MR BRAIN ミスター・ブレイン [series]

joy of all joys, gackt in a straight jacket, kamenashi in doctor's whites,
kimura... being kimura.

aside from the fact that kimura was absolutely fantastic as mr brain, and had the wonderful ayase haruka as his baffled dorky assistant yuri, and also mizushima hiro played the also somewhat baffled and dorky detective hayashida, yes, aside from all that, there are guest actors in every episode including

kamenashi (kat-tun, ynsh, hitotsu no koi, gokusen, 1pound no fukuin, nobuta - seriously you should know who he is by now) along side aibu saki (zettai kareshi, buzzer beat), sato takeru (kamen rider den-o, princess princess d), koyuki (kimi wa petto, laundry) and the almighty nakama yukie (gokusen).

and of course - the reason i found this series in the first place - gackt as a psycho ghosty crazy person in a straight jacket kyaa! giant squeeee for gackt as a mental.
キャー

mr brain is a stroke of genius. great stories and weird surreal animated moments, lots of humour, lots of tears, some completely adorkable characters, nasty evil boo-hiss-boo type mean people, and tons and tons of bananas.

thats not a metaphor. there are many bananas in this series.

a neuroscientist working for the national research institute of police science, mr brain can solve mysteries in a way no one else can, he is a bit weird and no one seems to really get him at all, but his skills for analysing the situation, uncovering lies, and finding a clever killer are unmistakeable.

i really like his friendship with hayashida (whom he calls rinda due to reading the kanji in his name wrong) and his constant abuse towards ayase haruka's character yuri (who he often compares to a monkey)

it really is very good. its so clever and funny, everyone i have shown this to has loved it. and what part of gackt in a straight jacket would not convince you to watch it? seriously! he is mr crazy crazy man bites his own fingers off eat you without a second thought

i cant explain how great that is.

kimura is beautiful and hysterical in mr brain. its my favourite role of his endless list of dramas. kamenashi brought me tears with his episode, and sato takeru was absolutely fantastic. i think its the best performance ive seen from him - he could really handle such an unusual role.

there is nothing bad about mr brain except for the fact that it ended.

~

tatta hitotsu no koi たったひとつの恋 [series]

ayase is so cute she's almost retarded

this drama has two of my favourite people as the leads and three more as the supporting roles

kamenashi kazuya (kat-tun, 1pound no fukuin, gokusen)

ayase haruka (hotaru no hikari, cyborg she, sore wa totsuzen arashi no you ni)

and as if that wasnt enough 

tanaka koki (kat-tun, my boss my hero), 

hiraoka yuta (proposal daisakusen, godhand teru, vampire heaven),

and toda erika (liar game)

so everyone is great. let's get that out of the way. yes, it was bound to be a good series with that lot.

kamenashi and ayase make an awesome team - he plays kanzaki (working in a boat yard all oily and grubby all the time, no money, but great hair) she plays nao (naive and innocent rich girl who was very sickly in the past so she is a bit sheltered and childlike)

poor guy and rich girl meet and fall in love kind of awkwardly it causes a load of problems romeo and juliet stylee. 

it is more than that standard format of show though. the script and acting make hitotsu koi more like a warm memory of love rather than a cheesy love story drama.

most of the show is spent watching kamenashi smoke and look pretty damn cool and ayase looking cute and confused.

their relationship is not typical but very believable as are the interactions with their friends. 

the whole group is fun and likeable and there is obviously a big comedy factor with tanaka koki running about like a moron all the time as you would expect from him.

i like their characters and the story progression. they all start out a little tentative then slowly grow closer and open up to each other. 

they all have some sort of jaded view, bias, or assumption of how they should be or how they are viewed by others. 

gradualy those preconceptions are broken down and they all find out who they are and what they want from life and love.

there is a lot of banter, some pretty sweet moments, and you get to see kamenashi all beaten up and bloody a few times. which is always good.

ayase is brilliant in hitotsu koi, ive rarely seen her use such a vacant oblivious stare like the expression she flaunts constantly in this drama. 

she sulks and pouts like no one else and she really wins your heart.

when flicking through to get screen shots of this series i remember just how much i liked it. 

the cast were perfect and the story was lovely. i really like how they tie the end back to the beginning and it makes me smile to remember their meaningful first love.

...wow this was a soppy review. i didnt even squee or kyaa at all.


aw i just saved a mouse or rat or cute little furry rodenty thing from my
nosey ass dog. you cant play with tiny things moo-face youre too massive.

~

sore we totsuzen, arashi no you ni それは突然、嵐のように [series]

baka onna - its yamapi. what you doing woman?

the wonderful actors esumi makiko and yanagiba toshiro pair up for this drama leaving me thinking can there be anymore room for charisma to be jammed in? worrying due to the fact i knew yamapi was in it too...

you love her - because you just do. you love him - because he is just awesome and then yamapi comes along all critically ill and doey eyed to mess it all up.

bugger.

now you love him too.

its a kind of quiet, slow, everyones just trying to find themselves type drama. it doesnt have a fairytale ending - but a really honest and good one instead.

kozue and hideo (esumi and yanagiba) have been married for some time and live in kozue's parent's flower shop. she decides to go back to work and make something more of herself than just a housewife.

in comes high school boy takuma (yamapi) all sad and lost - could he be heartbroken, could he be dying, no - he's just standing in the road thinking about dinner.

well actually he is kind of dying, he has emphysema or something lung related

i forget now - its been a while since i saw it. basically he is told he cannot dance anymore

apparantly he is some beautifully inspiring angel when he dances but we dont

get to see any of it. Would it have been a stretch for Yamapi to dance like an inspiring angel...? Maybe its a good thing they didnt put that in.

we do however see him in a ridiculous gold shirt in the opening credits where he is sitting in all fuaa fuaa clouds and stuff so either he has just been getting some happy ending boy love or he is meant to look like kozue's angel. probably the later. (i really cant imagine yamapi doing a boy love movie - i really really cant. though the fuaa fuaa credits gave me a little idea)

takuma gives kozue a few dance lessons here and there in between her refusing to see him and then giving up due to his constant pestering (then refusing to see him again and then giving up again then bla bla bla)

he falls for her, she falls for him, but her husband actually is great so t'aint that easy miss is it now

this was back when yamapi still had that wispy sh*t hair cut (2004) god knows what that was all about and back when they only gave him moody ass sulky kid roles to play.

it even had ayase haruka playing his moody ass sulky friend - man she looks

really young in this.

i found it bittersweet more than tense - im not sure what they were going for but i expected it to be a bit more desperate housewives - and was glad it wasnt.

i like the way this was different from the usual melodrama of affairs with middle aged housewives and young school boys. it didnt feel like that - it was restrained and more on the side of musing *is the grass greener?* as apposed to *who cares about grass, lets get it on!*

lets leave that to desperate housewives. they do it so well anyway.