voice ヴォイス [series]

with friends like these who needs autopsies?

eita and ikuta toma - what a brilliant pairing! for a potentially typical format of mystery drama the casting of these two was an inspired decision.

there is a lot of banter between all the main characters and even quite a lot from the supporting cast too. 

it was well written with sensitivity to a sometimes somber subject matter.

the setting is medical school and the five main characters are students taking a seminar on forensic pathology. this, they come to learn, is about conveying the voices of the dead to those left alive.

in confusing cases where the cause of death is unknown or suspicious, forensic pathology listens to the signs the body shows in order to hear the real story of those last moments on earth.

all taking the seminar for their own different reasons (often something in their past that has haunted them) the five work together to understand how dead bodies can explain the life that once was attached to them.

kaji daiki (eita) is actualy unwillingly drafted into this course by the lecturer who can see something in him that would surely flourish in forensic pathology.

his friend ryosuke (ikuta) is avoiding the pressure of his dad's high position, 

kanako (ishihara satomi) lost someone in suspicious circumstances, 

teppei (endo yuya) and akira (sato yuki) who have a great argumentative banter with each other from day one, also appear to have their own reasons for joining this usually fairly unpopular and misunderstood course.

the second great pairing in this is endo and sato. i would never have thought to put those two together but it was a stroke of genius. 

its always quite fun to see endo getting beatings and playing the nervous geeky fool, and sato is great as the scarey looking, angry but soft hearted idiot akira.

each episode has a new case for them to solve and they are all pretty interesting. 

but it is the banter between the main five plus akira's mum that i like best about the show. it keeps it all rolling.

all the boys seem to pick on kanako and she stubbornly keeps them at arms length for quite a while. ishihara is another actress who can play many different roles well. 

one minute a closed and focussed young girl and the next a frantic, rude, sneaky teacher as was her role as in puzzle.

ikuta looks beautiful in voice i have to say. he is a little slapstick (how we like him best) and a little serious too. and not many people look good in puffa jackets so thats one to be proud of.

kaji daiki is basically riding on his exceptional intuition and has Galileo style flashes of genius when he is in deep thought - he usually saves the day with his soft focus psychosis epiphanies.

its kind of cheesey i guess but eita's awsome expressions and that messed up

mop of hair he has just makes it fun to watch. i could watch him in the worst program ever created and i probably would still like it due to being blinded by his greatness. his thinking face is awesome. haha, it sounds funny to say that. it really is though. cant help but love that man in whatever role he is in.

and that big green/blue coat was another inspired piece of casting. it was like the 6th member of the team.

~

maou 魔王 [series]

running, pouting, shouting inappropriately, it must be Ikuta toma

I like him best when he's being funny but that didnt stop me thinking he was great in maou. Ikuta toma is awesome whatever role you put him in.

Maou is Ikuta mostly running, pouting, shouting when he shouldnt be, uber serious face, more running - often when its not needed, more pouting (think he and Yamapi practiced together when they were growing up?)

More shouting, more running, more serious face, pouting, more running, serious face again, f*ck it - serious faces all round! Lots more running and pouting and frowning with serious faces filmed from obscure camera angles.

Also to add to the serious faces and frowning we have Ohno Satoshi from Arashi. 

He plays mr mean lawyer serious face evil bad guy crazy man Naruse. 

Ikuta plays, the guy Naruse is obviously out to get, cant stop running and pouting or running and pouting, rogue detective Serizawa.

It looks from the outset that it will be all supernatural but theres not much of that - just the character Shihori or as I call her little miss psychic hands massive eyes (kobayashi ryoko)

Everyone is great as they usually are - cant fault the casting. Ohno has mentally evil cold dead stares, Ikuta has that serious pout thing going on and Kobayashi looks like a fragile doll

This series is the Japanese original series but there has also been a remake Korean drama the devil starring joo ji hoon (antique bakery) which i will review at some point.

The basic premise is some sh*t happened in the past when Serizawa was a little f*ckhead yankii, Naruse is obviously someone related to that past, Naruse is all angry about said sh*t, Serizawa doesnt have a clue its all about him, Naruse worms his lawyery ways into Serizawa's cases, people die left right and center leaving a trail of tarot cards, cue little miss psychic hands massive eyes Shiori to explain them, she reads the after, effects of memories in a ghosty hallucinationy type way, it all gets pretty tense and Ikuta must have lost 3 stone just running about constantly. Phew.

it is pretty much just this man who appears to have the soul of a devil pitted against a driven but tainted police detective with a dark past.

It may sound like a standard premise but I have to say when I got to the end i cried my eyes out. I didnt realise how involved I had got and then bam it all kicks off and the showdown left me in a bit of an emotional mess. It was a really really good way to end it

No sweetness and light here. In the end it became a private messed up journey just for those two jaded guys to irreparably destroy each others minds and lives.

It is not like you couldn't guess how it all fits together but it doesn't matter that its kind of obvious - the point isn't to keep you guessing - the point is that Serizawa doesn't have a f*cking clue for ages, and Naruse is so messed up you wonder what he is planning next and whether he will start to regret his actions the closer he gets to little miss psychic hands massive eyes.

so thats pretty much it. running, pouting serious faces, frowning, and a big mess of dead people everywhere you look.

i really like the jacket ikuta wears - i want one. someone find me one.

ah, ive got the best idea, i will start practicing my pout and when ive got that jacket i can run around like a mental frowning an pouting then ruku-chan can just walk about in a suit staring with an evil expression at stuff. and things. and me. being my arch nemisis and plotting to kill me. (so, just like normal then) and i can run about some more pouting and shouting. (again, just like normal)

it'll be just like the real thing!           need that jacket.

serious face *Ikuta shock!*

~

Akihabara@deep アキハバラ＠DEEP [series]

rubbish otaku super heroes, no tights, no capes, but no sense either.

joy of joys ikuta toma squeeeeee, matsushima hatsune squeeeeee, akiba maids squeeeeee, and lots of manga, anime, and otaku-culture references.

ok, where to start, its a group of useless otaku weirdoes brought together by their cyber saivour yui to protect akihabara from the otakuist enemies of all things anime-nerd. gangs have begun beating up stray otaku and are robbing akiba of its ability to be one of the few places anime obsessed people can be themsleves.

the somewhat unwilling leader page (kazuma shunsuke) nervously stutters from under his mop of barely brushed hair, which makes for the amusing choice of giving him the catchphrase of the show.

box (ikuta toma) taiko (hoshino gen) akira (kosaka yuka) izumi (matsushima hatsune) and daruma (himura yuki) make up the rest of the group each with their own bizzare afflictions and obsessions.

the series sees them pitted off against the evil mastermind (maybe not quite so much of the master or mind for that matter) who seeks to bring akiba to its knees. everyone in this is weird but i guess daruma takes the biscuit with his constant terrible but brilliant cosplay.

it is filmed in deliberate poor quality, there are fast motion editting cuts, lots of maids (^-^) and even an out of place zombie episode.

it gets pretty dark and nasty at times and it ends a little flat but on the whole it is really very funny. i especially like page and izumi in akihabara@deep but they are all completely nuts in their own great ways. the series just gets more and more weird as it goes on and you get to see iukta toma running and shouting alot which is always good. as usual he has me in stitches.

dont expect it to be serious or believable - its akihabara after all.

~

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... 

~