Yūsha Yoshihiko to Maō no Shiro 勇者ヨシヒコと魔王の城, Yūsha Yoshihiko to Akuryō no Kagi 勇者ヨシヒコと悪霊の鍵 [series]

Dragon Quest interpreted by Sato Jiro and Fukada Yuichi. Drunk on sake. At 3 AM. 

ユウシャ!よし行こう！ 

This review is of both series of Yūsha Yoshihiko; series one is Maō no Shiro and series two is Akuryō no Kagi. Dont watch the first episode of series two first by mistake like I did. It won't make any sense. Not that it makes much sense anyway.

This show is the adored mentally challenged child of Director / writer / screenwriter Fukuda Yuichi: (Tenma san ga Yuku, Watashi no Kirai na Tantei, Tokyo Dogs, Saru Lock, The One Pound Gospel, 700 Days of Battle: Us vs. the Police), this drama is bonkers from start to finish. 

Sporting Sato Jiro as Hotoke - and after having watched the extras it is easy to see the two of them made up most of the madness as they were going along - plus a cast of well respected actors making fools of themselves in the weird ass roles they were given to play. 

It is based around computer game (specifically dragon quest) style and story line. There are fantastic game play mimicking moments like Yoshihiko smashing up everything in one of the villager's houses. 

There are useless bandits, weird monsters that don't make much sense, and a whole range of spoof-coloured skit-induced cameos from various comedic actors all making monumental arses of themselves. 

I will always remember this comedy series fondly as its pretty much the sealing tape on the absolute win box of my getting together with Mr awesome awesomeness Hanzawa Naoki to my Hana, who I'm sure will feature now and then on here. 

Laughing so much at this series was the icing on the christmas cake that was our first fantastic winter together so yay Yoshihiko.

Yamada Takayuki plays the hero, with a band of idiots around him he may well be the stupidest of them all. 

An utterly useless accidental hero who is a raging pervert and completely gullible - especially when it comes to being mislead by the bad guys. And the girls.

There are bad spells, brainwashing, magic rings, demons, and copious scenes paying homage to other cult dramas such as Crows Zero and other well loved favourites. 

There are some brilliant cameos which I wont name and spoil because I think it would be funnier to discover while watching. 

Only I can't resist talking about Oguri Shun making a brief appearance to duel with his Crows zero buddy Yamada Takoyaki in a clumsy ridiculously pathetic bickering fest that barely results in battle. 

The bandits were great, but the main four's dead pan acting was the best. The only thing that topped that was Sato Jiro being a complete mental for the entire program. He is the king of everything and should continue to be in every drama ever. 

Daito Shunsuke squeal.

These episode aren't very long. Its super low budget high humour, and the story is good enough to have at least some semblance of a point to it.

The actors and the direction, the half scripted dialogue and the babbling banter make this show stand out from anything else. 

Well, it stands away from anything Fukada Yuichi hasn't had a hand in.

His style is unmistakable and I think he and Sato Jiro should DNA fashion some crazy babies and fill the world with glorious madness.

They are a match made in Hotoke heaven. 

Hotoke beeeeeam!

~

long love letter ロング・ラブレター[series]

not the usual premise for a japanese series

it has been a while since i saw this so forgive any vagueness i might have. the wiki description doesn't really tell you anything or do it justice so i will try to explain what it is about without giving too much away.

looking like an adorable poodle, kubozuka yosuke plays Asami a teacher at a high school, Tokiwa takako plays Misaki a girl who works in her father's flower shop. The two had met a year before and taken a liking to each other but when Asami's phone was stolen after they had met he could no longer contact her.

The pair meet up again at the school when Misaki has to deliver some flowers and as they start to have a bit of an argument the ground opens up and the school disappears into a crater formed by a huge earthquake. If the earth moves even when you argue i guess it is ment to be (^_^)

The people left behind can only see the massive hole, but inside the school the pupils, Asami, and Misaki are still alive but thrown into a different time. The school materialsed on an endless sea of black sand and as they struggle to survive they begin to realise where they are. Finding wreckages of their old city they understand that they have been thrown into a bleak future where the world appeared to be dessimated by human destruction.

A few people left behind hear the echoes of the lost school and are determined to believe that they are still alive somewhere but are helpless to do anything about it. Back at the school the group are concerned with keeping themselves alive with no water or food, and trying to understand their situation. 

It is a really hectic, sad series, lots of people die, it is a hopeless situation after all. it ends with as much unexplained confusion as it begins which is just glorious fun - leaving you totally lost as to how to feel about the whole thing. I love it when japanese tv steps into sci-fi. they really should do it more. it does not end how you think it will, it spirals off into madness but then does offer a unexpected resolution. im not sure that it is really all that happy of an ending - but more of a mixed bag of feelings. like when you wake up from a bad dream, you a relieved to know it was only a dream but the feelings are still there all the same. it was that kind of sense. (and no it wasnt all just a dream)

Yamapi plays one of the class (who i really liked actually) and he is still at his fluffy gold hair stage - always hillarious. Yamada Takoyaki (i should stop calling him that - i forget his name is atcually takayuki sometimes) and Mizukawa Asami are also good. The class stuck in the school is quite large so there are a nice amount of students we get to know thoughout the hardships. And of course, we watch a good fair few of them die. It is not the happiest of dramas. I was actually shocked at some of the characters they picked off. So sad.

Interesting drama though. really quite different to anything else i have seen. Love kubozuka yosuke and will happily watch him in anything. He will always be The King to me. I would totally be in his gang. When i eventually review IWGP im sure it will just be countless pictures of that man's crazy hair. Seaking of which, he totally looks like a poodle in LLL, it is so cute. Between his poodle-boof and Yamapi's gold fluff there is more fuwa fuwa than a boy love film.

 the king

 

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