Kimi Ni Todoke & Kamisama Dolls: Reviews coming soon

I have recently gotten into watching Kamisama dolls - one of this summer's series. I am also beginning to watch Kimi Ni Todoke the movie (yes grad school has really lagged me on my must sees).

I will give a review of Kamisama when I finish watching the third episode. As for first impressions, the intro art was really good. I remember seeing screenies on another blog and thought the colour choices was a bit faded but nice. I have to say the same with Kimi ni Todoke - the colour choices aren't a vibrant HD - but it gives everything a nostalgic feeling. Which I think is fitting for older audiences reminiscing about high school times.

Nice colours right? Like taken from an old camera

July Dramas: Ouran High School Host Club & Hana Kimi remake

Ouran High School Host Club Drama

The July issue of LaLa (the magazine that originally had the OHSHC manga has confirmed a live-action drama series. Yusuke Yamamoto will be playing Tamaki Suou and Haruna Kawaguchi will be playing Haruhi Fujioka.

(Yusuke Yamamoto - Tumbling, Hana Kimi, Atashinichi no Danshi)

(Haruna Kawaguchi - Yankee kun to Megane chan)

I'm really skeptical about Yusuke's ability to portray Tamaki well. Though his face is renowned as gorgeous in Japanese culture - I'm not so sure that it resembles Tamaki's well. We've seen Yusuke do the bad boy act and the supermodel girly-man act. Transitioning into a well-refuned, child-ish yet charismatic character is going to be interesting to see.

Haruna aesthetically is a good match to Haruhi's down-to-earth nature. Also want to see how she looks with short hair (thank you Horikita Maki for not taking on another androgynous role). Haruhi has a fairly simple personality and shouldn't prove to be a challenge.

The cast looking really good - look for this on July 22nd

Hana Kimi

Also coming out this July is a remake of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (2007).

(old cast & new)

I'm not entirely sure why a re-make is happening 4 years after the fact - and why a korean version is coming out at the same time. I think the manga was okay - definitely not HYD worthy so why it's following the legacy is unclear to me.

Tomo and Maki were excellent in their roles (Oguri Shun was okay - Sano was portrayed very dark and expressionless - though I guess that added to his conserved nature and mystery). The new Sano seems very asynchronous to his reserved and clean-cut personality. Aoi Nakamura and Shohei Miura will be playing Sano and Shuichi. AKB48's Atsuko Maeda will be playing Mizuki.

I will be watching the Korean and Japanese remake versions to see how they fair out to the original - stay tuned!

1 Litre of Tears - The beginning

A couple years ago, my best friend was really hooked onto this Japanese drama called One Litre of Tears. It is based on a true story of a girl who dies from spinocerebellar degeneration, a disease that slowly removes your ability to control certain nerves - taking your ability to control your walking, speech, and everyday functions such as sports, chores, and work. As the name suggests, it has been designed to be a tearjerker for those watching it. Though I am sure that there is a story-based meaning behind the title.

Sawajiri Erika as Ikeuchi Aya, the protagonist of the story

After watching the first episode, it reminds me greatly of Myu no Anyo Papa ni Ageru, a drama about a father who has a similar disease that takes away his ability to control his nervous system. Of course, 1L of tears came out three years earlier, so the comparison should be the other way around.

My focus while watching this drama will be what narrative elements are involved in invoking tears from the audience. Based on the first episode, here are my thoughts:

• Expected tragedy: we are aware that the protagonist dies, so we constantly expect negative outcomes from conflicts presented in the storyline.
• Highly optimistic and young protagonist: She has hope and dreams prior to finding out about her disease. She is the star child among her family. She is young and should have a bright future ahead of her. The drama introduces her character pre-disease so that we can relate and grow to like her. Making her a really bright character also allows them to create a bigger change in mood and personality when the story progresses.

These two elements alone, add tension and expectations of bad events and character changes. I will create another post when I am in the middle of the series and when I am in the end.

Koizora

大学はおわりました！じゃあ、ブログはします。

This post will explore the story of Koizora which translates to Sky of Love

The story follows the high school life of Tahara Mika as she experiences her first love during the summer after first year. Rather than the pure approach most Japanese dramas take (ie: innocent love with no physical activity until the very end or after marriage) this takes a contemporary approach that accurately reflects the current time period.

Themes explored in this story are:

• teenage pregnancy
• rape
• cancer

which in itself is also quite different from the run of the mill Japanese drama which try to avoid such heavy taboo topics.

The rest of this post will compare the movie and drama in terms of acting, and story progression - so if you have not seen the drama or movie and would not like the basic plot to be spoiled, DO NOT READ ON

Tahara Mika

Aragaki Yui as Tahara Mika

Mizusawa Elena as Tahara Mika

Both actresses capture Mika's sensible and down to earth personality very well. They both also masterfully portray her development and changes as she falls in love and starts to act on her heart's feelings. What I do feel that Mizusawa Elena achieved better was the ability to show Mika's sensitivity and her dependence on Sakurai Hiro. During both the movie and drama when Hiro says "I won't wipe your tears anymore." I felt that it hit home more so during the drama because Mika cries more. Of course the drama had 4 more hours to develop the story so this may have been why.

Sakurai Hiro

Miura Haruma as Sakurai Hiro

Koji Seto as Sakurai Hiro

Firstly, I feel that Miura Haruma had bigger star power than Koji Seto at the point they both starred in this role. Though currently both are pretty much on par (Haruma is in Bloody Monday S2 and will be part of the Kimi ni Todoke movie while Koji Seto is in Tumbling and Rinne no Ame.) As for the silver hair, I always felt that Seto's was a wig. It always looked way too ridiculous for me. As for the role itself, I felt that Haruma's had a hint of manliness while Seto's had a child-like demeanor. Both pulled off the chalkboard scene really well. And as with the statement above, I felt that Seto's Hiro was able to achieve his jealousy much more effectively than Haruma's.

Plot

In terms of initial development, I liked the way the movie had them get to know each other via phone during the summer. The drama on the other had reduced this for just a day and even had Hiro try to set Mika up with Nozuma. In the drama's defense, there was the book and cell phone dangle side-story that the movie did not mention. It wasn't necessary but it did make the overall story more cute and added more strength to the title since this book showed how much Hiro loved the sky.

The movie was more subtle in its cinematic devices. We did not know Hiro was at the library for sure until Mika started caring for him at the hospital. We also never find out that Hiro asked Nozuma to kiss Mika at the party. A scene both drama and movie could have gone without was the hose and rainbow scene.

Both actors did this scene terribly and it was just overall stupid and hard to bear.

In conclusion, I think both movie and drama have certain aspects that they did best but at this point in time I can not pick one over the other. I started writing this entry with the initial thought that the movie was better but I really do prefer Koji Seto's Hiro and feel that those 4 extra hours really helped develop the characters. So I guess if you have time, watch both. If not, either or would get the story across well.

General Reactions

After reading a few reviews on this story it seems that there are two very strong parties for and against the storyline. Many female viewers love this series and will watch it again. Many male viewers found it extremely dumb and painful to watch. I suppose to other Shoujo-like stories, it was refreshing to see imperfection. Hiro is not your perfect prince. It's almost impossible to always be there to save the girl. And I didn't think Mika was stupid at all. Many girls lose their virginity in high school. Albeit it was a little weird in the movie because we never felt that the relationship got to that level yet.

In retrospect, I think we can all respect Mika's determination and courage in standing up to her parents, wanting to have the baby and still going to school. Even after being raped, she took it with grace (this was a bit unbelievable because I would expect trauma) and when Hiro died, though she felt like committing suicide at first, she still found the strength to go on. For those guys who took this badly, I would like to see how they view "Kaichou wa Maid Sama", "Dengenki Daisy", "Faster than a Kiss" and other stories where the girl gives off the idea that she's capable but still needs to be saved by the man in every possible aspect. I suspect that they're just pretty much anti-shoujo to begin with. But I welcome them to prove me wrong =).