I accomplished SO MUCH this weekend
Mar. 23rd, 2009 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosdriseFinished up three dramas this weekend (you know, when I wasn't being CRAZY productive with my craft projects). Beware of spoilers, because my liking a drama is heavily determined by the ending so it must be discussed!
Hotaru no Hikari
Meet Hotaru. By day she is a hard-working employee at an interior design firm:
By night she is a himono-onna ("dried fish woman") who prefers to stay home drinking beer, reading manga, and not cleaning to going out on the town (There is something wrong with that?):
Hotaru is played by Ayase Haruka and I believe this drama solidified my love for her. I first saw her in "Sore wa, Totsuzen, Arashi no you ni..." (aka, THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE) and couldn't stand her. Then I saw her in Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi (Fantastic Deer Man - SO MUCH LOVE) and she so wonderfully wierd and quirky. As Hotaru she's completely adorable and pretty hilarious.
Hotaru is living her quiet, sweats-clad life just fine when her landlord's son (and her boss, it just so happens) one day shows up at her house. He's getting a divorce from his wife and decided he wanted to move into his old home. He's horrified at the state of the home and the tenant. PLUS he's played by Fujiki Naohito, so - yum.
He decides not to kick her out and they continue on as housemates with him trying to curb Hotaru's himono-onna ways. They have their differences, because he's clean and organized and she SO ISN'T.
But they get along quite well because deep down he's just as big a dork as she is (though he wouldn't admit it in a hundred years).
He serves as her love coach (and silent protector) and she gets him to loosen up.
That last one sounds so bad out of context!
Basically, they are adorable together and I totally shipped them the entire time.
So it was REALLY frustrating to me that the majority of the series was spent on her relationship with another man (since you know right from the beginning who she is going to end up with). Kisses and hugs were wasted on the other dude and they wait until the last five minutes of the last episode to finally pair up these two.
I wish a little more time had been spent on developing the romantic relationship between them throughout the entire series. He hides his real feelings so well you can't ever tell for certain if he thinks of her as more than a friend (or even a daughter figure). That was difficult for me, so this gets knocked down to 3/5 because I love romance. The rest of it is pretty adorable and completely deserving of a watch.
Ryusei no Kizuna
This series was about three siblings and their search for the person who murdered their parents. There were a lot of things I liked about this drama. It was an interesting mixture of comedy and drama so it stayed light hearted the majority of the time but there was always this undercurrent of anger/frustration in the three main characters. I loved all the flashbacks that were interwoven with the present day story. I thought those were really well done and it gave and interesting texture to the story.
The problem was that there wasn't enough meat to the murder mystery to justify 10 episodes. I give this a 2/5 but if it had been a movie I could have easily seen myself giving it a 4/5. The parts I enjoyed the most were the flashbacks to when the siblings were kids and the different cons they were running in the present. Each of those were presented as stories within the story and it was another really interesting approach to story-telling - plus they were really goofy. But it is a problem when the murder-mystery part of a murder-mystery is the least engaging part.
The revelation of the murderer left me wanting more. I suspect they thought it was a shock for the kids to learn that it was the detective that worked on the case (and looked out for them the next 14 years) that murdered their parents. Plus, it was for money (they were collecting cash to pay back gambling debts and asked him to help stall the collectors) and not for their secret hashed beef rice recipe as they had been led to believe. I see the point they were trying to make - Money makes people to awful, evil, stupid, and pointless things. But as the suprise ending for a mystery? I really wasn't sold.
Mei-chan no Shitsuji
The second act of Mei-chan no Shitsuji was a disappointment for me so I'm giving this 2/5 as well. They took the ridiculously silly show that it was in the beginning and got too wound up in the EPIC DRAMA of it all.
But the drama of Mei becoming the Hongo heir, defeating the evil Lucia-sama, dealing with her feeeeeelings~ for Rihito were all just SO DULL for me. It made me really miss the wacky adventures of the first few episodes. Plus, I don't exactly think of Eikura Nana and Mizushima Hiro as dramatic heavyweights, not that the script gave them much to work with. You can't take the show too seriously, so when it tried to be seriously I couldn't be bothered to care. Hana Kimi did it a lot better, the two really don't compare.
The finale did offer a few gems like CAGED BUTLER FIGHTS:
EXPLOSIONS:
WHATEVER THE HELL THIS IS:
One thing that shocked me about this episode (SHOCKED) were the overt displays of affection. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that even the most lovey-dovey couples in dramas rarely touch. Which is why I was so surprised (and elated) by the numerous coupley moments Mei and Rihito got in the finale. We're talking kissing, hand-holding, and multiple hugs. And not those bizarre hugs we usually get where one person's arms are pinned awkwardly between their chests while the other person wraps their arms around. We're talking full-fledged, both individuals embracing the other, ACTUAL REAL HUGS. It made me SO HAPPY.
YES.
Okay, so, they are careful to not have any skin touch skin, but he does put he does pull her in closer and put his hand on her head a few frames after this!
Maybe at some point in the future Hiro will be in a drama that lets him brush his hair.
With BOF coming to an end soon I have to round up my next set of dramas to watch. Currently on my plate are Love Shuffle (I keep meaning to watch past ep 1 but just don't for whatever reason), ToGetHer (I'm watching it streaming, so it's a matter of viikii cooperating with me), and Smiling Pasta (which I'll do ep recaps of ala Exhibition of Fireworks). What's with all the Taiwanese dramas?
Oh! And Atashinchi no Danshi, which is the only jdrama for next season that I'm really interested in.
Four should keep me busy, though I bet I'll be distracted by something at some point.
Hotaru no Hikari
Meet Hotaru. By day she is a hard-working employee at an interior design firm:
By night she is a himono-onna ("dried fish woman") who prefers to stay home drinking beer, reading manga, and not cleaning to going out on the town (There is something wrong with that?):
Hotaru is played by Ayase Haruka and I believe this drama solidified my love for her. I first saw her in "Sore wa, Totsuzen, Arashi no you ni..." (aka, THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE) and couldn't stand her. Then I saw her in Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi (Fantastic Deer Man - SO MUCH LOVE) and she so wonderfully wierd and quirky. As Hotaru she's completely adorable and pretty hilarious.
Hotaru is living her quiet, sweats-clad life just fine when her landlord's son (and her boss, it just so happens) one day shows up at her house. He's getting a divorce from his wife and decided he wanted to move into his old home. He's horrified at the state of the home and the tenant. PLUS he's played by Fujiki Naohito, so - yum.
He decides not to kick her out and they continue on as housemates with him trying to curb Hotaru's himono-onna ways. They have their differences, because he's clean and organized and she SO ISN'T.
But they get along quite well because deep down he's just as big a dork as she is (though he wouldn't admit it in a hundred years).
He serves as her love coach (and silent protector) and she gets him to loosen up.
That last one sounds so bad out of context!
Basically, they are adorable together and I totally shipped them the entire time.
So it was REALLY frustrating to me that the majority of the series was spent on her relationship with another man (since you know right from the beginning who she is going to end up with). Kisses and hugs were wasted on the other dude and they wait until the last five minutes of the last episode to finally pair up these two.
I wish a little more time had been spent on developing the romantic relationship between them throughout the entire series. He hides his real feelings so well you can't ever tell for certain if he thinks of her as more than a friend (or even a daughter figure). That was difficult for me, so this gets knocked down to 3/5 because I love romance. The rest of it is pretty adorable and completely deserving of a watch.
Ryusei no Kizuna
This series was about three siblings and their search for the person who murdered their parents. There were a lot of things I liked about this drama. It was an interesting mixture of comedy and drama so it stayed light hearted the majority of the time but there was always this undercurrent of anger/frustration in the three main characters. I loved all the flashbacks that were interwoven with the present day story. I thought those were really well done and it gave and interesting texture to the story.
The problem was that there wasn't enough meat to the murder mystery to justify 10 episodes. I give this a 2/5 but if it had been a movie I could have easily seen myself giving it a 4/5. The parts I enjoyed the most were the flashbacks to when the siblings were kids and the different cons they were running in the present. Each of those were presented as stories within the story and it was another really interesting approach to story-telling - plus they were really goofy. But it is a problem when the murder-mystery part of a murder-mystery is the least engaging part.
The revelation of the murderer left me wanting more. I suspect they thought it was a shock for the kids to learn that it was the detective that worked on the case (and looked out for them the next 14 years) that murdered their parents. Plus, it was for money (they were collecting cash to pay back gambling debts and asked him to help stall the collectors) and not for their secret hashed beef rice recipe as they had been led to believe. I see the point they were trying to make - Money makes people to awful, evil, stupid, and pointless things. But as the suprise ending for a mystery? I really wasn't sold.
Mei-chan no Shitsuji
The second act of Mei-chan no Shitsuji was a disappointment for me so I'm giving this 2/5 as well. They took the ridiculously silly show that it was in the beginning and got too wound up in the EPIC DRAMA of it all.
But the drama of Mei becoming the Hongo heir, defeating the evil Lucia-sama, dealing with her feeeeeelings~ for Rihito were all just SO DULL for me. It made me really miss the wacky adventures of the first few episodes. Plus, I don't exactly think of Eikura Nana and Mizushima Hiro as dramatic heavyweights, not that the script gave them much to work with. You can't take the show too seriously, so when it tried to be seriously I couldn't be bothered to care. Hana Kimi did it a lot better, the two really don't compare.
The finale did offer a few gems like CAGED BUTLER FIGHTS:
EXPLOSIONS:
WHATEVER THE HELL THIS IS:
One thing that shocked me about this episode (SHOCKED) were the overt displays of affection. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that even the most lovey-dovey couples in dramas rarely touch. Which is why I was so surprised (and elated) by the numerous coupley moments Mei and Rihito got in the finale. We're talking kissing, hand-holding, and multiple hugs. And not those bizarre hugs we usually get where one person's arms are pinned awkwardly between their chests while the other person wraps their arms around. We're talking full-fledged, both individuals embracing the other, ACTUAL REAL HUGS. It made me SO HAPPY.
YES.
Okay, so, they are careful to not have any skin touch skin, but he does put he does pull her in closer and put his hand on her head a few frames after this!
Maybe at some point in the future Hiro will be in a drama that lets him brush his hair.
With BOF coming to an end soon I have to round up my next set of dramas to watch. Currently on my plate are Love Shuffle (I keep meaning to watch past ep 1 but just don't for whatever reason), ToGetHer (I'm watching it streaming, so it's a matter of viikii cooperating with me), and Smiling Pasta (which I'll do ep recaps of ala Exhibition of Fireworks). What's with all the Taiwanese dramas?
Oh! And Atashinchi no Danshi, which is the only jdrama for next season that I'm really interested in.
Four should keep me busy, though I bet I'll be distracted by something at some point.
