love shuffle.
You might've heard of this jdrama, where four neighbors get stuck in the elevator, start waxing poetic about their relationship troubles and eventually come to a bizarre conclusion; with the consent of their respective partners, they will do a "love shuffle" and switch partners for one week at a time, dating a new person and getting to know them.
It stars Tamaki Hiroshi, Matsuda Shota and Karina among others and it's a pretty lovely, smooth-going drama with a lot of somewhat philosophical discussions about love and the nature of relationships, as well as comedy and romance, but the last one is rather a given.
I'm enjoying it more than I expected. I guess it's the nature of the storyline that keeps me hooked. I'm a shipper at heart, and at first I was just watching to see what ships this drama would go for; after I figured that much out (or think I did - unless the OTPs I'm rooting for are red herrings), I continued following because I wanted to know if they got together. I just finished episode 7. Episodes 8-9 are subbed so I'll dl them tomorrow. Then only one episode left.
Besides the love business, there's a few pretty intriguing developments thrown into the mix, stuff revealed about people's pasts as you would in a story where four complete strangers suddenly develop a friendship. I'm really worried about where those developments will go and how the drama will end, and whether said ending will make me not like the drama so much.
The drama is by the same person who did Pride, a well-loved jdrama, which I haven't seen so I can't do comparisons. One thing I do wonder about are the semi-deep discussions about relationships, difficulties in them and the meaning of true love, the nature of love etc etc. Maybe something is lost in translation but I tend to get confused during these parts of the drama because there are so many characters in such a complex web of relationships that I can't see the scenes psychologically adding up to something. Well, I can, with some characters. With others it's more difficult - and I'm still not sure whether I'm shipping the right ships!
Would I rec this? I don't know. Some of you might want a drama that decides on pairings early on and sticks with them; the whole point of this drama is to play around with who might and what could be good together (though it looks like most people viewing have settled on the same ships). It's not the most romantic of dramas, nor the funniest, but it's a great watch - I mean, I drop dramas easily and a lot but this one still has me hooked.
I'm pretty sure Yukki/Mei and Airu/Usami are the pairings of choice in the drama. Ojiro/Kairi is where it gets complex, especially based on what I saw of them in episode 7. She likes him .. or does she? Is she just plotting with Dr Kikuta? What the hell is up with Dr Kikuta anyway?
Speaking of Kikuta, god, so tired of the "evil gay" cliché. Oh script writers, at least try to be original. Painting sexual minorities as the creepiest characters in the whole drama is so not cool at all.
Sigh.
But anyway, I really like Airu/Usami and I think I will really like Yukki/Mei if that ends up happening. Mei somewhat annoys me because even though she's an all-around sweet girl she keeps swaying here and there and all over. At least Usami is constant; he wants Mei, throughout, even though he'd be so good with Airu. (Usami/Mei remind me of high school lovers. I can't even see them living together.) Yukki is simply adorable. A guy with child-like determinance and great spirit. Yeah, I really hope he gets together with Mei. She may be unsure about him right now but I think he'd make her happy.
I adore Usami's rants at random things. For such a loser, he can be quite the crowd agitator. It's awesome.
This drama has much random Japanese style comedy that I am not always in love with but usually it works just fine.
Ojiro/Kairi, if it ends up happening, and if Kairi is not simply in it to plot with Dr Kikuta, would be awesome. She's the only girl who can shake him, put him out of his comfort zone. I love that.
Ojiro's photoshoots, by the way, were beautiful. At first I hated how he manipulated to get emotions out of the women but I became more okay with it after seeing him try it with Kairi and seeing how little it worked on her.
God, Karina is gorgeous!
Oh yes, and if you must know, this happens:
But honestly it's not awesome enough to solely watch the drama for. :D
Oh and coincidentally how to know you're REALLY tired; closing Firefox and going to bed thinking you made a livejournal post, then realizing you only wrote it without actually submitting it. Thank god for LJ's automatic saves.