Samurai High School - Drama Review
I"m avoiding things again
As per usual.
I should be doing a psychology thesis,
but dramas are just so much more interesting
サムライ・ハイスクール is literally simply Samurai High School. Like, pronounced just like that. Japan has an odd obsession with thinking that everything in English is uber cool and awesome, a thought I can't understand for the life of me. I guess it stems from their inferiority complex with USA, and seeing as USA speaks English...
When I first read the title though, I thought it sounded stupid. Actually, it still sounds stupid. And the plot synopsis made me think it might be one of those underbudget dramas that no one actually cares to watch. But it was on a a normal Johnny-worthy time slot, so.... what ever. I don't regret starting this drama.
Basically, Koutaro was a normal high school student until ONE DAY OUT OF NO WHERE, he gets super duper samurai powers~!
Actually, he finds Japanese history much more interesting than the math class he's failing, so he's made to do an extra report for the math teacher. He finds a library he didn't know existed and opens a book about a young samurai who just so happened to have the same name as him. Then, MAGICALLY, the samurai decides that living in his body would be entertaining, and does so. Later, when Koutaro has to save his half-spanish friend from being tormented into doing bad things, he falls down some stairs and the samurai takes over. The plot focuses on Koutaro trying to figure out why the samurai is possessing him while trying not to let others know because bad things will happen if people find out. The samurai gets him into lots of trouble, seeing as he's from a different era and all.
Drama Wiki: Samurai High School
Miura Haruma gets a lead role in this drama as Mochizuki Koutaro, the 'omnivourous' high school student who doesn't like conflict, and is pretty pathetic as far as being a guy goes. Present-Koutaro is a wimp without a code of morals, where as samurai-Koutaro is set on bushido, has an enormous amount of awesome sword powers, and doesn't have a clue how to speak normally. Present-Koutaro is soft spoken, samurai-Koutaro is loud to state his point. Present-Koutaro avoids conflicts of any kind, not because he doesn't have an opinion, but because it would be too much effort to defend it. Samurai-Koutaro is... well, you get the point. Haru-chan has to play 2 very different characters in 1 role. Somehow his expression is COMPLETELY different with samurai-Koutaro; I'm gunna give this credit to the make-up artist though. His thick eyebrows probably help though =D Overall, I thought he did a good job with the stress of having 2 characters to play simultaniously. It was in this drama that his voice really started hitting home with me: he's got a kind.... I don't know how to explain it, but it's almost like an accent in his voice that sounds really fun. With present-Koutaro, it's more noticeable than with the ridged and strict-with-language samurai-Koutaro. It helped that he had to learn to speak fluently with the scary big words that samurai-Koutaro uses o_O''
Anne plays Koutaro's childhood friend Nakagawa Ai. No seriously, her name is Anne. There's kanji and everything @_@' Playing the typical childhood friend, she's always had tiny feelings for Koutaro, but her excuse is that he was too meek in fights. When Samurai-Koutaro makes his debut, she falls for the wrong Koutaro, making present-Koutaro have to fight with himself for her. Kinda a paradox if you think about it. Or maybe not; my brain isn't working as well as it should be. Her face amused me; I stand by that she's half. Her eyes are kinda static though; it was kinda hard to see the difference between her worried face, her sad face, her angry face, her happy face, ect. That's no fault of acting though, I guess... That being said, I couldn't really see that she liked Koutaro without Kobayashi's egging-on. No further comments.
Nakamura Tsuyoshi is a timid student played by Shirota Yu. Despite his giantness, Tsuyoshi gets bullied into all sorts of things, and has trouble speaking up for himself. This could also be attributed to the fact that Shirotan is half, and thus doesn't look asian. The director seems to have asked him to speak with an accent, so his Japanese sounds really weird. And then it sounds even weirder in the NGs in the special thingy when he goes back to speaking properly xD' I don't think he can speak Spanish anymore, but he knows English still. Tsuyoshi is an extremely loyal companion to Koutaro, and understands him much better than Koutaro gives him credit. I didn't really pay much attention to his character development though, so I have no further comments.
The plotline was a bit choppy near the end, and it was one of those dramas I finished in 2 goes, so I can't say it's too memorable. The reason as to why the samurai is there is put off until the last 2 episodes, and truthfully I STILL don't get it. It still surprised me how entirely different Haru-chan looked every once in a while; I was still being caught be surprised at the end. The ending was overall anti-climatic too; I'm still not sure what happened exactly. There was some character development, mostly centred around Koutaro coming to accept and deal with things he usually avoided. Everyone else evolved in their 'character episodes', and that was the end of them. The plotline itself isn't all that memorable... See, it's so not-memorable, I forgot I'd already said that @_@'
PEASE
Plotline: 6/10 - Let's say it once more: not memorable. However, I seemed to enjoy it at the time. It's good for 1-day finishes xD'
Emotion: 8/10 - Besides squealing at Haru-chan and awwwing at Shirotan, there wasn't much deep emotion to be felt. However, it was a very good comedy; I clearly remember laughing quite hard at present-Koutaro and samurai-Koutaro's completely opposite personalities, and the trouble both of them end up making for present-Koutaro xD
Acting: 9/10 - why so high? Well, Koutaro's split-personality took some effort to preform, I know Shirotan to be a tough kind of guy, so playing such a meek character is impressive, and the teacher-- who I didn't even mention in the actors list-- was AMAZING. Anne lost them points though, for being so stoic.
Script/Writing: 7/10 - it was a good idea, I guess... kinda random though ._.'' I respect that they didn't take it from a manga [for once]. Also, it was easy for someone random to sit down and start watching with me, since the episodes are almost stand-alone until the last 2. And that was nice.
Entertainment: 8/10 - comedies always entertain me. Always. Unless they're stupid, and this was bordering on stupid. BORDERING
Overall: 76%
oooh~ just barely a B xD'
That took me a ridiculous amount of time to finish @_@'
It says I was putting off writing a Psychology thesis, but that seems like forever ago. It's already summer break now xD'
I started my Summer-Drama Download Frenzy, but I haven't actually started any of them. Once I do though, I'll have plenty to do xD'
I've also started a story involving my friend's desire to take over the world, which I SAID I was gunna finish by the time school started but.... dramas... xD'
Amaya out~