her room and called for help. Shota was able to save the girl but what's going to happen now is that for better treatment she's going to be transferred to a hospital in Hokkaido which breaks Kokone's heart as she wants to go to a fireworks show with her boyfriend.
 More on that later but because of that incident Akari didn't make it to Miura's apartment as they were going to have a mini celebration for Akari who had just passed her exams to become a teacher. Nothing more was mentioned about that in this episode, she can now be a teacher but will she?
 Her missing that celebration has irritated Miura quite severely and he kind of blows off Akari when she tried to come over the following ,morning. Plus things at Miura job aren't going well, him concentrating on Akari so much has made his work suffer and his boss suggests to him perhaps he should seek a different line of employment. But being a drama things eventually work out for Miura at his job, he was taken off a major project but now has been put back on it by episode's end, just the way it happened doesn't happen in real life that easily.

 Also after things started going better for Miura at his job so don't things start to go better for him with Akari as they made up after that mini squabble and seem even closer than ever, least for a little while. Back to Kokone and most of the second half of the show was devoted to her, is her dream of seeing the fireworks with her boyfriend gone because she's going to Hokkaido? Thanks to the efforts of Akari, Miura and Shota she was able to live out her dream as the trio along with some others from the staff who helped out turned the hospital into a mini fair.
 Kokone's boyfriend showed up and everyone had such a dream time, it was kind of nauseating to be honest. So everyone had a grand time, even Miura's boss showed up at the fair and gave him a pair of tickets to a park which he plans to bring Akari to. Meanwhile though Akari and Shota were discussing a few things in the 'fireworks room', Shota had changed his ways which Akari had noticed and was starting to like him again all over. During their discussion Shoata asked her to marry him, a second after he wrapped his arms around Akari. Of course right at that moment Miura walked into the room and saw the scene and stood there dumbfounded. There's probably more than meets the eye as we don't know how Akari will respond to the proposal, you would think she would refuse it but not certain on that either. And that final scene brought us to the conclusion of this episode, think there's just three more to go and hope there's no more than that.

 Most of the episode I would give a rating of an 8/10, that fair scene at the hospital was so bad will drop that rating to a 5/10, it was seriously too fluffy to stomach and one of the pluses about this drama was how it stayed away from fluffiness like that. Will still finish watching this drama and will also post on all of the remaining episodes but this last episode was one you could skip, the beginning was okay and the last two minutes set up the next episode nicely but all in all if miss this episode you haven't missed much.
 Least Tsubasa looks mighty fine as usual, her acting has been fine and really the whole cast has done a solid job but they don't always have the strongest of scripts it seems. Hopefully next week I'll be back with a real positive recap as I really do want to like this drama and sort of do but it's kind of tapered off the last few episodes.

Tsubasa Honda: "Koinaka" drama episode 6 recap and screenshots

 Start Date: Monday, July 20th on Fuji-TV at 9:00 pm

Main Cast:

Tsubasa Honda as Akari Serizawa

Sota Fukushi as Aoi Miura

Shuhei Nomura as Aoi Shota

Taiga as Kouhei Kanazawa

Sakurako Ohara as Nanami Miura

Mizuki Yamamoto as Mirei Tominaga

 Karen Otomo as Kokone Yamasiro
Yui Ichikawa as Ruiko Saeki

 This drama is still going through that 'middle episode syndrome' which many others have also gone through. Usually find a series does that when it's stretched from an eight to a ten episode drama which this one feels like it's been stretched out two extra shows. To be honest for the first half of this episode wasn't going to do a recap and was going to combine it with the seventh episode. Reason I was thinking that is that nothing, I mean nothing happened for the first 17-20 minutes except for listening to the show's bad theme song for a few minutes then watching recaps of what happened in the previous show.
 Hopefully that 'middle episode syndrome' has passed as there should only be four episodes left, it's a shame the last three have been so up and down. Down because the first 1/3 or more of a show are just so boring with hardly anything happening, up because the last half or so it really turns into a fine drama but all that filler has dragged it down a bit. However networks are probably concerned about filling up airtime so most dramas do have some filler in them but not to the extent this one does. It's a shame for if it was an eight episode series could easily see giving it a rating around 9/10, that first 1/3 of the last three shows has dragged it down to the eight or lower range for my current rating.
 Going to be another one post recap but was going to do that regardless of how this episode went, been experimenting with doing shorter recaps and kind of like doing them. Won't be doing them for all shows but on occasion for dramas like this one one post seems to be the right fit. Also going to be a short recap again for as I mentioned hardly anything happened in the first 17-20 minutes, the remainder of the show was quite good again though but almost fell asleep in the beginning as it was just so slow and boring.

 Seems as though the relationship between Akari and Shota is now over with Miura moving in and trying to rekindle the friendship he once had with her. It was just a friendship when they last saw each other when they were 18 but though neither mentioned it at the time they both truly loved each other, as a matter of fact they've now confessed that they felt the other was their true first love.
 Though it's going to be short remember that everything took place in the last 25 minutes or so, think the two above screenshots were the only ones I took in the first 1/3 of the show. Akari has now also told Miura about the note she left him in a manga, a manga which Shota had stolen so Miura couldn't read the note and he used that to his advantage to get closer to Akari. That is until she found out about what happened two episodes ago which is one reason she broke up with him, now that Akari has told Miura about the book he has no idea what to think. By the end of the episode him and Shota still haven't met to discuss what happened but sure it's going to be coming up soon.
 Akari's day for her teacher's exam has finally arrived, nothing dramatic about the test or results as she passed the exam and would figure her next step is to be a teacher. First person Akari called is naturally Miura who then says he is going to prepare a small celebration dinner and it looks like it's going to include just pair of them.

 On her way to Miura's apartment though Akari calls him and says she should meet with Shota first but she will be to the dinner on time. Their relationship is on the rocks but Akari felt after spending five years with him he did deserve to hear from her the results of her exam so she goes to meet him at his hospital. Of course he's happy, least on the outside that is about her passing the test. Kind of still hard to figure Shota out, is he really mean, just insecure or does he have some other problems we don't know about as sometimes he does seem like a nice guy, at other times though he's pure evil.
 At the finale of this episode Shota asks before she leaves could she meet with a patient of his who's name is Kukone to tell her the results of the exam. Akari was also a part time tutor for the high school girl who has been in the hospital for a while though I don't know what her exact illness is. However right after Akari had met with her and was on her way home she heard a loud crash in Kukone's room, rushing in she found her unconscious. Shota then comes rushing in to try to save the girl but we don't know what's going to happen as the episode ends right at that point.

 Lot of things are now up in the air as Akari doesn't show up for celebration dinner with Miura and he's wondering where she is. What's going to happen with Alari and Shota now at the hospital, they did seem on much better terms when they met. Sure those and other questions will be answered the next episode, probably of course though after the 20 minute mark!!!!
 Honestly, know I've put it down a bit but it's not a bad drama but just so much filler, the best parts are really interesting but all that filler just drags the show way down. But if there's only four more shows to go would think those filler parts should be over and it should be a much better watch from here on in. It won't reach that 9/10 rating I was talking about earlier but with a strong finish think an 8.5 is possible and hope it is because that'll mean four good episodes to end the series off. And as far as ending things off go as usual have some Tsubasa screenshots from this episode, when she's on the screen the show is always so much better, when she's not in a scene that scene really suffers.