My oven is broken.
“Ho ho!”you say. “Joe is running out of ideas for his blog! He did the old “my oven is broken” blog entry five months ago!”
February 28, 2013: The Not-So-Lonely Maytag Repairman!
True, but my oven is broken again.
“Ha ha!”you say. “Joe is REALLY desperate for writing material. He already did the “my oven is broken – AGAIN!” blog entry a month ago!”
June 20, 2013: Homeward Bound!
All true, but my oven is broken again. Again. Like the previous two times, the digital touchpad won’t work – unless I press “CANCEL”. I can cancel to my heart’s content, but cooking is a problem.
Well, screw Maytag. Tomorrow, Akemi and I go oven shopping!
Speaking of Akemi, today she was talking about some of the interesting t.v. dramas that aired in Japan back when she was living in Tokyo. One in particular struck me as ripe for North American adaptation:
It’s called “Yamma Onna Kabe Onna” which translates to “Mountain Woman and Wall Woman”. It’s a series about a flat-chested woman who works in the handbag section of a department store who befriends a busty new sales person. Hilarity ensues. No. Really.
Some equally intriguing overseas productions…
Urakara focuses on a group of female operatives who work for a secret underground organization. Each week, they are given a new target, anyone from a powerful politician to a simple salaryman. Their mission – to kill get their targets to fall in love with them…at all costs! But the fact that they inexperienced in the ways of love leads to many complications…Wait! What? Inexperienced in love? Wouldn’t it behoove the “secret underground organization” orchestrating these ops to hire hire actual professionals? Ah, forget it. I’m sure it all makes perfect sense by episode 3.
Beethoven Virus. It’s like House – except that instead of practicing medicine, Gregory House conducts an orchestra. And instead of saving lives, he composes music. Is it Lupus? No, it’s Puccini!
Teeth of Love (aka Love Teeth) tells the tale of a girl who rejects a boy and ends up getting a brick thrown at her which causes her back pain whenever it rains. She falls in love with a married man who dumps her and ends up marrying a man she doesn’t love only to dump him later. The latter responds by removing his tooth and giving it to her. Hmmm. Maybe it loses something in the translation.
Ice Girl – Just before her wedding, a woman falls seriously ill. Her surgeon father, unable to save her, puts her in stasis. Twenty-five years later, she wakes up – and falls in love with her fiancé’s son. [I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often].
Imi wa Petto (You’re My Pet) is a series about a girl who comes home one night to find an unconscious man sitting in a cardboard box outside her front door. She reacts like any normal person would do in this situation – taking him in and nursing him back to health. But once he’s back to full health, the guy doesn’t want to leave. She agrees to let him stay on the condition he becomes…her pet. I’m sure it’s a lot less kinky than we’re imagining.
Ah, screw this. I’m moving to Japan to work on a show there!
Dark Matter? In Japanese?
Can you give me subtitles?
I find it quite interesting how some Japanese series can be based off a manga and pretty much end after one season, like when they’re done with the material. Or stuff can be adapted that hasn’t currently had an anime yet, you get a fair few dramas, and medical shows based off random obscure books(Or popular stuff naturally).
They’ve even done Great Teacher Onizuka for a season, Rurouni Kenshin(As a movie), Jigoku Shojo and a ton more stuff lol
Rurouni Kenshin was quite popular in the boxoffice too, and could be all counts be considered a hit considering it wasn’t high budget.
Speaking of movies readily released on places like Amazon.com etc. Honey and Clover, Death Note, Kaiji, Nana, Nana 2 etc wouldn’t be bad shouts lol
Shopping? Oh boy! Sounds fun. Looking forward to all the pictures of you and Akemi trying out the new oven.
Coming Soon to Japanese television, the brand new show: オーブンのキャンセル
(translated OVEN CANCEL)
It’s about a man and his every day struggles with his oven’s touchpad. Will today be a cooking day or a cancel only day? (based on a Canadian reality series)
i think there was a japanese tv show about a guy who married (or was it just dating?) a woman who turned out to be some sort of goddess with a fox tail?
my brother says there’s anime like that, but he can’t recall any live action show with that plot.
I’m not sure if I should be proud or ashamed to say I’ve actually watched 3 of those. But then again, those aren’t even scraping the barrel of strange J-dramas, as I’m sure you know.
Did Akemi ever see the live action Nodame Cantabile? It’s one of the saner wacky ones (as it’s based on a manga) but it was really quite funny and sentimental in turns. Ueno Juri is remarkable in that she is completely ensconced in the character of Nodame and it took me 3 episodes of Last Friends — a later drama – to know it was the same actress. Night and day portrayals.
Akemi read the first volume of the manga but says it’s very popular in Japan. “So maybe Joe should watch.”
Delete is airing on the Reelz Channel on August 19 at 8/7C.
http://antipodalarapaima.blogspot.com/2013/08/seth-green-delete-reelz-channel-video.html
I saw this article first at SciFi and TV Talk:
http://scifiandtvtalk.typepad.com/scifiandtvtalk/2013/08/seth-green-gil-bellows-star-in-delete-premiering-this-month-on-reelz.html
Here’s the link at Reelz Channel:
http://www.reelz.com/show/164/delete/
The Reelz Channel schedulebot doesn’t extend to August 19 as yet, so I don’t know if the complete 4-hour mini-series airs on Aug 19. or if it will air the first half on the 19th, and the second half on another night. Will keep checking and report back as soon if info is available.
Best wishes to you and Paul!
Ice Girl seems the most promising. Although I like the idea of an all girl main cast, but yeah, operatives-in-training, when that’s everyone, doesn’t really work.
@Lewis – that’s a show I’d watch!lol
Before I read the synopsis, I was expecting Mountain Woman and Wall Woman to be like Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, except their superpowers are that one of them turns into a mountain and the other one turns into a wall…
There is a Japanese show called Kaiki Daisakusen (Operation: Mystery!) made in 1967 that’s supposed to be a proto-X-Files, except psychedelic and about 100 times weirder and is apparently amazing.
I know there are cultural differences, but seriously? Okay, I’ll never knock ‘Neighbours’ again…
*wakes up… stretches… drags self out of bed… sits down at the computer… clicks on Joey’s blog… reads… oven, oven, oven, blah, blah, blah, screw Maytag, blah, blah, blah, weird Japanese shite, blah, blah, blaaaAAAHHHHHH!!*
Imi wa Petto. Or…Kimi wa Pet. *googles*
AAAANNND, I’m sold! AND it’s available in Manga!!!!!!! WooHOO!!!! 😀
And now I’m WIDE awake! THAT was better than coffee any day!
😀
das
I used to watch a lot of late night Japanese TV, with no subtitles. Mind you, my Japanese is limited and sketchy. Just go with the flow, man, go with the flow.
Good luck on the oven hunt. I have a nice basic gas Frigidaire which runs 25 degrees cool. Don’t get that one. I want one with two ovens, but it ain’t happening soon.
Good luck and have fun shopping! Any cool upgrades that catch your eye?
Be careful which toilet your hotel room has on your trip to Japan – http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/08/03/android-bluetooth-exploit-for-japanese-toilet-brings-new-meaning-to-the-word-vulnerability/.
Yamma Onna Kabe Onna: Really?
Urakara: You need to apply some circular reasoning to understand this premise. If inexperience is considered attractive (virginity fetishism is a thing) enough in Japan that the premise makes sense, then maybe the operatives have to be the real deal to be more attractive to the targets.
The rest would work better if they are short-running dramas. I can’t see squeezing a lot of episodes out of that unless the characters are just sooo adorable the audience has to see more of them. I also hope the characters aren’t adorable because many sound like unhealthy individuals and the message here should be about not getting into such relationships. Or am I confused about what TV is for?
Just wanted to share with you all. The new Doctor Who has been announced…It’s Peter Capaldi! I think he’ll be a great fit and as a Scot, I can’t help feeling a little bit proud!
I had the names of a few live action shows of interest but somehow became completely absent minded when I wrote my post earlier here. You know I’m usually good for anime suggestions though lol
Iryu – Team Medical Dragon was one I was meaning to post, It has 3 seasons and is quite good.
Oh and Tokyo Dogs is worth a watch too.
@antipodal Hadn’t heard of Delete before. Looks kinda like Eagle Eye (2008). I’ll have to check it out, seems like it’ll be pretty entertaining.
I actually have a coupla silly stargate questions too. Can you infect elephants with goa’uld symbiotes? And would you call the resulting creature a jaffafant, or a japhpha?
@das: I’ll be your pet-sitter any time!
Laugh, but I’m sure each is completely addicting. I’ve sneered at the Catherine Cookson movies for years…and then I got hooked on the silly things. The secret spy girls show looks interesting, like the C.A.T. Squad episode of Chuck.
I am sure by the time I get through these blogs and catch up, you’ll have your new oven. Should I peek ahead? I do with books!