Thoughts on the 64th Kouhaku Uta Gassen

I am way too late on this, but I still wanted to write about my thoughts on this years line up for Kouhaku Uta Gassen. When I first saw the line-up, I was surprised that there were a lot of idol groups on the red team. I was honestly thinking, how are there so many idol groups?? And looking at that, I didn't feel too upset that Morning Musume couldn't be on Kouhaku this year. I mean, they worked so hard this year and all their singles were #1 but there's already just so many idol groups. But as time went on, I started to feel a little more upset that they couldn't be on it. Anyways,back to the point. Kouhaku is a show for all ages and for people to enjoy all types of genres. So I'm a little surprised that they have more J-pop artists compared to Enka artists. Still, I'm curious on what this years Kouhaku is going to be like with all those idol groups performing. 

Ride with Hey! Say! JUMP

It has been announced that Hey! Say! JUMP is releasing their 11th single, Ride With Me on December 25th. Although I'm normally not extremely pumped when I hear about new releases from them, this time I am just extremely excited. HSJ is such a great group with strong performers but Johnnys has been sort of ignoring them so they're not too big on releasing singles. Again, I'm assuming the reason why I'm excited for this release is because I was talking to my mom about how HSJ don't release very many singles and the song is written by M-Flo. For some reason, when I think of M-Flo, I automatically thought the song is going to be a dance number. To make sure if I was right, I looked up the artists he collaborated with and I was right in a way.

Drama Review: Kazoku Game

   I just finished this drama a few minutes ago and I wanted to do a review of it. This will be my first drama review on this blog and my first post in over a month. I have been really busy and I couldn't really think of what to write about. 

First of all, this drama is about a "superficial" family that has a dad working at a famous company, a beautiful mom and 2 kids. The oldest son Shinichi(Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a honor student and is good at track. The second son, Shigeyuki(Seishuu Uragami) is a hikikomori who stays home and plays video games all day and is on the verge of dropping out of middle school.The parents hire a tutor for Shigeyuki who goes by the name Koya Yoshimoto(Sho Sakurai) Yoshimoto is their 6th tutor and he teaches Shigeyuki not just school subjects but also about life in the most bizzare and violent way. He not only teaches Shigeyuki but his whole family about irony to make them a closer family because of the fact that the family is actually falling apart.

What I thought of this drama is that I couldn't stop watching it. I'm not the type of person who could watch something that involves some sad and scary parts but this drama was able to  keep me hooked even though it's not comedy. I first thought it would mainly focus on the family and how Yoshimoto tries to make them close but the plot was a lot better than I thought it would be. No matter how much you predict what's going to happen, it's always something completely different.

More into the plot, again it was just such a confusing storyline but that's what made it interesting. For example, there were times that Yoshimoto was helping Shigeyuki but other times it looked like he was torturing him. Also I felt like Shigeyuki was falling back up and down but in the end he was able to rise up and was able to change. Although the way Yoshimoto made Shigeyuki and his family learn wasn't exactly the right way, they were able to change and have a happy life.

Lastly about the characters. First of all, Koya Yoshimoto. Sakurai Sho did a really great job playing him. I'm not a Arashi fan but his acting was just excellent. On to the character, like everyone said, he's creepy and mysterious. I wonder what would happen if a family decided to have a tutor like him lol. Anyways, although his ways of teaching is extremely violent and dangerous, it helped the family learned and it showed that he cared for the family. He was able to help the family face reality and each other which they weren't able to do if he didn't come along. Next is about the oldest son Shinichi. I first thought he was this nice and caring guy but he is a selfish guy who pretends to be a honor student. As the storyline progressed, it showed more of that. He was actually the only guy who was aware of Yoshimoto's acts which were all fake. Lastly, is Shigeyuki. He's this typical middle schooler who is being bullied and his dad just thinks he's stupid. I felt really bad for him and I wanted him to be stronger so I was really happy when he became that character in the end.

Despite it's dramatic scenes, I thought this drama was really strong. Strong storyline, good acting and it's something that kept you hanging. I would highly recommend this drama and I assure you will probably finish this drama within a few days or less.