Yamada-kun and the 7 witches 山田くんと7人の魔女 [series]

Boy on witch on girl on boy action...

Ok before you run away from my tagline, lets do a cast list:

Yamamoto Yusuke - Yamada Ryu
Nishiuchi Mariya - Shiraishi Urara
Triendl Reina - Ito Miyabi
Ide Takuya - Miyamura Toranosuke
Tokuyama Hidenori - Yamazaki Haruma
Ono Ito - Odagiri Nene
Kobayashi Ryoko - Asuka Mikoto
Miyama Karen - Otsuka Karen
Kojima Fujiko - Sarushima Maria
Matsui Airi - Takigawa Noa

What a great cast right? For a cheap drama you cant ask for much more than this awesome list. It got my attention when I saw it and was the key factor in my decision to watch. I'm sure it was the same for many other people.

So hopefully that cast list helps you not run a mile...but the rest of the review might. 

Stick with me here, its another stupid cheap almost yaoi stupid school drama, but its so funny and pointless, I think its worth watching.

This is how I described it to my friend:

Yamamoto Yusuke of Ouran high school host club, and Nishiuchi Mariya of Switch girl, and a whole bunch of others at school with witchy powers that they can use or swap by ...kissing each other. 

And they all do... 

All the time. 

All the boys with the boys, girls with the girls, and of course Yamamoto and Nishiuchi... Constantly.

Oh yeah and they swap bodies...

And kiss each other while in each other's bodies.

I watched because I love both the main actors, but after maybe episode 2 I was starting to wonder what the hell I had stumbled on. 

They have no shame, I wonder if the original manga was really super rude because it feels like maybe it was originally full of yaoi side stories or something, because it feels like they are bubbling under the surface in the drama. 

But I don't have the time in my life to read manga when I barely have time to watch the dramas as it is. My reading level is way to low and it would probably take me an age to get through one book even with dictionaries and Japanese friends in my arsenal. But anyway I heard its the same writer as Yankii kun to Megane chan so it probably was just that weird.

Anyway, tangenting. So yeah I was thinking, this was made 2013, does anyone really think Tokuyama Hidenori looks like a school boy anymore? Come on. I mean, I dont care, I'm happy to see him in anything but... come on. With that voice that sounds like he has been smoking and drinking for at least 10 years... and that look in his eyes that screams yaoi king since 2007...

Kobayashi Ryoko is so gorgeous as always. I would love to see this cast together in a serious drama too, I think we could see some genius. With all that great hair.

Just look at that gorgeous face in the picture below. She is so beautiful. 

I think she and Tokuyama would make fabulous babies ^^ Please make that happen. Ive seen Clone Babies and Bunshin I know they gots the tech to do this sh*t. :p

As if you need a plot for this stupid premise, but whatever, the story is following these two idiots, one a super book smart witch and one a yankii loner with the ability to copy a witch's power. 

They both love each other, but cant admit it, so take the opportunity to kiss each other when and wherever possible when they find out they can swap bodies that way... because they need to do that... for... reasons... of course.

Other witches start to be unearthed and they search for a way through the madness that is their school life, trying to seek out the remaining witches and discover their powers, mainly out of boredom, and all end up tangled in a mess of power struggles an stupidity. It is such a stupid drama. Really stupid. Just so ridiculous. But fun, and watchable. 



Its just Yamamoto's style, this is one of his dramas through and through. I wouldn't be surprised if he never stops making these. Doing his Joey from Friends acting until he dies purely out of the fun of it. 

I'm keeping this short as my laptop is so hot I think its going to explode any second. Go watch this stupid drama if you want to see some endless high school students who are way too old to really be high school students constantly kissing each other. Joys.

~

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!*

~

samurai high school サムライ・ハイスクール [series]

instant samurai hair...

This review should be epic long with many screen shots but I lost the files. This is one of my all time favourite series' though so please don't take this sh*t review as it not be fabulous in every way.

Hysterical laughter was heard coming from my cabin for the few days i spent watching this drama series. The instant i started watching it i was hooked - not expecting anything in particular. miura haruma (gokusen, bloody monday) is just brilliant. i do love watching things where one person gets to play two characters as it really shows off their skill.

Samurai high school is weird and constantly funny. The main character kotaro gets possessed by his anscestor who was a courageous samurai - the polar opposite to his modern day self.

the switching between the two personalities is genuis and wow how good does haruma look with his hair up?!

the main thing that had me in stitches over and over again was the way he walks when he is in samurai mode. fighting with rulers, mops, brooms and whatever else is near to hand, samurai kotaro fights the battles school boy kotaro would never dare.

the series is very sweet with lots of the usual japanese moral stuff that doesnt get shoved down your throat in the same way american tv does it, everyone is just trying to make the best of themselves and their situations. kotaro gives some great speeches that can at times bring a few teary moments to an otherwise constantly silly program.

the music is great in this series and i especially like the end theme tune - for some reason as soon as his voice comes in at the end of every episode it would send both me and my friend into tears - i had to download the tune in the end so i could listen to it and be all nostalgic about the program.

i have to say that kishitani goro as kotaro's father made this series for me. he was a great character anyway but i do love the humour with which kishitani plays him. i especially like the samurai speech between father and son.

the whole mochizuki family were well cast i think and kotaro's group of friends gel perfectly. I especialy like shirota yu (one of the d boys lot) for being such a dork in this. usually cast in less rediculous roles (hana kimi, prince of tennis, heat island) he delivers the simpering mumbling idiot so well that my friend did not regognise him when i showed him a clip of him in another drama.

a quick note on kobayashi - could she look any more adorable? 

Anne is great as she always is too. Goes without saying almost, but Im still going to say it each time.

Mimura is really funny in this - such a different role from medaka which was the only thing i had seen her in. 

So in short, everyone is great, it is super funny and it is one to re-watch and re-watch forever and ever amen.

~

Wangang Midnight 湾岸ミッドナイト[movie]

anyone else notice the akuma z had a million gear changes...

so, i cant seem to stop watching this film. this is mainly because of nakamura yuichi and the fact that (as he drives all the time in this film he is always in profile) i get to have a good long look at his fantastic nose.

(weird of me to even have a favourite but...)

he has my most favourite nose of anyone in the universe.

i spend the entire film like  kyaa kyaa      キャー キャー  

so sorry for the poor review this is bound to be.

despite being constantly distracted by yuichi's lovely face                              i did manage to notice all the other awesome things in the film.

great casting in the actors and the cars. akuma z i tell ya is almost as nice to look at as the guy that drives it. love that car.

but i do wonder if yuichi is ever going to be in a normal role with a normal love interest... lets look at the evidence shall we? and get a little off track...

ive seen him dressed as a girl a few times now,

theres been boy love,

dying girl love, girl that is really a boy love, nerdy mental excitable freak never got a hope in hell love, dead before the chance of confessing love, fiance doesnt even remember who he is love - (travels in time and chibi version of himself saves her and her bro over and over while she is still not remembering who the hell he is for an absolute age)

and now with this film he's in love with a car.              *akira shock!*

but aside from all that...

the movie is basically about a car that seems to enchant and possess its owner who can then drive it at speeds an old car really shouldnt be able to reach. 

this akuma z, as they call it, appears to betray its devoted owner by crashing in some fantastic way, killing them then moving on to the next victim.

      *eeep*

my favourite bit of the movie is quite near the beginning when yuichi's character has found the car in the junk yard and cant stop thinking about it. 

the part where he gets up in the middle of the night to go sit and stare longingly at it is just somehow adorable as well as being a scene that conveys perfectly the kind of effect the car has on certain people.

kobayashi ryoko (maou, samurai high school) is, as she always is, absolutely stunning. she seems to be cropping up more and more in things i watch recently kato kazuki playing the seemingly cold and hard rival was good and i had not seen him play this kind of role before (only really seen the sort of slightly goofy kind in hotaru no hikari).

all the supporting cast were great - lots of comedy from yonehara kosuke and sada masaki. love that hair.

its hard to be objective with this film as for me its all about a certain young actor rolling under his car on a mechanic's trolley, driving really fast and looking all entranced by his gorgeous machine. if i wasnt so distracted by yuichi so much it might be a better review.