Last Friends: Punching you in the face with razors while running over your dog.
Last Friends
ANGST ANGST AAAAAAAAANGST and also lesbians, kind of.
Five young people with emotional problems and secret traumas live together in a sharehouse. What could go wrong?
Warning: this drama contains not-nice things like domestic violence and sexual abuse, and that's not even the half of it. If for some reason you don't enjoy overwhelming depression and loss of faith in humanity, this is not the show for you.
Last Friends opens with the heroine pregnant and alone, an unmarried mother and abuse victim blaming herself for someone's death. It only gets more cheerful from there!
Flackback to happier times, when she was crying and only getting beat up a little. Her name is Michiru, and her boyfriend is a fucking nutcase.
Ruka is Michiru's best friend. She has short hair, rides motorbikes, and spends a lot of time looking at Michiru's lips. I wonder what her secret is!
No, really!
I have no idea what the writers are trying to say!
I'll save you the suspense: according to the show, she's a genderqueer lesbian. Oh wait, sorry -- I meant she "looks at Michiru like a man." Cough. Cough.
Ruka is the best damn character of everything. You can predict her scenes by thinking "what's the most awesome thing that can happen?" and watching Ruka do it. A grabby senpai at work? Kick him in the dirt! The abusive boyfriend of her girlcrush? TACKLE HIM TO THE FLOOR AND STOMP THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!
"Don't touch my Michiru!"
Takeru is a makeup artist who wears pink cardigans and shies from the attention of women. He's literally the most heterosexual character of this drama.
Aren't they sweet and happy and gay? You watch this knowing someone is going to die.
Sousuke does not appreciate Michiru's budding lesbianism, as he demonstrates with ominous hovering and petty vandalism.
He's a twisted manipulative psycho with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, so naturally, fangirls love him. He's so woobie! He's so misunderstood! "Oh, his paper-thin excuses for physical abuse and unrelenting emotional torment are so romantic. Forgive and forget!" Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall until I BLEED FROM MY EYES. It will hurt less.
I propose an experiment: replace him with a less attractive actor and let's see if he's still tragic and misunderstood.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS FOR SOUSUKE'S CHARACTER:
"I WILL ALWAYS BE WAITING FOR YOU, MICHIRU."
"He's my boyfriend. He's similar to me, as he was raised by only his mother... "
"MICHIRU, I WANT YOU BACK. I PROMISE I WON'T HIT YOU AGAIN."
"You're hiding the fact you met with another guy, aren't you?!"
This will only make sense if you've seen Monster. XD
I, I can't even express the deep and creative ways in which Last Friends is fucked up. Seriously, you watch it thinking "did they really just-- but-- did they really-- are they implying-- what??" Then you realize the screenwriter has made a career out of this. Then you start wondering about her childhood.
There are epic love triangles full of pain and torment.
Personal demons do the tango with all the skeletons in the closet.
And then Sousuke decides to take a super-duper extra course in crazy...
And one by one all their dreams are crushed while you watch in traumatized fascination, soaking up Asano Taeko's abuse like a battered sponge desperate for more.
Last Friends: where "rocks fall, everyone dies" would've been a happier ending.
ANGST ANGST AAAAAAAAANGST and also lesbians, kind of.
Five young people with emotional problems and secret traumas live together in a sharehouse. What could go wrong?
Warning: this drama contains not-nice things like domestic violence and sexual abuse, and that's not even the half of it. If for some reason you don't enjoy overwhelming depression and loss of faith in humanity, this is not the show for you.
Last Friends opens with the heroine pregnant and alone, an unmarried mother and abuse victim blaming herself for someone's death. It only gets more cheerful from there!
Flackback to happier times, when she was crying and only getting beat up a little. Her name is Michiru, and her boyfriend is a fucking nutcase.
Ruka is Michiru's best friend. She has short hair, rides motorbikes, and spends a lot of time looking at Michiru's lips. I wonder what her secret is!
No, really!
I have no idea what the writers are trying to say!
I'll save you the suspense: according to the show, she's a genderqueer lesbian. Oh wait, sorry -- I meant she "looks at Michiru like a man." Cough. Cough.
Ruka is the best damn character of everything. You can predict her scenes by thinking "what's the most awesome thing that can happen?" and watching Ruka do it. A grabby senpai at work? Kick him in the dirt! The abusive boyfriend of her girlcrush? TACKLE HIM TO THE FLOOR AND STOMP THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!
"Don't touch my Michiru!"
Takeru is a makeup artist who wears pink cardigans and shies from the attention of women. He's literally the most heterosexual character of this drama.
Aren't they sweet and happy and gay? You watch this knowing someone is going to die.
Sousuke does not appreciate Michiru's budding lesbianism, as he demonstrates with ominous hovering and petty vandalism.
He's a twisted manipulative psycho with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, so naturally, fangirls love him. He's so woobie! He's so misunderstood! "Oh, his paper-thin excuses for physical abuse and unrelenting emotional torment are so romantic. Forgive and forget!" Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall until I BLEED FROM MY EYES. It will hurt less.
I propose an experiment: replace him with a less attractive actor and let's see if he's still tragic and misunderstood.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS FOR SOUSUKE'S CHARACTER:
"I WILL ALWAYS BE WAITING FOR YOU, MICHIRU."
"He's my boyfriend. He's similar to me, as he was raised by only his mother... "
"MICHIRU, I WANT YOU BACK. I PROMISE I WON'T HIT YOU AGAIN."
"You're hiding the fact you met with another guy, aren't you?!"
This will only make sense if you've seen Monster. XD
I, I can't even express the deep and creative ways in which Last Friends is fucked up. Seriously, you watch it thinking "did they really just-- but-- did they really-- are they implying-- what??" Then you realize the screenwriter has made a career out of this. Then you start wondering about her childhood.
There are epic love triangles full of pain and torment.
Personal demons do the tango with all the skeletons in the closet.
And then Sousuke decides to take a super-duper extra course in crazy...
And one by one all their dreams are crushed while you watch in traumatized fascination, soaking up Asano Taeko's abuse like a battered sponge desperate for more.
Last Friends: where "rocks fall, everyone dies" would've been a happier ending.