Picspam: 'Deka Wanko' (or: an excuse to post awesome dresses & teeny tiny hats)

[piecesofalice]

I can't sleep, so I was going through my caps folder (a task that may suggest I'm a masochist) and noticed I'd never done a full post about the jdrama Deka Wanko. Which is a crime unto its self, for reasons you're about to discover.

Deka Wanko first crossed my path after we saw these bizarrely ambiguous posters around Tokyo - was it about a frilly

Comments

[genarti]

Um! Well, I love it, and as a general rule I heartily recommend it. (The anime, I mean, and also the manga. There's a new jdrama, which is only a few episodes in; I find the couple of episodes I've seen ALSO UTTERLY HILARIOUS, but I have no idea how it'd work for someone who hadn't already seen the anime, because that has so utterly shaped my view. I came into the jdrama prepared to find everything endearing.)

For more details: it's basically a lampooning of all the cliches of high school shoujo, while also managing to be a really sweet and fluffy high school shoujo. The basic premise is that Fujioka Haruhi, scholarship student at the super-wealthy elite Ouran High School, is hardworking and full of common sense and does not at all care about her gender presentation. Naturally, therefore, she ends up (through complicated macguffiny circumstances) accidentally joining the high school's host club, full of completely ridiculous guys who simultaneously embody various bishounen tropes (the eyeglasses character, the sparkly prince, the vaguely incestuous brothers) and play up those characteristics to make ladies swoon. Naturally, also, she ends up cross-dressing, while the guys earnestly PROTECT HER SECRET!!! and she goes "Guys, I don't even care if people know I'm a girl...?" and facepalms a lot.

She facepalms a lot in general. It's usually justified. I don't think I'm doing justice to the RIDICULOUSNESS of this show. The Haninozuka character I mentioned, for example, is Honey(-sempai); he's 18, looks about 12, loves bunnies and sparkles and cake and bounding about, and is a secret martial arts master. And has a devoted stoic cousin/BFF/babysitter. He is NOT THE MOST RIDICULOUS CHARACTER. (There are many contenders for this title. Personally, I would opt for either the club's designated fangirl-and-manager who rises from the floor on a high-powered motor to cackle at people, or the allergic-to-light bishounen who skulks in the shadows, runs the black magic club, and always has a cat puppet on his hand.)

There's a lot of blurring of the line between reality and persona in this show; there's also a lot of stomping up and down on the fourth wall. And it's only 26 episodes!

(Fair warning: there's a scene in one episode that involves a threatened sexual assault. Nothing actually happens, and the potential victim isn't at all traumatized, but if such things make you uncomfortable, it's there.)

[piecesofalice]

So you'd recommend the anime/manga first? This is where I hang my head and admit I have never watched an anime in my life, so tips/hints/slaps to the head are much appreciated.

And is a secret martial arts master pretty much had me at "secret". And "high powered motor to cackle at people" and "gender wtf" and, oh, "HOST CLUB". THEY HAVE A HOST CLUB AT HIGH SCHOOL!? And, and...I think you sold me.

(HOST CLUB)

(JAPAN I LOVE YOU)

[genarti]

People in the show are like, "You want to start a club, okay, but you want it to be a host club??" in one flashback. The club's founder is VERY DISTRESSED every time people fail to take his plan seriously! HE IS BEING A NOBLE SOUL. WHEN YOU ARE AS BEAUTIFUL AS HE IS, IT'S YOUR DUTY TO GIVE BACK TO THE WORLD BY MAKING GIRLS HAPPY.

The hilarious thing is, he's totally earnest about this. (He's totally earnest about EVERYTHING.)

>:DDDDD

For anime versus jdrama -- uh! I recommend the anime because it's what I know best, and the one that's finished. I have no idea if the jdrama will stick the landing, or if the quality will fall apart after the first couple of episodes or what. But if you want to try starting with the jdrama, go for it! If you bounce off it, though, I would recommend going back and trying the anime. (I like the manga too, but, um, I have a much easier time following anime than manga -- I like the addition of the colors and motion and voices. So this is not a case where the manga sucks, but I always sort of forget about it even though it came first.)

[firthgal]

Sorry, sorry, interrupting this convo just to mention that not too long ago I was very "Ick! Anime! What am I supposed to do with that?" and for the most part I still am that way, but the one anime that I sat down and watched all the way through and got completely sucked into was an anime called Toradora. It stars a heroine that I'm pretty sure you'd adore, and the romance is both subtle and obvious and kind of fluffy and kind of angsty and the entire anime is just so darn beautiful and it managed to make me laugh uproariously one minute and then cry the next. So, for a first time anime watcher, I definitely rec Toradora! To this day it's still the only anime that I've actually enjoyed and watched all the way through. Haven't tried Ouran High School Host Club, though (honestly, once I saw that a live action version was being made, I was like, "Pfft, no need to watch the cartoon now.")

Oh, actually, I also highly enjoyed Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I don't think that really counts as anime. But it does sort of? Westernized anime, I guess.