[#39] All Media, All The Time~
AKA if you're not into Japanese Dramas (special or otherwise) or Japanese Movies, then skip this entry~
I've watched a SHITLOAD of stuff and haven't managed to talk about them yet sooooo~ Here we go! :D And of course, every single one of these include spoilers.
Tokyo Daikushu: Peyton was the one that told me about this as, I think, she watched it as soon as it came out and raved on about how great it was (and heartbreaking). So once she told me it had been subbed, I jumped on the chance to watch it. Even though I knew it would likely break my heart because it centers around Tokyo during World War II and the heartbreaking stories that Maki's character, Haruka, goes through as she fights to survive. To live. And that sounds slightly mocking, but I swear it's not. I actually thought this was a brilliant watch - but only if you have the time, because both parts together equal four hours of sheer depression. ...Oh, you might also need to have the will to go through it, I expect. It's rather depressing and if I was not cold-hearted (although I will amend that comment later), I would've been weeping every single scene.
All that said, I do have a few comments on it. For one thing, near the end of the special (or really actually by the end of the first part), it almost seemed to become a "Let's kill every character that we've ever established to break everyone's heart and not neglect any that may have become favorite characters." >.> Okay, this probably speaks to the reality of the situation, as in that there was just basically no guarantee that you (figurative you) would survive such a massacre. And as horrible as what I'm about to say sounds, I thought that the air raid in the first part that the Americans launched was rather brilliant on their part. Devastating to the Japanese, but that's the reason they did it that way, isn't it? And well, it is a Japanese centric special so... yeah. lol Just a hats off to the Americans of that time. Rather smart. Anyway, Maki did a really good job, I thought. Although her death scene made me go WTF. Because honestly, that was just. ...I don't even know. Also, was that plane just gunning for anyone that was alive that they could tell? If so, wow. Asshole. But really, WHAT was that? "Please. Stop killing." I'm sorry, dear, but they PROBABLY, most likely could not hear a single word you just said. Yes, I understand they were going the dramatic route where she was just expressing something everyone felt, but still.
Oh. Big WTF moment. The moment the doctor dies (for the second time, imo), he has that scene where Maya Miki's character greets him in "heaven" and says something and just blahblahblah. It was seriously a WTF moment. I was sitting there for literally five minutes wondering WHAT IN THE HELL that brought to the special. It was seriously weird. Also, was surprised to see that stupid girl who got engulfed in flames was still alive in the second part. (Sorry, she was really kinda dumb. I understand the mentality they were going for, but she just came off as stupid.) I suppose I should just be happy her and her fiancee actually met up. ...You know, before dying a second after. XP As much as I say all this shit about it, I really really enjoyed it. The characters were all distinct, they had their own things going for them, and except for stupid girl, I really did mourn most of the deaths. (ESPECIALLY EITA. T.T P.S. why was he playing a Korean? Seriously. Why? Casting people. What was up with THAT?) And you guys all know I love Maya Miki. T.T Her death. asd;lkrjalskdjf On the bridge, with flames around her, remembering the doctor's words. *SOB* (Not literally, of course.) Worst death, besides Eita's that is, THE BABY. TAKESHI. T.T.T.T.T Okay. I just. ;alskdjfklasjdf Heartbreaking, hands down. Just heartbreaking.
Um. What else? I was just glad that Tomoko (I keep thinking Tomoyo) was able to get Hiroto that glass figure (or at least half of it) to him and that once he got it, he stopped waiting. That was really nice. Sad that he died alone, but he wasn't. ...Not really. And I like that he kept on living and that he threw away his name after the war. asdk;jaslfj OTP. T.T Speaking of, for a cold-hearted woman (girl as I still call myself), I actually teared up during the scene at the end where Tomoko's talking to Hiroto and telling her that Haruka would've wanted him to have it, and that she'd been searching for him. And he sees the glass with all its air bubbles and recognizes it and it's just a;lkdjfalskjf Long lasting love that lasts decades moves me. Just love that lasts for long periods of time - One of the things that I think I will forever just adore and treasure. Yes, so babbling done, I definitely think it's worth a watch. Most definitely. (If you don't read this due to fear of spoilers, long LONG review short, I recommend this for those who 1) have the time (it's four hours long) and 2) can deal with watching something that's made to stir the hearts, aka absolutely depressing.
Tomorrow: Oh man. It's been a while since I've seen this (maybe a week?) so the details are rusty. I think I actually marathoned the last few episodes after having it sit in my laptop for ...well, weeks. lol I'd been putting it off. That said, once I got started, I couldn't stop until I actually finished it. It's not so much that I was intrigued, but more like I'd gotten so far that I just had to finish it. AKA, WHAT THE HELL WOULD HAPPEN TO THIS DAMN HOSPITAL? The ending was very, very neatly tied up and kinda fit into this nice small little package of UNBELIEVABILITY, but whatever, I ate up whatever they were trying to feed me. It did drag as a drama as every episode, something would happen to the actually HOSPITAL staff, to the point that it was like... Um, who's actually working again? Yeah. >.< I mean, even Endou-sensei falls down STAIRS and has to have an emergency operation, which, okay, whatever. I actually kinda got bored with everything that was related to Endou-sensei - especially her mother story which took up a portion of episode... what? 9? And turned her "good?" Um, whatever.
I will admit to this. Episode 9 and 10 were apparently SO solid to me (minus, you know, the ending and the Endou storyline) that during Episode 9, I actually teared up a little. But I will explain why. In episode 9, we meet Sendou's wife, and she is amazing. You know, for the FIVE SECONDS that she's conscious on our screen. ...Yeah, that kinda tells you what happens to her. She just kinda collapses near the beginning of the episode and falls into a coma which was supposed to mirror Endou's mom's situation. And Sendou, for maybe 10 minutes, struggles with the idea that if her breathing gets tough on her own (or something like that), they'd have to put her on basically life support. The thing was, Sendou's wife had left a "living will" where she had said specially that she didn't want to be PUT on life support if ever she entered a vegetative state. But during a moment where they see that her breathing is in trouble, he makes the decision to put her on life support, despite her wishes. Turns out, the living will had a second part to it, and it said that while she wants to die "with dignity," if Sendou couldn't deal with the idea of her being gone, it was okay for him to put her on life support and keep her alive for as long as it took to "calm his heart." Just typing that out makes me go all gushy inside of me and I start tearing up all over again. "Your sorrow is my sorrow." I'm sorry, but long lasting love (like I said before) makes me go all mushy and it makes me tear up. That was probably the most moving thing I'd ever seen a husband and wife do for each other. And she's frigging pretty much dead. In the end, he finally decides to take her off, and it was just a;lsdkjfalksjdlfkj Oh god. My heart. Now that was for episode nine.
Episode 10 had tears STREAMING down my face, and not for long lasting love. Now this one, I don't even know. Maybe I was still all moved from episode 9, but episode 10... I don't even know. At the end of 9... I'm pretty sure, we find out that they officially have to close down the hospital, so during 10, everyone's separated - they're trying to find new jobs, or already have them - trying to move on. Except for... Oh shit, forgot the leads NAMES. LOL. Um, lead guy, lead girl, and Sendou-san are still struggling with the idea that the hospital's closed. And they start trying to find ways to get it back which leads to a petition started by lead girl and there's this festival and something falls over that causes everything to fall over and everyone pretty much gets wounded, including lead gi-TANAKA! ...Right? Aiko. Ai-sempai. I don't care. Anyway, the community hospital is pretty much the nearest and it just so happens that lead guy (whose name I can't be bothered to even try to remember and is not slipping out of my head as easily) is inside and they just have a bit of supplies that they can take like Ai-chan, the daughter of the Deputy Mayor who hit her head. But then the ambulances bring everyone in, and really, there's only ONE doctor, ONE nurse, and whatever Sendou-san does (You know, I never figured that out). So they try doing it one by one by one, except Tanaka is still smarting from the injury she received and then they find out that, fuck, it's internal bleeding, and lead guy needs to do an operation on Ai-chan because something with the head, and he needs to do one on Tanaka immediately or else she'll die, and then "clunk clunk" or whatever sound heels make on floor, and look Endou-sensei.
After that, everyone comes out of NOWHERE, and okay, I had tears streaming down my face and I'm incredulous at the same time, because WHAT IN THE FUCK, THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE AND OMG, THEY ARE TRYING SO HARD TO PUSH "CAMARADERIE" and it just gets worse as the episode goes on, because then the citizens start chipping in, and one of them sees the Deputy Mayor just sitting around, worrying about his daughter and is all "If you don't start helping out now in this situation, when will you ever?" And really, I should so not be crying, but there I am, trying to wipe away my tears. It was just SO CRAZY. Anyway, in the end, they have no casualties and the townspeople are happy and they helped out and ohmygod, just writing this is making me go, WHY DID YOU CRY!??! YOU CRAZY GIRL. Anyway, it was tied up in such a nice little box with a bow on top. They rebel against that guy who was funding everything, aka calling all the shots, and the hospital is brought back and because of lead guy's suggestion, a year later, they're doing "great" and doctors are trying to join the hospital staff and blahblahblah. Ohmygod, such cheese. Frigging insane.
One last comment, the last scene with lead guy and Tanaka (man, I had hoped I'd remember his name by now at least). They have this "moment" up on the roof where she comments on how many times she's seen the sun rise and of course, that goes with the tagline of the drama, and then she's kinda looking at him and is like, "I want to see the sun rise every morning. With you." And I may have laughed when he said (probably not completely accurate as I'm trying to REMEMBER all this), "Every morning? That's kinda rough. Can we stay in during rainy days?" And it's just so cheeky and kinda slides in there that it totally works for me, and Tanaka's kinda aghast and is all, "I didn't mean it like that!" And he tells her that he knows, and I'm thinking, fuck, just stop with the tension and do something. And all that happens is that she turns to give him a HANDSHAKE. A HANDSHAKE. OHMYGOD. THAT'S WHAT THE OTP AMOUNTED TO. >.< Other than that, I love that line about rainy days. And I finished another drama from last season. That makes my track record pretty good actually. lol
Maou: Another drama that I finished! ...This morning actually. Just before everything, I scoffed at the end and the black butterflies. Okay? Just getting that out there now, because I feel like I'm going to bring it up randomly so got it out of the way. I might've also loled. ...Or at least, I would've if I were not on a public bus on my way to school. lol I thought the ending was appropriate for the drama. I really saw no other way out except to kill the two, because at this point, there was no redemption. They'd done so much, or rather Naruse/Tomoo had done so much that there was no way to redeem him. I rather liked the idea of black/white in this drama, in the way that there is none. There is always gray. Oh, actually, I take that back. Psycho childhood friend that stabbed Naruse and Kasai (SADDEST DEATH FOR ME. T.T) was totally just evil. Evil evil evil. I kinda wish we'd heard what had happened to him, because they don't even mention it past the announcement on the news searching for him. Did he get arrested? Did he die? I hope he died. He deserved a death. ://// (As horrible as that sounds.)
Back to Kasai. I just. I was actually really sympathetic to him despite all the shit he'd done or had a hand in, mainly for the fact that he loved ...whatever her face is, so much that he was willing to sacrifice everything to protect her. Granted, I've seen this so many times, but I mean, that scene where he's searching for the engagement ring and he finds the perfect one and he even has to check the bag when he bumps into someone was just a;lskdjflaksjd And while he's dying on the street, they cut to a scene of whatsherface cooking dinner and she's prepared the plates and the wine glasses and I was devastated for both of them. She threw away her life to save him and she knew she'd be happier that way. It was just all heartbreaking. Jumping tracks, all the dark tunnel references was good at first, then they overused it. That got kinda annoying, especially that last scene. Speaking of, what was the point of that? To show that someone has learnt from their experiences or something? I didn't see the point of that. I might've rather a different scene there - it was kinda pointless.
Toma and Ohno's scene at the end, their "death" scene, was just... Hmm. I liked it but at the same time, it dragged? I don't know. I was nearing the end, and there were like 12 minutes left, and I wondered to myself, why in the fuck is there still 12 minutes left? Toma's death scene took ages. But that does not top how long OHNO took to die. I mean he took a knife to the stomach or something, and while he could make his way to the scene, Toma lasted like five seconds and plop, dead. I do have to admit that the end result that Naruse was gunning for, I didn't expect it. I did not expect Naruse to want to push Naoto so much to the point that he'd kill Naruse and then could atone for his sins by going to jail for that death. That it wouldn't be "self-defense." ;alkdjflkasd I just. Yeah, was not expecting that. I gave them an A+ for that. Um. I half expected Shiori to be pregnant with Naruse's baby at the end, even though I knew they hadn't done the deed. I don't even know why. And I'll end there. lol No major rambling because man, I'm already thinking this is going to be a massive long post.
Itazura na Kiss: And no, I'm not angry because I wanted more. Oh, this is so going to be short. Waste of my LIFE. Honestly, I don't know why I stuck with this for so long other than the fact that I'd started and just keep watching. It could've ended at episode 24 with the birth of their child, but no. They dragged it on for another episode for a reason I don't get. Even the characters (even if it was jokingly) wonder wtf at the end of episode 24 when they're doing the preview and they're like, ANOTHER EPISODE?! WHAT?! Yeah. Anyway, whatever. Beginning and middle were kinda eh. Beginning because there was too much lead guy was an asshole and why in the fuck is she in love with him. Middle because it got kinda slow and boring. Ending picked up just a bit, and it became a LITTLE more enjoyable. But barely at that. Only suffer through this if you feel like you can, honestly. It was really just blah. Lots of time jumps, I have to say. Didn't expect it, but yes. Lots and LOTS of time jumps. I'd say about three throughout the entire series. And last comment, the mother and daughter competing for Irie reminded me of Sailor Moon and Usagi and Chibi-usa. And that is all the time I will waste even TALKING about this anime. >.>
Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari 2008 - AKA Yoko's Special: Um. ...Fuck. I don't even know where to begin with this. It was absolutely hysterical in its WTF-ery. Honestly. I enjoyed every second of it though. Basically, Osaka's an independent country and everyone forms these "pairings" of Tsukkomi/Boke and they go around life with these partners. Basically, it's about courting and finding that "one perfect person for you." ...Except under the idea that it's about tsukkomis and bokes. I swear. It's just a special with a gay couple at the core of it. Even better that it's Yokoyama and the guy who played Ogurin in Last Friends with a really weird wig. I just. God, I can't even explain it. It was seriously LOL and WTF the entire time. Yoko's looking for a boke to replace the one that basically betrayed him for a guy that wasn't even a good tsukkomi and he finds Ogurin (I'm sorry, I can't remember any of their names anymore) in this boke club (yes, boke club aka host/hostess club) and they click. But then this rich guy comes to sweep Ogurin "off his feet" or pay for his parents' debt or something, and Ogurin writes this MOVING letter to Yoko, telling him that he should find someone that is more suited for him and that he's been ...well, I can't remember the actual wording, but he alludes to being a "prostitute" for that particular tsukkomi, and I might've LOLed REALLY HARD at the scene in the church and he's walking down the aisle and Yoko's reading the letter with Ogurin voice-overing it. That entire drama special had that kind of air about it. Just, yeah. Definitely DEFINITELY worth the watch. And it's only 22 or so minutes long. So SO worth it. When I talked about this on jep_cast, or at least when we first "broke" the news, I could've sworn it was going to be horror, so seeing "Strange Tales" was like, Oh. That explains a lot. lol
Another Cinderella Story: ...I am apparently so masochistic that I watched this load of turd, and... even worse, that I kinda enjoyed it. In that "I have nothing better to do and you're on, so might as well" except I downloaded this, not watched it on television. Like I said, I'm M. This starred the new Disney poster girl (or at least the one that they're starting to push) Selena Gomez, and the kinda cute lead, Drew Seeley. It was nothing special. AKA nothing you hadn't seen before. I mean, hi. It's called Another Cinderella Story. Except they really did kinda skew it a lot more than the previous incarnations. They made the problems between the two not as difficult to overcome. Halfway through the movie, Drew Seeley (I forgot their names ALREADY, god I'm terrible) and Selena Gomez already get together. Relatively anyway. At that point, I was like. Okay, where are they going to go now? And really, the problem they set up to split them up again was totally explainable and would've been done in 5 minutes had Gomez not been utterly PISSED OFF. lol And the Cinderella here didn't really have some overwhelming background problem that came up and split them up, like it did in Hilary Duff's version (what the fuck happened again? I can barely remember.) I will say a couple of things that were... okay about this movie. This dance scene was hella entertaining. I don't even know if that was really Selena Gomez or not, but impressed. (If it was really her, then wow, even doubly impressed.) Another impressive dance scene.
And this last one could go either ways, but because of this damn movie, I have the song New Classic in my iPod and repeated. Damn them. >.< And for some reason, that sparked me to remember High School Musical (1 and 2), and I got the song I Don't Dance (the only one from the second movie that I actually liked) also stuck in my head and thus moved to my iPod. T.T Frigging Disney. Stupid catchy songs that all sound the same. ~_~;; Close enough anyway.
Anyway, if you're masochistic enough or just want bubble gum teen movie, I guess you could watch this. But there are so many better ones. ...Not that that genre has a lot of mind-blowing movies, guys.
Tengoku wa Matte Kureru: UGHUGHUGH. Okay. I talked about this on jep_cast's last episode, but not everyone listens, so I'm warning everyone here now. This was a load of tripe and cliches. I enjoyed like NONE of it. And if I hadn't been doing my AWESOME multi-tasking skills, I would probably also be complaining about how awfully slow this thing moved. And it moved really slow. First of all, just from the get-go, it was just kinda obvious that this was going to be about a love triangle and thus would be utter cliche and horrid. I mean, the summary has this "One day, Takeshi suddenly asks Kaoru to marry him, although her heart already belongs to Hiroki. Hiroki, though also in love with Kaoru, keeps silent for the sake of his friends’ happiness. Unfortunantly, soon after Hiroki gets into an accident and falls into a coma. After waiting and waiting for Takeshi's recovery, Takeshi's own family gave encouragement to Hiroki to finally proposes to Kaoru, but what will happen once Takeshi wakes up again?" This should've really sent off ALARMS, but I was still curious.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be filled with cliches. Cliche: Takeshi actually falls into the coma the day of the marriage (or that's what i think it was). Cliche: When Kaoru and Hiroki finally decide to move on and decide to get married, Takeshi wakes up! Cliche: Takeshi tells them to be happier with each other and get married after he finds out that hey, he's actually not going to live for very long. CLICHE: HE DIES IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR WEDDING CEREMONY. OKAY. JUST. WHAT. WHATWHATWHATWHAT. Also, stupid move of the day. Let's stare at kids that hey, remind Takeshi of himself, Hiroki and Kaoru as kids, run into the wrong lane, try to swerve out of the lane, get into an accident. I'm sorry. Smart. Fucking. Move. >.> Plus, lol, there was no blood. I'm just saying. It didn't have to be GUSHING OUT OF HIM. A scratch on the face would've sufficed. Seriously. Um, no.
Plus, there was this overuse of triangles where they would constantly stand in like, the formation of a triangle, because that's what they were. A triangle. I'd've gone with a circle because that never breaks. They just hit you OVER THE HEAD with their message. That the three of them were perfect together. They formed the points/sides of a triangle (I'm assuming equilateral, because any other would be weird). And just ASD;AKRJSLFKJ. It was so obvious. They were so obvious. This was an OBVIOUS movie. That's probably the best way to say it. You could call EVERY MOVE as it went on, because really, it was nowhere NEAR rocket science. Yeah. Do not watch unless you ...like obvious movies? You like Inocchi? I don't know. It was just tripe. And oh, Toda Erika shows up. That girl is EVERYWHERE. (I did think she did a good job here though.)
Aquarian Age: That cut kinda tells you what I think of this. I watched this early in the morning (because I woke up and was like, let's watch a movie to pass the time!) and maybe that impairs my judgment somehow. But this movie was STUPID. They tried really hard to make sure not to tell the story outright and just elude to it for half the movie. Which makes for a lot of confusing scenes stuffed together one after the other to "establish" the plot, but only serve to confuse you until finally they TELL you what the fuck is going on. Maybe I needed to watch the movie that this is apparently a spinoff for (according to the summary), but I had hoped not. Basically, if I even have my story straight, there are two different sides - obviously the good and the evil. And they've been fighting for years, and the two boys at the forefront of the movie end up being on the opposite ends, but the guy on the "good" side doesn't even care because his sister's kinda part of the "bad" side and he actually likes the guy that's part of the "bad" side who doesn't even know what's really going on until halfway through the movie (like the rest of us) and doesn't really know any of the history, anything. And he's worried that this "evil side" of him has been doing bad without him knowing it. And it's just so weird. I think the way they decided to tell the story was way too confusing. And maybe it's just me, but the leads looked kinda alike that I got confused who was who until the very end of the movie.
WORST THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE? YOU DO NOT END IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT SCENE. I'M SORRY, BUT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! They suddenly end and it's like. What? Nothing was resolved. What the fuck was all that build-up? Why in the fuck did the bad guy end up being someone that had shown up maybe five minutes before he was revealed to be the evil guy? I'm sorry, but that was just utterly HORRIBLE. Maybe it has a sequel coming up and this was just setting up for that. If that was the plan, then I'm sorry, I'd be walking out of the theatre going, WTF. I AM NOT WASTING MONEY ON A SECOND PART. WHAT IF THEY END IT THE SAME WAY? I wasted my fucking TIME on this movie. Maybe I missed something. I was multi-tasking, but I don't know. This was a DUMB movie. A lot of things happened that didn't actually cohesively come together. Or at least, I didn't think so. If you've seen this and know what the fuck happened and what I missed, please enlighten me, because really. I NEED TO KNOW. >.<
Next up is Teppei and Tamaki Hiroshi's movie KIDS Josho. Here's to hoping I'll actually get a movie that I LIKE. >.>
(Random JE Clips of Notice:
- Okada Junichi - Way of Life Photography Session
- Gakkou e Ikou MAX - Archery Segment
There are probably more clips I could link to. I've been watching a handful of V6 videos. :DDD Have I mentioned here yet that I'm growing an affection for them? I've finally been able to pin down Nagano and Innochi. lol They took me the longest for some reason. Sakamoto, I think, is hands down my favorite. Second is Hadaka-san, I mean, Okada. :D)
P.S. No Wonder I Made a Crap Math Major (I actually understood perverted jokes).
P.P.S. FUCK, THIS POST TOOK FOREVER. Also, it's nearly 5000 words. That... Is hysterical to me. If you actually read all of this, you deserve a prize. I don't know what it is, but you deserve one. How about cookies?
I've watched a SHITLOAD of stuff and haven't managed to talk about them yet sooooo~ Here we go! :D And of course, every single one of these include spoilers.
Tokyo Daikushu: Peyton was the one that told me about this as, I think, she watched it as soon as it came out and raved on about how great it was (and heartbreaking). So once she told me it had been subbed, I jumped on the chance to watch it. Even though I knew it would likely break my heart because it centers around Tokyo during World War II and the heartbreaking stories that Maki's character, Haruka, goes through as she fights to survive. To live. And that sounds slightly mocking, but I swear it's not. I actually thought this was a brilliant watch - but only if you have the time, because both parts together equal four hours of sheer depression. ...Oh, you might also need to have the will to go through it, I expect. It's rather depressing and if I was not cold-hearted (although I will amend that comment later), I would've been weeping every single scene.
All that said, I do have a few comments on it. For one thing, near the end of the special (or really actually by the end of the first part), it almost seemed to become a "Let's kill every character that we've ever established to break everyone's heart and not neglect any that may have become favorite characters." >.> Okay, this probably speaks to the reality of the situation, as in that there was just basically no guarantee that you (figurative you) would survive such a massacre. And as horrible as what I'm about to say sounds, I thought that the air raid in the first part that the Americans launched was rather brilliant on their part. Devastating to the Japanese, but that's the reason they did it that way, isn't it? And well, it is a Japanese centric special so... yeah. lol Just a hats off to the Americans of that time. Rather smart. Anyway, Maki did a really good job, I thought. Although her death scene made me go WTF. Because honestly, that was just. ...I don't even know. Also, was that plane just gunning for anyone that was alive that they could tell? If so, wow. Asshole. But really, WHAT was that? "Please. Stop killing." I'm sorry, dear, but they PROBABLY, most likely could not hear a single word you just said. Yes, I understand they were going the dramatic route where she was just expressing something everyone felt, but still.
Oh. Big WTF moment. The moment the doctor dies (for the second time, imo), he has that scene where Maya Miki's character greets him in "heaven" and says something and just blahblahblah. It was seriously a WTF moment. I was sitting there for literally five minutes wondering WHAT IN THE HELL that brought to the special. It was seriously weird. Also, was surprised to see that stupid girl who got engulfed in flames was still alive in the second part. (Sorry, she was really kinda dumb. I understand the mentality they were going for, but she just came off as stupid.) I suppose I should just be happy her and her fiancee actually met up. ...You know, before dying a second after. XP As much as I say all this shit about it, I really really enjoyed it. The characters were all distinct, they had their own things going for them, and except for stupid girl, I really did mourn most of the deaths. (ESPECIALLY EITA. T.T P.S. why was he playing a Korean? Seriously. Why? Casting people. What was up with THAT?) And you guys all know I love Maya Miki. T.T Her death. asd;lkrjalskdjf On the bridge, with flames around her, remembering the doctor's words. *SOB* (Not literally, of course.) Worst death, besides Eita's that is, THE BABY. TAKESHI. T.T.T.T.T Okay. I just. ;alskdjfklasjdf Heartbreaking, hands down. Just heartbreaking.
Um. What else? I was just glad that Tomoko (I keep thinking Tomoyo) was able to get Hiroto that glass figure (or at least half of it) to him and that once he got it, he stopped waiting. That was really nice. Sad that he died alone, but he wasn't. ...Not really. And I like that he kept on living and that he threw away his name after the war. asdk;jaslfj OTP. T.T Speaking of, for a cold-hearted woman (girl as I still call myself), I actually teared up during the scene at the end where Tomoko's talking to Hiroto and telling her that Haruka would've wanted him to have it, and that she'd been searching for him. And he sees the glass with all its air bubbles and recognizes it and it's just a;lkdjfalskjf Long lasting love that lasts decades moves me. Just love that lasts for long periods of time - One of the things that I think I will forever just adore and treasure. Yes, so babbling done, I definitely think it's worth a watch. Most definitely. (If you don't read this due to fear of spoilers, long LONG review short, I recommend this for those who 1) have the time (it's four hours long) and 2) can deal with watching something that's made to stir the hearts, aka absolutely depressing.
Tomorrow: Oh man. It's been a while since I've seen this (maybe a week?) so the details are rusty. I think I actually marathoned the last few episodes after having it sit in my laptop for ...well, weeks. lol I'd been putting it off. That said, once I got started, I couldn't stop until I actually finished it. It's not so much that I was intrigued, but more like I'd gotten so far that I just had to finish it. AKA, WHAT THE HELL WOULD HAPPEN TO THIS DAMN HOSPITAL? The ending was very, very neatly tied up and kinda fit into this nice small little package of UNBELIEVABILITY, but whatever, I ate up whatever they were trying to feed me. It did drag as a drama as every episode, something would happen to the actually HOSPITAL staff, to the point that it was like... Um, who's actually working again? Yeah. >.< I mean, even Endou-sensei falls down STAIRS and has to have an emergency operation, which, okay, whatever. I actually kinda got bored with everything that was related to Endou-sensei - especially her mother story which took up a portion of episode... what? 9? And turned her "good?" Um, whatever.
I will admit to this. Episode 9 and 10 were apparently SO solid to me (minus, you know, the ending and the Endou storyline) that during Episode 9, I actually teared up a little. But I will explain why. In episode 9, we meet Sendou's wife, and she is amazing. You know, for the FIVE SECONDS that she's conscious on our screen. ...Yeah, that kinda tells you what happens to her. She just kinda collapses near the beginning of the episode and falls into a coma which was supposed to mirror Endou's mom's situation. And Sendou, for maybe 10 minutes, struggles with the idea that if her breathing gets tough on her own (or something like that), they'd have to put her on basically life support. The thing was, Sendou's wife had left a "living will" where she had said specially that she didn't want to be PUT on life support if ever she entered a vegetative state. But during a moment where they see that her breathing is in trouble, he makes the decision to put her on life support, despite her wishes. Turns out, the living will had a second part to it, and it said that while she wants to die "with dignity," if Sendou couldn't deal with the idea of her being gone, it was okay for him to put her on life support and keep her alive for as long as it took to "calm his heart." Just typing that out makes me go all gushy inside of me and I start tearing up all over again. "Your sorrow is my sorrow." I'm sorry, but long lasting love (like I said before) makes me go all mushy and it makes me tear up. That was probably the most moving thing I'd ever seen a husband and wife do for each other. And she's frigging pretty much dead. In the end, he finally decides to take her off, and it was just a;lsdkjfalksjdlfkj Oh god. My heart. Now that was for episode nine.
Episode 10 had tears STREAMING down my face, and not for long lasting love. Now this one, I don't even know. Maybe I was still all moved from episode 9, but episode 10... I don't even know. At the end of 9... I'm pretty sure, we find out that they officially have to close down the hospital, so during 10, everyone's separated - they're trying to find new jobs, or already have them - trying to move on. Except for... Oh shit, forgot the leads NAMES. LOL. Um, lead guy, lead girl, and Sendou-san are still struggling with the idea that the hospital's closed. And they start trying to find ways to get it back which leads to a petition started by lead girl and there's this festival and something falls over that causes everything to fall over and everyone pretty much gets wounded, including lead gi-TANAKA! ...Right? Aiko. Ai-sempai. I don't care. Anyway, the community hospital is pretty much the nearest and it just so happens that lead guy (whose name I can't be bothered to even try to remember and is not slipping out of my head as easily) is inside and they just have a bit of supplies that they can take like Ai-chan, the daughter of the Deputy Mayor who hit her head. But then the ambulances bring everyone in, and really, there's only ONE doctor, ONE nurse, and whatever Sendou-san does (You know, I never figured that out). So they try doing it one by one by one, except Tanaka is still smarting from the injury she received and then they find out that, fuck, it's internal bleeding, and lead guy needs to do an operation on Ai-chan because something with the head, and he needs to do one on Tanaka immediately or else she'll die, and then "clunk clunk" or whatever sound heels make on floor, and look Endou-sensei.
After that, everyone comes out of NOWHERE, and okay, I had tears streaming down my face and I'm incredulous at the same time, because WHAT IN THE FUCK, THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE AND OMG, THEY ARE TRYING SO HARD TO PUSH "CAMARADERIE" and it just gets worse as the episode goes on, because then the citizens start chipping in, and one of them sees the Deputy Mayor just sitting around, worrying about his daughter and is all "If you don't start helping out now in this situation, when will you ever?" And really, I should so not be crying, but there I am, trying to wipe away my tears. It was just SO CRAZY. Anyway, in the end, they have no casualties and the townspeople are happy and they helped out and ohmygod, just writing this is making me go, WHY DID YOU CRY!??! YOU CRAZY GIRL. Anyway, it was tied up in such a nice little box with a bow on top. They rebel against that guy who was funding everything, aka calling all the shots, and the hospital is brought back and because of lead guy's suggestion, a year later, they're doing "great" and doctors are trying to join the hospital staff and blahblahblah. Ohmygod, such cheese. Frigging insane.
One last comment, the last scene with lead guy and Tanaka (man, I had hoped I'd remember his name by now at least). They have this "moment" up on the roof where she comments on how many times she's seen the sun rise and of course, that goes with the tagline of the drama, and then she's kinda looking at him and is like, "I want to see the sun rise every morning. With you." And I may have laughed when he said (probably not completely accurate as I'm trying to REMEMBER all this), "Every morning? That's kinda rough. Can we stay in during rainy days?" And it's just so cheeky and kinda slides in there that it totally works for me, and Tanaka's kinda aghast and is all, "I didn't mean it like that!" And he tells her that he knows, and I'm thinking, fuck, just stop with the tension and do something. And all that happens is that she turns to give him a HANDSHAKE. A HANDSHAKE. OHMYGOD. THAT'S WHAT THE OTP AMOUNTED TO. >.< Other than that, I love that line about rainy days. And I finished another drama from last season. That makes my track record pretty good actually. lol
Maou: Another drama that I finished! ...This morning actually. Just before everything, I scoffed at the end and the black butterflies. Okay? Just getting that out there now, because I feel like I'm going to bring it up randomly so got it out of the way. I might've also loled. ...Or at least, I would've if I were not on a public bus on my way to school. lol I thought the ending was appropriate for the drama. I really saw no other way out except to kill the two, because at this point, there was no redemption. They'd done so much, or rather Naruse/Tomoo had done so much that there was no way to redeem him. I rather liked the idea of black/white in this drama, in the way that there is none. There is always gray. Oh, actually, I take that back. Psycho childhood friend that stabbed Naruse and Kasai (SADDEST DEATH FOR ME. T.T) was totally just evil. Evil evil evil. I kinda wish we'd heard what had happened to him, because they don't even mention it past the announcement on the news searching for him. Did he get arrested? Did he die? I hope he died. He deserved a death. ://// (As horrible as that sounds.)
Back to Kasai. I just. I was actually really sympathetic to him despite all the shit he'd done or had a hand in, mainly for the fact that he loved ...whatever her face is, so much that he was willing to sacrifice everything to protect her. Granted, I've seen this so many times, but I mean, that scene where he's searching for the engagement ring and he finds the perfect one and he even has to check the bag when he bumps into someone was just a;lskdjflaksjd And while he's dying on the street, they cut to a scene of whatsherface cooking dinner and she's prepared the plates and the wine glasses and I was devastated for both of them. She threw away her life to save him and she knew she'd be happier that way. It was just all heartbreaking. Jumping tracks, all the dark tunnel references was good at first, then they overused it. That got kinda annoying, especially that last scene. Speaking of, what was the point of that? To show that someone has learnt from their experiences or something? I didn't see the point of that. I might've rather a different scene there - it was kinda pointless.
Toma and Ohno's scene at the end, their "death" scene, was just... Hmm. I liked it but at the same time, it dragged? I don't know. I was nearing the end, and there were like 12 minutes left, and I wondered to myself, why in the fuck is there still 12 minutes left? Toma's death scene took ages. But that does not top how long OHNO took to die. I mean he took a knife to the stomach or something, and while he could make his way to the scene, Toma lasted like five seconds and plop, dead. I do have to admit that the end result that Naruse was gunning for, I didn't expect it. I did not expect Naruse to want to push Naoto so much to the point that he'd kill Naruse and then could atone for his sins by going to jail for that death. That it wouldn't be "self-defense." ;alkdjflkasd I just. Yeah, was not expecting that. I gave them an A+ for that. Um. I half expected Shiori to be pregnant with Naruse's baby at the end, even though I knew they hadn't done the deed. I don't even know why. And I'll end there. lol No major rambling because man, I'm already thinking this is going to be a massive long post.
Itazura na Kiss: And no, I'm not angry because I wanted more. Oh, this is so going to be short. Waste of my LIFE. Honestly, I don't know why I stuck with this for so long other than the fact that I'd started and just keep watching. It could've ended at episode 24 with the birth of their child, but no. They dragged it on for another episode for a reason I don't get. Even the characters (even if it was jokingly) wonder wtf at the end of episode 24 when they're doing the preview and they're like, ANOTHER EPISODE?! WHAT?! Yeah. Anyway, whatever. Beginning and middle were kinda eh. Beginning because there was too much lead guy was an asshole and why in the fuck is she in love with him. Middle because it got kinda slow and boring. Ending picked up just a bit, and it became a LITTLE more enjoyable. But barely at that. Only suffer through this if you feel like you can, honestly. It was really just blah. Lots of time jumps, I have to say. Didn't expect it, but yes. Lots and LOTS of time jumps. I'd say about three throughout the entire series. And last comment, the mother and daughter competing for Irie reminded me of Sailor Moon and Usagi and Chibi-usa. And that is all the time I will waste even TALKING about this anime. >.>
Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari 2008 - AKA Yoko's Special: Um. ...Fuck. I don't even know where to begin with this. It was absolutely hysterical in its WTF-ery. Honestly. I enjoyed every second of it though. Basically, Osaka's an independent country and everyone forms these "pairings" of Tsukkomi/Boke and they go around life with these partners. Basically, it's about courting and finding that "one perfect person for you." ...Except under the idea that it's about tsukkomis and bokes. I swear. It's just a special with a gay couple at the core of it. Even better that it's Yokoyama and the guy who played Ogurin in Last Friends with a really weird wig. I just. God, I can't even explain it. It was seriously LOL and WTF the entire time. Yoko's looking for a boke to replace the one that basically betrayed him for a guy that wasn't even a good tsukkomi and he finds Ogurin (I'm sorry, I can't remember any of their names anymore) in this boke club (yes, boke club aka host/hostess club) and they click. But then this rich guy comes to sweep Ogurin "off his feet" or pay for his parents' debt or something, and Ogurin writes this MOVING letter to Yoko, telling him that he should find someone that is more suited for him and that he's been ...well, I can't remember the actual wording, but he alludes to being a "prostitute" for that particular tsukkomi, and I might've LOLed REALLY HARD at the scene in the church and he's walking down the aisle and Yoko's reading the letter with Ogurin voice-overing it. That entire drama special had that kind of air about it. Just, yeah. Definitely DEFINITELY worth the watch. And it's only 22 or so minutes long. So SO worth it. When I talked about this on jep_cast, or at least when we first "broke" the news, I could've sworn it was going to be horror, so seeing "Strange Tales" was like, Oh. That explains a lot. lol
Another Cinderella Story: ...I am apparently so masochistic that I watched this load of turd, and... even worse, that I kinda enjoyed it. In that "I have nothing better to do and you're on, so might as well" except I downloaded this, not watched it on television. Like I said, I'm M. This starred the new Disney poster girl (or at least the one that they're starting to push) Selena Gomez, and the kinda cute lead, Drew Seeley. It was nothing special. AKA nothing you hadn't seen before. I mean, hi. It's called Another Cinderella Story. Except they really did kinda skew it a lot more than the previous incarnations. They made the problems between the two not as difficult to overcome. Halfway through the movie, Drew Seeley (I forgot their names ALREADY, god I'm terrible) and Selena Gomez already get together. Relatively anyway. At that point, I was like. Okay, where are they going to go now? And really, the problem they set up to split them up again was totally explainable and would've been done in 5 minutes had Gomez not been utterly PISSED OFF. lol And the Cinderella here didn't really have some overwhelming background problem that came up and split them up, like it did in Hilary Duff's version (what the fuck happened again? I can barely remember.) I will say a couple of things that were... okay about this movie. This dance scene was hella entertaining. I don't even know if that was really Selena Gomez or not, but impressed. (If it was really her, then wow, even doubly impressed.) Another impressive dance scene.
And this last one could go either ways, but because of this damn movie, I have the song New Classic in my iPod and repeated. Damn them. >.< And for some reason, that sparked me to remember High School Musical (1 and 2), and I got the song I Don't Dance (the only one from the second movie that I actually liked) also stuck in my head and thus moved to my iPod. T.T Frigging Disney. Stupid catchy songs that all sound the same. ~_~;; Close enough anyway.
Anyway, if you're masochistic enough or just want bubble gum teen movie, I guess you could watch this. But there are so many better ones. ...Not that that genre has a lot of mind-blowing movies, guys.
Tengoku wa Matte Kureru: UGHUGHUGH. Okay. I talked about this on jep_cast's last episode, but not everyone listens, so I'm warning everyone here now. This was a load of tripe and cliches. I enjoyed like NONE of it. And if I hadn't been doing my AWESOME multi-tasking skills, I would probably also be complaining about how awfully slow this thing moved. And it moved really slow. First of all, just from the get-go, it was just kinda obvious that this was going to be about a love triangle and thus would be utter cliche and horrid. I mean, the summary has this "One day, Takeshi suddenly asks Kaoru to marry him, although her heart already belongs to Hiroki. Hiroki, though also in love with Kaoru, keeps silent for the sake of his friends’ happiness. Unfortunantly, soon after Hiroki gets into an accident and falls into a coma. After waiting and waiting for Takeshi's recovery, Takeshi's own family gave encouragement to Hiroki to finally proposes to Kaoru, but what will happen once Takeshi wakes up again?" This should've really sent off ALARMS, but I was still curious.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be filled with cliches. Cliche: Takeshi actually falls into the coma the day of the marriage (or that's what i think it was). Cliche: When Kaoru and Hiroki finally decide to move on and decide to get married, Takeshi wakes up! Cliche: Takeshi tells them to be happier with each other and get married after he finds out that hey, he's actually not going to live for very long. CLICHE: HE DIES IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR WEDDING CEREMONY. OKAY. JUST. WHAT. WHATWHATWHATWHAT. Also, stupid move of the day. Let's stare at kids that hey, remind Takeshi of himself, Hiroki and Kaoru as kids, run into the wrong lane, try to swerve out of the lane, get into an accident. I'm sorry. Smart. Fucking. Move. >.> Plus, lol, there was no blood. I'm just saying. It didn't have to be GUSHING OUT OF HIM. A scratch on the face would've sufficed. Seriously. Um, no.
Plus, there was this overuse of triangles where they would constantly stand in like, the formation of a triangle, because that's what they were. A triangle. I'd've gone with a circle because that never breaks. They just hit you OVER THE HEAD with their message. That the three of them were perfect together. They formed the points/sides of a triangle (I'm assuming equilateral, because any other would be weird). And just ASD;AKRJSLFKJ. It was so obvious. They were so obvious. This was an OBVIOUS movie. That's probably the best way to say it. You could call EVERY MOVE as it went on, because really, it was nowhere NEAR rocket science. Yeah. Do not watch unless you ...like obvious movies? You like Inocchi? I don't know. It was just tripe. And oh, Toda Erika shows up. That girl is EVERYWHERE. (I did think she did a good job here though.)
Aquarian Age: That cut kinda tells you what I think of this. I watched this early in the morning (because I woke up and was like, let's watch a movie to pass the time!) and maybe that impairs my judgment somehow. But this movie was STUPID. They tried really hard to make sure not to tell the story outright and just elude to it for half the movie. Which makes for a lot of confusing scenes stuffed together one after the other to "establish" the plot, but only serve to confuse you until finally they TELL you what the fuck is going on. Maybe I needed to watch the movie that this is apparently a spinoff for (according to the summary), but I had hoped not. Basically, if I even have my story straight, there are two different sides - obviously the good and the evil. And they've been fighting for years, and the two boys at the forefront of the movie end up being on the opposite ends, but the guy on the "good" side doesn't even care because his sister's kinda part of the "bad" side and he actually likes the guy that's part of the "bad" side who doesn't even know what's really going on until halfway through the movie (like the rest of us) and doesn't really know any of the history, anything. And he's worried that this "evil side" of him has been doing bad without him knowing it. And it's just so weird. I think the way they decided to tell the story was way too confusing. And maybe it's just me, but the leads looked kinda alike that I got confused who was who until the very end of the movie.
WORST THING ABOUT THIS MOVIE? YOU DO NOT END IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT SCENE. I'M SORRY, BUT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! They suddenly end and it's like. What? Nothing was resolved. What the fuck was all that build-up? Why in the fuck did the bad guy end up being someone that had shown up maybe five minutes before he was revealed to be the evil guy? I'm sorry, but that was just utterly HORRIBLE. Maybe it has a sequel coming up and this was just setting up for that. If that was the plan, then I'm sorry, I'd be walking out of the theatre going, WTF. I AM NOT WASTING MONEY ON A SECOND PART. WHAT IF THEY END IT THE SAME WAY? I wasted my fucking TIME on this movie. Maybe I missed something. I was multi-tasking, but I don't know. This was a DUMB movie. A lot of things happened that didn't actually cohesively come together. Or at least, I didn't think so. If you've seen this and know what the fuck happened and what I missed, please enlighten me, because really. I NEED TO KNOW. >.<
Next up is Teppei and Tamaki Hiroshi's movie KIDS Josho. Here's to hoping I'll actually get a movie that I LIKE. >.>
(Random JE Clips of Notice:
- Okada Junichi - Way of Life Photography Session
- Gakkou e Ikou MAX - Archery Segment
There are probably more clips I could link to. I've been watching a handful of V6 videos. :DDD Have I mentioned here yet that I'm growing an affection for them? I've finally been able to pin down Nagano and Innochi. lol They took me the longest for some reason. Sakamoto, I think, is hands down my favorite. Second is Hadaka-san, I mean, Okada. :D)
P.S. No Wonder I Made a Crap Math Major (I actually understood perverted jokes).
P.P.S. FUCK, THIS POST TOOK FOREVER. Also, it's nearly 5000 words. That... Is hysterical to me. If you actually read all of this, you deserve a prize. I don't know what it is, but you deserve one. How about cookies?