Himitzu no Hanazono / ヒミツの花園 / Hanazono's Secret

A January through March, 2007 drama from Japan that starred Shaku Yumiko as Tsukiyama Kayo, Sakai Masato as Kataoka Wataru, Ikeda Tetsuhiro as Kataoka Osamu, Kaname Jun as Kataoka Satoshi, and Hongo Kanata as Kataoka Hinata.



Tsukiyama is an editor in her late twenties who decides to resign from her job after spending a fifth birthday alone and yet, another long day at the office.
The day she tries to hand in her resignation, however, is the day when her boss tells everyone that the magazine she works for is shutting down.

She is transferred to the Manga department, where she meets an overbearing, loud and obnoxious, new boss who orders her to visit her new client, a woman by the name of Yuriko Hanazono.

Tsukiyama doesn't read manga, so she hasn't got much interest in the new position, and she is still thinking to resign as well.

At a massively tall apartment building,


she meets a host of oddball characters, all men, who send her on outrageous errands that make her head spin, but she is a timid girl with no self-worth to demand any answers, much less to raise her voice in protest.

Tsukiyama is a pretty girl with a nice figure, so I found it odd that these men seemed not to even notice her right away -


- but there is a love story involved, and not one but two of the men have their sights set on her.

She wore a lot of old-fashioned costume jewelry that puzzled me at first, but if this is the latest thing over there, I'm curious to know how long the strange trend will last.
Fat, polished, and plastic beads close to the neck never appealed to me.

There were a few things about this drama that made it not, so enjoyable - the dark shadow that hung over the boys throughout, and the moody, little boy (Hongo Kanata) everyone kept referring to as kawaii, a talent scout even approached him at first sight to ask him to model (huh???) to name a few.
His ears stick out, for one thing.


Sakai Masato starred in Kudoku no Kake, and I kept expecting him to walk with a limp.
He still had the same, smiling eyes though, and that still bugs me.
I know it's probably rude of me to feel this way, but like Bill Clinton and the boy from my middle-school social studies class - I can't trust someone with that kind of an expression.
Is he upset or not?
Is he joking around, or what?
Can I take him serious, or is he leading me on?
Bugs the crap out of me, and I'm sure Masato-kun is the sweetest, most affectionate man on the planet, too.
Still -

Himitsu no Hanazono is another live-action drama based on yet, another manga series, and I thought it was funny that they poked fun at themselves by making certain reference to this fact during the show.

"No one today has the talent or the drive to write actual drama, so they rely on manga for their inspiration."

It'd be one thing if we had bookstores here dedicated to Japanese comics, where we can go, pick up a manga, and sit for hours on end, reading the entire series without having to pay $10 or more per book to enjoy!
So, in that respect, I suppose it's ok for us to watch these live-action dramas that are constantly based on those, particular types of books.
Still, where is the originality?
And since the manga series are most-often rigidly geared toward a type-cast population of bubble-gun chewers, it can be somewhat discomfiting to have to sit through a story that is 10 or even 20 years beyond my mental scope, much less my personal interest.

THANK GOD FOR THE HOT DUDES, eh?

Kaname Jun (hot, Hot, HOT!!!)
These guys are the only reason I watch, and who are the main reason why my interest is held for the duration, too.

Thank heaven for aznv.tv as well, who post only good-quality movies and drama with excellent transcription service, and who also post movies and dramas that go back as far as the 1960's in some cases.

I'm not saying anything against Himitzu no Hanazono because I liked the storyline and the characters for the most part.
I simply adored the theme song, ("Baby, Don't Cry" by Amuro Namie) too - and hope to find it online for an mp3 download!