hanawake no yon shimai 華和家の四姉妹 [series]

aside from nigh on giving ruku-chan a heart attack due to shige’s constant nakedness, there are many other things to love about hanawake. Though that is probably the funniest.

Kato Shigeaki (News, Trouble Man) actually rocks my universe. He rules the world. Who new such a weird little hedgehog could be so f*cking great? Well, I actually did know that already but still, having him team up with one of my favourite female actors is great, I’m seeing pouting left right and centre, fantastic hair, and Shigipig buggering about with a camera – all is right with the world.

Hanawake is so melodramatic that I feel like I should watch it at home alone like a desperate housewife while my [non existent] husband is at work while I’m doing the ironing gasping nooooooo! at everything that happens.

And then when dr drake ramoray from days of our lives turns up and falls down a lift shaft we find out somehow ume was his illegitimate child who used to be a boy, takemi built the lift with faulty wiring and goes to jail, and sakurako finds a note from sho who was actually his brother saying that she is actually heiress to his millions but sho has run off with the money... I could go on.

Yes, dr drake ramoray and kato shigeaki seperated at birth. Yup. What. Why are you looking at me like that? Fair comparrison I thought.

Damn it every time I talk about Shigipig I get Shalala tambourine in my head.

I have a clause in my rental contract that says *must not sing or allow singing* - I seriously do have that. It is hard enough to not sing when you are a musician but when you have Shalala tambourine in your head it is like being in the silent library with Matsumoto trying not to laugh at him getting hit in the face with a remote control car.

yes thats right, shocked face.

So, onto the actual show then. It is really sweet and ends well.

Shige plays a total pr*ck for ages which is great, and all four of the sisters are played by people I really like. I have a few other dramas with Mizuki Alisa (Ohitorisama, Oniyomi nikki) who plays Takemi, she always tends to play strong characters it would seem.


I hadn’t seen Kawashima Umika who plays the youngest Ume in anything until we saw an episode of code blue the other day and realised that one of the patients was her – only, very tiny wee young. I really liked her in this, i thought she added a nice dynamic to the bunch, and even though Ume was not like it yet, i think she would grow up to be very much like Takemi in terms of her strong will and ability to march into places and take over when others were being useless.

Kichise Michiko who plays Fujiko the oldest sister, I have seen in lots of things. The only ones that spring to mind right at this second are Liar Game, BOSS, and Bloody monday. She is, as always, a good solid actor, she always manages to convey enough humanity in fairly stiff characters to make you warm to them. Even when you feel you shouldnt.


Another sister, Sakurako, who is Shige’s character’s girlfriend, is played by Kanjiya Shihori who I fell in love with while watching Fuurin Kazan all that time ago, then again in Buzzer Beat with Kitagawa Keiko, Yamapi, and Mizobata Junpei. I actually fully love her. I had to try so hard from taking too many screen shots of her adorable face. She pouts and whinges a lot in this drama, and if it hadnt have been Kanjiya I may not have got to grips with her character at all. She is one of my favourite actors and I really think she pulls out all the incidentals and details that you need to really appreciate a character properly.

So all in all, Hanawake has a cast I can jump about in the air for – I won’t though. I’m likely to send my laptop flying.

Takemi is a great character. She is misjudged and misunderstood by all around her but really she holds the world together like glue. Sakurako is a wet blanket but you can’t help but love her as she is adorable. Though I’m not sure how much of that is the character and how much is my bias for the actor. There is lots of stuff I could pick out to talk about but I’m not sure what would best describe the show in general.

Takemi moves back home to the family house, which causes trouble as the other sisters see her as a demon woman. They all have their own problems and dramas which Takemi systematically becomes involved in. Takemi has her own problems but they stay under the surface even though they are actually pretty troubling.

I think this may be a girlie one. Not because it is sweetness and light but because it is a proper melodrama. That, and Shige walks around half dressed for the entire show, and on the rare occasions when he is clothed he has his trousers tucked into his boots and a camera in his hands *enter swooning girls stage right, enter screaming fan girls stage left, clash centre stage, and fight-oh on!* what could be better than that. But yes, it does make me think it is geared up for a bit of a desperate housewife viewing.

With all the things I have watched this month I am reviewing about half of them, I really cannot be bothered to go through everything I have seen. So I may well keep this review short due to the fact that this is all taking forever. There are still 40 odd shows and countless movies at this point that I have seen that I still haven’t gotten around to reviewing but I do plan to at least go through what I still have on my hard drives by the end of next year. I do wish (but not really) that these new shows would stop coming out or I will never get the backlog done. If only I had started these reviews when I first started watching Asian dramas – though saying that, they would have been p*ss poor reviews though.

I can’t help but watch these new shows even though I have many old ones to get through as well. When I hear that a member of News is in a drama of course I am going to watch it whatever it is. I can’t help that, it is just the way the world now turns.

But thankfully this turned out to be a good drama and totally worth it even if just for Kanjiya and Shige to be paired up.

I do hope Shige acts more, especially since his role in Trouble man was so epically brilliant, and now this. What is with him not being popular so much in Japan? We all f*cking love him over here.

The female characters in this drama were all strong in one way or another and carried the show well. I think they were all likable and I definitely was hoping for a happy end all round. I’m not sure you can say it was a perfect happy end for everyone, but it was well rounded as a drama on the whole, and everything had its rightful place when the final bell tolled. (there was no bell, don’t go expecting one)

Mostly it was a fun drama, just relentlessly melodramatically unnecessary – you know the way no-one ever loves the right person, or someone is always secretly swindling someone out of something, or not being upfront and leaving love un-confessed, having to chose between family or work in life or death situations and it all being some great existential nightmare, talking to your dead mum on the phone… you know how it is.

I’m glad I waited for this to nearly finish airing before I started to watch it, I didn’t like waiting for the last episode of Zenkai girl and didn’t want to have to do that with this. It was pretty easy to watch – for some reason made me think of Hotaru No Hikari, I have no idea why. But it made me feel like starting the second season as I still haven’t yet. I went on to finish the last few eps of Kamen Rider Den O and all the dvd extras instead and developed a thing for Ryoutaros Imajin’s voice actor – god will this fan girling ever end? I swear I am making up for the total void of fan girling in my teens.

I’ve had enough of this review. I think that it is obvious I can’t be bothered. I’ve done too many in one go. Damn my internet being down for so long. Damn BT for putting off the appointment for yet another week. Hook me up damn yous!

so beautiful it is unreal.

~

NEWS, PACIFIC tour @ TOKYO DOME 2008

No it isn’t gay pride, although I can see why you might be confused…

News pacific tour, Tokyo dome show, a year after their reuniting as a six member group on the 2006/07 countdown. Demand for tickets for this tour was so high they added in extra dates, this is the first of the two Tokyo dome shows that weren’t originally planned.

Explodes into life with Week on the scaffolding. news looking like the spangliest builders that ever lived or a really new interpretation of rent. (I actually want massu’s yellow tracksuit.)

Lots of running from one end of the stage to the other and jumping up and down - The usual - for the next few songs then up on the scaffolding again for Cinderella boy, the scaffolding by the way is sailing through the audience and has a massive tv screen in it - how cool is that?

Now they are suddenly all blue-pirate-cosplay for kibou. Army combats and electric blue shiny pirate coats… hmm. Ok. How is it that it actually works? Only those guys could pull it off I guess.

This is gonna turn out to be a review of their wardrobe isn’t it? It is the first thing you notice about news no matter what they’re doing. I have to say that their singing during the pacific tour is great, it has brilliant production anyway (overlaying vocals is a great way to still be able to sing live but not sound sh*t) but also they do know how to work a stage. And make a lot of noise. Really a lot.

Up on the scaffolding again for stand up and change the world, and it is moving about all over the place – Tokyo dome is f*cking huuuuuuuuuuuge. Good god it really is massive.

Hard not to have stage presence when you’re dressed like you fell out of a fancy dress shop backwards with pyrotechnics and 30 young Japanese dancing minions in tow.

Yamapi is suddenly all white suited and showing off his version of  'dancing' with his solo Gomen ne, Juliet  and then takes a little scooter platform out through the audience. I only take the p*ss out of his dancing because it makes me cringe so much. Not because it is bad. It isnt bad, i just feel like i should hide when he does it.

But anyway, for his bit here he does all manner of Yamapi things like getting slightly undressed, not looking out of breath at all even though he is thrashing around like he's on heat, and having a fountain erupt around his podium - that is not just an appropriate euphemism - it is very gay stage show types of brilliance in all its glory. Im sure he has had a few fountains errupt around his podium in his life time. *ew serious rei, you d*ck, was there any need?*

Everyone is red for ai no matador (as you would expect) and koyama looks like he’s auditioning to be a table dancer or something (I try to ignore the pervy lyrics but theyre making it every bit  more cringetastic by wriggling around like that) mind you singing about one night stands and passion etc is never as creepy coming from news as, like, if akanishi was there or something. I’d have gone and made coffee I think.

This is the dance bit where you get to take full advantage of tegoshi and massu being actually fantastically good at what they do. One on each scaffolding thing doing devil or angel – then we cut to koyama looking like some weirdo with his aviators on for like 30 seconds then suddenly theyre gone again, and shige and yamapi taking it all very seriously, then roro just being awesome.

The mash up of that and shock me is pretty damn good – it really really f*cking is cracking. But when the camera pans back a bit it does look a bit like the rent stage show again (I giggled when I imagine tegoshi dressed up like mimi singing take me ouuuuut tonight flingin his high heels about)

But there’s not much time to catch your breath and laugh at that cos koyama does his private parts *ahem* I mean -  private hearts solo (still dressed in the shiny red stuff) dancing like your brother’s mate that you never realised was hot until you saw him in a club one night, then just as that ends I die completely as the pace changes drastically for nantoka naru sa because massu actually looks phenomenally adorable and I miss half of the song searching around the floor trying to find heart cos it totally just jumped out of me and threw itself at the tv – when the fuck did koyama get changed?! Ehh? Jeeze. Man, massu can smile for Japan.

Shige gets his Les Paul out (plus a funky crown ??) for his solo happy music. He is one cheesy mother f*cker. No words can explain. really all i can do is attempt screen shots. But he never stays still for more than half a second, it is always hard to get non blurry shots of him.

Then the rest of them come out all white like yamapi was ealier (plus a few feathers and spanglies) for dreams.

Theyre out on the podium scooters and congregate in the middle for hoshi o mezashite – standing on these great f*cking crazy high Eifel tower bits of the floor with a big ass fountain kicking off around them. Genius staging for a song where their choreography is just a bit of odd sign language and nothing else.

Fiesta is fun though they don’t do much even though theyre back on terra firma – I guess they never know when that crazy floor is gonna go sky high on em again. Nande dame is spent floating around the crowd and wandering about with half of arashi (why??  … It looked like they just broke in. someone tell nino to get off the stage and go sit out in the snow)

Sayaendou – silver and shiny. Love this. Truly. And they sounded fully great. (I still think they shouldn’t let anyone but tegomass dance tho) I was impressed with their singing and sayaendou shows it off as it should.

Of course they perform News Nippon. Still silver and shiny. And for the next song shige and massu cant even be bothered to stand up any more. They do bits of songs so they can cram a load together, I forget which ones at this part. They do snow express in full tho. While they are still appropriately silver and shiny.

Yay, then tegomass are up again while the others just sit about watching their two friends cute each other out and send boy love looks to each other. Those two generally always look like they’re singing to each other pretty much all the time. Its even funnier still being silver and shiny.

Randomly everyone is suddenly in crazy ass coats for yamapi’s daite senorita, a song which the whole band clearly adore,

then yamapi and roro do seishin amigo (which kinda works more than with kamenashi but then ryopi have been singing together for an age)

then kanjani’s zukkoke otoko michi these are all chopped up tunes slammed together to fit em all in. I have to say yamapi looks at home dancing to this YMCA reminiscent tune.

(and I don’t know why massu was suddenly on the floor!!!)

Koyashige get their perv on and ryopi do their backing dancer bit (ryo looking way too happy to be singing such stupid lyrics – its all that time in kanjani that’s done it)

and I don’t know why they follow that with tegoshi’s solo ai nante – very slow and soppy, but who cares – shut up, tegoshi’s singing!! It is a gorgeous song and what a voice that guy has. And yep he gets three pics in a row for being so great.

Seriously dont know where that voice comes from. I'm starting to think he may well be the evil genius or devilish god like creature that everyone suspects him to be.

Purple and shiny now for kimi omou yoru, these guys know how to be serious about their clothing. Mabushii. I’m going f*ckin blind from this show though.

Ah, but then roro changes pace with code, which you CANNOT not love. I feel sorry for his throat – I think shige shouldve come and done some back up shouting with him. I always think roro looks most at home with a guitar in his hands. Considering how shagged his voice was by this point he sings beautifully. Makes me sick.

Vibration sees the introduction of the ALMIGHTY checked coats. God I love those. Love them just singing about each other – hang on – singing? That’s a bit strong a word for this tune. But it is a great excuse for those coats. I f*cking want one. I think I want tegoshi’s.

still in the coats for akaku moyuru taiyou, which is in fact an Ibiza anthem – so it doesn’t really go with the wardrobe – but nevermind. Rather those epic masterpieces than whatever Ibiza clubbers wear – beach shorts and vomit?  I definitely saw tegoshi and shige tickling each other and run off giggling – don’t really get that in Ibiza. It would have been more like tego-nyan getting vomited on by some weirdo in a cow costume while shige was passed out on top of him baring the new tattoo on his arse that reads ‘party herd’. I think my image of ibiza clubbing is kinda warped but never mind.

kirameki no Kanata e is still making me want tegoshi’s epic coat – ive kinda stopped listening to the music at this point, I think sparkles (of the tune and the clothing) have hypnotised me. That is actually one of the draw backs to watching news live – you end up so mesmerised you lose track and don’t eat for three days and forget what normal attire is supposed to look like. You get one hell of a sugokku shokku when you go outside for the first time afterwards. Everything looks so f*cking boring.

I see it is almost the end, then koyama comes out to say goodbye looking like he killed a swan prince and stole his identity. Cherish brings the rest of them out and yep, they all have the swan issue as well. Right now, I don’t have neighbours, but I move in a few days, then this will be slightly inappropriate to have at this volume. I’ve just thought of it because oyaji is putting pond weed in the pond right outside my door and can obviously hear this -though he’s used to the weird stuff I like, but what are my neighbours gonna think of me?

There are soooo many fountains in that studio! They all say their thanks and do all the “scream for news” bit while the pyro fountains go huge and that’s your lot.

All in all, it was fairly epic, any fool could see that.

(Mwah ha ha - But not a patch on things to come! If they hadn’t had their first tours as such huge shows they might not have had to resort to elephants and such, later down the line. (^_^) Aish I f*cking love tegomass.)

Bam and that is your lot. Epic and genius amounts of cheese but also skillful and all the other things that make lowly untalented people want to die. Fun fun. It took bloody ages to load all these f*cking shots in one by one. damn it. Still, maybe it was my fault for taking over 45 of the f*cking things. carried away much? Well, yes. but it was impossible not to. Have one more.

~