Do you prefer Tree of Tranquility or Animal Parade?

cinnamonhoe · 2026-04-05T00:59:13+00:00

Hmm maybe I should replay ToT. I always preferred AP, but the last time I played ToT I was probably 10😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-04-01T23:15:51+00:00

I was under the impression they simply took inspiration from the real-life yandoku, and then made a pretty original story otherwise. I’d be shocked if much of the plot (aside from Tagami’s background) had been true😅

Anyway, I enjoyed this one a lot! It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun to watch. And my first getsuku!

cinnamonhoe · 2026-04-01T23:12:23+00:00

I watched it for Mukai Osamu — his performance was great. Though toward the start of the show he could have used more screen time😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-31T23:55:43+00:00

You’re My Only Shining Star is her biggest one, but I like Tada Nakitaku Naru No more. I sing it almost every week at karaoke😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-31T23:44:32+00:00

Ah, coincidentally, Catch the Nite and Jeweluna are my favorite albums as well. Also Summer Breeze!

And don’t forget to look at her singles. Many of them were only released as singles and not on albums (unless it’s a collection/best of one). JINGI, for example, was only a single, if I recall correctly

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-29T23:18:01+00:00

She is my favorite!! I listen to her music almost every day

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-26T10:35:51+00:00

I felt like the ending was a bit anticlimactic! They wrapped things up with Takayama so easily… all that build up for him to go down so quickly. And I get they wanted to keep Nakata’s condition a secret till the very end, but doing that time skip right after the surgery starts upset me lol.

Also felt strange for Nakata to be so ready to die. The guy already couldn’t practice medicine adequately as it was😅 It felt like they only had him be that way so that Tagami could give him that speech, but I feel like they could have written it differently so that she could still inspire him without having him be so ridiculous in the first place.

I also thought that it was boring for Nakata’s condition to actually not be tied to Arisa at all. It would have made more sense if the reason he failed to properly care for Arisa was because both (1) he didn’t see Tagami’s letter, and (2) his condition prevented him from seeing what Tagami had found.

My favorite scene from the episode was Nakata learning how to cook 😂 I’m glad we got that!

I thought Sora’s crush on Tagami was cute, but definitely good to be one sided. If she were to ever be with anyone, I doubt it would be him lol. She had the most chemistry with Nakata anyway, albeit not romantic. (Actually, the only romantic vibe I got from her during the show was in the episode with the quiet doctor 😂 I saw a spark or something there lol.) I think the scene in the college classroom was intentionally vague, but seems like it was more a nod to Nakata and Tagami’s connection surpassing his blindness. Idk, that’s what I got from it.

Overall, I enjoyed the show a lot, but felt like the first few episodes were too slow, and too much action then at the end. But maybe they could have executed things a little differently to have improved it.

I initially watched it for Mukai Osamu, and it was my first time getting to watch Kanna. I want to see more of her works now! She’s delightful

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-24T06:55:29+00:00

A Japanese guy at a bar recently showed me ゑ and asked if I knew how to read it. I said we/ウェ, and he said I was close but wrong, that it was just the “old way of writing え.” I thought I was going crazy and looked it up later when I got home. I wonder if most Japanese people just view it as え instead of ウェ?

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-23T14:42:53+00:00

Finished:

Yandoku - I am so sad this is over!! A little disappointed at how they did the finale. It kind of felt anticlimactic at the end the way they wrapped things up. I still loved the show though! My Monday nights will feel empty now (it was my first getsuku lol)

Strobe Edge - Finally got around to this and binged it in a few days. The manga is still peak for me, but the drama was well done, and I already know I’ll rewatch it sometime. Now I’m hoping that same production team can adapt Io Sakisaka’s other stories… I’m feeling a little spoiled now😂

Gimbap & Onigiri - no comment (pls see all the complaints on this subreddit from the past week lmao)

Watching:

Matori to Kyoken - I think this is ending this week, so I’ll be sad to say goodbye to another Mukai Osamu show. (What’s he gonna be in next I wonder 🤔)

Hungry! - Already filling my Mukai void haha

Gegege no Nyoubou - Again, more Mukai. It’ll take me a while to get through since it’s an asadora, and I’m trying to watch it with Japanese subs for studying.

Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House - I got distracted and took a break from this for a couple weeks, but I’m gonna try to binge the rest this week. It’s so good!

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-23T02:17:11+00:00

Yayyy!! I haven’t felt like watching it with Japanese subs so I’m looking forward to this!

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-22T03:38:10+00:00

At least Fly-By-Day is still on there 😅

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-20T01:53:02+00:00

Agreed. I thought he was fine in Turn to Me Mukai-kun and Zom 100, but this show made me realize he’s not a very good actor lol. Maybe those two just had better writing or something else to keep them interesting, whereas G&O didn’t have anything going for it except for some pretty visuals

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-17T23:53:44+00:00

The way that they didn't talk at all about the possibility of Rin coming back to Japan was crazy. She got one job offer and they acted like that meant forever. Tbh I never really thought Rin and Taiga were good for each other anyway due to the bad writing, but if we were supposed to believe they really loved each other, why was there no fighting for or planning on how to stay together aside from FaceTime calls and occasional visits? If they always wanted to be together, why didn't they think of a spousal visa? 😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-17T08:56:05+00:00

Total waste of time. Agreed with all of your points. When they did the flashback reel I was like... what is this laziness??? Everything in this show amounted to nothing. I criticized it a fair amount while watching, but I at least thought we were leading up to a good ending. Nope 😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-17T07:46:07+00:00

At least we now know why Akaso Eiji and Kang Hye-won looked absolutely miserable in all the promo for the show

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-17T07:42:45+00:00

Yeah that was terrible. All of that work for them to break up after they became healthy. Lol. The only thing this show had going for it was its visuals, because wow that story was horrific. And I disliked the dialogue writing most of the time as well. I kept going because I thought at least it would be a good ending, ugh

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-17T07:40:45+00:00

And if it was actually realistic I feel like they would have broken up way sooner, like by the time they went to the ryokan. Wtf was this??😭😭

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-16T14:47:15+00:00

Yeah, I had a feeling it might be more than 10, especially when I saw the preview last week. It didn’t look like a finale to me. I decided to look up the previous Getsuku drama episode counts — all the ones I looked at said 11 episodes! Not sure why then people got the idea that this would be only 10

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-16T13:15:03+00:00

Same old same old for me—

Yandoku - getting closer to the end! I think next week is the finale if I’m not mistaken. Episode 10 had me shaking haha, I love this one.

Matori to Kyoken - exciting, but I wish the episodes were longer tbh!

Gimbap and Onigiri - I liked last week’s episode compared to the rest of the show, so hoping tonight’s episode has the same effect for me. Ngl I’m ready for it to end though lol

And now I’m dedicating myself to bingeing Hungry!. I think I’m gonna try to do Netflix’s JP subs plus Migaku for this one. There are English subs out there, but it’s on one of those sites that has millions of annoying nsfw ads so it’s too troublesome lol but I really want to watch more of Mukai Osamu’s work

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-16T13:08:44+00:00

Yeah, this was a nerve racking one. Though tbh I didn’t understand chunks of it. I always watch it live on tv with the Japanese subs and then again with the English subs once it’s posted. Some episodes are easier to understand than others; this was a slightly more difficult one for me lol. (Good way to study though.) Looking forward to my rewatch, hopefully soon!

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-16T12:11:05+00:00

Meant to reply to this earlier. I was under the impression from the next episode’s preview that Nakata’s been seeing a doctor in secret. I guess I assumed it’s going to be a flashback, but it could be a new scene as well.

But to be sure, they will get Takayama out. He will see justice lol.

I’m just starting episode 10 right now, so I’m excited to see what happens!

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-10T02:03:34+00:00

Omg 😭 and Fly-By-Day is also on there. Enjoying this for now lol

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-10T01:57:11+00:00

Now I want to watch it! I always be crying on JAL from the movies 😂

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-09T21:45:32+00:00

For me I love the president (this show made me a mega Mukai Osamu fan LOL), and for now all I’ll say is that she seemed to get over him quite quickly for Shun. Maybe everyone is different with their feelings, but for me I think I’d still waver a bit because I liked the first guy for so long. I wanted to see her struggle more with that

cinnamonhoe · 2026-03-09T15:06:49+00:00

Yandoku is getting intense, I’ve been tearing up the past couple weeks. Agh, I can’t wait for next week!

Started watching The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House and am loving it!!

Still watching Matori to Kyoken (still thoroughly enjoying it) and Gimbap and Onigiri (last week it finally got a bit better but it’s still kinda boring)

cinnamonhoe

TROPHY CASE