Tsuki no Koibito 月の恋人 [series]

Yeah yeah yeah you hate the Chinese girl, we know we know.

I know everyone hates this one, everyone hates everything Kimu Taku has done since 2010 onwards but if you don't compare it with before, you might actually like this drama. 

His character is the bastard, not the actor. Just because he is not playing some smooth or funny or quirky likable guy, or love to hateable guy even, you cant blame him for this drama being boring. 

And actually I dont think it is, I think it is mature and slow paced and ...actually a little bit odd, like two dramas in one, but its not what I would call boring. 

I've read so many bad reviews of this show, and heard so many people say they dont like anything of Kimu Taku's work post CHANGE, which I loved too or MR BRAIN which I also adored with all the bananas in my heart. But why does those dramas being so good mean this one is automatically bad?

I don't really care, I'm not going to beat this drama down like everyone else, Im not going to sing high praises either but I liked it at the time, I don't want to be swayed by other people's weird opinions of Lin Chi Ling, and Kitagawa Keiko with her brilliant gyaru bitch whining. 

So many comments from Japanese viewers saying they were annoyed by Ling's broken Japanese language skills... when that was how the character was meant to be like.... I dont really understand how she was annoying but whatever. 

I thought she was a pretty strong character so I can only assume it was due to either racism or just rooting for Shinohara's character to steal her man. 

I cant really outline the plot too well because this was, what, 4 years ago now? Yeah 4 years ago this month in fact. I cant remember all that much but I will scrape together what I can from my withered old memory. 

Whatever way you look at it Hazuki Rensuke is a bastard you don't really want to be around, let a lone work for. Certainly not one you want to fall for. 

He is the president of Regolith, a furnishings company. 

He started off by making his own pieces by hand, building his cared for designs with attention to detail and always thinking of their function and users. 

The warm touch he once had is long gone and he only wishes to increase his market share in the world and expand as much as possible. 

To add to his unlikable traits he ends up finding himself a Chinese trophy wife who he took away from a bad situation and turned into a model - and isn't he oh so proud of himself for doing so. 

She rebels against him as much as she can eventually when he begins to treat her like less than a person, but its a long road out of the box she becomes trapped in. Throw in a transvestite brother in heaps of debt and you have yourself a sh*te situation nipping at your heals. 

I think one of the main reasons viewers did not Xiu Mei is that they didn't realise she was meant to be such a pivotal character as they started watching. She became highly important and not just a side story to Rensuke and Ninomiya's relationship. 

Ninomiya had known him since forever and watched him grow into the unlikable guy we meet at the beginning of this drama. We know she loves him, he is obviously oblivious and uses the friendship to his own ends. She is feisty though and doesn't take is crap like everyone else, well she takes it but she isn't quiet about it. 

We have a whole bunch of interesting characters come in and out... I just looked on drama wiki and it said there were only 8 episodes. I cant believe that. There's no way! So much happens; it really travels through time from one crazy situation and another. It cant be 8 episodes long... Apparently it is though. 

I like his ultimate downfall, but I think the journey to that point is also interesting. He becomes a much more likable person when it has all fallen to pieces ...but still a bit of a moron. 

Shinohara wins the whole show really, I thought at the time how she stole every scene. 

I think if you havent seen it already you should give it a fair chance. Its a great cast and a slightly unusual story, I don't think it deserves the slating it received. If nothing else but for Shinohara's frustrated face. 

I will end with a cast list as the cast was all anyone seemed to care about when this drama aired.

Main cast:

Kimura Takuya - Hazuki Rensuke 

Shinohara Ryoko - Ninomiya Maemi 

Lin Chi Ling - Liu Xiu Mei 

Matsuda Shota - Sai Kazami/Cai Feng Jian 

Kitagawa Keiko - Onuki Yuzuki 

Watanabe Ikkei - Kijihata Togo 

Hamada Gaku - Maehara Tsuguo 

Mikami Kensei - Koizumi Keiichi 

Nishiyama Maki - Eruka 

Mitsushima Hikari - Anzai Rina 

Nakamura Yuri - Kasahara Yuki 

Abe Tsuyoshi - Min 

Nagatsuka Kyozo - Onuki Shogen 

Nukumizu Youichi - Tokita Ikuzo 

Takenaka Naoto - Maruyama Tetsuji 

Kabira Jay - Mineoka Yasuyuki

I'm pretty sure that one set was the same place they shot some of Sailor moon. I noticed once when I was watching Kitagawa Keigo doing cartwheels to kill rubber suity bad guys. 

I like the settings and different areas they shot in for this series. Almost as gorgeous as Shinohara. Nothing quite beats Matsuda Shota's horrible hair style though - oh my god that was bad.

Just watching it back to get some screen shots I remembered the banter between Rensuke and Ninomiya, it was really bickery like siblings, I enjoyed that. It was different to other relationships in dramas I guess because he stayed a po faced moody git until the very end and didn't really change all that much. I still wanted them to end up together though. I think they worked well together but I think maybe people just didn't like Rensuke enough. He is hard to love lets face it. 

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Akumu chan 悪夢ちゃん [series]

oh my gackt. riding off over a rainbow with keiko...

What on earth am I watching?? I just saw Gackt and Kitagawa Keiko ride off over a rainbow on a white flying steed. What the hell have I found here?

I saw Gackt, I obviously had to watch it. But what on earth have I stumbled on?

I had to start writing the first few paragraphs as I watch just to get some of the thoughts down first hand instead of forgetting and writing this after its (bound to be) epic ending.

As we ALL know by now, I have a huge girl crush on Kitagawa Keiko and she is  an awesomely textured character in Akumu-chan. She is all sweetness and light in class but at home she is a rumpled uncaring mess who couldn't give a flying fox about anything or anyone.

She doesn't care about people and - I have to interrupt. Gackt in a polo neck jumper with curly hair just opened the door and me and Keiko had the same facial expression frozen for about 8 seconds.

So, yes. Well anyway, There is a little girl who sees the future in her dreams. 

She says her dreams come from outside. Her grandpa and his assistant (Gackt) have been recording her dreams in video form through some fangled machine and his intentions seem to be a little less than honest due to the evil ass looks he throws everyone out of sight.

Ayami-sensei (Keiko) shows up in the girl's dream, and before they all met the assistant was the prince in Ayami-sensei's dream, 

and when they all finally meet and she gets eaten by a giant red alligator after stabbing her elementary school student with broken glass ...it all spirals out of control.

The little white floating dog is like some dream path weaver. This drama is crazy from start to finish. All these things in her dreams are of course symbols, but all related to things in her past.... we have to watch out for all the clues and piece it all together. Which is quite fun.

Keiko's hair is gorgeous. Her character is great - she is such a bitch and the facial expressions she pulls are fab. As the dream world and reality blend into one an other she becomes more and more animated, twisted and lost in all the versions of herself that she rifles through in order to find out who she really is. Such an unusual show.

Ayami-sensei has some dark secret in her past that made her shut off her heart - hence the 'psychopathic' unfeeling style in which she carries herself.

And her nickname Psycho-sensei which has a great ring to it. ^^ 

As she spends more time with Akumu-chan, and of course the assistant Shiki-sensei twisting things up as much as possible, it all starts to unravel. And MAN does he twist things up. 

...what the hell is that noise? There is a cat in my neighbourhood that sounds like a peacock. 

Little Jacks kitten, Snoops and I stood our ground earlier and fended off the bully cat. We are strong together! Kacchya!





Anyway, back to the drama. 

These kids are great. I don't know where they get these amazing kids from. And not only do they have some genius acting from them, we have some proper creepy glaring from Gackt, and worried faces from Keiko. Two of my favourite things.




It gets to the point where everyone starts to annoy me a little bit in the middle of the series. Everyone is so devious and I just want Akumu-chan to stand up for herself. 

She starts to do that just before it becomes too relelntless, and Ayami-sensei also realises that she has to take some responsibility just when it is most needed - even the nurse steps up and gets on side which I wanted her to do for like, the whole damn series. The timing is pretty good throughout. 

I love that it gets so 'dark side vs light side'. The baddies even have black versions of the dream recording machinery, its all superhero/villain type. 

But you never really know whose side anyone is really on. The dramatic music helps suggest Shiki-sensei is the bad guy though, or when things of a compostable nature may hit a certain spin air cooling device.

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I am talking about.

They are not only fighting tragic potential future happenings, but fighting crime and sporting some great evil glaring eyes under fake smiles and all manner of confusing awesome gorgeous knowing glances. Well, maybe that is just Gackt, but yeah.

So. Many. Screen shots. I cant seem to stop! there are so many things to take shots of. 

I thought I had better stop at like episode 6 or 7 so I didn't put any spoilers in with these images, but its hard to restrain.

The more crazy-Gackt-scientist-evil-eito-super-villain Shiki sensei becomes the more Ayami sensei has to step up and take her own past and everyone's future into her hands. 

The kid that plays Ayami as a child is so cute, she cries - so beware, but my god she is so cute. I think my uterus just had a fit, gave up and ran away.

And don't think I didn't notice Kuma doing a cameo as a hikikomori. Go Kuma! saved the day. He summoned some crazy gang of kamen rider style justice team. Go Kuma!

So, I have so much revision to do before my finals on Saturday, so much kanji to learn... but here I am finishing this whole damn series in two days. Its really good though. Weird as you like. 

Pretty as hell cast, unique story line, crimes of kidnapping, so many people pushed under trains, lots of hazy dreams, baffling speech that lost me completely, lonely children's orphanage memories, even a few evil nuns thrown in for god measure, the Men In Black complete with Tommy Lee, a cute little dream beast dog thing, Gackt as a mad scientist AND a flying prince, and of course Keiko's fabulous beautiful wavy lovely pretty gorgeous hair.

This drama really reminded me of Yokai Ningen Bem. It had a really similar fantasy alongside a harsh reality type feel to it. Without so much weird boy love verging on the edge of every corner. It is making me want to review Bem now. Gad damn it. 

Too much revision to do.

Let's just concentrate on Keiko's lovely hair.

Best ending ever. Absolute bastards. I knew it, I knew it! 


I'm glad I had ice cream for this. 

Daijoubu, kore yume da yo

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bishojo senshi sailor moon 美少女戦士セーラームーン [series]

ok seriously, no seriously, actually for real, it rocks.
i dont know why.  ...and im ashamed. actually no im not, f*ck you guys, its great.



so i tracked down this series because i love kitagawa keiko and i also thought as it is for kids i could watch it with my neice autumn. now everyone seems to have caught the bug.

usagi (played by the fantastic sawai miyuu) i think is who really makes everyone stop and watch when really they would have liked to have kept on walking past the tv and never looked back.

that girl is truly one baka usagi (stupid rabbit) and we love her for it.

ok, the basic premis is there are these five girls who have to take on the burden of their past lives of when they were once inhabitants of the moon. the disaster that befell the earth and the moon princess unfolds slowly and while the girls are fighting off evil in rubber suits called youma, they piece together the puzzle thus awakening their soldier identities.

there is also this absolute muppet tuxedo kamen (tuxedo mask) who has the worst costume and his mask seems to be held on purely by faith (me and autumn laughed a great deal at this and made one out of play dough to see if it would work.    ...it didnt.)

tuxedo kamen (shibue joji) and usagi seem to have a connection that gets increasingly harder to ignore and it causes all maner of problems as the sailor soldiers dont know if he is on the side of good or evil.

usagi - sailor moon
ami - sailor mercury (hama chisaki)
rei - sailor mars (kitagawa keiko squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)
makoto - sailor jupiter (azama myu)
aino minako / sailor venus (komatsu ayaka)
luna - sailor luna (koike rina)
motoki (kikawada masaya)
and his turtle called kamekichi - (not credited)

and also a load of classmates and evil rubber suited youma and a troup of guys made out of crystals that are all the time lorded over by the drag-queen-esque queen beryl (sugimoto aya)

the bad guys are nephrite, jedite (stupidest hair ever), zoisite, and kunzite.

kunzite (pronounced kun-zah-i-toh in jap) has now become a mock swear word for me and autumn as we thought it sounded like one when beryl shouts it          *drops vase on the floor* - oh KUNZITE!

lots of laughs to be had - mainly from usagi being generally mental with the biggest smile in the whole of japan

lots of crazy dun dun duh!! scarey moments

and even quite a few tearful emotional bits too. i have to say that any part that brought tears to my eyes was due to kitagawa being such a brilliant actress even back then. man she was always the one to set me off. it gets pretty tense and epic and sad towards the end.

be prepared for half your favourite characters to get picked off one by one and

just you try and hold off the tears when sailor mars is screaming and crying on the floor.

i liked all the bad guys by the end and still loved the main girls too.

there are some rip roaringly funny moments like rei dressed up as aino minako's kuppi thing. me and autumn must have played those scenes over and over so many times just rolling around on the floor laughing.     *kuppi*

i wasnt expecting much but it gave buckets full. i did a marathon of 20 or so episodes over a day and a half to finish it and yes i did feel like i had gone a little mental after that

ah its so fun though. it has a good story, a will-they wont-they romance, and lots of pants.

the fighting is basically cartwheels and shouting *huh! huh!* as they land next to a rubber suity youma guy. this is all untill they awaken by the way - then they get sh*t hot zappy CGI powers like fire balls and lightening etc.

im quite happy with pants though.

and yes, me and autumn do the sailor moon moves and phrases when we're out walking the dog. you try hearing 月に代わって、お仕置きよ! (Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo - in the name of the moon i punish you) a million  times a week and not saying it in baka usagi voice.

i know they changed a lot for the drama series - no homosexual characters for a start but i dont really have a hang up about changing books for tv etc.

each is an individual piece of art in itself.

though - can i call sailor moon art? i just did that didnt i?

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