Trick II
My DVDs of the other 2 Trick series(plus the special) came, and I watched the first episode of Trick II last night.
I was a teensy nervous, as it seems dorama sequels tend to not be as good as the first series, but fortunately the episode was quite wonderful. It more picks up where the first series left off than is a new series, which is just fine. Subs could be better...they're far from horrible, but a lot of the jokes in Trick have to do with the same word meaning different things, and, while they do a good job of explaining it, it gets a little lost when there are typos.
For example, in the episode, Ueda is asked to solve the mystery of why a person will die on the same day every year at an inn. The innkeeper tells him there's a "shido," which can mean "secret sword" or "secret spa." He knows Naoko hates it when he drags her off to investigate stuff and then gets all the credit(I can never decide if he deliberately takes the credit, or is just oblivious to the fact he's getting all the credit until after the fact) so he uses the lure of a secret spa to get her there. When she goes looking for it, she tells the innkeeper she's looking for the shido, and he shows her the sword. It was still exceptionally funny because they explain the mistake in the subs, but still...
Also, OTP is still running strong and oblivious. I love it when Ueda falls for another woman(it never lasts more than 10 minutes...he has a "damsel in distress" complex but is so used to Naoko that he forgets she's female...plus, I don't think he respects other women's brains, but he has to respect Naoko's, so he forgets as a form of self defense) Naoko can't resist teasing him...Nakama Yukie's "deep voice" as she mimics him cracks me up. But yeah, he's still constantly trying to pull a trick on her and getting caught out with (to him) disgusting ease then falling for any trick she pulls, and he can still out logic her into being carted along on his various adventures. *squishes together then reinflates Nakama Yukie because Abe Hiroshi is huge and she's tiny*
And, the "Ueda Jiro is a clueless woobie" section:
1) Tries to trick a woman with a trick she probably taught him when he fell for it before.
2) Uses the lure of a spa to get her to come on a case with him.
3) Only gets one room(and NEITHER of them seem to have noticed it...)
4) Calls her mother to let her know where her daughter is andthat she's with him, even though it's only for a couple of days(there was a tiny squee...)
5) Clueless blank look when his partner is mocking him for falling for yet another damsl in distress(seriously...he's an academic genius, but his only rival in social dimness is Naoko herself...)
Random side thoughts:
The end song and animation has changed...they're both nice, but I prefer the ones from the first serious, especially the animation, as it so perfectly displayed their respective hangups. However, I didn't notice that until a few episodes in, so I may end up liking this one just as much.
Also, from this one episode, it seems that the "Naoko figures out a trick just to learn it's masking another trick" is gone...or at least diluted. WhileI thought it was overdone in the first series(I thought it occassionally diluted her intuitiveness to have her constantly not quite getting it right until several tries later) I hope it's not completely gone.
I was a teensy nervous, as it seems dorama sequels tend to not be as good as the first series, but fortunately the episode was quite wonderful. It more picks up where the first series left off than is a new series, which is just fine. Subs could be better...they're far from horrible, but a lot of the jokes in Trick have to do with the same word meaning different things, and, while they do a good job of explaining it, it gets a little lost when there are typos.
For example, in the episode, Ueda is asked to solve the mystery of why a person will die on the same day every year at an inn. The innkeeper tells him there's a "shido," which can mean "secret sword" or "secret spa." He knows Naoko hates it when he drags her off to investigate stuff and then gets all the credit(I can never decide if he deliberately takes the credit, or is just oblivious to the fact he's getting all the credit until after the fact) so he uses the lure of a secret spa to get her there. When she goes looking for it, she tells the innkeeper she's looking for the shido, and he shows her the sword. It was still exceptionally funny because they explain the mistake in the subs, but still...
Also, OTP is still running strong and oblivious. I love it when Ueda falls for another woman(it never lasts more than 10 minutes...he has a "damsel in distress" complex but is so used to Naoko that he forgets she's female...plus, I don't think he respects other women's brains, but he has to respect Naoko's, so he forgets as a form of self defense) Naoko can't resist teasing him...Nakama Yukie's "deep voice" as she mimics him cracks me up. But yeah, he's still constantly trying to pull a trick on her and getting caught out with (to him) disgusting ease then falling for any trick she pulls, and he can still out logic her into being carted along on his various adventures. *squishes together then reinflates Nakama Yukie because Abe Hiroshi is huge and she's tiny*
And, the "Ueda Jiro is a clueless woobie" section:
1) Tries to trick a woman with a trick she probably taught him when he fell for it before.
2) Uses the lure of a spa to get her to come on a case with him.
3) Only gets one room(and NEITHER of them seem to have noticed it...)
4) Calls her mother to let her know where her daughter is andthat she's with him, even though it's only for a couple of days(there was a tiny squee...)
5) Clueless blank look when his partner is mocking him for falling for yet another damsl in distress(seriously...he's an academic genius, but his only rival in social dimness is Naoko herself...)
Random side thoughts:
The end song and animation has changed...they're both nice, but I prefer the ones from the first serious, especially the animation, as it so perfectly displayed their respective hangups. However, I didn't notice that until a few episodes in, so I may end up liking this one just as much.
Also, from this one episode, it seems that the "Naoko figures out a trick just to learn it's masking another trick" is gone...or at least diluted. WhileI thought it was overdone in the first series(I thought it occassionally diluted her intuitiveness to have her constantly not quite getting it right until several tries later) I hope it's not completely gone.