Additional thoughts on WataKyou (up to episode 11)
Watched WataKyou up to episode 11 (this time with subtitles). I may succumb and watch the last episode raw, but will try to resist because of the limited free time I have these days.
Despite being in the Vice Principal's clutch, Kaji is actually still very naive. I don't really mind people like him (so we can't all be cynical and stuff; the world goes round with different types of people anyway), but I have a problem when their ideals makes them out of touch with reality. Crazy!Yahata has the right of it in his rant: Kaji acted as if he was a god, taking full responsibility by himself. Kaji's world seems to be either black or white, not gray. He just doesn't fit in well with the rest of the teachers.
To be fair, Kaji sort of makes a turnaround in 10. For the most parts, he behaves like the Kaji I'm familiar with, who tries to see the good in other people and appeals to their better nature.
Kaneyoshi annoys me to no end. (Two-faced liar! How could he sleep soundly at night? Although from the look of things, he probably didn't. The squeaky girl voice doesn't help either.) Is it too much to hope that he would meet an untimely end he fully deserves? (Though I think one dead body is the quota limit for this show...and if not, please don't tell me.) Hmm...I do see some foreshadowing toward the end of 10...
Kaneyoshi's mother. This lady is blind to everything else going on around her. She deserves to suffer along with her son.
I'm a little happy that I'd guessed most of what happened in the courtroom scene toward the end of 9. Good of Kumazawa to expose the truth about the school. And good of him for wishing his daughter would never know the world of gray that he lived in. (Ironically, Kumazawa mentioned this to Kaji, whose almost absolute sense of right or wrong seems to resemble the kid's more than he knows or chooses to acknowledge.)
Misawa has a good heart, but unreliable in the end. She rather reminds me of an excitable child, barely able to sit/stay still in one place.
Poe. Okay, I confess that she crept me out in the early episodes (first episode in particular). Interesting stuff she reveals about her...eh...tormenters. (If it is true that these people are also victims somehow, maybe I should forget, after so many years...) She seems to get a somewhat decent closure, however. I'm happy for her.
Yoshikoshi was acting for Kumazawa. I never saw that coming. (Kumazawa seemed non too intelligent for one thing, even though apparently his sleepy/blurry/half-closed eyes didn't exactly miss anything. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, episode 9 kind of redeemed him somewhat...) She was, well, selfish, but no more than other people in this show. However, she was probably the most boring teacher. True, she frequented bars, but, unlike other teachers, she hadn't done anything truly outrageous. (Yahata had his mad starts. Oshiro had a truly scandalous past. And so on.) Her personality? Nothing distinctive.
VP and her psycho son. Looks like exciting stuff is coming soon. Their interactions seem to hint at something forboding anyway. With the son in jail (for who knows how long), the possibility of him being a good boy at home is just about non-existent.
Otoya finally got out of the house and came to visit his mother's school in 10. For some reason (maybe because he was biting on his thumbnail?) he just looked so creepy, staring at the students through the wires. This girl (the girl who was Asuka's friend--I think I've seen her actress somewhere before) and several of her friends did notice him, however. According to the reply Tamako received from the VP's previous school, Otoya--who also went to that school--stabbed and killed his fellow student some years back, although the death was ruled as an accident. He seems to have this implied (and probably unreasonable) hatred toward someone who picks on someone else... (Interesting preview: Wonder what terrible thing his pet monkey ever did to him, other than his mama kept shoving the toy at him.)
Somewhat relevantly, I have no idea what song Otoya was listening to that kept playing loudly (after he took off his headphone) toward the end of episode 10. The lyric was in English, though--at least the part I heard. (I probably could find the info in the end credits. That is assuming I would ever notice it there in the first place.)
VP is on the witness stand at last. Let's see what amusing yarn she spins next...
I love Tamako more and more with each new episode. Even after Kaneyoshi's mama accused her of being a bad mother, she could still be kind to the boy, saying that she was the same as him (guilty about Asuka). (Yeah, I know he's just a kid, and that I should be more forgiving, but this kid really hadn't endeared himself to me in all the episodes I'd seen him...) And she was wonderful with Poe.
I can't figure out Seri (Tamako's boyfriend) and I think I should probably give up trying. It's a shame because he seems like an interesting character at first, but lately he has become so one-dimensional. (I am *so* not impressed with your prowess in the courtroom. Truly I am not.)
Still don't understand (and sadly, probably never will) these characters and most other people I haven't mentioned.
Okay, since I wrote the earlier parts when I watched up to episode 10, I decide to talk about WataKyou 11 separately. I was a bit sad that I read a big spoiler (for me) already. But well this episode is still very enjoyable. I had too much fun capping a bunch of pics.
It is one of my favorite episodes, because a lot of things happen. Vice Principal Ameki is really sticking to her story. The sad thing is, the yarn she spins on the witness stand is very convincing (and actually based on truth!) For some reason, I never hate her like I hate Kaneyoshi, even though they both hurt Asuka in their own ways. And Otoya Ameki? Anyone reading this LJ for a while probably realizes that his actor is my reason for watching WataKyou in the first place. I'm really glad for that, because I would be very unlikely to give this show a chance otherwise. (And of course, psycho!Rasshii is too irresistible.) Well, there is also Hiro Mizushima as Daisuke Yahata, but he has become mostly forgettable after a few out-of-nowhere outbursts. (Not to mention rather pathetic. -_-) It's a shame, because I had more hope for this character.
The girl who notices Otoya? Her name is Tomomi Nishina. They have a little...er...talk when she returns to school at night to get her things. She points out that he is tearing up Riku Kaneyoshi's notebook. He basically says that Kaneyoshi deserves to die. I find it mildly ironic that Tomomi changes her stance and not wanting her tormenter dead any longer. (She told Tamako back in episode 5(?) that she wouldn't testify if her then unnamed tormenter would not get a death sentence.)
Tamako's talk with Otoya is interesting, to say the least. She is right when she tells Kaji that Otoya may be the key to his mother's machinations. One of the things Otoya says is that in order to remove the problem, one must remove the trouble maker. That was what he did, two times. One was when he was 14 (the incident mentioned in episode 10). The other stabbing incident was more recent and was the one he spent a year in jail for.
...And that's also what he does or tries to do with Kaneyoshi (the aforementioned spoiler). The episode ends with everyone cowering in the teacher's room, while Otoya has a knife at Kaneyoshi's throat (eh...more like at his face). Kaji is stabbed in the back as he tries to free Kaneyoshi. I don't think I dislike him anymore.
(Actually, I'm warming up to Kaji again ever since he manages to convince the other teachers to side with him in admitting the problem with the students. He does have a backbone after all.)
Did I mention that I love Tamako more and more with each passing episode? She is absolutely fantastic in this one! I don't know how long she has stayed at the riverbank, digging up the ground for Asuka's pencil case. (The VP wrote Asuka a letter encouraging her and even promised to talk to Riku for her. Kaneyoshi found the letter in the pencil case and buried it at that riverbank.) And she confronts Vice Principal Ameki with the letter. After much prodding and convincing from Tamako, the VP finally admits to the school problem and tells Tamako that Asuka never lied. But publicly she can't change her stance because the school would fall apart otherwise. (Appropriately(?), it was Kaneyoshi who had a dream of school breaking in half.)
ETA on Jul. 14th, 2007 @ 9:48 am: Okay, I don't even know why I worry about this almost a week later (yes, I do, but let me live in denial). Despite what I might have written earlier, this is what originally spoiled me for episode 11 in the first place. (I should know better than to venture into that thread at UltramanLah!, but they usually only had his pictures from magazines and such before.)
Despite being in the Vice Principal's clutch, Kaji is actually still very naive. I don't really mind people like him (so we can't all be cynical and stuff; the world goes round with different types of people anyway), but I have a problem when their ideals makes them out of touch with reality. Crazy!Yahata has the right of it in his rant: Kaji acted as if he was a god, taking full responsibility by himself. Kaji's world seems to be either black or white, not gray. He just doesn't fit in well with the rest of the teachers.
To be fair, Kaji sort of makes a turnaround in 10. For the most parts, he behaves like the Kaji I'm familiar with, who tries to see the good in other people and appeals to their better nature.
Kaneyoshi annoys me to no end. (Two-faced liar! How could he sleep soundly at night? Although from the look of things, he probably didn't. The squeaky girl voice doesn't help either.) Is it too much to hope that he would meet an untimely end he fully deserves? (Though I think one dead body is the quota limit for this show...and if not, please don't tell me.) Hmm...I do see some foreshadowing toward the end of 10...
Kaneyoshi's mother. This lady is blind to everything else going on around her. She deserves to suffer along with her son.
I'm a little happy that I'd guessed most of what happened in the courtroom scene toward the end of 9. Good of Kumazawa to expose the truth about the school. And good of him for wishing his daughter would never know the world of gray that he lived in. (Ironically, Kumazawa mentioned this to Kaji, whose almost absolute sense of right or wrong seems to resemble the kid's more than he knows or chooses to acknowledge.)
Misawa has a good heart, but unreliable in the end. She rather reminds me of an excitable child, barely able to sit/stay still in one place.
Poe. Okay, I confess that she crept me out in the early episodes (first episode in particular). Interesting stuff she reveals about her...eh...tormenters. (If it is true that these people are also victims somehow, maybe I should forget, after so many years...) She seems to get a somewhat decent closure, however. I'm happy for her.
Yoshikoshi was acting for Kumazawa. I never saw that coming. (Kumazawa seemed non too intelligent for one thing, even though apparently his sleepy/blurry/half-closed eyes didn't exactly miss anything. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, episode 9 kind of redeemed him somewhat...) She was, well, selfish, but no more than other people in this show. However, she was probably the most boring teacher. True, she frequented bars, but, unlike other teachers, she hadn't done anything truly outrageous. (Yahata had his mad starts. Oshiro had a truly scandalous past. And so on.) Her personality? Nothing distinctive.
VP and her psycho son. Looks like exciting stuff is coming soon. Their interactions seem to hint at something forboding anyway. With the son in jail (for who knows how long), the possibility of him being a good boy at home is just about non-existent.
Otoya finally got out of the house and came to visit his mother's school in 10. For some reason (maybe because he was biting on his thumbnail?) he just looked so creepy, staring at the students through the wires. This girl (the girl who was Asuka's friend--I think I've seen her actress somewhere before) and several of her friends did notice him, however. According to the reply Tamako received from the VP's previous school, Otoya--who also went to that school--stabbed and killed his fellow student some years back, although the death was ruled as an accident. He seems to have this implied (and probably unreasonable) hatred toward someone who picks on someone else... (Interesting preview: Wonder what terrible thing his pet monkey ever did to him, other than his mama kept shoving the toy at him.)
Somewhat relevantly, I have no idea what song Otoya was listening to that kept playing loudly (after he took off his headphone) toward the end of episode 10. The lyric was in English, though--at least the part I heard. (I probably could find the info in the end credits. That is assuming I would ever notice it there in the first place.)
VP is on the witness stand at last. Let's see what amusing yarn she spins next...
I love Tamako more and more with each new episode. Even after Kaneyoshi's mama accused her of being a bad mother, she could still be kind to the boy, saying that she was the same as him (guilty about Asuka). (Yeah, I know he's just a kid, and that I should be more forgiving, but this kid really hadn't endeared himself to me in all the episodes I'd seen him...) And she was wonderful with Poe.
I can't figure out Seri (Tamako's boyfriend) and I think I should probably give up trying. It's a shame because he seems like an interesting character at first, but lately he has become so one-dimensional. (I am *so* not impressed with your prowess in the courtroom. Truly I am not.)
Still don't understand (and sadly, probably never will) these characters and most other people I haven't mentioned.
Okay, since I wrote the earlier parts when I watched up to episode 10, I decide to talk about WataKyou 11 separately. I was a bit sad that I read a big spoiler (for me) already. But well this episode is still very enjoyable. I had too much fun capping a bunch of pics.
It is one of my favorite episodes, because a lot of things happen. Vice Principal Ameki is really sticking to her story. The sad thing is, the yarn she spins on the witness stand is very convincing (and actually based on truth!) For some reason, I never hate her like I hate Kaneyoshi, even though they both hurt Asuka in their own ways. And Otoya Ameki? Anyone reading this LJ for a while probably realizes that his actor is my reason for watching WataKyou in the first place. I'm really glad for that, because I would be very unlikely to give this show a chance otherwise. (And of course, psycho!Rasshii is too irresistible.) Well, there is also Hiro Mizushima as Daisuke Yahata, but he has become mostly forgettable after a few out-of-nowhere outbursts. (Not to mention rather pathetic. -_-) It's a shame, because I had more hope for this character.
The girl who notices Otoya? Her name is Tomomi Nishina. They have a little...er...talk when she returns to school at night to get her things. She points out that he is tearing up Riku Kaneyoshi's notebook. He basically says that Kaneyoshi deserves to die. I find it mildly ironic that Tomomi changes her stance and not wanting her tormenter dead any longer. (She told Tamako back in episode 5(?) that she wouldn't testify if her then unnamed tormenter would not get a death sentence.)
Tamako's talk with Otoya is interesting, to say the least. She is right when she tells Kaji that Otoya may be the key to his mother's machinations. One of the things Otoya says is that in order to remove the problem, one must remove the trouble maker. That was what he did, two times. One was when he was 14 (the incident mentioned in episode 10). The other stabbing incident was more recent and was the one he spent a year in jail for.
...And that's also what he does or tries to do with Kaneyoshi (the aforementioned spoiler). The episode ends with everyone cowering in the teacher's room, while Otoya has a knife at Kaneyoshi's throat (eh...more like at his face). Kaji is stabbed in the back as he tries to free Kaneyoshi. I don't think I dislike him anymore.
(Actually, I'm warming up to Kaji again ever since he manages to convince the other teachers to side with him in admitting the problem with the students. He does have a backbone after all.)
Did I mention that I love Tamako more and more with each passing episode? She is absolutely fantastic in this one! I don't know how long she has stayed at the riverbank, digging up the ground for Asuka's pencil case. (The VP wrote Asuka a letter encouraging her and even promised to talk to Riku for her. Kaneyoshi found the letter in the pencil case and buried it at that riverbank.) And she confronts Vice Principal Ameki with the letter. After much prodding and convincing from Tamako, the VP finally admits to the school problem and tells Tamako that Asuka never lied. But publicly she can't change her stance because the school would fall apart otherwise. (Appropriately(?), it was Kaneyoshi who had a dream of school breaking in half.)
ETA on Jul. 14th, 2007 @ 9:48 am: Okay, I don't even know why I worry about this almost a week later (yes, I do, but let me live in denial). Despite what I might have written earlier, this is what originally spoiled me for episode 11 in the first place. (I should know better than to venture into that thread at UltramanLah!, but they usually only had his pictures from magazines and such before.)