TV drama time : Koishite Akuma~ Vampire Boy
EDIT* I totally posted the title of the theme song as the title of the drama without realizing it Akuma no koi is the song..he he he
IN a usual break from the normal journaling I will now give you suggestions on what you should watch from the not-so-mystical land of Japan.
So you want to watch Japanese tv dramas? Well you are in luck! Japan, unlike America doesn't (generally) make a viewer commit to years and years of a single show ( Mito no Komon is an exception) and generally a single show only has 10-11 episodes, so you can easily acquire and watch them for the most part. For all of you who don't understand a lick of the language, there are literally hundreds or people out there making subtitles for all the new, popular shows.
My suggestion for today is a currently airing TV drama produced by Kansai TV and Fuji TV called "Koishite Akuma vampire boy." Now if you want an intelligent drama with witty conversation, fine acting and pure genius of plot... this isn't it. In fact the genius of this show is the complete absurdity of it all.
(there are spoilers in here if you haven't seen any of the show, but just for the first 3 eps that have aired)
Akuma no Koi is about a vampire. Not just any vampire, a 16 year old vampire boy raised in Romania ( OBVIOUSLY ) named Kuromiya Ruka (Nakayama Yuma). Little Ruka, with his white, white skin, big ( scary) black eyes and shiny shiny black hair is ripped from his beloved Romania and is sent *gasp* Horror* to Tokyo to go to high school.
I know what you are thinking, Why Tokyo? Why high school? Why? in general. Well let me clue you in on something.. this whole show... is a giant barely concealed metaphor for sex..... yeah. And of course to have a pretty vampire boy in a high school uniform... duh who doesn't want to see that?
So in this Japanese vampire world, apparently only men are vamps ( ummm) and they are born that way ( wha?) and they all seem to have to go to Romania (obviously) and then at 16 they have to return to their home country and find that "special lady" who will "awaken" their "vampire power" and then they can go on and have a happy blood letting life. They also can walk around in broad daylight as long as they A: wear an emo black hoodie B: carry a red umbrella or C: wear a black old lady looking shawl
So Ruka, under the entirely unhelpful guidance of a vampire man-ho ( played by the creepy creepy Matchy) sets out to find the woman of his destiny by of course stalking around his high school and setting all the girls into a fit of vampire induced lust. In the first episode Ruka is a bit... not smooth... with the ladies, his vocabulary consists of "sumimasen" which he says in the creepiest voice possible, and he searches for his "woman of destiny" by getting all up on the necks of the girls at his school, but ends up pushing them off saying " you aren't the right one" and so on.
But how does he know who is the right lady? Well ( tee hee hee) when he finds her, his "fangs" extend ( this my friend is a vampire stiffy) and he can get his suck on. So Ruka goes around getting all up in the mix of hundreds of girls just to push them off in disgust.
Oh yeah, Ruka HATES people. Ruka hates his classmates, he hates his ramen shop host family who constantly have garlic all over, he hates his annoying whiny host brother (who looks like bully bait) and he especially hates his chipper homeroom teacher who has taken a special interest in getting him to make friends and "fit-in" in school.
Or does he??? This brings us to Makoto sensei( Kato Rosa) who is ( sort-of) dating another teacher even though she still pines at times for her first love ( from when she was 16) who tragically died ( OBVIOUSLY) and who looks strangely ( not really) exactly like Ruka. She even has a photo of them from her high school days together ( when they promised to be together forever). Seeing as this photo exists, it will obviously end up in the hands of her teacher-boyfriend who will think she is either A. obsessed with Ruka because he looks like the dead kid or B. She and Ruka are into High school cosplay.
This is where you wonder how the kid lives without blood. Don't worry the writers have it covered. Ruka doesn't need to actually EAT anything, and cherry vampires only need 100% concord grape juice to satisfy their hunger. (Nothing more poignant than a 16 year old vampire sitting the the roof of a high rise pondering human existence with a juice box in hand)
So Makoto sensei, being the good insanely naive teacher she is keeps goading Ruka to make friends and to not kill himself (not that he is trying, the kid just likes to hang out on bridges in the rain) Her trying consists of throwing herself on him and yelling "don't do it!" and he in his adolescent vampireness says things like "why does it matter?" or "why is life important?" these encounters send them tumbling together into the water at Yokohama ( OBVIOUSLY) where his annoyance with her gives way to an odd sensation (OMG, are those my fangs) when he hears her vibrant naive laughter.
Ruka has a hell of a time accepting that his woman of destiny is his homeroom teacher ( ewwww she is OLD like 23! is the look he gets) So he decides to test it again on the shy cute girl in class ( who totally loves him) and of course it DOESN'T work. At this point for some reason known ONLY to the writers, he decides to recommend this girl read Dracula...maybe this is so she can keep having those dreams where he slips into her room at night to suck on her neck.
Matchy-pyre keeps popping up throughout all this mess to show off his semi nude snack that lays in his bed all day to little Ruka and there is the weird scene where he is all up on some vampire dude. I am guessing this is to show the kid how "awesome" and "sweet" being a full vampire (not a cherry vampire) is. Ruka is content to take it slow, he is still building up vocabulary here! He has added " Arienai" to his repertoire now. But in a wild burst of uncontrollable vampire tension he jumps at Makoto sensei's neck ( read as he walks really really slowly and creepily towards her and leans in so slow she could have knit a sweater in the time it took) while she screams " what are you doing ( read as she naively asks "what are you doing?" ) as he goes in for the bite... he faints.
Ruka wakes up to find his fangs gone AGAIN and Makoto sensei there with him " awww poor thing you must be all stressed out and tired" he has about enough of her and runs off to Matchy for help. What does he tell him " ha ha oh yeah I forgot, ha ha ha you better turn full vampire soon or you will die"
yeah, thanks, that was probably info the kid needed before. Oh and I almost forgot, he has to do it by the next full moon.
This puts a serious kink in Ruka's human hating. He has to actually seduce this woman now? daaaaaarn. He needs to sympathize with his food? daaaaaarn. He has to ask the dorky kid who overacts in the front row for ladying help? OF COURSE.
Will he ever "get any" blood. Will his "fangs extend" again will he faint when he tries to bite Makoto sensei next time? Will they add anymore sexual metaphors to make this show all the more sketchy?
Who knows? They probably will. I know I will be there to watch it, playing the Akuma no koi drinking game. It's silly, campy and entirely awkward and I can't stop watching it.
Even if you aren't interested in watching Japanese dramas, I hope you read this just so you could laugh along with me. This summary was written for fun and contains my own opinions on the show. If you watch Koishite Akuma and think it is a very deep and meaningful drama, then.. well... OK
IN a usual break from the normal journaling I will now give you suggestions on what you should watch from the not-so-mystical land of Japan.
So you want to watch Japanese tv dramas? Well you are in luck! Japan, unlike America doesn't (generally) make a viewer commit to years and years of a single show ( Mito no Komon is an exception) and generally a single show only has 10-11 episodes, so you can easily acquire and watch them for the most part. For all of you who don't understand a lick of the language, there are literally hundreds or people out there making subtitles for all the new, popular shows.
My suggestion for today is a currently airing TV drama produced by Kansai TV and Fuji TV called "Koishite Akuma vampire boy." Now if you want an intelligent drama with witty conversation, fine acting and pure genius of plot... this isn't it. In fact the genius of this show is the complete absurdity of it all.
(there are spoilers in here if you haven't seen any of the show, but just for the first 3 eps that have aired)
Akuma no Koi is about a vampire. Not just any vampire, a 16 year old vampire boy raised in Romania ( OBVIOUSLY ) named Kuromiya Ruka (Nakayama Yuma). Little Ruka, with his white, white skin, big ( scary) black eyes and shiny shiny black hair is ripped from his beloved Romania and is sent *gasp* Horror* to Tokyo to go to high school.
I know what you are thinking, Why Tokyo? Why high school? Why? in general. Well let me clue you in on something.. this whole show... is a giant barely concealed metaphor for sex..... yeah. And of course to have a pretty vampire boy in a high school uniform... duh who doesn't want to see that?
So in this Japanese vampire world, apparently only men are vamps ( ummm) and they are born that way ( wha?) and they all seem to have to go to Romania (obviously) and then at 16 they have to return to their home country and find that "special lady" who will "awaken" their "vampire power" and then they can go on and have a happy blood letting life. They also can walk around in broad daylight as long as they A: wear an emo black hoodie B: carry a red umbrella or C: wear a black old lady looking shawl
So Ruka, under the entirely unhelpful guidance of a vampire man-ho ( played by the creepy creepy Matchy) sets out to find the woman of his destiny by of course stalking around his high school and setting all the girls into a fit of vampire induced lust. In the first episode Ruka is a bit... not smooth... with the ladies, his vocabulary consists of "sumimasen" which he says in the creepiest voice possible, and he searches for his "woman of destiny" by getting all up on the necks of the girls at his school, but ends up pushing them off saying " you aren't the right one" and so on.
But how does he know who is the right lady? Well ( tee hee hee) when he finds her, his "fangs" extend ( this my friend is a vampire stiffy) and he can get his suck on. So Ruka goes around getting all up in the mix of hundreds of girls just to push them off in disgust.
Oh yeah, Ruka HATES people. Ruka hates his classmates, he hates his ramen shop host family who constantly have garlic all over, he hates his annoying whiny host brother (who looks like bully bait) and he especially hates his chipper homeroom teacher who has taken a special interest in getting him to make friends and "fit-in" in school.
Or does he??? This brings us to Makoto sensei( Kato Rosa) who is ( sort-of) dating another teacher even though she still pines at times for her first love ( from when she was 16) who tragically died ( OBVIOUSLY) and who looks strangely ( not really) exactly like Ruka. She even has a photo of them from her high school days together ( when they promised to be together forever). Seeing as this photo exists, it will obviously end up in the hands of her teacher-boyfriend who will think she is either A. obsessed with Ruka because he looks like the dead kid or B. She and Ruka are into High school cosplay.
This is where you wonder how the kid lives without blood. Don't worry the writers have it covered. Ruka doesn't need to actually EAT anything, and cherry vampires only need 100% concord grape juice to satisfy their hunger. (Nothing more poignant than a 16 year old vampire sitting the the roof of a high rise pondering human existence with a juice box in hand)
So Makoto sensei, being the good insanely naive teacher she is keeps goading Ruka to make friends and to not kill himself (not that he is trying, the kid just likes to hang out on bridges in the rain) Her trying consists of throwing herself on him and yelling "don't do it!" and he in his adolescent vampireness says things like "why does it matter?" or "why is life important?" these encounters send them tumbling together into the water at Yokohama ( OBVIOUSLY) where his annoyance with her gives way to an odd sensation (OMG, are those my fangs) when he hears her vibrant naive laughter.
Ruka has a hell of a time accepting that his woman of destiny is his homeroom teacher ( ewwww she is OLD like 23! is the look he gets) So he decides to test it again on the shy cute girl in class ( who totally loves him) and of course it DOESN'T work. At this point for some reason known ONLY to the writers, he decides to recommend this girl read Dracula...maybe this is so she can keep having those dreams where he slips into her room at night to suck on her neck.
Matchy-pyre keeps popping up throughout all this mess to show off his semi nude snack that lays in his bed all day to little Ruka and there is the weird scene where he is all up on some vampire dude. I am guessing this is to show the kid how "awesome" and "sweet" being a full vampire (not a cherry vampire) is. Ruka is content to take it slow, he is still building up vocabulary here! He has added " Arienai" to his repertoire now. But in a wild burst of uncontrollable vampire tension he jumps at Makoto sensei's neck ( read as he walks really really slowly and creepily towards her and leans in so slow she could have knit a sweater in the time it took) while she screams " what are you doing ( read as she naively asks "what are you doing?" ) as he goes in for the bite... he faints.
Ruka wakes up to find his fangs gone AGAIN and Makoto sensei there with him " awww poor thing you must be all stressed out and tired" he has about enough of her and runs off to Matchy for help. What does he tell him " ha ha oh yeah I forgot, ha ha ha you better turn full vampire soon or you will die"
yeah, thanks, that was probably info the kid needed before. Oh and I almost forgot, he has to do it by the next full moon.
This puts a serious kink in Ruka's human hating. He has to actually seduce this woman now? daaaaaarn. He needs to sympathize with his food? daaaaaarn. He has to ask the dorky kid who overacts in the front row for ladying help? OF COURSE.
Will he ever "get any" blood. Will his "fangs extend" again will he faint when he tries to bite Makoto sensei next time? Will they add anymore sexual metaphors to make this show all the more sketchy?
Who knows? They probably will. I know I will be there to watch it, playing the Akuma no koi drinking game. It's silly, campy and entirely awkward and I can't stop watching it.
Even if you aren't interested in watching Japanese dramas, I hope you read this just so you could laugh along with me. This summary was written for fun and contains my own opinions on the show. If you watch Koishite Akuma and think it is a very deep and meaningful drama, then.. well... OK