tumbling タンブリング [series]

its basically gokusen with leotards.
im sure it was terrible but i was too distracted by nisshi and fuchi to care...

original tumblers:

yuta - seto koji (atashinchi no danshi, rinne no ame, koizora)

mizusawa - yanagishita tomo (takumi-kun, akai ito)

kaneko - tamoto soran (furuhata chugakusei)

hino - nishijima takahiro (ghost friends, delicious gakuin, ai no mukidashi)

tsuchiya - tomiura satoshi (hana yori dango, taiyo to umi no kyoshitsu)

yankee tumblers:

wataru - yamamoto yusuke (antashinchi no danshi, hana kimi, rinne no ame,)

ryosuke - miura shohei (gokusen, giragira, school, koizora)

nippori - kaku kento (samurai high school, taiyo to umi no kyoshitsu)

kiyama - daito shunsuke (hana kimi, nobuta o produce, rescue, shibatora,

               futatsu no spica) [i call him fuchi so dont get confused]

others:

natsuko (wataru's mum) - otsuka nene (tokyo dogs, saigo no yakusoku)

kashiwagi sensei - akira (hana yori dango, yamagata scream)

mari-chan - okamoto azusa (moyashimon)

akabane (wide jaw skunk hair boy) - isaka tatsuya (water boys)

tashiri shigeo - sato jiro (gokusen 3, densha otoko)

ezaki sensei - kuninaka ryoko (hotaru no hikari)

the main cast is quite large so i thought id get that out the way in one go.

also, i want to point out that this is a totally biassed pointless review. most of my shots seemed to be of nisshi so i had to go and do them again. bear with me and my minor obsession and i will try and explain as much as i can around my fan girl moments.

right, its bad. its really cheesey. its like a gokusen wannabe with jumping and leotards. it completely won me over though.

i couldnt take yamamoto seriously at all doing his joey from friends acting. the way he threw is bag down all the time became funnier and funnier to me the more he did it with those permenantly flared nostrils. and sato koji didnt stop crying throughout the whole program. literally a few minutes break then he was off again. every damn episode.

tomiura satoshi's soft high voice commically lept out against the yankii's grrrrrring, shouting, and yakuza wanna be talk. but i do think he's great. dont get me wrong.

yanagishita plays another flakey gay which made me sigh: ah bless you useless takumi-kun. it was hysterically bad but he does it so well.

daito looked so stunning i squealed fuchi! everytime he came on screen.

seriously, bruises and a split lip really suit some people so much that its

almost a shame when they havent been fighting.

i was just screaming team moody ass hino! through the whole thing even though i had to wait untill the end episode 7

before nisshi cracked a smile! its just cruel.   ひどいよ!

and when nishijima smiles its like the sun coming up, he cant do them small, its like his whole being is made of smile. the contrast was hysterical. (it wasnt meant to be).

absolutely adorable. big squee for nisshi right? yeah you know it.

ah i should probably tell you what its about.

it centers around a gymnastics club basically. a load of yankii sh*t heads (who are really nice guys at heart as they always are) join in and it begins to save the angry nutters one by one in gokusen abandoned warehouse stylee.

wide jaw skunk hair boy ^ wants to f*ck everything up so he does and all the guys change into better people through their own trials and their friend's dilemas.

it has some bizzare camera angles, lots of sitting on the beach at sunset, and, of course, those token abandoned warehouses have perfectly placed steel poles to beat the sh*t out of school boys with as is the way of things.

but seriously people - you get to watch nisshi prancing about on a gym mat -

do you really care what its about?

ah and also fuchi's character goes 'nanas and beats up people quite a lot with scarey eyes and major serious face - which is awesome - and slightly more believable than yamamoto   :p

it was funny that lovely miura shohei basically played the same character that he played in gokusen. but with some leaping about in shiny pink clothes.

it was very funny. sometimes because it was meant to be (baka sato jiro) sometimes because i was just plain laughing at it . (the wataru and ryosuke making friends flash back. god that was bad)

i think it would have made an amazing stage show though. i'd truly love to see it onstage. it is perfect for it i think. im useless. i havnt said anything about it really have i?

its about kids finding somewhere they belong, finding their morals, understanding true friendship... yeah its basically gokusen without yankumi plus jumping with shiny clothes.

one of the things i did notice is how good their bad tumbling was. these guys are all pretty accomplished in leaping about like pros, so doing bad falls and not landing flips properly is quite a skill.

the good tumbling was stunning aswell. from all the teams you see thoughout. i would have like to see more dancing and stuff - thats kinda of why i think it would have made a good stage show. less d*cking about on the beach more shiny clothed jumping beans.

truth be told, i only watched it to see nisshi doing acrobatics and fuchi beating people up, i wasnt expecting award winning tv. so i quite happily squeed (not a real verb) all the way through.

its completely predictable, lame and cheesey. but you will have fun watching it. i did.

massive nisshi smiles all round.

~

akai ito 赤い糸 [series] [movie]

taka-chan-san

the first thing that comes to mind when i think of akai ito, for some reason,
is the theme tune and that first line sore demo ii...
it meant nothing at first but after some way through
those lines coming in would conjour up a little sad feeling
that made me want to watch more.

im so drawn to anything relating to the red string of fate concept,
and that is just what led me to this drama some time ago.

akai ito is not fantastically gripping, or hysterically funny,
in fact i found it quite sad but it is one i think worth watching.



minamisawa nao plays the lead character mei (great nose)
who as a small child met a boy on her birthday once outside a cake shop.
this boy, we soon find out, is back in her life years later and
we wait to see if this means a destined bond between them will flourish.

mizobata junpei plays a-kun, the boy mei met in the past.
but unknown to anyone is the harsh history he has and the trials he still faces at home.

with these two characters everything is pretty serious and melodramarie
(yes im aware i just made up that word) 
and by rights with me and my lack of tolerance for these type of people
they should kind of annoy me
(there'd be no problems if they were just straight up about how they felt when they felt it)
but they dont really bug me that much as its just how teenagers are
and its realistically portrayed in that way i guess.

 

now, because of all the drama with mr and mrs serious-face
we have taka-chan and sara. my favourite characters who give us the qwerky
funny moments akai ito would be too skwirmy to watch without.
is skwirmy a word?

annoyingly enough, the really harsh and upsetting moments later in the drama
come from these two characters aswell - even more so than mei and a-kun for me at least.
so really i guess with akai ito you cant f*cking win, its gonna be sad whichever way you look at it.

i loved taka-chan, played by the geniusly brilliant kimura ryo
who for once is not playing someone crazy gay or even slightly gay.
(i truly truly love him as a gay guy though)
he is the most textured character in this and though he's not being
mr crazy gay he does still get to go nuts - its not pretty but he does it so well.

theres suicide, pregnacy, drugs and abuse.
its not exactly the happiest thing you could choose to watch but
it doesnt completely destroy your soul or anything either.

the whole group of friends are likeable, made up of a supporting cast that are
all familiar faces from other dramas.
to me it feels like it was made years before anything else we've seen them in
but actually it was aired in 2008 so it was after the likes of
seito shokun,   hana kimi,    and nodame etc.
(mizobata)(mizobata, kimura) (kimura)



its frustrating how no-one wants to talk openly and you just know eveything would be solved
if they all just stopped being d*cks about it especially a-kun's mum
but then she is a drug addict - you expect her character to wind you up a little.

its kind of sad and pretty frustrating but its also sweet and emotional.
there are many great moments from sara (sakuraba) especially when she's all
lolita'd up and dancing for the band at the festival and such.



akai ito has a kind of weird story to follow and stretches over quite a long period of time
and having been so long since i watched it i cant really even remember exactly how it ends.

but as with all these strained and perilous red thread relationship journeys it does come to a
rather dramatic head and as usual there are some hugely sad and
regretable moments to endure before any hope of that happy ending.

my favourite point of the journey is somewhere in the middle
before everyone has gone into psycho angry death mode
but after everyone has become close and formed a great bond as a group.



this is a really hard review to round off and end. so i'll leave it rather abruptly here
with taka-chan's lovely psycho p*ssed off face. ...he's still pretty though right? (^_^)




:p





so a little side note about the movie (why this is in the 'movie reviews' as well)
akai ito is also a movie - its not a follow on, it is exactly the same.
its made up of the same footage, its just compressed into a movie.

you dont get the same development of characters so i advise watching the drama
over the movie. you just dont get to love the other people that much
its mainly all about the two leads.

the other characters are worth wanting to get to know during the drama
so dont miss out with the film, i say.
but its still good. i guess i'd have liked it if i hadnt seen the series but we'll never know.

it doesnt tie up all the loose ends like the drama does.
but you would expect that with a film and its limited time frame.

mainly i just want to grow to love taka-chan before he goes nuts
not just think he's a d*ck. cos he aint.
he great. mizuki stoopid. - oh wait thats hana kimi, hang on
team taka-chan-san! *waves flag*
that'll do.