Just finished marathoning Maou: may I please have a shot of Zoloft with my mocha?
Ok first off, let me just say that no, I have not watched Mawang (the Devil) which is the Korean dorama that Maou was based on. From what I heard, that drama was amazing and the jdrama version would simply come up short. Because of that, I decided to watch Maou first to keep myself from making unfair comparisons to the source material.
That being said, I actually sort of loved it. Everything about it was just so dark and full of doom and from the get go, you know that a truly happy ending is just not in the cards for anybody. Of course, when I first started watching it, I had no idea how downhill things would eventually get. I knew that at least one of the leads would most likely end up getting shanked but daaammn....That final scene just killed me.
I adored the opening theme song. It was sinister and surreal, like a hallucinogenic trip into a killer's pursuit of his prey. It had a sort of Death Note feel to it.
I haven't watched many detective-suspense dramas, although there isn't much of a mystery to this one. You know who the culprit is, you know why he is doing it and how he is doing it. The tension and the suspense are in the way he sets up the dominoes and the way he just sits back and watches them all fall, smirking the entire time as these lives begin to unravel. What I sometimes dislike about these sort of dramas are how sometimes its hard to keep track of what's going on or whose stabbing who in the back or why that person is significant. I was actually surprised I could keep up with what was going on. I later explained what I could of the plot to my brother (his interest in it was basically: "Hey, look its the hot chick from Liar Game!") When I finished explaining the convoluted relationships all the characters had with each other, he said: "Well the main character sounds like a jerkass. Call me when he gets shot in the face."
And that's sort of true for many of the characters in Maou, with the exception of the sweet and softspoken Shiori. Nobody is perfect and everybody has some sort of dark secret or ugly personality trait and by the end of the series, they are all called to account for what they have done, either by Naruse's machinations or by the fact that they brought it on themselves by making bad choices. Everyone gets their comeuppance except for that one nerdy guy who goes all stabby and bat guano. I can only hope that after he killed Kasai, he got hit by a car or managed to swallow his knife or something.
My sympathy went out to the two main leads, Serizawa and Naruse, both of whom were admirably portrayed by Ikuta Toma and Ohno Satoshi. Now before I watched Maou, I had nearly no interest in Toma as an actor and had never even really heard of Satoshi (my first impression of him was that he looked sort of baby faced to be a cold blooded killer). But as the show progressed, I found myself rooting for them even though I knew that Maou was in essence a morality play and that they were both pretty much screwed. I went from wanting to smack Naruse for being so smug as he systematically went about ruining Serizawa's life and for being so obsessed, he has become blind to any happiness he might have had to wanting to hug him as he comes to realize how futile his vendetta and how much of his humanity he has lost. You can see in the end how sickened he is by what he's done and I truly felt for him. Yes, he had it coming to him in the end but he was also as much a victim as anyone else.
And Serizawa. Oh Serizawa. I wanted so much for him to get a happy ending which was what made the finale especially devastating for me. Yeah, he made dumb choices as a teenager but it was that single, thoughtless act toward another classmate that would seal his fate and send him down a path of self-torment and obsessive need to atone and prove that he can be a good person despite his upbringing. And he tragically does prove it in the very end when he tries to save Naruse, the man who pretty much ruined his life. Shiori had his number when she says that he would not be the person he is now had it not been for that incident 11 years ago. To see Serizawa trying so hard to atone for what he's done and also getting his self esteem knocked down by his dad nearly every episode just got to me. Jeez, I hated his dad with a passion. I don't think I ever grasped the concept of the Evil Dorama Parent until Maou. Yeah, there was Darth Kaede from HYD and the "I got conned so I'm gonna slaughter my entire family" from Kurosagi, but the father from Maou didn't resort to violence or elaborate schemes to bring down his kid- he only had to constantly remind him what a disgrace he was and to ignore the fact that his sons are human rather than pawns. Everytime he said "I have to protect my family's and therefore my reputation", I would actually say aloud "Why don't you just have a nice, tall glass of STFU instead?"
Seriously, I just wanted to give Serizawa a hug and cookies. And yes, I totally ship Shiori/Serizawa. Detectives who fall for witnesses are totally my kink. The scene where he has gone to her house to confirm that it was the same teddy bear she saw in her vision and when he breaks down right outside of his car in the pouring rain and she comes out and holds an umbrella over him. Or when he goes to the library and tells her what he did while she's on the other side of the bookshelf like a confessional booth. Its understandable why both Serizawa and Naruse are drawn to her; she's their symbol of redemption, innocence, and ideal goodness. The fact that she gets visions only suggests that there is something otherworldly, even divine about her. There's not much of a love triangle (you really have to squint) but there are many looks of yearning and manly shedding of tears. A lot of tears. This is one of the weepiest dramas I have ever watched. Then again, I haven't really watched many doramas. I'm sure that any other Korean drama would be able to put it to shame when it comes to angst.
In conclusion, I will get around to watching Mawang but since its a lot longer compared to the 11 episodes of Maou, I'll probably have to split it up between two weekends. As for Maou, I found it enthralling and will definitely look around for more shows like it.
That being said, I actually sort of loved it. Everything about it was just so dark and full of doom and from the get go, you know that a truly happy ending is just not in the cards for anybody. Of course, when I first started watching it, I had no idea how downhill things would eventually get. I knew that at least one of the leads would most likely end up getting shanked but daaammn....That final scene just killed me.
I adored the opening theme song. It was sinister and surreal, like a hallucinogenic trip into a killer's pursuit of his prey. It had a sort of Death Note feel to it.
I haven't watched many detective-suspense dramas, although there isn't much of a mystery to this one. You know who the culprit is, you know why he is doing it and how he is doing it. The tension and the suspense are in the way he sets up the dominoes and the way he just sits back and watches them all fall, smirking the entire time as these lives begin to unravel. What I sometimes dislike about these sort of dramas are how sometimes its hard to keep track of what's going on or whose stabbing who in the back or why that person is significant. I was actually surprised I could keep up with what was going on. I later explained what I could of the plot to my brother (his interest in it was basically: "Hey, look its the hot chick from Liar Game!") When I finished explaining the convoluted relationships all the characters had with each other, he said: "Well the main character sounds like a jerkass. Call me when he gets shot in the face."
And that's sort of true for many of the characters in Maou, with the exception of the sweet and softspoken Shiori. Nobody is perfect and everybody has some sort of dark secret or ugly personality trait and by the end of the series, they are all called to account for what they have done, either by Naruse's machinations or by the fact that they brought it on themselves by making bad choices. Everyone gets their comeuppance except for that one nerdy guy who goes all stabby and bat guano. I can only hope that after he killed Kasai, he got hit by a car or managed to swallow his knife or something.
My sympathy went out to the two main leads, Serizawa and Naruse, both of whom were admirably portrayed by Ikuta Toma and Ohno Satoshi. Now before I watched Maou, I had nearly no interest in Toma as an actor and had never even really heard of Satoshi (my first impression of him was that he looked sort of baby faced to be a cold blooded killer). But as the show progressed, I found myself rooting for them even though I knew that Maou was in essence a morality play and that they were both pretty much screwed. I went from wanting to smack Naruse for being so smug as he systematically went about ruining Serizawa's life and for being so obsessed, he has become blind to any happiness he might have had to wanting to hug him as he comes to realize how futile his vendetta and how much of his humanity he has lost. You can see in the end how sickened he is by what he's done and I truly felt for him. Yes, he had it coming to him in the end but he was also as much a victim as anyone else.
And Serizawa. Oh Serizawa. I wanted so much for him to get a happy ending which was what made the finale especially devastating for me. Yeah, he made dumb choices as a teenager but it was that single, thoughtless act toward another classmate that would seal his fate and send him down a path of self-torment and obsessive need to atone and prove that he can be a good person despite his upbringing. And he tragically does prove it in the very end when he tries to save Naruse, the man who pretty much ruined his life. Shiori had his number when she says that he would not be the person he is now had it not been for that incident 11 years ago. To see Serizawa trying so hard to atone for what he's done and also getting his self esteem knocked down by his dad nearly every episode just got to me. Jeez, I hated his dad with a passion. I don't think I ever grasped the concept of the Evil Dorama Parent until Maou. Yeah, there was Darth Kaede from HYD and the "I got conned so I'm gonna slaughter my entire family" from Kurosagi, but the father from Maou didn't resort to violence or elaborate schemes to bring down his kid- he only had to constantly remind him what a disgrace he was and to ignore the fact that his sons are human rather than pawns. Everytime he said "I have to protect my family's and therefore my reputation", I would actually say aloud "Why don't you just have a nice, tall glass of STFU instead?"
Seriously, I just wanted to give Serizawa a hug and cookies. And yes, I totally ship Shiori/Serizawa. Detectives who fall for witnesses are totally my kink. The scene where he has gone to her house to confirm that it was the same teddy bear she saw in her vision and when he breaks down right outside of his car in the pouring rain and she comes out and holds an umbrella over him. Or when he goes to the library and tells her what he did while she's on the other side of the bookshelf like a confessional booth. Its understandable why both Serizawa and Naruse are drawn to her; she's their symbol of redemption, innocence, and ideal goodness. The fact that she gets visions only suggests that there is something otherworldly, even divine about her. There's not much of a love triangle (you really have to squint) but there are many looks of yearning and manly shedding of tears. A lot of tears. This is one of the weepiest dramas I have ever watched. Then again, I haven't really watched many doramas. I'm sure that any other Korean drama would be able to put it to shame when it comes to angst.
In conclusion, I will get around to watching Mawang but since its a lot longer compared to the 11 episodes of Maou, I'll probably have to split it up between two weekends. As for Maou, I found it enthralling and will definitely look around for more shows like it.