Okay.
I really should be doing something else (Dissertation, essay, reading). I'm having a fail at concentrating on anything important week. The only thing I've managed to do for days is wrestle with the University Library journal system (Which doesn't have access to half the articles that might be useful (Read: Make vague oblique reference to in literature review/conclusion to pad out reference list) or half the things that are actually relevant)
Anyways I finished up Go-Onger and Kiva. Watch out for spoilers
Both this years Toku reached a 'meh' point for me. Both started on quite a high, lost their way in the middle and hurtled to a conclusion.
Kiva first:
I think my major problem with this was how I couldn't associate Kiva the rider with Wataru the protagonist. They seemed completely separate. Some of my enjoyment of the series is tied to my ability to believe the character in the suit is the one who we've seen transform into the guy in the suit. In Kiva I felt like they were completely separate and to be honest I felt it was more Koji's acting than Seiji's performance. It didn't help I went off Koji in the middle of the series not in a 'I'm gonna fangirl over someone else for a while way' but a 'Ick he kinda creeps me out now' way. And I was once a Seto fan, I brought his photobook. I don't think it helped I found him annoying in Happy Boys and in Destiny's Play he looked ill during his shirtless scenes. It didn't help in Supernova his attempts to look badass made me laugh.
Kiva's other problems for me lied with the plot, it was badly paced, had unneeded superfluous elements which detracted from the main story, alot was left unexplained and the female cast got badly shafted. The way Mio acted made my internal feminist scream with rage in some scenes whilst the scenes of Otoya falling for Maya made me want to smash my head against a desk, if the arc had been longer, more subtle then I could have been more comfortable with it.
Thats not to say that Kiva didn't have good points (Otoya possessing Wataru, Riki, (struggling a bit here)) but they didn't paper over the flaws enough for me.
Go-onger
Souske annoys me. I'm generally not a red person anyway but I can tolerate them or ignore them in favour of other cast members, plural. The only cast member that actually appealed to me this year was Hiroto, everyone else I either found dullish (Renn, Saki, Miu) or annoying (Souske, Gunpei, Hant) so I often felt bored as only one character was truly of interest for me.
Again this series feels to me like it was badly paced. I didn't feel there was enough focus on the characters either, I like to think I watch this sort of programming more for the characters than the fighting and it felt like there was little to get the teeth into this year. Also I felt that Souske could have been reigned in a little more, saying that makes me think of a quote about Jim Carey I heard a while back 'His [Carey] humour works best when the director reins him in, when given free range to do what he wants Carey often goes a little to far'. Obviously paraphrased I think it was from around the time of Bruce Almighty. Anyways what I'm trying to say is someone should have said to Furuhara 'Step back a bit and let everyone else have their moment'.
The series as a whole was okay, I didn't massively dislike much of it but I didn't massively love much of it either.
Decade and Shikenger
Decade
I'm liking Yuusuke more than Tsukasa at the moment but I tend not to go for the arrogant types anyways. Plus Ryouta Murai was great in Fuma no Kojiro. I seriously want to hug and pet and feed Yuusuke cookies. I hope he gets a photobook soon because I would definitely buy it. The first three episodes were full throttle but the foot is off the gas at the moment, for me anyways I'm hoping its because of my skepticism to Kiva rather than a ominous sign. I'm not too worried about Ryuki world because I haven't completed the series yet but for Kabuto, Faiz, Blade, Agito and Den-O I think I will be more nitpicky because I've finished those series. Hibiki is on my current watch list, after that I may try the Kuuga HK-subs but I may just hope someone picks the project up.
Shikenger
Its lacking the 'wow' factor at this point which I think is a good sign, I'm interested but my hopes aren't big for the series yet and to be fair my favourite series don't wow me straight away, they draw me in. Chiaki, green is the one I'm most interested in so far. I'm also liking Ryunosuke in a 'you fail so much I want to hug you' kinda way. I want to punch Red whilst the girls are kinda meh so far, I rarely find much to be interested about with females characters though.
I'm interested in quite a few dramas this season. Love Shuffle and Zeni Geba don't have hardsubs out yet so I'll focus on Mei-chan no Shitsuji and Voice.
I was initially going to pass on Voice despite Ikuta Toma being in it until I was poking round some message boards and someone was like 'Kagami from Kaubto is in it'. Of course I then couldn't hit the torrent fast enough (and afterwards I was like 'I'm such a sad little tool of a fangirl'). Strangely its for a somewhat similar reason I watched GiraGira (Although Igarashi Shunji also had something to do with that, that guy needs more love, he was Ultraman Moebius, and he has a pretty awesome photobook). Voice isn't really anything I haven't seen before but it's well made and has entertaining characters so I'll probably be sticking with it for now.
I'm basing my decision of supporting Kenta in Mei-chan simply because I own all three of Takeru's photobooks and none of Hiro's. Thats not to say I don't like Hiro, I do but when it comes down to it I'd rather spend my money on Takeru. Although I'm not a fan of Mei I want to see Takeru 'win' more than Hiro.
The problem I cannot get over with this show is I don't like Mei. Can't get on with her at all. Theres something that just makes me go 'no thanks' whenever she continues her blundering through life. It's not too dissimilar to Ashiya in HanaKimi and I loved that. Makino in HanaDan took me a little longer but I got there eventually. In Mei-chan we're halfway done and I'm all 'whatever' about the lead. And whenever Shinobu comes on screen I giggle 'cause he's going to do something wicked (TeeHee!). The supporting cast really do a lot for this drama but the interaction with Mei is often played down or doesn't happen, Rika and Aoyama seem to have been mostly forgotten and most of the others barely get a look in.
My emotional involvement with the series is also lacking, I broke my normal rules and downloaded episode 6 and softsubs, towards the end I was like 'I should be crying a little for Kenta and Mei' but I was all dry-eyed. I felt bad for Kenta because my love for Takeru continues to burn strong but I'm just totally not feeling it and I feel like blaming Mei. And I cried during Innocent Love (Won't spoil but involves confessions and heartbreak) and a whole host of other series during those types of scenes but here I'm all 'Lets give Takeru hugs and pettings and cookies' rather than 'I want them to hug and for her to admit she loves him back' (I saw the ep 7 preview. Takeru was totally hugging her, there is no evidence that she hugs him back yet). I still want Takeru to win though. I think there needs to be some more non-Mei plot development because the whole thing seems centered on her so far and I hope that if the focus broadens it'll help everything balance out.
Shinobu pwns all. Except Takeru.
Anyways I finished up Go-Onger and Kiva. Watch out for spoilers
Both this years Toku reached a 'meh' point for me. Both started on quite a high, lost their way in the middle and hurtled to a conclusion.
Kiva first:
I think my major problem with this was how I couldn't associate Kiva the rider with Wataru the protagonist. They seemed completely separate. Some of my enjoyment of the series is tied to my ability to believe the character in the suit is the one who we've seen transform into the guy in the suit. In Kiva I felt like they were completely separate and to be honest I felt it was more Koji's acting than Seiji's performance. It didn't help I went off Koji in the middle of the series not in a 'I'm gonna fangirl over someone else for a while way' but a 'Ick he kinda creeps me out now' way. And I was once a Seto fan, I brought his photobook. I don't think it helped I found him annoying in Happy Boys and in Destiny's Play he looked ill during his shirtless scenes. It didn't help in Supernova his attempts to look badass made me laugh.
Kiva's other problems for me lied with the plot, it was badly paced, had unneeded superfluous elements which detracted from the main story, alot was left unexplained and the female cast got badly shafted. The way Mio acted made my internal feminist scream with rage in some scenes whilst the scenes of Otoya falling for Maya made me want to smash my head against a desk, if the arc had been longer, more subtle then I could have been more comfortable with it.
Thats not to say that Kiva didn't have good points (Otoya possessing Wataru, Riki, (struggling a bit here)) but they didn't paper over the flaws enough for me.
Go-onger
Souske annoys me. I'm generally not a red person anyway but I can tolerate them or ignore them in favour of other cast members, plural. The only cast member that actually appealed to me this year was Hiroto, everyone else I either found dullish (Renn, Saki, Miu) or annoying (Souske, Gunpei, Hant) so I often felt bored as only one character was truly of interest for me.
Again this series feels to me like it was badly paced. I didn't feel there was enough focus on the characters either, I like to think I watch this sort of programming more for the characters than the fighting and it felt like there was little to get the teeth into this year. Also I felt that Souske could have been reigned in a little more, saying that makes me think of a quote about Jim Carey I heard a while back 'His [Carey] humour works best when the director reins him in, when given free range to do what he wants Carey often goes a little to far'. Obviously paraphrased I think it was from around the time of Bruce Almighty. Anyways what I'm trying to say is someone should have said to Furuhara 'Step back a bit and let everyone else have their moment'.
The series as a whole was okay, I didn't massively dislike much of it but I didn't massively love much of it either.
Decade and Shikenger
Decade
I'm liking Yuusuke more than Tsukasa at the moment but I tend not to go for the arrogant types anyways. Plus Ryouta Murai was great in Fuma no Kojiro. I seriously want to hug and pet and feed Yuusuke cookies. I hope he gets a photobook soon because I would definitely buy it. The first three episodes were full throttle but the foot is off the gas at the moment, for me anyways I'm hoping its because of my skepticism to Kiva rather than a ominous sign. I'm not too worried about Ryuki world because I haven't completed the series yet but for Kabuto, Faiz, Blade, Agito and Den-O I think I will be more nitpicky because I've finished those series. Hibiki is on my current watch list, after that I may try the Kuuga HK-subs but I may just hope someone picks the project up.
Shikenger
Its lacking the 'wow' factor at this point which I think is a good sign, I'm interested but my hopes aren't big for the series yet and to be fair my favourite series don't wow me straight away, they draw me in. Chiaki, green is the one I'm most interested in so far. I'm also liking Ryunosuke in a 'you fail so much I want to hug you' kinda way. I want to punch Red whilst the girls are kinda meh so far, I rarely find much to be interested about with females characters though.
I'm interested in quite a few dramas this season. Love Shuffle and Zeni Geba don't have hardsubs out yet so I'll focus on Mei-chan no Shitsuji and Voice.
I was initially going to pass on Voice despite Ikuta Toma being in it until I was poking round some message boards and someone was like 'Kagami from Kaubto is in it'. Of course I then couldn't hit the torrent fast enough (and afterwards I was like 'I'm such a sad little tool of a fangirl'). Strangely its for a somewhat similar reason I watched GiraGira (Although Igarashi Shunji also had something to do with that, that guy needs more love, he was Ultraman Moebius, and he has a pretty awesome photobook). Voice isn't really anything I haven't seen before but it's well made and has entertaining characters so I'll probably be sticking with it for now.
I'm basing my decision of supporting Kenta in Mei-chan simply because I own all three of Takeru's photobooks and none of Hiro's. Thats not to say I don't like Hiro, I do but when it comes down to it I'd rather spend my money on Takeru. Although I'm not a fan of Mei I want to see Takeru 'win' more than Hiro.
The problem I cannot get over with this show is I don't like Mei. Can't get on with her at all. Theres something that just makes me go 'no thanks' whenever she continues her blundering through life. It's not too dissimilar to Ashiya in HanaKimi and I loved that. Makino in HanaDan took me a little longer but I got there eventually. In Mei-chan we're halfway done and I'm all 'whatever' about the lead. And whenever Shinobu comes on screen I giggle 'cause he's going to do something wicked (TeeHee!). The supporting cast really do a lot for this drama but the interaction with Mei is often played down or doesn't happen, Rika and Aoyama seem to have been mostly forgotten and most of the others barely get a look in.
My emotional involvement with the series is also lacking, I broke my normal rules and downloaded episode 6 and softsubs, towards the end I was like 'I should be crying a little for Kenta and Mei' but I was all dry-eyed. I felt bad for Kenta because my love for Takeru continues to burn strong but I'm just totally not feeling it and I feel like blaming Mei. And I cried during Innocent Love (Won't spoil but involves confessions and heartbreak) and a whole host of other series during those types of scenes but here I'm all 'Lets give Takeru hugs and pettings and cookies' rather than 'I want them to hug and for her to admit she loves him back' (I saw the ep 7 preview. Takeru was totally hugging her, there is no evidence that she hugs him back yet). I still want Takeru to win though. I think there needs to be some more non-Mei plot development because the whole thing seems centered on her so far and I hope that if the focus broadens it'll help everything balance out.
Shinobu pwns all. Except Takeru.