jdrama: Perfect Girl Evolution eps 1-10 (complete series)
Is a description of this one even necessary? If so 
anenko has a brief explanation and tons of non-spoilery manga pics here.
I’ve been leery of watching this ever since the official descriptions started showing up online, because they made it very clear that the story was going to be shifted from primarily Sunako-centric and from her perspective to being Kyohei-centric, and a vehicle for the guys. And you know, I’m pretty fond of Kyohei, and of Kame as an actor (unlike a lot of JE boys, he actually can act, maintained the ability to act past a couple of roles he was well suited for, and actually improves as an actor over time) but Kame’s had plenty of vehicles already, and, (like most readers of the manga that I know) I’m in it first for Sunako being awesome, and second for Sunako/Kyohei being awesome. Both are still pretty awesome, but not nearly as much so as in the manga. I think that where the drama really fails there is that the shift to Kyohei’s perspective means that he’s also the catalyst for each climax and/or fight, and so Sunako’s fighting and rage only come out when he prods her into it, as opposed to the manga, where it comes out of her own volition when she’s angry, or (possibly even more frequently) when she wants to defend someone. I still love her here, but the fangs have had some serious filing done.
Incidentally, Oomasa Aya, who plays Sunako? Is awesome? I knew she’d probably be great after Mei-chan no Shitsuji, but she really nailed Sunako’s creepiness and introversion, and came as close to getting Sunako’s skittering and weird lurking as an actual human being can manage. I did frequently worry about her hurting her throat, though, the way she kept up the creepy/hollow voice the whole series. Somebody give the girl more leading roles already.
I do like that they aged the characters to being in college, instead of their all being 15. It works better for a lot of things, and gives the characters a degree of maturity that they don’t have at 15 that lets some things get resolved that wouldn’t be otherwise. Also, it’s way less weird for Sunako’s aunt to have her 21-year-old niece keep house for four guys aged about 20-22 than it does to have her 15-year-old niece do the same for 4 15-year-old guys. I’m also glad they managed to work in all the major female characters from the manga. Given the obvious shift, I was worried that, aside from Sunako, we’d only get a few glimpses of Noi and Auntie, but we got plenty of both (I’m sad that we didn’t see much of Noi’s relationships with Takenaga and Sunako as compared to the manga, but it looks like most of the same things were happening, just off screen) as well as some of Machiko and Tamao.
In general, it was pretty fun to watch, but not nearly as fun as the manga, and not around the top of my jdrama list, either. Also, I was really annoyed by how the guy who liked BDSM was NO BAD WRONG because he liked BDSM. I mean, what he wanted was wrong because he wanted to marry Sunako and then force her into that regardless of what she wanted, but the show portrayed it as if the interest itself was wrong. (And, seriously [A] I’m pretty sure Sunako has some curiosity about that anyway, and [B] while I don’t exactly have any personal experience there, my understanding is that people who are into BDSM are extremely careful regarding consent and foreknowledge. Oh yeah, [C] it kinda makes no sense in the context of all the stuff that goes on in the manga.) Also, I completely reject the majority of the final episode, which relied way too much on “even polite and businesslike black men are naturally sinister and scary,” and the main plot of the episode was a serious copout. Though, honestly, even with all the problems, I probably could have watched another 10 or 15 episodes if it weren’t for Kyohei’s angst always being drug out. That said, this bit here is one of the most adorable things I’ve seen in a jdrama:
(And how adorable is Kyohei’s fixation on that skull, anyway? He even sleeps with it!)
And let us not forget what may be the most cracktastic jdrama opening I have ever seen:
anenko has a brief explanation and tons of non-spoilery manga pics here.
I’ve been leery of watching this ever since the official descriptions started showing up online, because they made it very clear that the story was going to be shifted from primarily Sunako-centric and from her perspective to being Kyohei-centric, and a vehicle for the guys. And you know, I’m pretty fond of Kyohei, and of Kame as an actor (unlike a lot of JE boys, he actually can act, maintained the ability to act past a couple of roles he was well suited for, and actually improves as an actor over time) but Kame’s had plenty of vehicles already, and, (like most readers of the manga that I know) I’m in it first for Sunako being awesome, and second for Sunako/Kyohei being awesome. Both are still pretty awesome, but not nearly as much so as in the manga. I think that where the drama really fails there is that the shift to Kyohei’s perspective means that he’s also the catalyst for each climax and/or fight, and so Sunako’s fighting and rage only come out when he prods her into it, as opposed to the manga, where it comes out of her own volition when she’s angry, or (possibly even more frequently) when she wants to defend someone. I still love her here, but the fangs have had some serious filing done.
Incidentally, Oomasa Aya, who plays Sunako? Is awesome? I knew she’d probably be great after Mei-chan no Shitsuji, but she really nailed Sunako’s creepiness and introversion, and came as close to getting Sunako’s skittering and weird lurking as an actual human being can manage. I did frequently worry about her hurting her throat, though, the way she kept up the creepy/hollow voice the whole series. Somebody give the girl more leading roles already.
I do like that they aged the characters to being in college, instead of their all being 15. It works better for a lot of things, and gives the characters a degree of maturity that they don’t have at 15 that lets some things get resolved that wouldn’t be otherwise. Also, it’s way less weird for Sunako’s aunt to have her 21-year-old niece keep house for four guys aged about 20-22 than it does to have her 15-year-old niece do the same for 4 15-year-old guys. I’m also glad they managed to work in all the major female characters from the manga. Given the obvious shift, I was worried that, aside from Sunako, we’d only get a few glimpses of Noi and Auntie, but we got plenty of both (I’m sad that we didn’t see much of Noi’s relationships with Takenaga and Sunako as compared to the manga, but it looks like most of the same things were happening, just off screen) as well as some of Machiko and Tamao.
In general, it was pretty fun to watch, but not nearly as fun as the manga, and not around the top of my jdrama list, either. Also, I was really annoyed by how the guy who liked BDSM was NO BAD WRONG because he liked BDSM. I mean, what he wanted was wrong because he wanted to marry Sunako and then force her into that regardless of what she wanted, but the show portrayed it as if the interest itself was wrong. (And, seriously [A] I’m pretty sure Sunako has some curiosity about that anyway, and [B] while I don’t exactly have any personal experience there, my understanding is that people who are into BDSM are extremely careful regarding consent and foreknowledge. Oh yeah, [C] it kinda makes no sense in the context of all the stuff that goes on in the manga.) Also, I completely reject the majority of the final episode, which relied way too much on “even polite and businesslike black men are naturally sinister and scary,” and the main plot of the episode was a serious copout. Though, honestly, even with all the problems, I probably could have watched another 10 or 15 episodes if it weren’t for Kyohei’s angst always being drug out. That said, this bit here is one of the most adorable things I’ve seen in a jdrama:
Click to view(And how adorable is Kyohei’s fixation on that skull, anyway? He even sleeps with it!)
And let us not forget what may be the most cracktastic jdrama opening I have ever seen: