tokyo shounen 東京少年 [movie]

That old story of boy [never] meets girl, falls in love, then they realise they are the same person. 

Is there something wrong with me? I totally crush on Horikita Maki when she is a boy. I like her best when she is playing a girl being a boy. It actually rocks my world. This film isn’t actually that great at all. It is kinda non eventful and doesn’t really have much going on but for some reason as soon as she dons the *ore* *daro* sh*t and swears like a trouper I go a bit funny. I love her boy voice, she walks differently and moves like – not like a boy – but like her own entity. I think she may have made up a new gender and I think it happens to be my persuasion.

This will be a mini review because I didn’t really notice much of the movie bar that. So I will spare you the ranting of my affections for androgyny and the like. Wait till I’ve finished IS Intersexual – god that is giving me enough gender confused issues to be going on with. Full up on that right now. (^_^)

This movie is a world away from her previous *accidental boy* role and potentially type casting character from Hana Kimi. Horikita Maki plays a girl with a split personality – one of which is a boy. In love with the other side. Of herself. The girl bit. They haven’t ever met. But they write to each other.

It is a little weird to describe it but why didn’t I find it weird watching it? I don’t know whether Horikita Maki is just a brilliant actor that always gets it right on the nose with hidden depth etc, or whether she has something in her own personal character that brings something necessary to these roles that would fall flat without her.

I feel like I could forgive her a millions sins if she played it with that in mind. She wound me up in Kurosagi as she was meant to do, she was phenomenal in about 50 different ways in Hana Kimi, and if I ever see her work with Tegoshi Yuya again as in Teenage Amnesiac I will jump for joy and most likely hit my head on the ceiling.

I like the movie in general as it has an unusual timeline order and pace, but that does cause problems for me as well. Due to seeing the story from many different perspectives we have to watch a lot of scenes twice. It really bugs me when I have just seen something and have to sit through another 10 minutes of it a little while later.




It wasn’t a huge bug bare but it made the film seem a lot longer than it was. I like seeing what happened earlier from a different side but I don’t like to see lots of footage I’ve already seen. Just the different bits please or I will get distracted and faze out.

There were some great moments in the film but it is all for the weird psychotic shenanigans of her male side. Like kissing herself in the mirror, that scene is almost indescribably perfect as it is more like psychosis than most movies would show. Usually there are an abundance of epic savage frantic actions with a huge musical score, but this movie is shot with the same disorientated, disjointed, sometimes normal sometimes confused – and often a blurry line between the two – type feel, and if you have ever even had sleep deprivation you will know that the world doesn’t make sense when you have any kind of psychosis but it isn’t always constantly pounding at your head.

This film does feel like that hazy, flickering, inconstant feeling that accompanies mental disorientation. It is more subtle than most films I have seen about this sort of subject. And I did like that.

But still, it wasn’t the most accurate (in terms of psychology) or intriguing movie on first viewing and I feel it was carried solely on the presence of Horikita Maki. Luckily she does have enough of that presence to make me happy to watch her in anything. And I may well even watch this again. Though I think for my own safety I think I should not really be allowed to watch her playing a girl playing a boy – It messes with my head too much.

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atashinchi no danshi アタシんちの男子 [series]

anyone else think horikta maki suits the street urchin look somehow?

so it seems to be a familiar plot to have a character die and all the other people in the drama spend the whole time finding out all about said dead guy from various weird trials and tricks left for them to over come.

i quite like the idea in general and the way it was used in atashinchi makes for a very fun (anime feeling) madcap kind of adventure but full of emotional strain and regret. its a bizzare premis but it works.

Horikita maki plays the lead - a girl on the run from her father's debt who becomes unwittingly involved in a family of boys who were thrown together in life by their own hard situations. all adopted by shinzo (kusakari masao), a rich eccentric inventor, the boys live together in the beautiful trick heart castle (also featured in yukan club) but do not see themselves as a family.

chisato (horikita) is promised by shinzo that he will clear her debt if she marry him and become a mother to all the boys knowing he will soon die of an incurable illness. (standard proceedure in these instances of course)

instead of, you know, leaving a proper will and all that, shinzo leaves a whole manner of rediculous tasks for them all to complete in order to be heir to his treasure. (not knowing what that even is)they find their way to bond as a family and learn who the real shinzo actually was, along the way. (he was a nutter who couldnt leave a simple will basically)

the six sons are played by Kaname Jun as Fuu, Okada Yoshinori as Takeru Mukai Osamu as Sho, Yamamoto Yusuke as Masaru, Seto Koji as Satoru, and Okayama Tomoki as Akira. (oldest to youngest here)

it is fairly slapstick, there are lots of weird inventions, and a deliberatey sh*t appropriately anime-stylee bad guy. horikita is great in this role, she'd have to be to give this character the believable drive to go up against all these grumpy lazy ass sh*ts who just want to bum around the castle forvever.

it has a crazy all out castle-fortress-ramraidy-type battle for its finale that comes out of nowhere.

so if only for seeing horikita and the guys go nuts with tear gas (as in crying tears, yes) stick with it and search for the clues to this unknown treasure along with the bunch.

it is pretty far fetched and very funny much of the way through and there is even an appearence by hard gay - its truly hysterical (even if you dont know who he is)

really good banter between Okada Yoshinori (who is f*cking great as always) and Mukai Osamu *waves a little fan girl flag* lots of horikita bossing boys about and generally winning every over with her constant greatness. My favourite character of her I think. Ah what more could you want?

kurosagi クロサギ [series] [movie]

yamapi fowning lots with watery piercing eyes, what else could you possibly want to watch?

kurosagi is in my top 3 favourite drama series. im a little reluctant to do this review as i it doesnt feel like its something i can put into words as to why i liked it so much. but i feel i want to get it out of the way somehow. i have seen kurosagi about 4 times now so in real time that would equate to once a year, its not far off how many times ive seen nobuta. i know i will go out of my way to watch yamapi in anything but it doesnt stop me being able to see if a drama is good or not.

at first i thought it was a shame that horikita maki's character was so irritating but after the first time round she didnt annoy me anymore, i think i just prefer her when she has funny roles to play.

kurosaki is a young guy who loses his family to the tragic circumstances surrounding his fathers debt. bitterness towards swindlers turns him into a vigilante con man who seeks out those who professionally con money out of naive people and turns their tricks against them. kurosaki becomes kurosagi - sagi meaning swindle (sagishi - swindler)

im not going to explain anything more of the plot because it would be better to have it unfold as you watch it. i knew nothing of kurosagi when i saw it and had no idea what to expect and im glad of it.

yamapi gets to play lots of different characters in this drama and its great fun to watch his manerisms change to encompass a new persona. effortlessly crying on cue, looking jaded and tormented by his past, and having different hair every five minutes, we still get to see yamapi doing his ad libbed clumsy moments and geniusly-funny subtle facial expressions.

it has almost everything i need from a series. it even has koyama keiichiro (fellow member of news) in one episode  kyaa! i tell ya i nearly wet myself when he suddenly came on

i didnt know he was going to be in it at all and he gets all upset and shouty looking at yamapi with his fingers through the fence and yamapi looking back at him all sad and koyama is all about to cry oooh squeeeeeeeeee he's so great.

its pretty sad much of the way through and you totally root for kurosagi to win out over all the bad guys. as i said i found horikita's character a pain in the ass at first but it was great to see those two back on tv together again. there are some really good suporting cast and guest actors some of which come back for the movie.

the film that follows the series felt a little different from the drama, the pace or tone was somehow weird. it annoyed me a little that things were still open ended as i thought the movie would wrap things up completely but if they ever want to make another one to finish it all off then i would be first in line to see it.

it happens a lot in japanese movies where things dont always end smoothly but actually i really like that. life doesnt end in the middle, stories carry on after one part has played out and its only western cinema that seems to be attached to the wrapped-it-up-nicely-so-you-dont-have-to-think notion that means you dont have to wonder about what happened to the characters next. 

i think with kurosagi its just that i would have been happy to have this series carry on for ages at least in the way that a comparable drama 'liar game' had two series and a film. i feel kurosagi could have done that length the same sort of justice.

so on to the music. the sound track is absolutely lovely. obviously everyone knows the daite senorita theme tune yamapi released but im talking about the actual sound track, if you can get hold of it i assure you it is really pretty so grab it.

i think yamapi's eyes should be given their own title in the credits you know.

   クロサギ  -   山下智久
   *stare*   炯々 -   山下智久の目

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hanazakari no kimitachi e 花ざかりの君たちへ [series]

homo ja nai      *nakatsu shock!*

nosebleeds, secret identities, cross dressing, demonic possession, boy love, it can only be hana kimi. so much fun. i have to say that nakatsu wins hands down over sano. he great, mizuki stoopid.

ok, so basic premis is:

mizuki is really a girl.
joins an all boys school,
wants to make sano jump the high jump again,
sano is grumpy,
nakatsu falls for mizuno even though he thinks she is a boy
sano is grumpy. always grumpy.
the dorm heads are nuts,
all the dorms compete agains each other for various stupid prizes from the school,
sano is stil grumpy,
they have shinanigans with their sister school -
including beauty pagents and some sort of halloweeny type couples walk through the school,
sano is still grumpy,
the guys go to the beach and play football and run track,
sano all the time being grumpy.

for those of us who like ikuta toma(and there must be many many many of us) we have nakatsu. most of the humour comes from nakatsu and the other supporting roles whereas mizuno (horikita maki) and sano (oguri shun) are mostly plain frustrating. this series is packed full of great people like

mizushima hiro, kyo nobuo and ishigaki yuma, the three dorm heads.

one of my other favourites is kimura ryo (nodame, akai ito, puzzle) who seems to be great in everything - im always pleased when he turns up in a series especially when he plays a gay guy. in hana kimi he gets to follow hiro around like a puppy which is great as the two of them are like a little comedy duo at times.

the weirdest bits are always with oscar the third dorm head - he's so very bizzare. and isnt he like loads of years older than everyone else? well maybe only 5 years or so but still i was amused. the dorm heads seem to have been there forever.

it feels like youre watching an anime - i love shows like that. its pretty stupid most of the way through and its pretty easy to watch. it is one of those kind of shows that gets referred to in other programs  so its a handy one to have seen to get the in jokes.

im gonna cut this short and go walk my dog now because he's making yamapi eyes at me and if you could see how cute he is being right now... 

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nobuta o produce 野ブタ。をプロデュース [series]

kon kon!

where do i start with this one? this was the series where i first found yamapi.  (^_^) i have seen this so many times, its the old friend i go to whenever i want cheering up.

i could waste hours wishing that yamapi's version of akira was real and i had been to school with him - id have been a lot less out of place with him around. he stole the show for me and watching nobuta the first time round led me to those few lost months where all i did was stay in watching endless amounts of nothing but yamapi dramas.

the three main characters:

kamenashi kazuya (kat-tun) plays shuji - a guy just trying to stay popular, keep his status safe and finish school without drama.

akira (yamapi) is a complete nut bar leaping around like an idiot and making up his own stupid words and phrases, a rich dork who cant get up out of his chair without smacking his hand or falling over.

the polar opposites of these two are brought together by nobuta, (played by horikita maki) firstly, bare in mind it is not in the slightest bit like a "she's all that" or "10 things i hate about you" teen american type thing. the way japanese culture is creates much less sickly morals and generally better story lines. She is reclusive and shy so the two boys take it upon themselves to make her into a popular girl.

nobuta has three great lead actors (maki, kamenashi, yamapi) and even toda erika and daito shunsuke thrown in for good measure as a supporting role. its hard not to get caught up with their mission and by the end of the series its as if youve known these characters as your own dear friends.

i do love a good school drama and this is my absolute favourite. kamenashi, who later became one of my favourite actors, is the straight man in this so you dont get to see any real goofing around by him (which is his best side i think but he is still good with the normalness too)

maki is always great in whatever she is in and even though she was so young when filming nobuta was already showing her talent.

but for sure the reason i watch nobuta is yamapi's akira. i have heard that much of his qwerks were improvised and ad libbed and i cant imagine akira played by anyone else.

i want akira to be real and my friend. how can i become queen of the world and order yamapi to just be akira for me for the rest of time..? aint gonna happen is it.

the main point of this drama is illustrating friendship bonds, where they can form out of nowhere and overcome hard times. "i like nobuta best when she's one of the three of us. then i love her." akira

he has all the best lines i think due to the unavoidable honesty of his character and sometimes akira can make you squirm with regret as he has little lonely moments or insightful empathy towards shuji or nobuta.

my favourite thing i like to see yamapi do is watch other people. he has great watery eyes that seem to convey so much feeling when he is looking at someone. its subtle but there are many moments i find myself watching him while other people are talking as his expressions and glances are often more descriptive than the script.

i think that nobuta o produce is a bit of a girlie one to be honest. and i also thought that id have funnier things to say about it seen as it makes me laugh so much but it appears im so serious in my adoration of akira that i cant think of much else.

there is alot of fan fiction of nobuta - mainly boy love stuff to do with shuji and akira which i can kind of understand because their friendship is so sweet.

i think the wealth of fan fic about them is telling of how many people loved those two and right to the end of the drama stuck with them hoping everything would turn out ok.

three seconds of this can put a smile on my face especially if its akira flapping down the stairs like a moron. all the little phrases and manerisms i warn you get in your head and you find yourself saying or singing akira's lines before you realise it.

so dont be surprised if no-one knows what youre talking about when you exclaim "akira shock!" or you get weird looks when you try and rest your chin on your friend's shoulder all the time. just make them watch nobuta and all will make sense and be right with the world.

it has been brought to my attention that i may be a little similar to ^ that dork up there. yes i cant seem to walk through a door frame without hitting it, yes i make up my own words and sing at people for no reason, leap about like an idiot, i inflicted my friendship on people who were really too cool to be friends with me, and didnt have a clue how rediculous i looked when i did things like spray paint my hair blue in the bike sheds and hold onto my friends leg (to try and maker her skip class with me) as she dragged me the whole way across the carpark to escape, but... 

hmm... now that you mention it...  

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