long love letter ロング・ラブレター[series]

not the usual premise for a japanese series

it has been a while since i saw this so forgive any vagueness i might have. the wiki description doesn't really tell you anything or do it justice so i will try to explain what it is about without giving too much away.

looking like an adorable poodle, kubozuka yosuke plays Asami a teacher at a high school, Tokiwa takako plays Misaki a girl who works in her father's flower shop. The two had met a year before and taken a liking to each other but when Asami's phone was stolen after they had met he could no longer contact her.

The pair meet up again at the school when Misaki has to deliver some flowers and as they start to have a bit of an argument the ground opens up and the school disappears into a crater formed by a huge earthquake. If the earth moves even when you argue i guess it is ment to be (^_^)

The people left behind can only see the massive hole, but inside the school the pupils, Asami, and Misaki are still alive but thrown into a different time. The school materialsed on an endless sea of black sand and as they struggle to survive they begin to realise where they are. Finding wreckages of their old city they understand that they have been thrown into a bleak future where the world appeared to be dessimated by human destruction.

A few people left behind hear the echoes of the lost school and are determined to believe that they are still alive somewhere but are helpless to do anything about it. Back at the school the group are concerned with keeping themselves alive with no water or food, and trying to understand their situation. 

It is a really hectic, sad series, lots of people die, it is a hopeless situation after all. it ends with as much unexplained confusion as it begins which is just glorious fun - leaving you totally lost as to how to feel about the whole thing. I love it when japanese tv steps into sci-fi. they really should do it more. it does not end how you think it will, it spirals off into madness but then does offer a unexpected resolution. im not sure that it is really all that happy of an ending - but more of a mixed bag of feelings. like when you wake up from a bad dream, you a relieved to know it was only a dream but the feelings are still there all the same. it was that kind of sense. (and no it wasnt all just a dream)

Yamapi plays one of the class (who i really liked actually) and he is still at his fluffy gold hair stage - always hillarious. Yamada Takoyaki (i should stop calling him that - i forget his name is atcually takayuki sometimes) and Mizukawa Asami are also good. The class stuck in the school is quite large so there are a nice amount of students we get to know thoughout the hardships. And of course, we watch a good fair few of them die. It is not the happiest of dramas. I was actually shocked at some of the characters they picked off. So sad.

Interesting drama though. really quite different to anything else i have seen. Love kubozuka yosuke and will happily watch him in anything. He will always be The King to me. I would totally be in his gang. When i eventually review IWGP im sure it will just be countless pictures of that man's crazy hair. Seaking of which, he totally looks like a poodle in LLL, it is so cute. Between his poodle-boof and Yamapi's gold fluff there is more fuwa fuwa than a boy love film.

 the king

 

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orthros no inu オルトロスの犬 [series]

scarey eyes staring contest round one; tackey vs roro.
the winner is...     - no-one knows. we're all too scared of them to look.

fstarck you shift key, i wont have any capital letters or asterisks then. didnt want them anyway. star sulk star. 

ok i was already crapping myself at the thought of watching nishikido ryo in something else after last friends but really wanted to see orthros. 

takizawa hideaki plays the bad guy and yes he's pretty damn threatening but roro's scarey eyes still sent me reaching for a pillow to hide behind.

ah he's great though. i cant believe how much his face changes when he smiles.

when he is messed up and frantic he looks like he could kill you in a second and he spends most of the series looking just like that because of the

power his character has had to live with his whole life.

aoi (nishikido) can kill with a touch of his hand and a murderous intent. 

this guy is not evil though. he is tortured by his power and the things that have happened with it in the past.

the guy we have to be careful of has the opposite power. 

ryuzaki (takizawa) can heal with a touch and intention but the demand for his 'godlike' power has made him bitter and faithless. we first meet him on a roof top being all rained on and saying some profound stuff while he's staring down into the town below looking all evil and menacing.

both these guys are not really evil or good - they never really knew what to do with their powers, and morality is something that changes with context and circumstance. 

the two men enter into a journey with each other of breaking down their ideas of what is really right and wrong and it ends up exploiting many power hungry people along the way.

i wasnt expecting this series to be so deep, it did get very emotional. the relationship between the two guys was intense at its lightest.

mizukawa asami plays a head strong police detective who becomes entangled in their savage world and has her own ethical code broken down by the events that unfold.

it has a fantastic cast and a really good story line with lots of twists and dramatic turns that push the characters to their limits. 

it has a pretty epic ending and yes yet again, i cried like a complete girl.

both takizawa and nishikido were suitably f*cked up and derranged in their roles in orthros, but all i wanted as an onlooker was for them to find a way to be at peace with everything and each other.

i wasnt sure what it would be like having these two going head to head but they worked well together. their characters were both pretty messed up but in different ways. 

ryuzaki strutted about like he saw no worth in any humans at all, while aoi was desperately trying not to fall into the same bitter and angry state. but with both of them that wasnt all there was to them.

sometimes you really didnt know if there were any sides to take  - it was such a blur of misunderstood and abused morality and everyone involved became lost and desperate. i found it quite gripping. im sure i watched the last 5 episodes back to back.

basically it was pretty heavy. it was kind of like death note in a way, and it has a sort of maou-like - dark history coming back to haunt - element. 

also in the same way maou's story ended up with two guys destroying each other in a mess of confused and desperate emotions, orthros had these two characters manipulating each other to the point of devistation.

i would say orthros has a much less depressing ending though. that is, after the crazy epic bit that you think is the ending.

how great to see tackey be all scarey and loony tunes though. he does the emotionless pychopath thing beautifully and gave such convincing strength and confidence to ryusaki making him a truly intimidating character.

both characters had a lot of underlying stuff going on that was all implied with expressions and mannerisms - as you watch both of them become more unhinged and desperate you just lose track completely of who is calling the shots.

the more ryuzaki puts aoi through the more they seem to switch roles; ryuzaki becoming emotional and aoi becoming darker.

the breakdown of aoi was a nervous one for me. roro, i really need to see you in stuff where you dont scare me. smiles and fuaa fuaa please. you sh*t me up too much dude.

( i wanted to get some more screen shots but my computer hates me

and i couldnt be bothered to fight with it anymore tonight.)

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godhand teru ゴッドハンド輝 [series]

i think what god meant to say...

this series was truly awful and adorably brilliant at the same time. 

i can see what they were aiming for with it but what we ended up with was a little laughable. hey, all the same i thought it was great.

its only 6 episodes so believe me im not complaining - if it had had the budget for 6 series and three movies i would have been spitting chips but it aint meant to be great. it is as it is. cheesey medical miracle drama.


there is this chap, teru, who is the son of a dead medical genius surgeon, in the tragic circumstances of that death 

(flamey plane crash echoey otosan!! otosan!! type sh*t)

the godlike powers of his father were transferred to him.

hiraoka yuta (proposal daisakusen, tatta hitotsu no koi) plays teru as a complete bumbling clumsy oblivious nervous wreck. i love seeing him with that sort of role.

under the extreme sudden pressure of being faced with a patient on the absolute verge of death 

teru pulls out a desperate miracle show down leaving every one around him gobsmacked and bewildered.

what gets me is the weird ass CGI during the operations 

and why does teru have to be naked in space when he goes all miracle genius surgeon psycho on us?

seriously. naked in space. its funny as f*ck.

every one in this series are well respected actors, some of whom i really like - mizukawa asami for example (last friends, orthros no inu, nodame, LLL, god the list goes on...)

ah i suppose its not that bad but i just found it a weird to be so far fetched and it be so straight - usually with things off on cheesey miracle front the rest of the show is more slapstick - but you only get that from teru himself.

look at these guys' serious faces... i get the feeling im supposed to take it seriously you see. but when he is naked in space and doing things like operating on a fetus' heart then plopping it back in the womb to get on with growing and whatever other fetusey things fetuses like to do, i just cant help but laugh at its absurdities.

ah who cares though.

it was still great. worthy of watching for 6 episodes.

but like i say, if it had gone on for a whole series i would have wanted to march over there (to who exactly?) and ask why they gave that crap full running time when kurosagi could have done with a second series and didnt have one.

(im still bitter to be left hanging by kurosagi damn it. and i miss it.

...i think i feel like i was dumped by a sagishi)

~

last friends ラスト・フレンズ [series]

heartbreaking throughout

this drama is not easy to watch, even skipping through to take screen shots brought tears to my eyes. 

nagasawa masami plays michiru a girl suffering at the hands of her abusive boyfriend sosuke (played by nishikido ryo of jpop group news). 

eita and ueno juri pair up again with perfect chemistry making me scream at the tv "for f*ck sake are they ever going to play a couple?!"

(wait for sunao ni narenakute dear girl you will wish you had never said that) 

mizukawa asami and yamazaki shigenori are great supporting roles in this giving a little light relief to a dark setting.

i have to mention the theme tune prisoner of love. i heard this playing once in a japanese restaurant i go to frequently and it instantly conjured up all the memories of last friends.

when that song came in at points through the episodes and in at the end it usually sent tears to my eyes especially towards the end of the series. 

the picture ive posted of the scene where michiru is all beaten up in her best friend's arms was a fine example - the theme tune comes in while michiru is collapsing and starts to sob, eita's character runs out to see the couple in a mess on the floor in his door way, the music swells and i just lose it completely and have to take the dog for yet another walk to calm myself down.

its ryo's scarey eyes and masami's angelic face that orchestrated the crushing feeling in my stomach when i watched last friends.

i could not rush through it, i only watched one episode in a sitting which i dont often do. it was not one i could walk right through.

now, seeing ryo being his usual playful self in footage of news backstage its hard to imagine him be so horrible. Pissy temper or not.

i was actually reluctant to watch him in anything else after last friends because he was so mean that i didnt like him at all. 

but dont worry ryo, orthros no inu won you back into my favour (not that you care - why would you care? surely it means your acting did the job. 

why i am directing this at you, youre not reading this, shut up rat get on with it)

having said all that about him i certainly did feel something for sosuke in terms of pity or sympathy. ryo seemed to be able to force aggression into his character while still looking like a scared little boy.i think i was completely taken in by his acting to be honest. i didnt put a picture of him doing his scarey psycho face here, it is too scarey psycho like. 

ueno juri looks fantastic in last friends. i fell for her completely and thought how great she carries herself as a lesbian and was desperately rooting for her even though i knew it was hopeless.

the same with eita really, and i loved his hair - does he ever brush that mess?  takeru (eita) was such a sweet character and my heart broke for him over and over. you almost love everyone through him because he cares for them all so much.

its hard going, especially if you have been affected by any sort of abuse as it is portrayed with realism. it is just exactly how it happens - no eastenders / hollyoaks over the top crap, you feel her sense of being trapped, you feel helpless alongside her friends. i cried pretty much all the way through.

without spoiling anything i will say i was very pleased with how they ended it - and really wasnt sure how they would wrap things up.

it makes it worth sticking with till the end. i dont make a habbit of watching shows that will depress me  (^ ~ ^) but as sad as i was while watching last friends. it was worth every second of anguish.

it won a whole bunch of awards for good reason. i would recomend it but as a warning to anyone with a heart - it will be broken everytime michiru cries.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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