|
Written by Mei
|
|
Tue, Apr 7 2009, 10:35AM |
So, I just watched my first 2009 spring season JDrama. Here is my a little note of my impression.
Ghost Friends (ゴーストフレンズ)
The story goes that, Kamiya Asuka, your normal high school girl, gained the ability to see ghosts after a car accident where she was the sole survivor. Since then she's been constantly getting requests for help with things they want to settle from when they were  alive from various ghosts she came across.
Then she met Kaito. Who apparently can also see ghosts. She was happy to find someone with the same ability but Kaito seems very pessimistic about ghosts and warns Asuka that she should steer clear of them.
It is not really a spoiler since it is revealed at the end of episode 1 but, Kaito is a ghost himself. An incarnated one. He is chasing after and trying to catch a female ghost, whom the official site labeled as his girlfriend (from when he was human I guess), that is going around the human world occupying people's bodies then leaving them (They collapse when she does but I can't tell from the only little such scene in Ep 1 if they die or just temporarily become weak) because she wants to re-live her life. Maybe Kaito became incarnated for that "mission"?
Ghost-seeing people isn't really a novel idea, but episode 1 was kinda interesting nonetheless. The female lead, Fukuda Saki for some reason looks kinda like Toda Erika (from Liar Game) to me, especially when she smiles (see image below), and I like how Erika looks =P so yeah, Saki is a good female lead, at least look-wise.
(Left: Fukuda Saki Right: Toda Erika)
Don't they look kinda alike?
As for the male lead... apparently this is his first drama so his acting is a bit...off, and he isn't exactly an eye candy (no offense to his fans), so I'm a bit "eh" about him right now. Lets see how he fares in the upcoming episodes; especially since apparently Saki's character is supposed to fall for his character as the story progresses.
Anyhow, overall, this definitely will be a JDrama I'm going to be following this spring season.
:: 0 Comment(s) :: |
|
Written by Mei
|
|
Mon, Mar 30 2009, 03:54PM |
After much thought and consulting with other staffs, I have decided to take the "Music" and "Artist" sections off the site (Well, it's technically only taking them off the menu, but that means I don't plan on adding anything more to them, thus abandoning them).
I just don't think they are as relevant to what I am interested in writing, so until someone who loves doing things like that comes along, they will remain in that dark dark corner of the site.
That said, the information in those sections will still be accessible if you are actively looking for them, they just won't be part of the main site or get a place in the little navigation menu.
That will be all for today. I hope to get more detailed reviews of MIT, Kiina, Mei-chan no Shitsuji, and Kami no Shizuku up in a few days since all of those have finished airing and all. But I am having a hard time trying to force myself to finish watching Mei-chan and Shizuku =P to me they are that uninteresting.
:: 0 Comment(s) :: |
|
Written by Mei
|
|
Thu, Mar 26 2009, 10:30AM |
Ah, I accidentally left out a drama in the article about japanese dramas I'm watching this season. I can't believe I forgot to mention it considering it has MY name in the title =P but that really says a lot about how I feel about that drama =P It is pretty...unremarkable.
A bit late now but anyway:
Mei-chan no Shitsuji (メイちゃんお執事)
All things considered, with me being a menkui and all, I should have loved the story setting: basically an elite rich daughters' school where each girl has their personal cutie male butler. I have watched a few eps so far, and I don't know, I just can't make myself love it.
The male lead is nanpa-senpai from hanakimi and I've noticed that several people so far have noticed how he looks kinda like Jun from Arashi. Personally I think he looks a tad better (I'm not a Jun fan I'm afraid). but I feel like Jun's acting is better...hmm. The thing is, personally, I think he's better suited to more active/goofy type of roles instead of these gentle and serious types. Maybe it's just me.
The thing that I disliked the most right off the bad was the female lead who played Mei-chan. She looks....kinda weird. I can't put my finger on it, but when she dressed up and is supposed to look pretty and stuff....she didn't. *shrugs*
Well, it has already ended by now, haha. It was still airing when I firsted started this draft. Oh well. I glanced at the ending, it was...ok. The "touching" moments were not touching, etc. But at least it's sorta a happy ending. I'll do a more detailed review after I force myself through the whole thing.
:: 0 Comment(s) :: |
|
Written by Mei
|
|
Thu, Feb 26 2009, 11:56PM |
As I mentioned previously, I've been following two Taiwanese Dramas this season. Which is a rare thing of me because I don't watch CDrama much and much less recent Taiwanese ones, because they've been so....cliche and tacky and some even bordering on annoying in recent years. (not to mention I was thoroughly disappointed after the Taiwanese Hana Kimi. Yes I am one of those people who disliked it =P even though I loved the original manga AND the Japanese drama version. But that's a totally different subject altogether.)
Ok, now back on topic:
Mysterious Incredible Terminator (霹雳MIT)
When I saw the Chinese name the first thing that came to mind was the university, MIT, but no it has no relations to it whatsoever. The MIT here stands for, as the English name suggests, "Mysterious Incredible Terminator." I know it's kind of a "...."-ish name, but I guess I should give them credit for trying...?
This was kind of a detective-ish drama. Basically, there's a group of people at this school who are out to help people and stuff, and strange things started happening at school when someone started sending "game discs" to people. 
These "game discs" contain instructions on how to punish/hurt people the user wanted to all the while dropping clues to the MIT, making it a game of "see if you can find out what I'm up to before it's too late."
Now, the best thing about this drama? Aaron Yan. =P He's just so....adorably cool =P He also gets a lot of nice angled scenes where his pretty face was shown at its best =P. His role is cool too: a genius who got Meniere's Syndrome (basically sometimes everything would appear to be spinning around and he'd pass out)when he was too stressed about
passing the cop school exam so he can match up to his famous father or something.
Story wise, it's alright. Each ep would be one new "game," although I have not finished watching it (the series has already finished airing), some of the eps were so...predicable. There was even one ep where I knew who the "culprit" was right from the start and thought how it took the "genius" a whole ep to figure it out @_@.
My Queen (败犬女王)
 A story about a 33 yr old workaholic who sports a very sharp tongue and a 25 yr old jack-of-all-trades freelancer. There paths first crossed when she, in her rush in getting her big headline story in, "borrowed" the bike he was paid in giving to orphans at a church dressed up as Santa on Christmas Eve.
Then several more things happened and he was hired as her assistant plus bodyguard by her boss to protect her while she worked to uncover deep dark secrets of a politician. The story went on from there...
It is a nice change from the typical "idol" dramas that had been coming out of Taiwan in recent years. The male lead being cute helps too =P. Although...I hate the female lead's haircut, it made her look so old and her face so long. I guess the "old" part was the point since the show stresses on the 8 year difference between her and the male lead and her inferiority Complex at being old yet single.
I personally think she has an unnecessarily sharp tongue  but I guess it helps build her unique character? Even though I can't associate with her character completely, I think many women out there would be able to somehow empathize or correlate with her character. I did too on some levels.
The pace of the drama slowed somewhat starting from episode 4 or so. Heck they spent almost 1 whole episode just to lead up to her going on matchmaking dates. I am anxiously awaiting new eps. Hopefully the ending won't disappoint me.
:: 0 Comment(s) :: |
|
Written by Mei
|
|
Sat, Feb 21 2009, 08:32PM |
Well, even though it is already pretty much half way into the drama season, I do not believe it is too late yet to talk about the few JDramas I've been following.
I am going to start with the one I like the most:
Kiina - Impossible Crime Investigator (キイナ - 不可能犯罪捜査官)
I forgot to save screenshots, so I'll add some when the next ep is aired =D
But basically, it's, as the title/tagline suggests, a crime investigation drama. Kiina, the name of the drama is also the name of the main character. She basically has photographic memory and because of her strangeness, she herself belongs to a separated "unit" in her police department.
The drama kicked off when a rookie joined and was forced into her "special unit" to deal with strange cases when all he wanted to do was be in the regular unit out catching baddies.
It is sorta like...Female Galileo minus the physics stuff plus photographic memory. It is quite entertaining. Not exactly the best detective story but it's good nonetheless.
Next up....
Kami no Shizuku (神の雫)
 Let's just say, I was not the only one who started watching this drama because of Kame; and with the viewership of the lastest ep being 4.9 (Kiina had 14.2) which was over 50% drop from the first ep, I was not the only one who didn't like it.
The story goes that, Kame plays Shizuku - the son of the legendary wine critic, who died and left 2 billion yen worth of wine collection, who never drank wine because of his father's betrayal. Yet, his dead father decided for Shizuku to compete for the inheritance with his adopted son, who was also a wine critic. The rules were that, the dead dude wrote down hints to 7 wines and whoever guesses it right the most number of times gets the treasure.
Doesn't that sound so...boring already? I gave it the benefit of a doubt, and started watching it, aside from all the weird wine names the show keeps throwing at us, the half craze some of the characters go into over wine made me go "..." (I would show you a screenshot of what I mean but...I forgot to take one ^^; )
Now, I'm not even watching it for the plot anymore, I just....want to know the ending because when I start a show it would bug me to no end until I've seen the ending =P
Lastly,
Q.E.D. 証明終了
Another detective story. Another drama made from a manga. And I don't recognize any of the cast.
Basically, 2 high school kids, the girl: energetic blah blah. the boy: a genius kid who graduated from MIT at age 15, blah blah who decided to come and attend a regular high school in Japan, blah blah. I know, so realistic. Mhm. 
For a "detective" drama, it really is not much of one. But....at least it is relatively entertaining.
At least it didn't make me go "..." the way Kami no Shizuku did =P Not to mention, I found the story from ep 6 to be cute =P
However, I can't exactly say the acting is the best I've seem. The acting of both main characters leaves some to be desired.
Ah, one other complaint I had was that....I wish they found someone with better english to play the role of the MIT graduate boy....>.>;
Ok, that is all for my brief ranting of what new JDrama I've come across this season. I have been following 2 TW Drama as well so I'll try to squeeze in a note or two about those 2 later on.
:: 0 Comment(s) :: |
|
