This may pretty much only be interesting to, like, two people on my flist...

[marah_sarie]

...and even then possibly not.

Basically, the likelihood of my watching a Japanese drama depends heavily on two criteria:

* Does it feature a member of the band SMAP?
* Does it feature the actor Abe HiroshiThe drama that one of the Japanese history lecturers at work burned to DVD for me happens to feature BOTH Abe Hiroshi (

Comments

[entropy_house]

MMm... definitely see tasty possibilities, there.

[marah_sarie]

My love for Kimura Takuya (Kimutaku) is actually REALLY embarrassing, because SMAP is like the Japanese equivalent of... New Kids on the Block, really, if New Kids on the Block were still releasing #1 albums and if each of the band members had super successful acting careers. And Kimutaku is basically the band "heart-throb" to begin with.

Even more embarrassing, I totally fell for Kimutaku because he was the voice of Howl, in Howl's Moving Castle, which I saw a bunch of times in the cinema when it came out in Japan. It's pretty much the only anime I've ever gone all fannish-obsessive over, to the point of getting a hold of a transcript and spending several weeks translating it into English. Uh, but it was good way to practice!

Anyways, their characters in this are hot and rather slashy. AND watching it is still a good way to keep up my Japanese! Uh, or something, yeah. :)

[entropy_house]

It definitely doesn't hurt a show if the guys in it are gorgeous.

[ladysarahii]

Mmmm, gorgeous people. Also, that totally was The West Wing, I agree. The walking and talking would put the American version to shame!

[marah_sarie]

Heh. True! But, god, any scenes with the characters riding around in an election van, using loud speakers and asking everyone to vote for them? It brought back way too many memories of being woken up far far too early in the morning by those annoying things. :)

[ladysarahii]

Heh! The morning I left Japan they were up and at 'em at 7:30 in the morning and ranted for the better part of an hour. But then, I tried to get my suitcases across the street to the bus station and dropped everything in the middle of the street--too heavy. One of the guys stopped and picked up one of my suitcases and offered to take it to the station for me. I couldn't stay mad. *g*

[marah_sarie]

Hee! Well, I linked to the first part on youtube up there, and the rest appears to be findable from there. As long as you don't mind the Chinese subtitles. :)

And, yeah, emphasis is on "wanting to be" West Wing - in that it takes place in the Diet and is about politicians doing good. But Japanese politics is booooooooooring, so naturally it's pretty light on the wonky policy stuff and heavy on the shots of Kimutaku looking pretty. :)