Youkai Ningen Bem 妖怪人間べム [series]

best monster boy love but not really but definitely genius awesomeness

I cant believe I never reviewed this when I watched it! It was the gayest monster in the village. I honestly thought I had already reviewed this. Im not sure why its not here. 

well I loved it. All ways round I loved it. I may have to watch a fair bit of it again to write this review properly but Im sure I can remember enough of the plot to get a point across. 

well, maybe. ok, maybe i just remember how gorgeous Anne is and how boy love Kamenashi and Kitamura are. oh and the cute little boy! oh he was great. ok i'll do a cast list seen as i havent done one for the last few reviews due to being spackered at work. yes spackered. 

cast: 

Bemu - Kamenashi Kazuya 

Bela - Watanabe Anne 

Belo - Suzuki Fuku 

Natsume Akinori - Kitamura Kazuki 

Woo that took ages didnt it. Well I know there were more people in it who were important but I cant really remember. 

 I loved this show. so much. It was literally gayer than any boy love movie Ive seen - even more full of longing looks and squealy moments than uselss takumi kun. I just loved it. 

It was not meant to be so ridiculous but Kamenashi and Kitamura adore each other so much in real life that you could not escape the love on screen. so funny. 

Anne made it a joy to watch also. Her arms! gorgeous gorgeous arms! Seriously beautiful woman. 

I always think that but christ I really think this was one of her best characters. 

She had such a different voice and manner - i loved her being so aggressive and ungirlie. I really thought she was poised and perfect. 

So Suzuki Fuku - well what can I say. god that boy can act. I mean really. seriously amazing acting. I think he is the strawberry on this cake. lovely sweet little boy who makes the whole thing complete. perfect casting through and through. 

Kitamura is cast so well against kamenashi, but always great anyway. It is so boy love moody - with all that wanting to confess (his monster self) but not wanting to be disowned. 

It works well as a metaphor, but I like to just joke about it on a surface level. 

I died almost every episode from laughing at the gay. it was such joy. SUCH joy. 

The family of monster people (kamenashi, anne and suzuki) are searching to find out about their past - how they were made and why. most importantly how they can become human. 

Its a desperate hunt to find their secrets and always against time - the time when they will be found out by the village and have to run away again. 

It is a struggle to be accepted, to be loved, to be themselves. yeah ok, its definitely a metaphor. But aside from the gay pride parade costume ideas Im now having, this drama is seriously good! I swear please believe me. 

The cheese is just the best, the super serial faces are so brilliant, and the poncing around in a trench coat being all awesome saving the day and being thoroughly TORTURED by the whole thing is just... 

well thats just Kamenashi for a start. but its just great. really so much fun. 

I like the weird flashes of dog like senses they use to sense where people are - and Kamenashi gets to use is poser cane. I like all his poser moves in this. Its a squeal fest from start to finish.

The imagery is gorgeous. the sets and stuff I mean. you know the kind of fantasy we dont see much of in Japanese dramas, I wish for more. 

The monster costumes were basically out of the rubber suity bad guy wardrobe of Sailor moon or something but Kamenashi's silver hair makes up for absolutely any flaw it may have.

Im really wanting to go watch this again right now. its one you could definitely sit through more than once.

its so stupid that its easy to watch but emotional enough to make you actually care what happens. 

Ive just read a super serial review of this show also comparing it to the LGBT issues and such - but put very much more diplomatically. 

I really dont care im gonna use the word gay in any which way I want, but yes it seems im not the only one who saw the relation.

Mostly mine just came from squealing about the joys between Kamenashi and Kitamura but the whole story really does parallel.

The ending does offer them closure - or a choice thereof. and (not to spoil) I was happy that it panned out more true to themselves. It'll make sense if you watch it. 

The struggles are more important while you are watching, the journey is present and real. 

but after the fact all I can really remember is Anne's fantastic arms and the shiny love between kameMura. 

I really thought I had done this rant before. I feel like Ive said all this. I know I had a massive twitter rant about it with Kali but I thought Id reviewed it! This feels weird to write because of that. 

And it was so long ago when I saw it (as it was airing). 

I was waiting for this one to come out and i know I wasnt disappointed. its hard to review so long after the fact though. 

I hope my screen shots can bring back those memories and keep them imortalised in shiny gay joys of joyfulness forever.

I love this drama.

~

Kami no Shizuku 神の雫 [series]

I wanted to do this review like, wine red, but it doesn’t really work on black does it.

Cast:

Kamenashi Kazuya – Kanzaki

Naka Riisa – Shinohara

Tanabe Seiichi – Tomine

Toda Naho – Kiryu

Masu Takeshi _ Kawarage

Uchida Yuki – Saionji Maki

Taguchi Hiromasa – Honma

This series is a bit of a weird one. I was fully prepared to find myself bored and uninterested, when I read the synopsis I really didn’t think it would be my cup of tea. But as did most of Japan with the manga, I really got into it straight away and ended up really respecting the program.

Basically, Kamenashi looks beautiful in this drama, and he is paired up with Naka Riisa who is gorgeous and hysterically funny, there are a bunch of over the top melodramatic characters and plot progressions (including Tomine going kind of …blind through the stress …of drinking wine…?) and lots of good old fashioned will they wont they – oh for god sake they’d better – awkward slow build friend turn to love type stuff.

The plot starts with Kanzaki’s father dying and leaving a huge wine collection up for grabs to his two benefactors. The first being Kanzaki, the second being a wine critic called Tomine whom Kanzaki’s father adopted right before he died. These two have to fight it out for the immense collection through a series of tasks to find the so-called ‘drops of god’ all orchestrated by the dead father.

Reluctant at first, Kanzaki takes up the challenge in order to learn the truth about his estranged father, finding even more secrets and new friends along the way.

Now, I assumed quite a lot from the beginning about who Tomine was, and it is kind of obvious. But really it doesn’t matter how and when you cotton on to all the secrets, it is more fun to get carried along with Kamenashi and Naka and their character’s quirky friendship.

The best, or the worst, thing about this drama is the cheesy phrases and excruciatingly painful description of wine with all the relevant pretentious words and devotion to a f*cking drink. It really does make me want to drink wine though – even though I can’t stand the way people talk about it.

It is only a short drama really, running at 9 full length episodes, responsible for Kamenashi’s constant prattling on about wine throughout Cartoon KAT-TUN when he was filming Kami no Shizuku. I can see why, it did have a lot of nice appreciation for sentimental attachments – not just stuff wine buff lingo.

If Naka Riisa had not been in this drama there would have been no light relief from all the melodrama and epic theatrical performance made of the simple act of sipping a bit of wine. It was laughable in places, but would have been more so if there hadn’t been the real humour coming from Naka Riisa and her dorky character Shinohara. She absolutely made this series for me. I literally couldn’t have bared it – born it – uh, wouldn’t have been able to bare it without her.

It is worth watching if you’re a Kame fan on the fact that he is so pretty – though 1 pound gospel is still my favourite type of role for him (as brilliant as his boy love pouty moody monster style is in Youkai Ningen Bem at the moment) I just prefer him when he has comical characters.

But he does slut around in a suit *ahem* sorry – strut around in a suit for the whole show, and doesn’t crack a smile for a good long while, so many fans of Kame’s slut face – I mean strut face – will be happy.

Hmmm, I think it is actually way better than I’ve made it sound, I’ve kinda not done my job with this one have I? Well, I liked it; I don’t care if you do. And I watched it not that long after it aired which was too bloody long ago now to remember enough of the story to give an accurate review. Pointless much?

promo poster:

 ~

gokusen ごくせん [series] [movie]

duuuh duh nuh nuuuuh! dun dun duh  da duuuuh!
(that was yankumi turning up in your smokey warehouse to beat you down!)

where on earth do i start... how do i review the almighty gok? there is no way to not love gokusen. even if you dont like it you actually do you just dont realise it. this has the potential to be the longest review with the most pictures im not even gonna bother putting all the main characters names in it would take me forever. look it up on dramawiki. 

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gokusen

ok, we first meet yankumi on her very very first teaching job. she is heir to a yakuza gang but wanted to be a teacher so off she went. hiding her yakuzaryness from eveyone was a little bit hard as she was put in charge of the rowdiest bunch of delinquent yankiis ever seen this side of the second series. kekeke

sawada (matsumoto jun) leads the group he's all moody ass and pouty (though its hard not to pout with that mouth youre never sure what's acting and what's just his face) also featuring in the main group are fantastic actors oguri shun and narimiya hiroki.

one by one the class comes to love yankumi as she sticks her nose (and fists) into their fights and disasterious attempts to stay in school her job becomes to just get them all to graduate without dying or getting expelled first.

yankumi storms into the abandoned warehouses (that apparantly japan has millions of) to save the beaten sh*tless boys when theyre in trouble she beats up any thugs that even sneeze near the tv program and all the guys come to kinda know she's a bit special.

the second series is exactly the same format just a new class. this time with kamenashi kazuya from kat-tun and his bandmate bakanishi jingrish sama akanishi jin. its got a great cast this time round too. the stories are exactly the same - but you just dont care!

they always get mixed up in stuff they shouldnt, nearly get expelled, all hell breaks loose every five minutes and yankumi must lose her job like three times every season.

the third series i have to admit i have a soft spot for. although really its too hard to have a favourite series for me as its all like one big epic movie (i lost a good few weeks just watching series 1 and 2 back to back while waiting for the 3rd one to come out)

this (supposed) final series has miura haruma (samurai high school, bloody monday) and lots of other lovely faces that once again get into the same old sh*t as the other previous classes. but hey - thats what teacher see right? kids go through a lot of the same stuff as their peers. just maybe not some of this sh*t. in reality.

if i say its far fetched, stupid, relentless, repetative, righteous, violent, farsical, unbelievable, corny, predictable, etc etc i may get slapped by the god of brilliant manga adaptation drama but i say it with love! i swear!

its jammed full of moral messages about not being a d*ck and standing up for your friends and all that sorta stuff - but in the nice way japanese tv does it not in the vomit inducing disney type way. yankumi talks the guys down while smacking them in the face. yay!

ok so i should mention yankumi and the other teachers for a minute. she is played by nakama yukie (she really has been in so many things i thought id just put in her dramawiki link http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nakama_Yukie instead of bother to explain who she is if you dont already know her greatness)

the head teacher she butts heads with constantly in each series sawatari is played by namase katsuhisa. his character gets better and better with each series. the other reoccuring teacher is baba played by azuma mikihisa (he has the hots for yankumi from the moment they met but she only has eyes for unattainable prince on a horse type out of her bumbling clumsy league guys) also yankumi's yakuza family feature in all three series' playing a big part in the story lines. all those guys are great. and also bumbling clumsy idiots.

ok, so on to the movie.

this was supposed to finish off the lot. but im still hoping they do a final series and bring back sawada from the very first series to marry yankumi - lots of gok fans really wish for this.

the movie features a new class and also many of the guys from the third series as main characters in the film. it also has countless short appearances from past characters from all of the series'. (even nakamura yuichi is in there - yes i noticed that one you little scamp! - he was in series 2 if you didnt notice him)

                                                                    there he is ^

and like the three previous series kuma (waki tomohiro) is also around to be generally great and smiley. i really like that he comes back each time we get a new gok.

the best thing about this film? well along side yankumi who should come to work in this school but kamenashi kazuya! i mean his character from series two. aish he couldnt have been more cool. that jacket and the trousers tucked into his boots (^_^) the ever moody pout and quiet mumbling sarcastic remarks and getting beaten up all over again! just like old times right?

for me it works so well as i feel that out of all the students  he got to know yankumi the most somehow. having him there to remind her of what an idiot she is is just genius.

and for the hardcore fans of the drama (and there are almost as many as fans of the manga) we have gokathons where we just watch it all over again over a short period of time and walk around for the few weeks afterwards picking fights with randomers in the street who looked like they might shake us down for small change or pick on our comrade

but we dont back down from any fights do we?!

for this is the blood, sweat and tears of youth!

its also called psychosis caused by the over exposure to gokusen righteous violence.

it doesnt help when you have yankumi's big entrance theme as your ringtone.

if it goes off when you walk into a room... minutes later you realise youve just trashed the place by throwing everyone around and beaten the living sh*t out of them with steel poles that just happened to be laying there all around you.

and god forbid you go anywhere near the beach or a park or a long street you'll end up running or fighting or running and fighting. aish it never ends.

yeah thats right. gokusen psychosis.

there was a helpline.

but the 'on hold' music was yankumi's theme.

there were riots.

those dockyard warehouses never fully recovered.

...

kattun gok skit:

becky doing yankumi impressions on cartoon kattun:

i really want a clip of the bit right after when nakamaru does the impression too

its the funniest thing in the universe. aish nakamaru rocks.