Akumu chan 悪夢ちゃん [series]

oh my gackt. riding off over a rainbow with keiko...

What on earth am I watching?? I just saw Gackt and Kitagawa Keiko ride off over a rainbow on a white flying steed. What the hell have I found here?

I saw Gackt, I obviously had to watch it. But what on earth have I stumbled on?

I had to start writing the first few paragraphs as I watch just to get some of the thoughts down first hand instead of forgetting and writing this after its (bound to be) epic ending.

As we ALL know by now, I have a huge girl crush on Kitagawa Keiko and she is  an awesomely textured character in Akumu-chan. She is all sweetness and light in class but at home she is a rumpled uncaring mess who couldn't give a flying fox about anything or anyone.

She doesn't care about people and - I have to interrupt. Gackt in a polo neck jumper with curly hair just opened the door and me and Keiko had the same facial expression frozen for about 8 seconds.

So, yes. Well anyway, There is a little girl who sees the future in her dreams. 

She says her dreams come from outside. Her grandpa and his assistant (Gackt) have been recording her dreams in video form through some fangled machine and his intentions seem to be a little less than honest due to the evil ass looks he throws everyone out of sight.

Ayami-sensei (Keiko) shows up in the girl's dream, and before they all met the assistant was the prince in Ayami-sensei's dream, 

and when they all finally meet and she gets eaten by a giant red alligator after stabbing her elementary school student with broken glass ...it all spirals out of control.

The little white floating dog is like some dream path weaver. This drama is crazy from start to finish. All these things in her dreams are of course symbols, but all related to things in her past.... we have to watch out for all the clues and piece it all together. Which is quite fun.

Keiko's hair is gorgeous. Her character is great - she is such a bitch and the facial expressions she pulls are fab. As the dream world and reality blend into one an other she becomes more and more animated, twisted and lost in all the versions of herself that she rifles through in order to find out who she really is. Such an unusual show.

Ayami-sensei has some dark secret in her past that made her shut off her heart - hence the 'psychopathic' unfeeling style in which she carries herself.

And her nickname Psycho-sensei which has a great ring to it. ^^ 

As she spends more time with Akumu-chan, and of course the assistant Shiki-sensei twisting things up as much as possible, it all starts to unravel. And MAN does he twist things up. 

...what the hell is that noise? There is a cat in my neighbourhood that sounds like a peacock. 

Little Jacks kitten, Snoops and I stood our ground earlier and fended off the bully cat. We are strong together! Kacchya!





Anyway, back to the drama. 

These kids are great. I don't know where they get these amazing kids from. And not only do they have some genius acting from them, we have some proper creepy glaring from Gackt, and worried faces from Keiko. Two of my favourite things.




It gets to the point where everyone starts to annoy me a little bit in the middle of the series. Everyone is so devious and I just want Akumu-chan to stand up for herself. 

She starts to do that just before it becomes too relelntless, and Ayami-sensei also realises that she has to take some responsibility just when it is most needed - even the nurse steps up and gets on side which I wanted her to do for like, the whole damn series. The timing is pretty good throughout. 

I love that it gets so 'dark side vs light side'. The baddies even have black versions of the dream recording machinery, its all superhero/villain type. 

But you never really know whose side anyone is really on. The dramatic music helps suggest Shiki-sensei is the bad guy though, or when things of a compostable nature may hit a certain spin air cooling device.

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I am talking about.

They are not only fighting tragic potential future happenings, but fighting crime and sporting some great evil glaring eyes under fake smiles and all manner of confusing awesome gorgeous knowing glances. Well, maybe that is just Gackt, but yeah.

So. Many. Screen shots. I cant seem to stop! there are so many things to take shots of. 

I thought I had better stop at like episode 6 or 7 so I didn't put any spoilers in with these images, but its hard to restrain.

The more crazy-Gackt-scientist-evil-eito-super-villain Shiki sensei becomes the more Ayami sensei has to step up and take her own past and everyone's future into her hands. 

The kid that plays Ayami as a child is so cute, she cries - so beware, but my god she is so cute. I think my uterus just had a fit, gave up and ran away.

And don't think I didn't notice Kuma doing a cameo as a hikikomori. Go Kuma! saved the day. He summoned some crazy gang of kamen rider style justice team. Go Kuma!

So, I have so much revision to do before my finals on Saturday, so much kanji to learn... but here I am finishing this whole damn series in two days. Its really good though. Weird as you like. 

Pretty as hell cast, unique story line, crimes of kidnapping, so many people pushed under trains, lots of hazy dreams, baffling speech that lost me completely, lonely children's orphanage memories, even a few evil nuns thrown in for god measure, the Men In Black complete with Tommy Lee, a cute little dream beast dog thing, Gackt as a mad scientist AND a flying prince, and of course Keiko's fabulous beautiful wavy lovely pretty gorgeous hair.

This drama really reminded me of Yokai Ningen Bem. It had a really similar fantasy alongside a harsh reality type feel to it. Without so much weird boy love verging on the edge of every corner. It is making me want to review Bem now. Gad damn it. 

Too much revision to do.

Let's just concentrate on Keiko's lovely hair.

Best ending ever. Absolute bastards. I knew it, I knew it! 


I'm glad I had ice cream for this. 

Daijoubu, kore yume da yo

~

Galileo ガリレオ [series] [movie] [series]

The infamous Galileo - just as cheesy as it's spoofs...

super pout award.

Cast list

Fukuyama Masaharu - Yukawa Manabu

Shibasaki Kou - Utsumi Kaoru
Kitamura Kazuki - Kusanagi Shunpei
Shinagawa Hiroshi - Yuge Shiro
Watanabe Ikkei - Kuribayashi Hiromi
Maya Miki - Jonouchi Sakurako
Hayashi Tsuyoshi - Murase Kensuke
Aoi - Taniguchi Saeko
Fukui Hiroaki - Kobuchizawa Takashi
Takayama Miyako - Watanabe Miyuki
Ito Takahiro - Mori Eita

Writing this as I'm getting the screen shots from the film, which I might add is quite savage to begin with - I was a little shocked. 

But for the time being I'll just concentrate on one bit at a time. First off, series one. 

I've seen this show's adverts and spoofs for years now, caught bits of episodes, seen tv spots related to it and finally got around to watching it fully this week. It was funnier and less grown up than I was expecting but enjoyable due to that reason. 

I have loved Shibasaki Kou since first watching Battle Royale all those years ago, and when I saw the adverts for Galileo2 coming last season and a new spin off this season I decided it was time to dig it out. 

Broken hard drive still, so I'm streaming. Un-f*cking-happy.

But I still managed to get some half decent screen shots at least. Its not easy when you don't have the files. I really don't like using streaming sites to capture my screen shots from. But these will do ok.  

Galileo is everything you would expect from a crime thriller twisty turny mystery drama; 

the science and baffling dialogue (I could barely understand), 

the argumentative friendship between the main characters, 

and all the problem solving myth busters style - 

complete with stupid over the top re-enactments, experiments, and ridiculous conclusions drawn from the smallest of sparks of inspiration - always connected to something random that Galileo just happens to already be thinking about at the beginning of the episode! 

It's ok to suspend logic and reasoning for tv but it feels weird to do that for a scientist who continually belittles the lack of logic and reasoning. 

Its pretty fun and lighthearted considering these are murder cases being solved. I can't really say the same for the movie. Its quite sad, violent and makes my sympathise with the perpetrators. 

So on to the plot of series one.

University scientist and general logical genius Yukawa sensei is contacted by rookie detective Utsumi with requests of assistance on complicated, seemingly impossible, murders. 

It causes a disturbance in the lab on many occasion and it appears to me that they never got any work done - just like the students in school dramas never actually go to class.

There are the flashes of mad inspiration then the frantic writing of equations on any surface with any thing - many times using things I'm pretty sure wouldn't make a clear chalk like mark on a random surface, like a blunt stone on bit of plastic or something, but whatever.

It reminded me of Godhand Teru and I realised how many things must have taken inspiration from the Galileo manga. That Galileo moment of enthused scribbling of equations in a mind whirring chaos of thoughts, questions and discoveries is the life and soul of a mystery drama. 

I like all the little moments where Utsumi sees Galileo doing something cool and goes a bit weak at the knees - I can't blame her I guess, but the cutest moments are her frustrated pouts and complaints as he does what he pleases in spite of her protestations. There is a great chemistry between them.



With guest stars of the likes of Katori Shingo (kasukana kanojo), Yumiko Shaku (sky high) Fukada kyouko (Tenshi) and Muga Tsukaji (The Handsome Suit) it is a good class of actors and typical prime time drama.

I think it is an easy watch considering it is essentially a thriller crime drama. 

Galileo: yougisha x no kenshin 容疑者Xの献身 [movie]

With the movie it took me half an hour to get into it - basically the moment I realised Galileo sensei was pitted against a mathematician it became truly interesting. 

I really felt bad for the people they were trying to catch though. 

Yes, they shouldv'e reported what happened straight away - it could have been self defense, but I can't help sympathise with them.

As far as situations go, if   your violent ex husband shows up and starts kicking the living sh*t out of you and your daughter then yeah, I'd say strangle him with a power cord too. But to cover it all up is the worst plan. Especially in a world where Galileo exists to foil your every move. 

It looks like a proper movie, but of course without a need to explain any back story with regards to the main characters, so it kinda jumps right in there. 

It has a much more dark and serious feel, hardly any lighter moments at all. 

It centers mainly around Galileo rather than Utsumi so it really doesn't let up much. Relenting and much more unfriendly. 

Not so easy to watch, but after the opening incident it isn't exactly the darkest thing I've seen by a long shot.

Definitely interesting enough to hold your attention, (jitsu ni omoshiroi as it were) with enough twists and turns to throw your solid opinions up into the air and make you start all over again. Exactly what happens to Galileo i guess. It is a pretty sad story with a somber ending. Bittersweet and tragic from start to finish. But beautiful in its own way.

Galileo 2 ガリレオ２

series 2 sees us back to usual form with antics much more comfortable to the general viewing public. This time with the little miss Tokyo Dogs cute face memory loss girl Yoshitaka Yuriko being generally infuriated with Galileo and his disregard for anything else other than the details he is interested in.

And she is super cute still.


Takao Osawa (A Cheerful Gang Turns the Earth, Ichi, All about Lily Chou Chou, Sky High, Halfway) is our first guest star crazy person as we are thrown straight in to awesome super villainy ingenious tricks this time set in a kind of commune and some dubious mind control.

Yep, truly back to form. Much more lighthearted and stupid. Personally I prefer it this way. Its just a shame that Utsumi goes overseas and we don't see her much. 





Kirishitani is pretty pushy and rude, gaining less than appealing nicknames for herself but finds herself falling down the same road as Utsumi did when she was first getting to know hen-jin Galileo and becoming more and more involved with strange cases which require his assistance.





She rubs everyone up the wrong way for a while before settling into her role just as Utsumi did, and takes her time understanding Galileo while being led around by him in the ways he does so gracefully. 

She has more arrogance than Utsumi, maybe not so likable at first, but it brings a slightly different dynamic in to the show which is probably a good thing as it would be a mistake to just carbon copy Utsumi into the second season. 

I prefer Utsumi, but I guess its the starry eyed view of a first love striking again as it does with all my beloved drama characters.

That's about it. Only I wish they wouldn't drink so much coffee and make it seem so delicious. It makes me drink too much.

I will be watching episode zero and all the other bits before the new spin off with Shibasaki Kou in the summer.

Looking forward to having Utsumi back again for a while.

~

*update*

*possible akumu-chan spoilers if you can read into this crazy sh*t i babble.*

convo on FB with Mikey as i try to panic learn kanji for my exam in 4 days:


Kanji is like that annoying person you get lumped with that you hate and have the most loud argumentative friendship with built on mutual distaste for each other, you know the one that in dramas they bicker constantly and moan about being in each other's presence until they finally get together.

can we skip to the bit where we get married please????

And are doing the living in Japan part

let's not let it be like Galileo. He winds her up so much but has little flashes of awe when she sees him do cool stuff. You think there might be something there but SHE STILL FUCKS OFF TO AMERICA.

when im living in japan i need to be at least at the stage where me and Kanji dont argue ALL the time.

i dont want to give up and be replaced by memory loss girl.

If you are still arguing with it I'll come give you two counselling

Which in turn will probably counsel me too as I hate it also, the little liney bastards

Utsumi got her own spin off show.... does that mean i will start learning Korean properly? ive taken this analogy too far.

Just don't develop a brain tumor, I don't really want to find out if Kanji will be there for you or not

really intelligent. compare your learning to one of the most confusing shows on earth. yeah, probably better than using 1 litre. good job i didnt use the last one i saw, akumu chan. arrhghghgggg the ending! if it is that one,,,,,my kanji boyfriend is the father! but only from the chin downwards.

what the fuck am i saying...

I'm just lost in the endless sea of analogies now

im posting this convo under my galileo review. ^^

FAMOUS. Snap