13-sai no Hello Work: Episode 2

Title: 13歳のハローワーク (13-sai no Hello Work)
Aired: January 13th, 2012 - March 9th, 2012

Back in the present time, Kogure's life was more or less back to normal, with the cases that he found rather meaningless. He got a call from a mysterious person who asked if he would like to return to the past. Since he haven't yet achieved his goal of changing his life, he said that he wanted to return. He was told that the rules are simple - he wasn't to tell anyone that he's from the future. At the police station, he met a girl who was charged for compensated dating, he told her that money was something to be earned through hard work, not realising that he was holding a book on horse racing at the time. She called him on his BS and said that he looked just the same as "that guy", referring to a man on television who appeared to be a ruthless corporate type. Less than impressed with the man on television, Kogure went to the washroom, where discovered that he had gone back to the past, and not just anywhere - he was in the female washroom of Teppei's cram school. He was discovered by Teppei's classroom teacher and taken to the staff room for a scolding. There, he discovered that the classroom teacher had been receiving disturbing "love letters", and advised her not to dress so provocatively all the time. (>.<)

13-sai no Hello Work: Episode 1

Title: 13歳のハローワーク (13-sai no Hello Work)
Aired: January 13th, 2012 - March 9th, 2012
Reason for Watching This Drama: Yokoyama Yuu. I am not kidding.
Reason for Continuing to Watch This Drama: Matsu-ni! And, this is the kind of drama I really enjoy.

When it comes to time travel stories, I've always preferred the type in which the protagonist would go back to their own childhood and affect change in their own life, rather than the ones that go back generations to change history. 13-sai no Hello Work is one of these, where Kogure Teppei (Matsuoka Masahiro) is a police officer who had wanted to be a detective, but ended up in the community safety section where he couldn't find any meaning in his work. On his 35th birthday, he had a particularly bad day at work, was told that there was no way he could improve his job situation when he went to Hello Work, and got dumped by his girlfriend. He got drunk and passed out at a karaoke place, but when he woke up, he found that he had gone back in time, 22 years ago. The "current" him was only 13; he realised that if he guided his past self to a good school and university, then perhaps he would be able to reach for the future/career he wanted.

Skip Beat! Episode 1

Title: 華麗的挑戰 (Skip Beat!/ Hua Li De Tiao Zhan)
Aired: December 18th, 2011 - April 1st, 2012 (FTV, GTV)

Reason for watching this drama: Okay, it was accidental. I avoided this drama everytime I saw it in the shop. Because I just don't relish the fact that they had to dub the guys' voices. Of course, this happens all the time for Mainland China dramas, which is why I watch so little of those. But I was so taken by the characters when I watched part of the first episode on TV, that I though I'd just take the dubbing as one of the necessary evils.


Reason for continuing to watch this drama: Did I just say I love the characters? Ivy Chen really nailed Kyoko for me, for now. I've never watched any of her other dramas, at least I can't remember having done so. And really, after the first few episodes, you tend to forget that Lien is Siwon and Shang is Donghae. And it is a Doze Niu production. 

Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai

Title: もう誘拐なんてしない

Aired On: January 3rd, 2012

I really wasn't planning to watch Oh-chan's drama, because I prefer to wait and download rather than stream. But I just happened to check freshverse and it was on, and I ended up watching it until the end. It's really funny, and I haven't been checking on the news relating the drama (I only knew about Ohno and Aragaki Yui, and ShoJun cameo-ing), so I was pleasantly surprised by the casting.