Asian Beauty Appreciation

Imagine a story about a pro basketball player who lacks confidence despite being paid to play ball, and being involved with a few pretty awesome women. There’s your one sentence intro to the recent J-TV drama series, Buzzer Beat. 

Naoki Kamiya is played by Tomohisa Yamashita. He is not just an actor who looks good in a B-ball uniform. He really CAN play. As the story begins, in a pressure-packed clutch situation, we see him clanking a much needed foul shot off the rim, and as a result, his team, the JC Arcs bows out of the playoffs and the season ends.

Fast forward to the off-season. Naoki’s contract is up for renewal and they offer him a 25% pay cut. His girl friend Natsuki (pronounced Nat-ski) is portrayed by the beautiful Saki Aibu (above right), is employed in the front office of the basketball team, and she’s also the head of the team’s cheerleading squad. She and Naoki have been in a relationship for two years, and even though the relationship looks solid – Natsuki clearly wants more.

One day Naoki leaves his cell-phone on a city bus. It is found by musicians Riko, performed by Keiko Kitagawa, and Mai acted by Shihori Kanjiya, a pair of cute girls (below left) who are trying to make a living with music – Riko is a violinist and Mai is a flutist. They are also roommates. And they each work part-time at the same bookstore.

Somehow, the Coach of the basketball team, Kawasaki-san played by Hideaki Ito, is the one who will meet Riko so she can return Naoki’s cell phone. And wouldn’t you know it, he is immediately attracted to Riko (above right).

Meanwhile Riko and Mai live in an apartment building that overlooks a neighborhood playground where Naoki often practices basketball, and Riko often practices her violin. So they meet.

But wait. There’s more – the basketball team goes out and signs a hot shot free-agent player for the coming season. Ren Yoyogi, played by Nobuaki Kaneko (left), is a terrific hoops player, but he is also an arrogant womanizer.

We have two more players involved in the story line; Shuji played by Junpei Mizobata (right top), is a younger player, and is basically a bench warmer on the ARCS team.  He’s attracted to Mai (Riko’s roommate). And then there’s Utsunomiya (right bottom)  played by Masaru Nagai. He’s the best player and leading scorer on the team. He’s friends with Natsuki, and he’s the one that Mai wants.

So you see – we have 5 men (Naoki, Coach Kawasaki, Utsunomiya, Shuji and Yoyogi) and just three leading ladies (Natsuki, Riko, and Mai). So there’s going to be plenty of overlap, plenty of romantic complications, and plenty of tugs on your heart strings.

This series just ended it’s broadcast run. The 11 episodes were on the air from July 13th to September 21st in the Monday night 9:00 PM slot on the Fuji TV Network. The ratings were pretty good, and the series was quite popular.

The basketball action was very well done, and on the whole the series did not stint on the production values. There’s plenty of good pop music as well as some fine classical pieces that accompany the lush and often picturesque on location shoots.

The girls were very attractive and and the triple plot lines involving basketball, careers in music, and the overlapping love story entanglements were woven together beautifully.

I think this drama will be a big-seller once the DVDs are released sometime this winter. And I recommend it to you.