Bad Boys J [series]

Studiply long cast list for a stupidly stupid drama. Late night budget drama time! Someone tell Japan that the time 25:20 doesnt exist!! 

Made for those special times after midnight that dont exist anywhere else in the world other than on Japanese TV like 26:47 and 25:20 (the latter of which just happens to be the showing time of this idiot drama), 

this show is the epitome of late night budget yankii stupids that frequent my TV screen at ungodly hours when I should be sleeping - When I'm living in Japan next year I will be doing this real time. 

Real 20 stupid hundred hours and 36 minutes past the hour o clock and a half nano second past the minute. 

For some reason just those sentences above will not justify. F*cking blog spot formatting. So stupid.

So, I know I tend to rant about how terrible these dramas are and that I still watch them any way even though I can feel my life ebbing away every second past the 26th hour that I continue to watch... but... I am going to do it again.  

Let's get the ridiculously long cast list out of the way first shall we? Before I start slating them all for the terrible joy they bring me in their awful acting choices. 

Gokurakuchou 

Nakajima Kento - Kiriki Tsukasa 

Iwamoto Hikaru - Kawanaka Yoji 

Fukasawa Tatsuya - Iwami Eiji 

Watanabe Shota - Nakamura Hisao 

BEAST

Nikaido Takashi - Danno Hidenori 

Morita Myuto - Takama Kazutoshi 

Morohoshi Shoki - Harada Kazunari 

Sakurai Reika - Miyashita Mariya 

Takayama Kazumi - Momose Haruka 

Wakatsuki Yumi - Nitta Mio 

Nojo Ami - Karatsu Rina 

Yagami Ren - Sakuragi Yusuke 

Nights 

Hashimoto Ryosuke - Hiro 

Yasui Kentaro - Nakagawa Kenjiro 

Hagiya Keigo - Funamoto Jun 

Shimekake Ryuya - Kenjou Juri 

Akimoto Manatsu - Kamijo Mariko 

Ito Marika - Mikami Miyu 

Ito Nene - Sakuma Mina 

Others 

Itano Tomomi - Nakai Kaori 

Triendl Reina - Sato Erika 

The cast consists of members of Sezy Zone (I shudder every time I say that name -THEY ARE CHILDREN!!), Snow Man, Kis-My-Ft2, PureBOYS, A.B.C.-Z, and AKB48 - but I couldnt tell you who was who from what band at all. Its full of everyone from everything but I dont know them because theyre all 12 years old. 

Gone are the days where I'm close enough to the age of the popular people in these shows that I can relate. 

These baby faces having punch ups and trying to look like tough ass yankii, hosts, and yakuza wife wanna be weirdo gyarus ...was just laughable to me because I'm so stupidly old. And the distance is just too big now, I see these kids as kids... Its a real shame.

Gokusen was perfect for me. Most of them were played by people who had left high school no later than me in real life; I love the way Narimiya Hiroki could probably have played a high school student right up into his 40's and no-one would really care, but now these little scraps have come along there is a new class in session - none of my old favourites can ever go back. 

So this time its a team of yankii verses a team of hosts with super fighting skills (supposedly) wanting to be top of the town and having many a fight to get there. 

There is always some melodramatic backstabbing, changing sides, and not to mention past friendships coming to the surface to cause unwanted feels. Someone is always pulling the strings behind the scenes somewhere, the groups fight each other mindlessly then get a clue and knock off their leader, then realise theyve been tricked by a member who really wanted the top spot - oh I could write these premises in my sleep. 

Yes its all trite and over done but it never gets old somehow. I always enjoy these stupid school age dramas. 

Its all about the morals, and the feels, and the good guy not wanting to fight but being unwillingly in charge of everyone and ... yes.. even though he is a tiny tiny child in a leather jacket and purple eye shadow bruises on his lip... he's actually quite good. 

I really warmed to him (it would help me a lot if his band wasnt called sexy zone - it really would) and his acting style is one that finds its way through this poorly directed (although not too bad considering the budget) cheapo show. 

Actually there were a few guys that really became - i dont want to say believable but - at least interesting. I think there is potential here for some good actors to emerge. 

And there were definitely some fantastically funny stupid moments that remind me why I watch this ridiculous stuff.

It should be more embarrassing watching this and liking it. But I have no shame it would seem. It was no Gokusen but it was a good time filler. I started to really get behind some of the characters and willed them to have a Holyland style all out stamina punching fest, which they did, but the fighting isnt quite up to the same level. Nothing could touch Holyland for me though, we all know how much I adore that drama.

This show did have a few similar themes and the fact that the main guy didnt want to fight and just wanted to be a good guy was not insipid as it might have been in a higher budget drama. 

For some reason I think those kinds of characters work best in these cheap late night shows. Maybe because you're so tired when you watch it your gauge is completely off. 

I cant remember much of the details now, it was a fair while ago when I watched, but I do remember some great twists of new characters coming in to throw everything out of order.

And I did like almost all of the characters apart from this guy without a top lip from the end. 

Well he was ok but just a bit too f*cking crazy eyed and no top lipped in the facial expression department. Some serious mood lighting and anti gravity camera angles following him everywhere. His story was good though. 

I'd have loved this so much if I had watched when I was younger, at school this would have been my favourite thing in the world maybe. Its all the lame ass fighting, terrible over the top dialogue, and bad make up bruises you would expect from this kind of drama, but the story is not too bad. Just completely over the top - exactly how you would want it. 

And as this is a complete rip off of crows zero it comes ready with a crows style end fight where everyone is all matched up equally with the equivalent bad guy so that the top of the good guys and the top of the bad guys can duel it out. 

Tsukasa manages to befriend all his foes along the way - I guess they all really understood the phrase 'if you cant beat them join them' because by then end... wel you'll see, but his rabble of dewy eyed minions has grown quite a bit since the first episode. Every badger hair cut toting, shiny shirt wearing, R rolling idiot is won over by that little grinning bastard. 

When all their furrows of worry and super serial serious facing are like him up there ^ who can blame them really.

~

tokyo ghost trip 東京ゴーストトリップ series]

setsuna no kairaku ni yotte houkou u sekai ni baibai
kusuburu jounetsu nimou uso wotsukeyashinai!

you can spend this whole series going oo thats thingy from something and ooo thats him from something else... what was that... ok i'll help you out:

# setsu is played by juri (the prince of tennis movie, a few eps of kabachitare

# sowa is played by yagami ren (godhand teru, one ep each of buzzerbeat,

unubore deka, and gokusen 3)

# kai is played by kiriyama renn (cafe daikanyama, the prince of tennis musical,tadashi ouji no tsukurikata, kamen rider w, boys love2)

then later through the show up pop a few more familiar faces:

# komyo is played by kotani yoshikazu (anego, yuuki, kamen rider agito, boys love 1 and 2, the prince of tennis movie)

(haha my phone just went off playing the theme tune to tokyo ghost trip -

Jonetsu My Soul by surface)

# ryu is played by takiguchi yukihiro (takumi-kun movies, bimbo danshi, tadashi ouji no tsukurikata)

# the reaper is played by shindo gaku (happy boys, guren onna, ah he crops upeverywhere i cant even be bothered)

# then you have baba ryoma (takuki-kun 3) playing isuzu now he looks so different in tokyo ghost trip i wouldnt have recognised him at all if i hadnt looked him up.

# sakamoto naoya and sakamoto kazuya play the sakamoto twins (what a stretch that must have been for them) they were also in fuma no kojiro with shindo gaku.

thats almost everyone, there were loads of cameo parts as there was a different spirit and spirit's family each episode and theyre all from other stuff but i dont have to name em all right?

one i will mention as he stood out for me, (he is so great in everything) the comic genius and fantastic lisping underbite of nasubi (densha otoko, miracle voice, atashinishi no danshi, kamen rider w)

ok thats the cast. phew! that took ages. really its only 13 episodes i swear.

the premis is this:

# three brothers been kicked out of their big old proper house

# they belong to a big old proper family

# they have spirit contacting ghost whispery type powers

# kai is a kind of priest (he calls his robe a battle dress! hahahahah)

# sowa and setsu can walk between realms (as long as theyre together  ...aw)

# all sowa thinks about is meat and setsu

# all setsu thinks about is meat and sowa (heh its almost boy love its so funny)

i realised i have a real thing for kiriyama in jeans and trainers.

they meet ghosty people, they try and fix ghosty people problems, they cant pay their rent or eat proper food, theyre literally chased around by girls, and end up with a house full of extra tagalong family memebers oh and also a tagalong living spirit.

its a bit weird.

i liked it though. it wasnt particularly serious, sowa had me giggling quite a lot, and kiriyama renn does his soft spoken cute smile type thing all the way through so its not a chore to watch.

i liked all the stuff with sowa when you find out what the deal is with that weird flash back setsu has at the beginning of the first ep. i kind of figured it out anyway from kai's watch and the stuff with that living spirit dude that stays with them and why setsu and sowa were verging on boy love, but i did like that arc of the story.

the end was a bit lame but really the whole show is a bit lame so its fine. i liked it anyway. i watched it twice the year i got it whenever that was. its a good time waster and one you could watch happily all in one go.

~