And it doesn't show signs of stopping...
I've been on kind of a KimuTaku addiction lately. Yes, I too have finally succumbed completely. Good thing there's so much out there for me to watch!
It seems like KimuTaku has a recurring type of character. In Long Vacation, Engine, Good Luck, Hero, Beautiful Life, and Pride he played a young man who has a firm dream for his occupation. He has great talent in that area, but he himself is both not confident of that talent and extremely modest about it. He has a pure heart and cares more about doing what he thinks is right than what people think about him. His talent is not recognized by those around him until the end of the series. He doesn't care about image or politicking, but just relies on his actions to prove himself. He holds everyone else to the same standards, so this can cause friction. Over the course of the series he is transformed by love. (This is the area that I feel Good Luck and Hero were lacking in to make them truly great). He makes sacrifices for his dream and for those he loves and he suffers wrongful abuse from others in silence. He's usually a little hot-headed or closed off from those around him and this leads him to be misunderstood. He makes mistakes because of inexperience, but is not afraid to own up to them and learn from them.
And really, I don't mind at all KimuTaku being typecast in dramas this way because I *really* like this character.
Beautiful Life
I was leery of watching this because I don't like main character death, but I really liked it. KimuTaku played his usual winning character, and it was sad, but good. I definitely recommend it. The wheelchair girl's brother was so hilarious. I love the way KimuTaku moved the girl's wheelchair around with his little stocking feet when they were sitting together. For a hairdresser, KimuTaku's hair was kind of bizzare. I think the brother described him best as "ano chapatsu kami kurukuru bouzu." You know sometimes I get so smitten with KimuTaku's charisma that I forget that objectively he doesn't have a pretty face.
Pride
I just. I LOVED this series. No wonder Queen music is all popular in Japan because of it. There were some *great* uses of English music, lyric-matching, etc. And a lot of random English usage throughout, which wasn't quite as jarring as it sounds.
The plot was well-done I thought. Even though I have no real interest in hockey, it did a the job of a good sports drama in getting me invested in the characters' success. The coach's blindness seemed kind of random and drama-plot-device-ish, though. And can he really still coach *blind*?!
I have mixed feelings about the KimuTaku's (and thus the series's) valorization of "men and women of a previous age," that is to say, traditional values. Of course some of them like chivalry and good sportsmanship and loyalty to friends and teammates and mentors I agree with. But Haru (KimuTaku) showed that Victorian tendency to split the women of the world into two groups: mothers/wives and whores. The drama did try to have the two "women in white" (a la The Natural) say that they weren't really pure, they were just ordinary women. But the pure way they acted and supported their men was at odds with that lip service to feminism. The drama also tried to show that this treatment of women is just because of Haru's personal mother issues, but I still feel that the drama endorsed his views too much.
The quick patter of dialogue was particularly enjoyable. There was adult language, puns, good adult jokes. And happiest of all (for me), the running gay jokes! So true to male sports culture, and male bonding in general.
Also the happy ending is: THEN THEY GET MARRIED AND LIVE IN CANADA. How great of a happy ending is that!!! ::beats down Due South/dorama crossover crackbunnies::
Hero
Highly enjoyable KimuTaku crime series. This is a different type of drama in that the episodes really were serial in nature, so I feel they could have made a lot more episodes than they did, especially when they saw how popular it was. But apparently a movie's coming out soon! Yay!
And as much as I *love* Kuryu Kohei, since he doesn't have anyone close to him ever, we don't really get to see his inner thoughts and emotions. And that to me would make him a better character. But it's true that his character really works in these kind of externally focused serial crime cases. If there's no character development, you can always have him as an archetypal kind of superhero character, investigating any kind of crime anywhere.
Hero Special
Really nice. Good job. (Wow people get old in 5 years.)
This special has a case that's interesting and compelling enough to hold my interest, presented with the series's mix of humor and drama.
And then a very satisfying ending with the return of the old characters. (I must say I appreciate their few seconds of humor more than most of the attempts made by the non-Tsutsumi inaka coworkers. Ah, nostalgia...)
Tsutsumi Shinichi and KimuTaku had some... really awesome *tension* in Good Luck, but in this special they just gay each other *off the screen*, especially Tsutsumi's character. (I've got to watch more of his work. He did a great job here.)
Also, my *God* KimuTaku's hair was pretty. Did you see his hair? Jesus Christ. I still think I have to choose Love Generation (short hair) for favorite KimuTaku hair (not a mullet yay!), but this is a CLOSE SECOND.
I uploaded this to crunchyroll, for I am a benevolent pirate.
Love Generation
I adore how much of a pervert KimuTaku is in this. He's so cute with his ero mags! Why does his gf make him throw them away!
What I don't adore is how much he gets shit on in this series. I mean, I know we as the audience are supposed to feel sympathy for his character, and that's how we get invested in him, and okay, for like the first three episodes or so, I'm willing. But it just doesn't get better! Especially at work, he can't do anything right. It's so painful and embarrassing to watch.
KimuTaku wasn't quite his usual character here. He is definitely transformed by love, but he doesn't really have a big dream or special talent and he does care what people think. He makes a lot more compromises than his characters usually do, and it seems more like a realistic depiction of an adult (salaryman) in the working world. In other words, depressing!
The romance is pretty skillfully done. I felt sympathy for both the characters, their fighting and cuddling were both cute, and the way they kept them apart was believable enough. I wish they had let KimuTaku just cry once considering all the emotional crap he was going through. What really came through to me was how incredibly important timing is in relationships.
Lastly, FAVORITE KIMUTAKU HAIR EVER.
Sora kara furu ichioku no hoshi
This was a REALLY good series. Like objectively good, not "I like the pretty angsty people kissing!" good. But luckily, this series also has pretty angsty people kissing! KimuTaku is such a player here. It's SO refreshing to see him act against type, as a creepy ambiguous villain. The plot twists are fairly obvious (especially to the experienced drama watcher), but that doesn't make the mechanics of how they play out any less compelling. Highly recommended.
Suekko Chounan, Ane Sannin
I followed Okada Junichi to this series, and it's just so *pleasant* to watch. It's such a relief from all the Sturm und Drang of other dramas. Like most other drama characters WISH their only problems were domestic arrangements. ::points above:: And Okada's character and his wife are just SO CUTE. The whole family is cute. Hee.
It's like finally getting to enjoy the happy ending of most other dramas that end with the main characters just getting together. This drama starts with marriage and then explores the adorably banal problems of integrating the new wife into the family.
I *am* kind of wondering why the wife appears to have no family of her own at all. Even at the wedding, they didn't mention her parents. Kind of odd.
Devil Beside You
Another Taiwanese drama based on a shojo manga, and another brother/sister drama! I think maybe reading the manga is a better choice because the acting in this was pretty bad but the story and characters were decent. I won't download this but it was fun to kind of fast-forward watch. There was lots of kissing, which is always a PLUS.
Strawberry on the Shortcake
Oh, *Takky*. I really wish you could act better. This drama was engaging and I watched all of it, but...
The brother/sister thing is usually a romance plot I enjoy, but toward the end both of them got kind of creepy. And I don't really buy the "revelation" that all the time she was stalking Senpai from afar she was really just faking being ill so that Takky could dote on her because she realized she loved Takky. That whole hurt/comfort thing both of them had going on freaked me out. I did enjoy the emotional closeness they shared throughout much of the series. And I liked Takky's Superman transformation and the discussion of fake selves. The whole strawberry on the shortcake psychological test was interesting, but I'm not sure of the point other than "there are different kinds of people in the world." The show didn't even make a clear statement on whether the eat-first people and the eat-last people should stick to their own kind romantically or not.
But Senpai was really what got me hooked on this series. His affair with the teacher was really well-done and his romance with the sister was good too.
The ending just did not satisfy me at all. "Devil Beside You" *started* with the brother and sister getting together, and this series ends with it. The little tacked-on "yay we're going on a date a year later!" failed to give any kind of information about how they actually live. I think the reactions of those around them to the fact of their dating and the problems they would face would be the most interesting part of their relationship from a dramatic perspective. But we don't get to see any of that. Are they keeping their relationship a secret??
Also Senpai and next-door girl are in America together and apparently together romantically. WTF?! If Senpai hadn't had the teacher first in his heart I might buy his relationship with next-door girl, but the last time we see them they're talking about how adults say it's best to not marry the one you love the most, because that way you'll have a more stable life. And next-door girl is all OMG NO EW, even if broken-hearted Senpai seems kind of amenable to the suggestion. So how did her feelings do such an about-face? She's satisfied with being second in his heart?
But the thing that bothered me the most is how they just let pregnant Sensei (who was making *no* sense in her self-denial I swear--how would her going to America with Senpai impede his future?!) go off to the inaka forever and not let Senpai know she was pregnant. And the fact that Senpai is with next-door girl means that next-door girl (the only one who knew) never told Senpai about Sensei's pregnancy, because you can be sure that he would drop everything to go find pregnant Sensei and be with her. The loose end of dramatic irony pissed me off, and the fact that I thought Senpai should be with the one he loves and who loves him but the writers and Sensei's self-sacrificing BS didn't let him pissed me off too.
One thing this drama *did* do for me was to get ABBA stuck in my head all the freaking time. But mostly in a good way!
Stand Up
HILARIOUS. It's funny and kind of titillating to see all these characters obsessing about sex. But luckily it never becomes sleezy or too embarrassing. It's also really sweet sometimes. The humor almost always works, which is admirable, especially with such a young cast. Nino does a good job acting, a very different kind of acting than he did in Ao no Honoo. Oguri Shun is GREAT, as is to be expected. Yamapi is only mediocre with his acting here, but his adorableness makes up for it. The other guy is decent, with good exaggerated facial expressions (and pretty jewelry yay!)
Mukodono (original)
Very sweet and funny. Right now I'm watching Mukodono, Hakusen Nagashi, and Stand Up at the same time, and it's amusing to switch between sullenteen!Nagase and insanerockstar!Nagase. And the manager in this is the main character's father in Stand Up. I'm embarrassed that it took me like 4 episodes to notice.
The main character sometimes goes a little over the top, though that's part of his charm. Not only acting and expression-wise, but just in terms of sheer vocal *volume* I sometimes wince at his character's antics.
This series is kind of like its main character. It's dorky and ridiculous pretending to be cool, but before you know it it sneaks into your heart and you find yourself smiling.
Hakusen Nagashi
So far this reminds me a lot of Tatta Hitotsu no Koi. Right down to the welding. Hot lower class boys must weld! I don't really like the female lead however, or feel that she deserves or suits the male lead. But there are only 3 episodes available so far, so maybe that will change.
Freeze
Korean vampires in love!
It's that same romance plot of the older closed-off guy who isn't interested and the younger genki, persistent girl who loves him.
At first this really reminded me of Forever Knight. Except the Janette was not as awesome as Janette, and the Natalie was sooo much cooler than Natalie. I did like the main vampire dude a lot. At first he was whining about wanting to die like Nick Knight. But once he decided to live, it was SO CUTE when he decided to try to be nice, but had no idea how.
What I liked most about this series was the bleak atmosphere. The girl brought comedy, and sometimes it worked more than others, but I just really liked how... real the world of this drama felt on the whole, vampire stuff aside.
Also, I think this drama is a first for me in having:
1. An explicitly, out gay person
2. A gay person treated as a normal person, not a joke or a caricature
3. A scene quietly deriding those people who don't treat gay people like normal people
This really surprised me, because Korean dramas strike me as very conservative. So yay.
I was discussing with paranoid_ninja which kind of vampire I'd like to be, and I think these guys have got it pretty made. Can't die except by fire, don't age, don't seem to have a big population or any vampire social rules, need human blood every few days, none of the restrictions of classical vampire lore (except reproduction I think), but none of the powers either except some extra strength. Yeah, I could do that.
Sweet 18
*Another* Korean drama with the older, closed off man and the younger persistent girl. I stopped watching after the first 5 eps.
It is definitely REALLY funny sometimes. It's sometimes too embarrassing for me, but I laugh in spite of myself. But the leads have no charisma, no sympathy, and no hotness individually or together. I just wasn't interested in their problems.