Skip Beat live action

Long time no see, my friends. I really have no excuses for how long it's been since my last post except for my own laziness. Still, I hope you'll keep reading my posts and not hold it against me.

Real life has been so busy that I didn't have time to watch anything recently. However, the moment I heard Skip Beat, my most favourite manga of all times, has been turned into a live action, I couldn't simply let it go. How could I not find time for such a marvelous little drama?

I find it hard to believe that someone might not have at least heard of this manga, especially since it's already been made into a very awesome anime as well. Yet, for those of you who haven't heard about it, here's a little summary of the story:

Plot:

Kyoko Mogami has moved from Kyoto to Tokyo with only one goal in mind - supporting her boyfriend, Fuwa Shoutaro, in realizing his dream of becoming a top singer. But now that Sho has made his dream come true, he hardly pays any attention to her, even though Kyoko works four part-time jobs in order to pay the rent to their super expensive apartment. Only when Kyoko manages to enter his studio does she finds out, by accidentally eavesdropping on Shou talking to his manager, that all this time he has only considered her his maid. Furious, Kyoko confronts him, but Sho is only amused by the situation. Mockingly he tells her that the only way she could ever get close to him from then on would be by entering the showbiz industry. Kyoko accepts the challenge and, thus, begins her journey to becoming a famous star.

Acting:

Since this is a taiwanese live action, it's no surprise that the names have been changed. Kyoko became Gong Xi, Shou - Shang, Ren -  Lian and so on. To be honest, I imagined a whole different cast, but I was pleasantly surprised by Ivy Chen's acting. She is the most adorable actress I've ever seen! As for Choi Si Won, his face is flawless, I must admit, but, so far, his acting hasn't convinced me much. Is it the language barrier, I wonder? After all, he only lip-syncs and much of the acting is lost in the process I suppose. It's tough to really look at him when the image of the mouth moving completely differently form the sounds distracts you ll the time. The same goes for Donghae, another Super Junior handsome member, who plays the role of Shang. Although I must admit I consider him a little more expressive than Choi Si Won. The person I really liked was Bianca Bai, who acts flawlessly as Gong Xi's best friend. All in all, a surprising, but very nice cast.

Personal opinion:

As I said, skip Beat is my most favourite manga. There is no way anything would surpass it in my mind. As a result, I very much enjoyed this live action that follows the manga story almost to the T. Of course, I still think the manga is better, obviously, but I am 100 % sure that any Skip Beat fan will enjoy it. As for non-Skip Beat readers, I still think the cute characters and funny situations, but especially strong message of this story, which is GIRL POWER, will definitely reach your heart.
I really recommend this girly comedy to all girls out there who are fighting for their dreams and even to boys, as long as they can handle utter cuteness :D

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Happy Holidays!

Dear readers, I haven't been around much lately, but I hope you haven't forgotten me! I wish you a very merry Christmas and Happy Holidays among people you love! Remember that nothing is more important than love! I sincerely hope that all your Christmas wishes come true!

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Ouran High School Host Club - live action

Hello everyone!
First of all, allow me to apologize for the huge lack of post. Whether anyone cares or not, I feel it is necessary to excuse myself as I had been going through a very important phase in my life  - the whole getting a degree mess. Well, now that all this crazy period is over, I can concentrate more on my blogs and getting some writing done.
Once again, thank you very much for following this blog and for being patient with me. Arigato!

Now, let's get back to business!

As probably most of you know, this summer season's drama list is flooded with much awaited arrivals of new live actions. One of those is Ouran High School Host Club, which is the live action of the very famous manga and anime bearing the same title.

Plot:
The plot of the drama is pretty simple - Haruhi, a very hardworking student gets a scholarship for an elite high school. One day, while searching for a quite place to study, she stumbles upon a music room, unaware of the fact that this was the location of the renowned Ouran host club. Accidentally, she brakes an expensive vase and the boys force her to work off her debt by becoming a host.
The drama is what is known amongst the anime fans as a "reverse harem" which basically means that one main female character is surrounded by many other male characters who usually end up falling in love with her ( if not all, at least most of them).

Acting:

The main roles are played by a very cute actress  - Kawaguchi Haruna, who also starred in Yankee-kun to Megane-chan and Tokyo Dogs-  and nice funny guy - Yamamoto Yusuke, whom we've known from other dramas too (personally, I remember him from Atashinchi no danshi). To be honest, I imagined the real life version of Tamaki as a much more handsome and cuter guy (an Akanishi Jin kind of guy maybe?), but his acting is cute enough to be forgiven. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's ugly, just...not the kind of Tamaki I envisioned.
As for the other actors, honestly, they're all so handsome it's hard to pick a favorite. Daito Shunsuke, who's playing Kyoya, is one such gorgeous example. Not only is he beautiful, but he's also very talented. Of course, it is hard to point that out with only 2 episodes of Ouran, but i remember being very impressed with his acting in LADY. I have no doubt that Ouran won't shed much light on his talent, but at least he's one piece of eyecandy that girls aren't allowed to miss.
The same goes for all the other actors: Nakamura Masaya, playing Mori-senpai is very handsome, though quite a new face in the acting industry and "Honey"-senpai is embodied by the cutest guy I've ever seen (only one year younger then me!? Mommy, I want to move to Japan!!!) by the name of Chiba Yudai, also a new face.
But the cutest thing of this drama is the pair of twins - Kaoru and Hikaru- who, guess what (?), are twins in real life (!) : Takagi Shinpei and Takagi Manpei. How adorable!

Personal opinion:

Honestly, what struck me most about this drama was not the drama itself, but the viewers' comments : "omg, I can't wait for more! I loved it!" kind of comments.
Well, I can wait for more. Actually, I'm not sure I really want more.
Yes, the actors are handsome and I love the anime so much! I could probably watch it my whole life on repeat actually - but I'm afraid I won't go that far, you know, just for the sake of my sanity. BUT, maybe due to the fact that I loved the anime that much, I can't keep feeling that this drama isn't living up to any of the fans' expectations. The episodes are too short. The action is quite slow and boring and too over the top, plus I can't see any chemistry between Haruhi and Tamaki.
As for the special visual effects -  which are indeed awesome visually speaking - they turned out to be quite a turn off for me. I mean, in an anime it's ok, but in the drama they're quite freaky... And I think they use them too much to cover up the... bad vibes ( or something?).
It just... doesn't raise to my expectations and with that I've said it all.
Of course, it's only been two episodes so I'm probably being too picky and subjective and things will probably get better, but, for the time being, until there are a few  more episodes added, I don't really recommend this drama, unless you only wnat to watch it for the guys.

That's it for today (hope no one will curse me for my negativism :P ). I'll be back soon!

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Rebound - a unique romantic comedy

Plot :

Nobuko is a successful journalist working for the top women magazine "Eden". However she has a very humiliating secret. In reality, Nobuko has been fat for most of her life and she barely managed to loose weight thanks to an exceptionally good nutritionist. Nobuko has always loved cakes and she was warned by her doctor that if she ever tastes a cake again her will will definitely be broken.
Nobuko's boss sends her to a cake shop to make an article about it and she discovers that it's the same cake shop where she tasted her very first cake. The owner is now the son of the previous owner, but Nobuko isn't impressed by his sweets. She writes a harsh article that practically destroys the shop's reputation. Now, driven by guilt, she lets the owner convince her to test the cakes he makes until he manages to make them delicious enough to rebuilt his reputation. But what happens if Nokubo's weight rebounds?

Cast:

The main characters are superbly portrayed by the same actors who played the main roles in Absolute Boyfriend : Aibu Saki and Hayami Mokomichi. To be honest, I hate Nobuko's way of speaking (she's almost screaming all the time and she's overly excited), however, I cannot deny that Aibu Saki did an extraordinary work in portraying this character. Not only did she have to wear a special costume and make-up in order to look fat, but she also depicted the main character's feelings' perfectly. Hayami Mokomichi is a great partner that complements Aibu-san's acting entirely and I'm sure that, as the drama progresses, we will see his skills more and more clearly.

Personal Opinion:

I've been a fatty for over a year now due to some very troublesome health problems so I can tell you for sure that this drama hit very close to home for me. Maybe this is why, I've had quite mixed feeling about it from the very first episode. Half of me was thinking "God, I don't wanna see that cause I'll surely get depressed!!", while the other half kept pushing me "Come on, it's high time you took your weight a little less seriously..." Well, in the end, I decided I had to see at least one episode.And I didn't make the wrong choice.
Rebound is a fresh and original romantic comedy, approaching a very realistic and sensitive subject : weight. Weight is, after all, the thing we most worry about when dealing with the opposite sex. This drama portrays the pain and effort fat people go through in order to form a relationship, but in a humorous and cute way. The characters' feelings really get to you and make you question what a relationship is all about. Don't they seem to take weight a little bit too seriously? What exactly do we love about the person we're in a relationship with? What really makes our heart skip a beat when we are close to the one we love? This are questions that come naturally to mind whilst watching this drama's plot develop. As a result, this show is, in my opinion, a very good opportunity to  get to know ourselves better and have fun throughout the process.
I truly recommend it!

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How to date an otaku girl

Prompted by a very nice post from Aigoo Aigoo blog - which I take the opportunity to thank for all the great recommendations, I decided to watch this cute romantic comedy. This is my humble "review".

Plot: 

Hinata is in love with his ex-co-worker, Yoriko. He asks her out and she accepts, even though she confesses that she is a fujoshi. Hinata doesn't actually knows what a "fujoshi" is, but he reassures her that he'll love her no matter what. Only later does he find out that fujoshi are girls obsessed with BL (boys love).

Cast:

The main characters are played by two adorable actors: Daito Shunsuke, who has acted in a very large array of tv shows and movies,  and Wakana Matsumoto. Although, I have to admit that I was completely enraptured by the handsome Furukawa Yuta who played the role of Hinata's best friend. Total eyecandy!

Personal opinion:

Here comes the hard part.
Since we've reached this part, I'm gonna be completely honest with you and make a confession: Watashi wa fujoshi desu! Yes, I'm a total yaoi addict! I read at least 5 gay romance novels a week (which is probably why I update this blog so rarely), my pc is full of shounen-ai and yaoi manga and my ideal man is one who'd be willing to ride a ***** for my sake  So, you see, I can't help but being a little biased because I totally found myself targeted by this movie's plot. I truly expected the whole plot to be centered on yaoi and totally drooled at the thought of seeing lots of otakuish scenes. 
It turns out this movie is simply a love story. The main character is a fujoshi and because of that, like all of us fujoshi out there, she's scared that her love interest will consider her a freak. However, it turns out that the guy doesn't give a damn about her weird hobbies. All, in all, this is just a romantic comedy. The main female character just happens to be a fujoshi, but this has no real consequences on the love story itself, expect for a bit of anxiety form her part.

Nonetheless, I did find this film cute. There were a lot of scenes that made me go all "Aww! Kawaii!!! I want a boyfriend like that!" -no, scratch that, I want A BOYFRIEND, no matter how he is- and there were also a lot of scenes that made me laugh out loud like, for example, the scene in which the guy, who was so influenced by his girlfriend's hobbies that he began seeing yaoi scenarios everywhere around, sips calmly from his glass of water while watching two men dressed in Santa Clause and his reindeer and imagines a possible kinky dialogue between them (the best scene in the whole movie! In my humble opinion, the film's worth watching just for that; yoi fangirls will definitely appreciate the humour).
As a result, I couldn't say that I was disappointed. Not at all. But I would have definitely appreciated more otaku scenes. I can say for sure, even though I didn't read it, that the manga is at least 3 times better.
All in all, if you're looking for a cute, sweet and light romantic comedy, I'm sure "How to date an otaku girl" will suite your tastes just fine.

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Help Japan

Hello everyone.
I was extremely taken aback by the devastating news regarding Japan's situation. For those of you who wish to help, here are some links where you can donate money:
Mercy corps
ABC news article


Lets prey for all Japanese to be safe. Go, go Japan!

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LADY - Saigo no Hanzai Profile: another amazing police drama

Plot:

The plot focuses around a team of profilers that was recently formed in a Japanese police department. Having to face the prejudice of the investigators and being continuously mocked and offended by the department chief, Shoko, Keisuke, Marie, Takehiko and their team leader Yuki, must also learn how to work as a team in order to bring the best out of their abillities. Despite all the hard work, the five profilers always manage to catch the  murderers.

Cast:

In terms of cast, there is no doubt that this drama is a top notch production. Starting with the main character, who's brought to us by the beautiful Kitagawa Keiko, and ending with the investigators from the police department, this drama is full of many well known and talented actors. My favourites are, of course, the two male protagonists Kaname Jun and Hiraoka Yuta, both of whom I've followed for a very long time, even though they've only recently started to be more successful, which I'm very glad of.

In other words, a superb distribution which is guaranteed to offer you the biggest enjoyment.

Personal Opinion:

Personally, I love all kinds of police dramas, so I suppose my opinion is very subjective. What I really loved about this drama is the fact that the murder cases are very interesting and the use of technology, even though it's quite often featured in the series, isn't the main protagonist. Take, for example, the American TV shows like CSI: New York (which I really love actually) or Ciminal Minds. They use so many laboratory techniques! That in itself shows that the plot isn't really good after all; if we take al the technicalities out of the picture, the cases aren't that interesting any more, are they? In this dorama, on the contrary, the plot is purely focused on the cases and, at the most, you will see  a bit of computer work. The viewer is not overwhelmed with technical information and, yet, the murder cases are still quite interesting.

Usually there aren't many tv series featuring profilers (which reminds me of Criminal Minds again...). Somehow it's really interesting to see how psychological knowledge is put into action. I don't know if real profilers are that accurate, but I must admit I was truly impressed by profilers thanks to this series.

However I must admit that this drama, ever since the beginning, left be with a slight bitter taste. In what way? Well, it reminds me too much of American police TV shows where the policemen are heroes and the murderers target them and they are all geniuses who can catch any delinquent. This is just too unrealistic and cliché. I don't want to see something so Americanized! I want a Japanese drama!

Well, despite all this, I still think it's a show worth watching.

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