Kasukana kanojo 幽かな彼女 [series]

mata Sato Jiro iru? hahahaaaaaaaaaaa yatta!

Ghosty Anne! I went straight ahead to watch this as soon as I saw the promo poster ^ above. Anne as a ghost in a comedy drama.... after just finishing XXXholic...? Yes please! Surprised (why after all this time) to see Baka Sato Jiro appear as a stupid fast talking crazy ass ghost also. 

Something strange about the new deputy head at a school, twinned with the new arrival of a homeroom teacher who can see ghosts. Anne is cute and sulky and ridiculous, and when Sato Jiro turned up I nearly choked. (^_^)

Putting her head inside the telephone to call Kamiyama (Katori Shingo), getting involved in all the student's problems, disappearing and reappearing in inappropriate moments, wearing ...odd ...clothes ....

So this brings me to the bland as hell Maeda Atsuko. I loved her as a robot in Q10, but she really annoyed me in Yamapi is an undertaker - whatever the hell that drama was really called. I figured out that her emotionless robot was great because she had no expressions, and also in this drama it works because she is a total bitch. It works. Thank god. But seriously walking around in skirts and shorts that are WAY too short for a responsible teacher to wear...

The guy playing opposite her really looks like Shige. He is pretty useless which makes that even more so.... but the real love of mine in this drama is the beautiful Maya Miki (Buzzer beat, Galileo, Shibatora, quiz show 2, zettai kareshi). Kirisawa (Maya) is beautiful, calm and collected. Solves all the problems like the ex-lawyer she is. And there is some secret past.... dun dun dahhhhh!

We mainly follow Akira sensei as he comes to terms with finally realising he should properly face his students and raise and support them well, after becoming cold to them after an unfortunate bullying incident left him scared to intervene in the lives of his students. The ghosts he meets in the new town bring Akira through this journey and they form bizarre cute bonds. As you would expect.

 


I guess its a pretty predictable drama, but it is the cast that keeps it going I guess.Anne in particular is as always a joy to watch. As I wait for each episode to come out I curse watching a drama as it airs. Gah.

Yes. indeed. Maeda agrees.

 

It gets more involved in the students as the drama goes on, obviously - that was stupid to say. 

But with each episode the classmates get closer to each other and form the bonds that help them stand up to adversity and bla bla bla you know the sort. Gokusen stylee.

But don't be blue peter, Its pretty fluffy and lovely dovey in a weird ghost / human way, and slightly less f*cking super weird than XXXholic. Anne wears considerably less colourful clothes... 

I thought I said dont be blue peter! 



Seriously. Bunch of grumps.

Have a picture of Katori Shingo as Monkey instead. He has the best face.

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Q10 キュート [series]

Pafu!

 

It wasn’t a half length series but I still watched it in a day. I couldn’t leave it. I love Sato Takeru (Kamen Rider Den-o, Mr Brain, Princess Princess D, Bloody monday), I’ve accepted that, but I don’t think I fully realised just how different he is in everything. It had been a while since I had seen Kamen rider and watching a few episodes straight after Q10 just brought it home to me what a great actor he is.

I love his comedy eeeehhhhh??!!’s and his little slapstick sugokku shokku moments. And as much as he geniusly falls down and gets pummelled in Kamen rider, in Q10 his comedy is even funnier and a little bit more grown up. There is just something quietly intelligent about his approach to his roles I think, the more I watch him the more I see how great he is.

Gah, enough ureshii squeeing about Sato Takeru.

The female lead Kyuuto is played by Maeda Atsuko (AKB48) and I thought she was brilliant. I think I will even watch this drama again pretty soon. There was something I can’t really explain that I loved about it. I was not impressed with the new Hana Kimi, and couldnt even finish it. But her performance in this was perfect.

Fukai Heita (Sato) finds a robot and accidentally activates her requiring him to give her a name. Seeing the weird barcode/stamp thing on her foot he names her Kyuuto, and from that moment on all manner of difficulties arise as he has to be responsible for her at school and keep her out of trouble with her secret safe.

Heita has to work out whether it was really by chance he was the one to activate her or whether he is meant to be with her. Kyuuto is more and more sure that he is the only one she should be with and it may be more than a default program setting.

I should have learnt from Zettai Kareshi that programs about robots and cyborgs  don’t tend to end completely sweet fluffy fuwa fuwa, but it wasn’t as soul destroyingly sad as that one. Nor did it have a special that served no other purpose than to open up the wounds of the last episode and make you go through it all over again. What a depressing end to such a fun series. Q10 on the other hand seems to offer more acceptable reasons for the outcome and it is a very sweet concept - albeit a little potentially paradoxical.

Who else have we got in this series? Ah yes, Kaku Kento (tumbling, samurai high school, young blackjack) I don’t get to see his face crop up enough. I’m beginning to really rate him, I hope he does more stuff soon, I would love to see him in a lead role – he is so diverse.



And also there is Renbutsu Misako from Zenkai girl – thankfully playing someone who is really likable this time. She plays a girl with red hair, in a rock band, who tries to keep out of school life as much as possible. She becomes friends with Heita’s friend in hospital, Kubo Takehiko (Ikematsu Sosuke) who is a really great character – he pulls the best face when he suddenly realises he has a crush on her after she falls flat on the floor. Their story arc is really sweet.

The little side story between Takahata Mitsuki and Kawai (Takahata Mitsuki) is lovely but unnecessarily unfortunate after how cute it all is, but there is a lot of fate destiny type stuff in this drama so I guess the reasons are in the intentions of conveying that.

There are other familiar faces in the school faculty but as I can’t get on the internet right now I’m not going to do a full cast list.

There is a crazed otaku who is after Kyuuto, a mysterious girl who seems to know too much about Kyuuto and Heita, a great bit of him having to pose like a pop star (ahaha the music video made me laugh so much), Kyuuto saying ‘pafu’ all the time – which got cuter and cuter the more she did it, the whole class screaming an SOS in the school yard for some reason that I didn’t quite understand other than the metaphor that was intended to help the classmate who couldn’t ask for help, and I don’t know what the damn rubix cubes were about.

Ah but the pafu thing was so cute.

promo poster:

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