Ikemen Desu Ne
This weekend, hanjuuluver came over for an afternoon of cookie baking and ridiculous j-dramas. I'm all caught up on Ouran, but when we checked dramacrazy we realized that there's a remake of the Korean drama You're Beautiful airing right now, so we decided to check it out.
That...may have been a mistake.
Guys, I don't have high standards for dramas. I don't care about plot holes or plausibility or acting ability, just give me some pretty boys and some wacky hijinks and I am set. I loved Princess Princess. I loved RH Plus. And Ikemen Desu Ne seems like it was made for me, since it hits a bunch of my narrative kinks for J-dramas - pretty boy band characters, mistaken identity, a defrosting ice queen hero, and a cute girl cross-dressing. But...oh my god, this is the most infuriating show I have seen in ages. Just thinking about it now is making me want to throw things.
The Premise: Miko is an orphan and a novice nun, about to leave for Rome for two years of study before she takes religious vows. However, one day she is unexpectedly approached by a man who, as it turns out, is the manager of her twin brother, an up and coming pop idol. Mio is about to sign a contract with A.N.Jell, a hugely popular boy band, but there's a problem - he broke his nose in a drunken fight and needs to recover from reconstructive surgery before he can be seen in public. So the manager asks (well, begs) Miko to pose as her brother, just long enough to sign off on his contract so the label doesn't find out he messed up his face. One thing leads to another, and although she doesn't really want to do it initially, by the middle of the first episode Miko commits to spending the next three months pretending to be a boy and sharing a house with her bandmates. They are: Yuki, the little blond one who is dumb as a rock; Shu, the little brown one who is supposed to be the nice guy; and Ren, the lead singer, who really, really does not want another singer in the band. But we'll talk more about him later. At this point, misunderstandings, drama, and romance ensue.
This is by far not an exhaustive list of my problems with this show, but it is my major issues:
1. Okay, so the premise is problematic to start with. I have to admit, I'm not really comfortable with how easily Miko's dreams and ambitions are cast aside in favor of her brother's. She seems really dedicated to the idea of studying in Rome at the beginning of the show, but that's not important, because if she doesn't do this, her brother will never be able to become famous! I think they tried to play it as her being conflicted about her religious calling, or even doing it out of a lack of knowledge of other options (there's a nice scene with the Mother Superior of the convent where she lives), but it still comes across as her goals being trumped by her brother's. Especially since he did this to himself - she's stepping up to stop him having to face the consequences of his stupid actions.
But hey, I've watched dramas with questionable premises before and really liked them - Personal Taste has a Fake Gay plot that I found intermittently distasteful, but the story was fun enough and the characters likeable enough that I put it aside. If only that were the case with Ikemen Desu Ne.
2. It feels like a boy band show put together by people who have never seen a boy band show. Which makes no sense, since it is basically a point by point remake of the original series, but there you are. So far, there aren't any wacky hijinks, aside from one scene in the first episode where the characters get into a water fight. The boys don't hang out together; heck, they don't even talk to each other. Ren and Shu talk to Miko, and Yuki watches them and misunderstands what's going on, and that's it. There isn't even any interesting antagonism - I'd love a show about a label assembled boy band who hated each other. At least they would be interacting with each other, which is more than I can say for A.N.Jell.
3. The Poor Little Orphans subplot in episode 1. I know this is only half an episode, but I'm putting it on here anyway, because it pissed me off that much. Summary: A.N.Jell is supposed to do a charity concert at an orphanage, but the principal refuses because he thinks they are doing it for publicity and don't care about the kids (he is right about this). Miko wants to prove him wrong, so she goes to the orphanage every day to play with the kids. On the last day before the concert, she collapses from exhaustion, but Ren saves the day by going in her place and the concert goes ahead as planned.
Directors? YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. I don't mind even a narmtastic heart-tugging scene in my drama. But when one of your characters really wants to help the orphans and another character refuses, your remaining characters are supposed to side with the good guy and go with her. The bad character is supposed to realize his mistake and join them at the last minute in a change of heart. That is how this plot works. Having Shu and Yuki go, 'meh, orphans, whatever' makes them look like shallow little brats.
4. Shu. Like I said above, Shu is the little brown-haired one and the one I'd categorize as the nice guy. Not the bad boy, not the funny guy, not quite the smart guy, just the nice guy. He plays the bass. He figures out partway through the first episode that Miko is a girl, but promises not to tell anyone, and is just generally nice and supportive - he bandages her hand when she gets hurt, comforts her when her mother dies, and makes her peppermint tea. He has a lot of moments of being genuinely sweet, including a scene where he tells her about acting in a superhero show and shows her the picture of him in his role as a "princess." Unfortunately, these moments are balanced out by lot of other moments where he is a total creepster. I know I'm not the only one who is incredibly, unbelievably sick of nice guy love interests who court the girl without telling her because they are too scared of rejection to make an open move but hope if they just keep hanging around she will spontaneously realize she loves them. Protip: telling your love interest a good place to go for lunch is sweet. Secretly watching her while she eats is not.
5. Ren. Ohhhhh Ren. All of the above problems are...well, they are serious problems, but they wouldn't stop me watching what is otherwise an enjoyable series so far. But the one thing I cannot ignore is Ren. I want to punch Ren in the face. Like, all the time.
The thing is, I can see what kind of character they were going for with Ren. He should be traditional drama hero mk. 1, The Arrogant Distant Guy With Manpain. Someone like, say, Sano in Hama Kimi, or Hino in Tumbling, or Jin Ho in Personal Taste. The guy whose emotional trauma makes him act like a jerk because he's afraid of getting close to people and getting hurt, but who is slowly thawed out by a relationship with the heroine (/other hero). It's pretty standard, and it has its issues, but when it's done right the Jerk With a Heart of Gold is often one of my favorite characters. Ikemen Desu Ne, however, fails at it in two important ways.
First, Ren is. not. likeable. To really work as a character, the Arrogant Distant Guy has to either have his Sweet Emotionally Damaged Guy pretty damn close to the surface, or he has to have some really good character traits to make up for it. The audience has to be able to see through him quickly enough to like him, even if the heroine doesn't. But Ren isn't charming, or funny, or witty. He's just nasty, all the time. He has a perpetual ugly sneer plastered across his face. He makes Miko jump through a ridiculous number of hoops because no one consulted him about adding a fourth member to the band. At the orphanage he throws a tantrum, and also throws a chair across the room. I don't care how obvious his mommy issues are at this point. He's just a completely unpleasant person.
Second, Ren is abusive. After three episodes, that is honestly not hyperbole. He is emotionally and physically abusive to Miko, and it's really awful to watch. He is constantly demeaning and insulting her - not in a cute, funny, UST way but in a mean, angry, vicious way. He tells her she's useless and orders her out of the band because she knocks over a bookcase in his room. She opens up to him about wanting to find her estranged mother, and gives him a ring her brother gave her as a keepsake of their mother, and he pretends to throw it into a pond and makes her spend the entire night knee-deep in water trying to find it (and then lets her believe the next day that he found it, rather than tricking her in the first place). He makes her climb a scaffold after his phone gets lost because he's throwing another tantrum, and gets mad at her when she almost gets badly hurt falling off. He insults her appearance. When he finds out she's a girl (by spying on a conversation with her manager), he grabs her chest, accuses her of being scum, and throws her down to the ground. He controls her behavior with threats to out her to the label. And he manipulates a rival pop singer into not outing her by kissing the singer in public.
He is pretty much a horrible, disgusting excuse for a human being. And he's supposed to be our romantic hero. Right.
So, yeah. I made it through 3 episodes, but I refuse to watch another second of this show.
colourofsaying, who has been watching with me, also has a good post about the show up here.
This entry was originally posted at http://masterofmidgets.dreamwidth.org/252517.html. You can also comment there using OpenID.
That...may have been a mistake.
Guys, I don't have high standards for dramas. I don't care about plot holes or plausibility or acting ability, just give me some pretty boys and some wacky hijinks and I am set. I loved Princess Princess. I loved RH Plus. And Ikemen Desu Ne seems like it was made for me, since it hits a bunch of my narrative kinks for J-dramas - pretty boy band characters, mistaken identity, a defrosting ice queen hero, and a cute girl cross-dressing. But...oh my god, this is the most infuriating show I have seen in ages. Just thinking about it now is making me want to throw things.
The Premise: Miko is an orphan and a novice nun, about to leave for Rome for two years of study before she takes religious vows. However, one day she is unexpectedly approached by a man who, as it turns out, is the manager of her twin brother, an up and coming pop idol. Mio is about to sign a contract with A.N.Jell, a hugely popular boy band, but there's a problem - he broke his nose in a drunken fight and needs to recover from reconstructive surgery before he can be seen in public. So the manager asks (well, begs) Miko to pose as her brother, just long enough to sign off on his contract so the label doesn't find out he messed up his face. One thing leads to another, and although she doesn't really want to do it initially, by the middle of the first episode Miko commits to spending the next three months pretending to be a boy and sharing a house with her bandmates. They are: Yuki, the little blond one who is dumb as a rock; Shu, the little brown one who is supposed to be the nice guy; and Ren, the lead singer, who really, really does not want another singer in the band. But we'll talk more about him later. At this point, misunderstandings, drama, and romance ensue.
This is by far not an exhaustive list of my problems with this show, but it is my major issues:
1. Okay, so the premise is problematic to start with. I have to admit, I'm not really comfortable with how easily Miko's dreams and ambitions are cast aside in favor of her brother's. She seems really dedicated to the idea of studying in Rome at the beginning of the show, but that's not important, because if she doesn't do this, her brother will never be able to become famous! I think they tried to play it as her being conflicted about her religious calling, or even doing it out of a lack of knowledge of other options (there's a nice scene with the Mother Superior of the convent where she lives), but it still comes across as her goals being trumped by her brother's. Especially since he did this to himself - she's stepping up to stop him having to face the consequences of his stupid actions.
But hey, I've watched dramas with questionable premises before and really liked them - Personal Taste has a Fake Gay plot that I found intermittently distasteful, but the story was fun enough and the characters likeable enough that I put it aside. If only that were the case with Ikemen Desu Ne.
2. It feels like a boy band show put together by people who have never seen a boy band show. Which makes no sense, since it is basically a point by point remake of the original series, but there you are. So far, there aren't any wacky hijinks, aside from one scene in the first episode where the characters get into a water fight. The boys don't hang out together; heck, they don't even talk to each other. Ren and Shu talk to Miko, and Yuki watches them and misunderstands what's going on, and that's it. There isn't even any interesting antagonism - I'd love a show about a label assembled boy band who hated each other. At least they would be interacting with each other, which is more than I can say for A.N.Jell.
3. The Poor Little Orphans subplot in episode 1. I know this is only half an episode, but I'm putting it on here anyway, because it pissed me off that much. Summary: A.N.Jell is supposed to do a charity concert at an orphanage, but the principal refuses because he thinks they are doing it for publicity and don't care about the kids (he is right about this). Miko wants to prove him wrong, so she goes to the orphanage every day to play with the kids. On the last day before the concert, she collapses from exhaustion, but Ren saves the day by going in her place and the concert goes ahead as planned.
Directors? YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. I don't mind even a narmtastic heart-tugging scene in my drama. But when one of your characters really wants to help the orphans and another character refuses, your remaining characters are supposed to side with the good guy and go with her. The bad character is supposed to realize his mistake and join them at the last minute in a change of heart. That is how this plot works. Having Shu and Yuki go, 'meh, orphans, whatever' makes them look like shallow little brats.
4. Shu. Like I said above, Shu is the little brown-haired one and the one I'd categorize as the nice guy. Not the bad boy, not the funny guy, not quite the smart guy, just the nice guy. He plays the bass. He figures out partway through the first episode that Miko is a girl, but promises not to tell anyone, and is just generally nice and supportive - he bandages her hand when she gets hurt, comforts her when her mother dies, and makes her peppermint tea. He has a lot of moments of being genuinely sweet, including a scene where he tells her about acting in a superhero show and shows her the picture of him in his role as a "princess." Unfortunately, these moments are balanced out by lot of other moments where he is a total creepster. I know I'm not the only one who is incredibly, unbelievably sick of nice guy love interests who court the girl without telling her because they are too scared of rejection to make an open move but hope if they just keep hanging around she will spontaneously realize she loves them. Protip: telling your love interest a good place to go for lunch is sweet. Secretly watching her while she eats is not.
5. Ren. Ohhhhh Ren. All of the above problems are...well, they are serious problems, but they wouldn't stop me watching what is otherwise an enjoyable series so far. But the one thing I cannot ignore is Ren. I want to punch Ren in the face. Like, all the time.
The thing is, I can see what kind of character they were going for with Ren. He should be traditional drama hero mk. 1, The Arrogant Distant Guy With Manpain. Someone like, say, Sano in Hama Kimi, or Hino in Tumbling, or Jin Ho in Personal Taste. The guy whose emotional trauma makes him act like a jerk because he's afraid of getting close to people and getting hurt, but who is slowly thawed out by a relationship with the heroine (/other hero). It's pretty standard, and it has its issues, but when it's done right the Jerk With a Heart of Gold is often one of my favorite characters. Ikemen Desu Ne, however, fails at it in two important ways.
First, Ren is. not. likeable. To really work as a character, the Arrogant Distant Guy has to either have his Sweet Emotionally Damaged Guy pretty damn close to the surface, or he has to have some really good character traits to make up for it. The audience has to be able to see through him quickly enough to like him, even if the heroine doesn't. But Ren isn't charming, or funny, or witty. He's just nasty, all the time. He has a perpetual ugly sneer plastered across his face. He makes Miko jump through a ridiculous number of hoops because no one consulted him about adding a fourth member to the band. At the orphanage he throws a tantrum, and also throws a chair across the room. I don't care how obvious his mommy issues are at this point. He's just a completely unpleasant person.
Second, Ren is abusive. After three episodes, that is honestly not hyperbole. He is emotionally and physically abusive to Miko, and it's really awful to watch. He is constantly demeaning and insulting her - not in a cute, funny, UST way but in a mean, angry, vicious way. He tells her she's useless and orders her out of the band because she knocks over a bookcase in his room. She opens up to him about wanting to find her estranged mother, and gives him a ring her brother gave her as a keepsake of their mother, and he pretends to throw it into a pond and makes her spend the entire night knee-deep in water trying to find it (and then lets her believe the next day that he found it, rather than tricking her in the first place). He makes her climb a scaffold after his phone gets lost because he's throwing another tantrum, and gets mad at her when she almost gets badly hurt falling off. He insults her appearance. When he finds out she's a girl (by spying on a conversation with her manager), he grabs her chest, accuses her of being scum, and throws her down to the ground. He controls her behavior with threats to out her to the label. And he manipulates a rival pop singer into not outing her by kissing the singer in public.
He is pretty much a horrible, disgusting excuse for a human being. And he's supposed to be our romantic hero. Right.
So, yeah. I made it through 3 episodes, but I refuse to watch another second of this show.
colourofsaying, who has been watching with me, also has a good post about the show up here.
This entry was originally posted at http://masterofmidgets.dreamwidth.org/252517.html. You can also comment there using OpenID.