The upcoming Fall 2012 J-dorama season is about to commence now that the Summer doramas have either wrapped up or will be wrapping up soon. I scanned the list and there isn’t a single renzoku renai on the radar, so that means I’m going for actors to watch as opposed to story that interests me. After a truly boring Winter dorama in Ending Planner, my Yamapi is returning to yet another popular genre – the buddy cop procedural. I swear there are at least 3 cop/law enforcement/crime fighting shows every season! And Japan is a country with an astonishingly low crime rate! The upcoming MONSTERS starring Yamashita Tomohisa and SMAP member Katori Shingo is about a rookie righteous cop paired with a operates outside the norm seasoned veteran that no one wants to work with. Clearly I’m only going to check this out because it stars Yamapi, who was super excited to play a cop for the first time ever. Dude is seriously following in Kimura Takuya‘s footsteps in how they don’t play people but types of people.

Other than Pi’s early works, he’s now since play a swindler, a time-traveler, a basketball player, a doctor, a funeral home director, a boxer, and now a cop. He didn’t manage to pull any of those characters off, but in some he looked really cute so my time was well spent. Another SMAP guy is also returning to television, and of course its none other than KimuTaku himself ready for his one dorama a year stint. Last year he totally sent me running away screaming after 2 episodes of Nankyoku Tairiku, which was simply a Japanese feel good recovery story plus nationalism propaganda film rolled into one. KimuTaku was gorgeous in period garb as a scientist and the dogs were adorable, but that was about it. This time around, the newspapers are calling this upcoming dorama the farthest he has ever fallen in his character’s station in life. Priceless is the story of an executive leading a well-to-do life who get laid off one day and pretty soon finds himself homeless and living in the park. Through his new circumstances, he discovers there are things in the world which are priceless that he never appreciated before. Continue reading →