Honey & Clover Live-Action: Episode 1
I've never read the manga, watched the anime series or seen the live-action (LA) movie of this series, but when I heard about the LA drama series coming out, I decided to give it a go because the storyline caught my attention.
Although many of those who are familiar with the series will be very disappointed and angry with the way the LA drama is going so far in terms of pacing and sticking with the original story (or so I've heard), I, being the blissful ignorant person that I am where this is concerned, am in love with it. That's usually the case when you're watching a series for the first time with no prior knowledge and thus have no clue how it's really supposed to go.
Also, for me, anytime something can make me cry is always good in my books, even though it doesn't take much to make me turn on the waterworks xD And I cried about three times during the hour I was watching this, so, yeah, I'm quite in love with it. That, and it was great that Ikuta Toma is a main character. If you've seen the LA drama for Hana-Kimi, where Toma-san also starred in, you'll understand <333 Other than him, I don't think I'm familiar with any of the other actors and actresses in this drama, who are as follows:
Narumi Riko as Hanamoto Hagumi
Ikuta Toma as Takemoto Yuuta
Narimiya Hiroki as Morita Shinobu
Mukai Osamu as Mayama Takumi
Harada Natsuki as Yamada Ayumi
The setting reminds me a lot of the Nodame Cantible LA drama (which also started a new season this month--I really gotta get my hands on that), which the whole art school, future lives with romance and drama rolled into it. I don't know a thing about painting and drawing, unlike the history I know with music where Nodame was concerned, but I'm still very much in awe with everything. Although the love and drama part seems to be picking up quickly (even for me), I hope more time will be put on the character's life where art and their future is concerned and give the series a more realistic feel to it. They're in school for a reason, after all, and love wasn't it. It will help slow down the pace, too. Chiaki from NC took a long time to realize his feelings for Nodame, and was still in denial at the end, but then again, that was his personality as well xP
In any case, I'm looking forward to the rest of this series ^__^