Manga Recommendation: ReLIFE

Hello! It wasn't such a nice day for me, I'm a little worn out because of something which happened today. Sadly, today, I don't have the drive to continue the dramas posts categorized by genre, because that requires time, and I just want to sleep soon.

So today, just for a quick update, I'm sharing this manga I've been reading (and loving) lately. What makes it different from my usual reads which can be seen here and here, is because it's not actually romance-centered and it's Sci-Fi, which is one of the genres I'm least interested in.

The manga I want to recommend is entitled ReLIFE. ReLIFE is a web manga by mangaka Yayoi Sou. 

''The story follows Kaizaki Arata, a 27-year-old jobless man, who fails at every job interview he had after quitting his last company. His life changes after he met Yoake Ryou of the ReLife Research Institute, who offered him a drug that can change his appearance to 17-years-old and to become a subject in an experiment for one year. Thus, he begins his life as a high school student once more." - myanimelist.net

This manga probably got me with its premise, because I can kind of relate with the lead character's situation. I'm not exactly in the same situation as him, but there are things I could really relate to as I read along the story. It's really interesting and each chapter is very short. It won't take too much of your time, so I really suggest you check it out. For me, this manga is like, 'It hits you where it hurts the most.' Lol. But really, I'm glad to have found this manga. I guess it makes me realize some things. Aside from my emotional attachment to it, it's actually a very engaging read, not boring at all. The content is so hilarious, though hitting you with realizations here and there.

If you're reading this or have checked it out, feel free to share your thoughts! Thank you for reading!

Note: I do not own the photo used in this post. All rights goes to the owner.

Update Post #1

Hi! This is just a random post, I might post something like this once in a while just to update about what I've been writing about and some other thoughts (or maybe rants in life) as well.

I started to work on categorizing dramas which piqued my interest last May 1. To keep things organized, I encoded them on an excel spreadsheet. I couldn't finish it that day nor the day after, because there are lots of them every season and my head was spinning already. Lol.

By May 3, I've finally finished categorizing all the dramas from Winter 2010 to Winter 2015 which piqued my interest. There were more than 200 dramas all in all. While working on it, it hit me that trying to categorize them was a wrong choice! Lol. I'm glad I was able to get it done. Writing commentaries on Detective/Crime and Romance dramas might be a real torture since there are so many of them, but I'll do my best! I think I'm going to feel so fulfilled and satisfied when I finish these series of Japanese dramas posts by genre. :)

On another note, I would like to share the drama titles I'm eye-ing to watch in the next 2 weeks. While I really want to watch a lot of dramas, these are my priorities for now. In no particular order,

- Nazo no Tenkousei (I started watching this around 3 weeks ago if I'm not mistaken -_-)

- Mondai no Aru Restaurant

- Ouroboros

- Amachan (I want to watch it because I want to know what's with all the hype, though it's quite impossible to finish it in the next two weeks)

- SMOKING GUN

I hope I can finish at least 3 of them in the next 2 weeks! There is nothing here, really. But, if you still opted to finish reading this post, then thank you so much! :) 

Japanese Sports Dramas

I've compiled a list of latest Japanese sports dramas. These dramas were aired from Winter 2010 to Winter 2015. This is a pretty short list! I'm quite surprised, to be honest.

Please note
This list will only include dramas which are:
- concentrated on a person or a group/club trying to find motivation to work hard on their sports.
- series and not special dramas with only one or two episodes.

This will not include dramas which are:
- focused on romance, mystery, or any other genre more than sports.
- Asadora and Taiga dramas.
- SPs aired in a season.

And of course, I will only include dramas which piques my interest. 

While I can promise that I'll do my best to categorize the dramas, I cannot promise that it'll be perfect as categorizing some of them can be really confusing. The dramas I haven't watched yet are even more confusing to categorize. I might edit this post if sometime in the future, I think a drama fits another genre more. If you would like to suggest that a drama fits a certain genre more than where I included it, feel free to comment so I can take it into consideration.

Japanese Sports Dramas

Tumbling! (Spring 2010)

"Azuma Wataru, a third-year student at Karasumori High School, is a devil who strikes fear in the hearts of people. One day, Azuma is told by his former teacher that he has to participate in a club activity in order to make up for the lack of second-year students. The short-tempered Azuma cannot last long in whatever he does. At that moment, he learns that Satonaka Mari, the beautiful transfer student in his class, has joined the female rhythmic sports gymnastics club. He joins the male rhythmic sports gymnastics club, a club activity with very few people under the captain, Takenaka Yuta. They are ridiculed by the coach of the female rhythmic sports gymnastics club, and others, and are also hardly allowed to use the gym. However, when a sixth boy joins the club, Yuta decides to take part in a team competition with his long-sought six members..." (from dramawiki)

The main members of the cast, who played the roles as the club members, are very much commendable on this one. Portraying as sports people must be hard, and what more it must be very hard for their bodies! It seems really tough, gymnastics! These are actors, you know! These aren't athletes! And they weren't a let down and they didn't forget the emotions they should convey even if they were already doing those difficult gymnast moves. I really love this one!


Yowakutemo Katemasu (Spring 2014)

"Tamo Aoshi (Ninomiya Kazunari) is a substitute teacher at his alma mater, a prestigious private high school which admits 200 students to Tokyo University every year. He becomes the coach of the weak baseball club which has only five members and has never won a game since it was established. The highest number of times they have thrown the ball back and forth without dropping it is nine. They have prefer the outfield because the infield is scary. Furthermore, they practice on the grounds only three hours a week. At other times, they study, study, and study. But they love baseball. Finding them interesting and strange creatures, Aoshi decides that he will give his charges victory, guided by his offbeat theory "triumph is possible even if weak". And then they seriously set their sights on the annual nationwide high school baseball championship witht heir brand of preposterous baseball." (from dramawiki)

I can kind of understand why this drama garnered quite low ratings. It's not because the actors are not competent enough, maybe it's because the series of events got boring sometimes. It was like that for me, but I would like to praise the actors for their acting. And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't probably have the drive to finish this. The plot is interesting, the cast are good, it was probably the execution of the story. You might think that it's so bad, but actually it's not. I still like it, but I'm just trying to lay down some possible explanation why the ratings are lower than 10%. But c'mon, we have Ninomiya Kazunari, Yamazaki Kento, Hongo Kanata, Fukushi Sota, Nakajima Yuto, Mamiya Shotaro, and Arimura Kasuma here!


Suikyu Yankees (Summer 2014)

"Naoya Inaba (Nakajima Yuto) grew up abroad and from his childhood experience, he thought "yankees" were the strongest heroes (in Japan "yankee" refers to delinquent youths). He was influenced by Japanese yankee mangas while he was abroad and grew up to be always full of 'chivalrous' spirit, like how he sees his yankee heroes.

Naoya arrives to spend a year in a high school in Japan. He attends in a technical high school in which the location  is famously known as the center for "water polo supremacy". His school, however, is the ridicule area and on the verge of closing down. Naoya loves the school because a yankee, whom he admired as a child, was only once a student there. However, he soon realized that there are no real yankees like hero figures, only students who spend their days meaninglessly. Naoya is disappointed and decided to do something about it." (from dramawiki)

The reunion of Nakajima Yuto and Yamazaki Kento (and Mamiya Shotaro) after Yowakutemo Katemasu isn't a let down at all. I think I even enjoyed this better than Yowakutemo Katemasu. I actually thought that it'll be boring when I saw the first scene because I thought there will be too much angst, which I don't quite prefer. It turns out I'm wrong with that impression. I love it that Takaki Yuya, Chiba Yudai, and Ohara Sakurako are also part of the cast. Shinkawa Yua and Hashimoto Kanna are discoveries for me. And oh, this drama is so pleasing to the eyes! If you know what I mean! Lol. You can understand with the photo above.


Ride Ride Ride (Summer 2014)

The Tochigi Prefecture is setting up Japan's first professional road bicycle racing team "Nasu Bengazu". The sponsoring is planned to be taken over by the small companies and stores from Nasu-machi, in hope to soon being able to get regional sponsors in the boat as well. But soon financial problems arise and the 28-year-old Hirai Mamoru (Seto Koji) of a local credit bank is sent in as manager for restructuring, but he only has 2 month time. Therefore, Mamoru is putting his marriage with his 29-year old fiancee Miyako (Usuda Asami) on hold and eagerly plunges himself into work. He meets with the team captain Toyama Kazushige (Hakamada Yoshihiko), the 39-year old ace is working since 20 years towards his goal to win. However, while the two month time for management reorganization expire, the captain is making a weighty decision, resulting in a violent clash between Mamoru and him." (from dramawiki)

I really want to watch this one but sadly, resources are hard to come by. :( Seto Koji deserves more love, people!!! Teen Court isn't even subbed yet. If only I have money to enroll to Japanese classes, but I don't. :( Anyway, I'll wait until I can watch this one, I really hope I would be able to in the future.

I don't know when I'll be able to write my commentaries, but hopefully within this week! Commentaries done! :)