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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yankii bokou ni kaeru ヤンキー母校に帰る [series]

Yup, this is the one, Ichihara looks like my dog.

Ok so try to put out of your mind all the things you learnt from Gok and tumbling and gachibaka etc. the teachers and delinquents in yankii bokou are inspired by a real situation. The way the teachers pull together to support the students is not like anything we see in the usual school dramas. This is because the school is based on a real school which became the first in Japan to open its gates to drop out students.

After a documentary followed the events of Yoichi high school in Hokkaido for 15 years, TBS decided to make a drama back in 2003 inspired by the feelings and intentions of the people involved. It has the usual themes covered in most school dramas – as you would expect, but the way problems are dealt with, and the honest responses of the students are often moving and inspiring.

I can’t fault it.

Why would I even want to? I forgot throughout the show many times that this was based on real situations, and every time the teachers had meetings to discuss what was best for the students I found myself feeling in awe of the honest intentions they had.

This is by no means a story of one brilliant teacher fighting to save all his or her pupils from the evils of the world and including all the other stiff unyielding teachers in the seemingly insurmountable dilemmas. All these people are fighting for the same cause, all the students want to start over and those intentions are faced head on with belief and hope. This is not something you see in dramas much. The absolute faith that in these kids the good will out when given the opportunity runs at the very front. It is immensely cheesy at times but actually a lot more subtle than other school dramas of similar ilk. It is no gok. There are no fights in warehouses. Come to think of it, no-one is even on the roof at any point through this whole drama. Mind you, it is Hokkaido. It’d be f*cking freezing.

Cast:

Takenouchi Yutaka - Yoshimori sensei

Shinohara Ryoko - Kanai Momoe

Ichige Yoshie - Kanai Sayako

Yo Kimiko - Andou sensei

Aiba Masaki - Yashiki Tetsuji

Harada Yoshio - Iwazaki sensei

Sayaka - Nanae

Kato Natsuki - Akane

Murano Mia - Wakana

Nukumizu Youichi - Nobu

Ujiie Megumi - Chiaki

Nagai Masaru - Kazuto

Ichihara Hayato - Tooru

Ichikawa Yui - Yuuki

Oshinari Shugo - Chiba

Otsuka Chihiro - Sakuta Kumiko

Takase Yukina - Sawada

Ishigaki Yuma - Shimada Tetsuki

Hayami Mokomichi - Hideo

Koike Teppei - Motoya

Emoto Tasuku - Junichi

Ok, so gushing over. I have a lot of respect for this drama and I guess I’ve made that clear enough. Now I MUST mention my favourite poodle Ichihara Hayato. This is the drama I first saw my dog’s human equivalent, and became a little too enamoured with a certain shigedgehog’s voice twin, mainly because he looks like my puppy and has the most awesome speaking voice in the world.

I started this drama almost two years ago now and forgot all about it. On watching something else where Ichihara cropped up it reminded me of when he looked so much like my little puppy in yankii bokou. I spend my time surfing between wanting to stroke his hair and wanting to tell him to pull his god damn trousers up. He must buy his clothes at the giant world emporium in massive land – either that of he fell through a huge rapper’s washing line and got tangled up in his clothes before going to shoot for the drama.

Also, I feel I should again mention ishigaki yuma’s bizarre ability to look totally the wrong age. Or right age. Or whatever.

My head hurts with thinking about how the hell he shrunk so much after gok in 2002 and yankii bokou in 2003, to be mr tiny fighty kamishiro in holyland in 2005. ah, and I should mention Tokuyama Hidenori is in this too, being generally leather jackety and smooth. The class we follow in the drama is flooded with well known faces. Yashiki sensei’s class aswell. – ah that brings me to aiba masaki with his gorgeous hair and ridiculously try-hard character. I like yashiki sensei and kind of wish they had done more with him.

The special... dare I mention the special...

Well, I got to the point where yoshiie cut off his toenail and just couldn’t put up with any more of the over the top yakuza wannabe sh*t. it didn’t feel realistic, well written, or thought-out. I didn’t like the characters – even the likable ones – even the teachers I already liked from before! How the hell did they get it so wrong? I know I shouldn’t comment when I watched like 30mins of the 2 and a half hour long thing, but no matter how much I love kazama shusuke (akihabara@deep) no amount of him or the love for the series that came before this special was going to keep me watching for another two f*cking hours.

The main problem at first I think is that I just can’t find sakurai sho believable as a yankii. Sorry. He looked like an utter d*ck and nothing he said made me understand where he was coming from. The flash backs to him being violent looked sh*t – I just didn’t believe in him. when kazuto got p*ssed of in the series I felt everyone’s intimidated feelings, when tooru shouted and threw stuff I totally felt his stress and frustration. Sakurai sho just looked like he was taking the p*ss in some bad budget spoof. It is a shame, I don’t know what doesn’t gel about it, but matsuda shota (liar game, hana yori dango, tsuki no koibito) and kimura ryo (who I f*cking love, akai ito, nodame cantabile, hana kimi, puzzle, heat island) both very watchable actors – didn’t even make this palatable.

I may attempt it again and update this post. But I will need to be really f*cking bored. I’m hoping that as it is such a long special that lots of stuff happens and it all mixes up in a really interesting way – but everyone annoyed me so much in that first half an hour I just didn’t have the energy to stand it.

I didn’t want to rant about the special, really I should just be praising the main series for being so great. I feel it could have been longer with no drain on the momentum. Whether it was good or not though, just knowing where it all came from is enough to make it a worth while project. I hope it continues to inspire and remind people of the effort some people really are making in the world – it isn’t all just idealised pretty words in dramas.

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anego アネゴ [series]

everyone needs a friend like jin - i mean him - i mean her.  damn it.

anego is a term for an older sister like figure much like anki is for older brother. in this drama the main character noda naoko (shinohara ryoko) fits this title. newbie kurosawa akihiki (akanishi jin) dubs her anego and everyone follows his lead with the nick name as they all see her as the go-to-guy when they have problems.

shinohara (tsuki no koibito, unfair) is her usual standard of wonderfulness she monologues to the camera runs about like a headless chicken and becomes increasingly more neurotic about turning 30 and not being married.

jin you are like a little puppy angel *sqeakles*

akanishi matches shinohara's humour with the same level of sarcasm, dry wit, bumbling mistakes, brilliant glares and dumbfound looks that makes for a really unexpectedly funny and cute drama. 

it reminded me a little of kimi wa petto but i think this is a little lighter and jin just kinda reminds me of a puppy he isnt actually being one.

i like the parts where their real thoughts are being explained in writing on the screen when they are bantering with each other i think they could have done this a little more infact as it worked really well

there are many ups and downs in this drama it all keeps going a bit wrong for everyone no one seems to be in love with the right person and some people just seem to be plain mental. i guess in amongst all the crazy troubled people they know they find accidental comfort in each other and kurosawa becomes the life line to noda that she has become to everyone else

it is a little bit of a will-they-wont-they and a bit of  a will-everyone-stop-going-on-about-being-30-im-not-far-off-damn-it oh, ahem, uh yes well thats how i felt but i guess it wouldnt bug you if your not there yourself

their relationship becomes very interesting and it is not obvious even to them exactly what they mean to each other. as kurosawa starts to have stronger feelings for noda there are many good shots of him just looking at her with longing or sad expressions it does make you want them to end up together even though you think they make great friends in that sort of argumentative soulmate type way.

it has lots of akanishi looking adorably cute, it has lots of shinohara's fantastic comical facial expressions, and all the tension and sweet squealy moments you want from a drama like this. ...and dont you think jin looks really good in a suit?

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