Monday Rant: Kinda sad… Major spoiler!

Yo minna! This whole post will be kinda sad. But before i get to that part, it’s been a while since i did the Monday Rant section, so i have a few updates since then. I finished watching the k-dorama “You’re Beautiful” and i really really really loved it! I also finished watching “Kuroshitsuji” and i’m waiting for new chapters of  ”Kimi ni Todoke”.

I also did an update to this blog: i added a new page to keep track of the j and k-doramas i’m watching, i’ve watched and i plan to watch.

When i finished watching “You’re Beautiful”, i started the k-dorama “The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince” or… to make it short, “Coffee Prince”.

I also finished this one and i also loooooved it! Again, when a girl poses as a guy, it’s bound to be funny. Not to mention “Waffle Sun Ki” (Kim Jae Wook) who is absolutely gorgeous. I recommend you start watching this dorama right now! I’ll write the review … when i can…

Okeeey so now let’s get to the sad part and also the part where the spoiler begins. After finishing “Coffee Prince”, my sister said: “Hey, let’s watch this one! It only has 6 episodes…” So i sat beside her and started watching the new j-dorama with her. Then i see the guy playing the main character and i was like: “OMG Seto Koji, Seto Koji, Seto Koji!” I love this guy! So of course i wanted to watch. However, after 15 minutes watching the first episode, i tell my sister jokingly: “Why do you make me watch such a sad dorama with the main character dieing?” I had no idea what the dorama was all about, i had never read a review of it, it was the first time i saw it. And i knew from the begining that the main character would die. Guess what? He does! Not only do i hate endings, but i hate sad endings even more. The dorama is called “Koizora” and i couldn’t bare watching it all. I couldn’t watch the last 2 episodes. I couldn’t watch him die. I just skipped to the very ending part, but… Oh well…

Here’s Seto Koji as the main character in “Koizora”. Okeeeyyy. I can’t talk about this anymore. It makes me feel weird and sad. I’m not sure if “Koizora” will get a review from me since it’s so heart-breaking… Gomen, Seto Koji-san! You were wonderful! I didn’t quite like how the girl in the main role acted… Maybe it’s just me tho…

Well anywayz, that’s it for today.

Jaa ne!

You’re Beautiful Review

Yo minna! As i was saying in my last Monday Rant, i’ve been watching my first (sort of) k-dorama, You’re Beautiful. I finished watching it and i just had to write the review for it because i totally loved it!!! Warning: it’s going to be a long post filled with caps. I actually didn’t think i would like it so much, but i must say, i’ve been yelling and crying and laughing out loud and falling off my chair at every single episode. I knew it had to be funny as the main character is a girl posing as a guy so it reminded me a lot of Hana Kimi. Her name is Go Mi Nyu (Park Shin Hye) and she is an orphan who chooses the path of a nun. As she was about to go to Rome in order to become a full-fledged nun, she receives an unexpected visit. She has a twin brother named Go Mi Nam who is a rising star in the musical industry. He was supposed to join Asia’s most famous band called A.N.JELL, but that news caught him in US while having a surgery. His agent asks Mi Nyu to pose as her twin brother until he gets back. He actually wanted to become a famous singer only to find their mother, which is also why Mi Nyu accepts to play the role of her brother. A.N.JELL’s members: The leader, Hwang Tae Kyung (Jang Geun Suk), who rejects the whole idea of having a new member brought to the band. Kang Shin Woo (Jung Yong Hwa), the cool laid-back kind of guy; he immediatly notices the fact that Mi Nyu is actually a girl, but keeps quiet and watches over her from aside. Kinda reminds me of Hanazawa Rui in Hana Yori Dango. It’s the exact concept.

And Jeremy (Lee Hong Ki), the fun loving guy who can always make anyone smile. He’s exactly like Nakatsu in Hana Kimi fantasising about Mi Nam (actually Mi Nyu). The whole adventure starts with a blast. They’re having a welcome party for Mi Nam and, since she was a nun, she couldn’t hold her liquor, so she ends up getting really drunk. Hwang Tae Kyung – who is a cleaning freak –  is near her when she was about to throw up so he actually holds a flower pot for her to … well you get it. When Shin Woo and Jeremy get there as well, she was standing up on a bench and just when she was about to fall…. Hwang Tae Kyung faints instantly and is carried to the car by Jeremy, while Shin Woo carries Mi Nam. It was in this moment that Shin Woo discovers that Mi Nam is actually a girl. There were many funny situations that Mi Nam unintentionally puts Hwang Tae Kyung in making him resent her. Not only he was reluctant to receive a new member in the band, but if that new member is also a “walking accident zone” then he sure as hell doesn’t want her anywhere near him. Here’s one of those situations: Mi Nam destroying Hwang Tae Kyung’s CD shelf and, as i was saying, he is a cleaning freak… Yep, he was pretty pissed. At some point, Tae Kyung hears a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear and that’s how he finds out about Mi Nam being a girl. He wants to use this information and get her out of the band, but of course, everything turns out to her favor. She tells him about her mother, but Tae Kyung has also a sad story, being abandoned by his mother who is a famous singer. She abandoned him in order to run away with a man. Knowing his own story, he tries to explain Mi Nam that what’s lost will always be lost. She gives him her most treasured possession – a ring she was told was from her mother –  and she tells Tae Kyung to hold on to it until she’ll find her. Tae Kyung however is certain that she’ll be disappointed if she holds on to a useless hope, so he throws the ring into a pond. Mi Nam starts searching for it, for Tae Kyung promissed to let her stay as a band member if she finds it. She spends the whole night searching. What Mi Nam doesn’t know is that Tae Kyung just pretended to throw it. The next day he goes to that park only to find her still searching. He is surprised to find out that she wouldn’t give up, so he shows her the ring in his hand. She was actually more relieved that she had found the ring, than being able to stay. Of course, this whole chain of funny situations got her to love Tae Kyung and also, made him fall for her not even realising it. He gets angry when she praises the other band members more, he gets angry when all three of them present her with a solution and she doesn’t pick his, he gets angry when she doesn’t rank him number 1 among the band members. At some point, after seeing their debut video, she tells Tae Kyung that he used to be very handsome (as in the most handsome out of the three), without realising the double meaning. So he asks her if he’s not the most handsome at present and when she simply replies that he’s handsome now too (as in “you’re ok…”), he immediately changes his hairstyle back to how it was at their debut. Problem is that both Shin Woo and Jeremy had fallen for her in the mean time. All these three types of love are so different, but all beatutiful: Shin Woo’s romantic type of love, Jeremy’s joyful and cheerful love and Tae Kyung’s strong, serious type of  love. This cap above is from the best Shin Woo moment love ever. You gotta see it to know what i mean. Another complication is that another Korean star, who accidentally gets involved in A.N.JELL’s life, finds out about Mi Nam being a girl, so she blackmail’s Tae Kyung to have a superficial relationship with her only for the press and audience. However… she falls in love with him for real. Good thing Jeremy was there to cheer Mi Nam up, because this kiss happened right in front of her being part of the first solo video she was supposed to make. At some point, Mi Nam’s aunt, who recognized her, came to live with them for a while in order to catch up with the news and pretending to have missed the twins a lot since their father (her brother) died. So that meant Mi Nam was supposed to share the room with another  band member. Of course she picked Tae Kyung because she thought he was the only one who knew about her being a girl. Her agent (who always got her in trouble, but is funny as hell) gave her one of those taser things to electrocute Tae Kyung if he was up to no good. Unfortunatedly, she ended up using it on herself and falls over the sleeping Tae Kyung. Another sweet moment is when Mi Nam was trying to glue the broken hair pin that Tae Kyung gave her, but instead, she glued her fingers together. Tae Kyung had just gotten back after another sad encounter with his mother… Even though Mi Nam knows about his mother, she didn’t tell him anything, but instead, kept helping him cheer up every time he looked down. So this time, he finds her with the glued fingers and tells her something like: “How come every time something bad happens you’re always there to distract me?” That’s when she sais the sweetest thing: “If i knew my fingers were of any help, i would have glued all ten of them together!”

Every time her emotions would overwhelm her, she would press her finger against her nose just like her manager jokingly told her to. That meant that most of the moments when Tae Kyung would say something nice, she would definetly do the nose thing. That’s the reason why he called her “pig-rabbit”.

However, she is not the only one with a habit like this. Tae Kyung would always do this thing with his lips… i can’t explain it very well, but he looks so friggin’ cool doing it! Mi Nam tries to copy him doing that and it looks pretty much like this:

The ending was a bit blury, but it was of course a happy one. You must see this k-dorama. It is a definite must. The soundtracks are also amazing, but i’m gonna make another post for them since i wrote mooooore than enough already. The best way to finish this post is with this pic:

Really now, start watching “You’re Beautiful” right now!!!

Jaa ne!

Hana Kimi review

Yo minna! It sure has been a while… So many things happened that i didn’t have time for anything! I really hope i’ll be able to post again on a regular basis. Gomen!

Well i know i told you i’d write the review for Hana Kimi even though it’s been a while since i saw it. I just can’t get over it because i can definetly say it was the best dorama i’ve ever seen. Honestly.

I have to warn you that it’s going to be a long post with many many caps because it was impossible to choose only a few. When you see them and when you see Hana Kimi you’ll know what i mean. So anywayz, there are many great actors in this dorama, so it just had to turn out this awesome.

Oguri Shun

Horikita Maki & Toma Ikuta

Yamamoto Yusuke (aka “That aura kid”)

Ishigaki Yuma & Mizushima Hiro & Kyo Nobuo (as the dorm leaders)

Shirota Yuu

Also in other roles we have Okada Masaki and Kimura Ryo. Anywayz, as you can see, lots of great names here. Now if these guys won’t make you laugh in Hana Kimi, then you have some serious issues. Let me tell you a few things about the storyline.

Ashiya Mizuki (Horikita Maki) is a Japanese girl who was raised in California and now she has returned to her home country in order to make her dream come true: meet her idol – the high jumper Sano Izumi (Oguri Shun) who has quit this sport after an accident. Problem is that Sano is studying at an all-boys high school, so Mizuki decides to hide her identity as a girl – she cuts her hair short, lowers her voice and uses a special vest to hide her chest – and she enters the same highschool.

Luckily, she is assigned to share the bedroom with Sano, so she gets to know him little by little even though he is cold and keeps to himself. However, Mizuki finds that her other colleagues are quite reliable and fun to hang around with. She becomes best friends with Nakatsu Shuichi (Ikuta Toma) who will – very soon after meeting her – start having doubts about his sexual prefferences, being attracted to Mizuki.

Nakatsu is definetly my favorite character ever and Toma Ikuta did an awesome job playing him. Nakatsu would always get nosebleeds from imagining different things regarding Mizuki and at some point he just couldn’t take it anymore and he yelled with all his might: “ORE WA HOMO JA NAI!!!!” (“I am not gay!!!”) This was the best moment of Hana Kimi, i can tell you that.

Nakatsu’s monologues are so damn funny and i promise you’ll love him. Here are some more Nakatsu moments caps.

Well every time i talk about Hana Kimi, i talk about Nakatsu, but the main plot is the love story between Sano and Mizuki.

Mizuki tries her best to make Sano jump again and in the process of doing that, she falls in love with him. When Mizuki’s brother comes to visit her, Sano accidentally hears their conversation, therefore, he finds out that his roommate is actually a girl and he decides to help her keep that secret without telling her anything. At some point, Nakatsu sees Mizuki and Sano hugging so of course he trips imagining different things. Sano’s explanation is comes very calmly:

In the mean time, Mizuki and her colleagues go through many school events planned by the principal. Of course, there is another memorable phrase: “Because the principal said so!” In order to imagine these things, have a look at this particular event:

Another important moment in Hana Kimi is Sano and Mizuki’s first kiss. When Sano gets drunk, he becomes…. “The Kiss Monster!”. He simply kisses anyone near him whether it’s a guy or a girl. So after Sano kisses Mizuki, she finds out that he had actually kissed most of their colleagues…

Mizushima Hiro plays Nanba Minami (Nanba-sempai), the second dorm leader. I also loved his character a lot. When Mizuki first meets him, Nakatsu warns her to stay away from him because “if you stay near him, you’ll get pregnant!” Even though at that point, everyone thought Mizuki was a boy…

As Sunako-chan (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge) would say now: MABUSHIIIIIIIII !!!~

Well anywayz, this was definetly a loooong post. If you haven’t watched Hana Kimi yet, stop anything you’re doing and start watching it. Also, the theme song is addictive. The song is called Ikenai Taiyou by Orange Range. Listen to it here:

Well, now it is over. Have to close this post with this:

Jaa ne!!

Monday Rant: Itazura na Kiss vs Special A vs Me

Yo minna! I know i said i’d stick to my blogging job, but … well the truth is i’m getting married. Yep, i’m getting married and i have to plan the whole thing. And this wedding planning activity reminded me of Itazura na Kiss.

Remember clumsy Kotoko and the cold and intelligent Naoki? When i first started watching this anime, i was still under the spell of Special A so i was very sure i was going to like it. The main cubject is the same in both animes: the love story involving the most intelligent student at school and the girl trying to rise to his expectations. Only… the difference between Kotoko and from Hikari in Special A is that  Kotoko is a part of the worst class in school. However, she is just as high spirited as Hikari is. Both Hikari and Kotoko are poor, whereas Naoki and Takishima are very rich.

Anywayz, i think i got a little carried away here. The point is, Special A ends when Hikari and Kei finally get together. And i loved it that way. While i was watching Itazura na Kiss however, i saw Naoki and Kotoko’s wedding and i still had about 10 episodes left to watch, so i was very intrigued. Well that is the main difference between Special A and Itazura na Kiss. The last one also shows Kotoko and Naoki’s lives after the wedding and it still was interesting, but somehow… sad i guess… It’s like you’re able to see your whole life in 25 episodes  of this anime… So that’s pretty much why my wedding reminded me of Itazura na Kiss and i’m pretty scared that the next logical step would be the baby. Kotoko and Naoki’s baby turned out pretty well…

Somehow i liked the Special A ending more than i liked the Itazura na Kiss ending exactly because of that. It’s pretty weird and i can’t explain it very well… Well i guess if you’re an anime fan and you’re a girl and you’ve just started to plan your wedding and if you watched Itazura na Kiss… well i guess you’d understand what i’m trying to say here (also too many “ifs”).

Well that was a long rant, but i had to explain the delays between my posts. We haven’t even announced our godfathers for the wedding, but i announced you!

Jaa ne!

Buzzer Beat review

Yo minna! Finally got a chance to get back to posting and, as i’ve promissed, i’ll start writing reviews for the j-doramas i’ve seen. Normally i would have started with the one that i liked best, but i’ve decided to start with the very first dorama i saw: Buzzer Beat.

It has 11 episodes and it has Yamashita Tomohisa as the main character.  If i’d stopped here, it would have been enough for you to go watch this dorama right now. Teehee!

Well, a few words about the story. Yamapi plays Kamiya Naoki, a young professional basketball player. Being shorter than regular basketball players and tending to lose control under pressure, he can not show his true skills on the court.

Kitagawa Keiko plays Shirakawa Riko, a music college graduate who is the exact opposite of Naoki: she is joyful, strong-spirited and having a solid goal – to become a professional violinist.

They both start practicing hard using a street basketball field next to the appartment building where Riko lived. Naoki had a girlfriend to whom he had proposed, and he’d promised her they’d get married if his team won. Well… they lost and Naoki refused to get married while still being uncertain whether he could make his girlfriend happy or not. In the mean time, his coach fell for Riko and the two started dating.

Naoki and Riko kept seeing each other in the evenings when they’d practiced. Riko declared she would be Naoki’s first fan and he said the same to her. Being invited by coach Kawasaki to one of their basketball games, Riko sees the uncertain, sloppy and afraid Naoki for the first time. She is outraged when he misses to score, so she stops everybody when she starts yelling at Naoki reminding him that he is strong.  Well she also yelled “baka!!!” at him.

During one of their encounters one evening, Riko offers Naoki a beer, ending up getting really drunk and finding herself chasing some men who dumped garbage on the street-court.  Naoki tries to stop her, but he ends up at the police station along with Riko to report the incident. He is forced to carry Riko all the way back to her place because of her dizziness.

As you can see, Riko is not exactly very fond of a tidy room, so after Naoki puts her to sleep, he cleans the room, washes the dishes and prepares breakfast.  One of the funniest scenes ever!

Naoki finds out that his girlfriend was actually cheating on him. He tries to focus only on his game, but he soon realizes that he loves Riko.

Both their dreams come true. Riko starts her career as a professional violinist, but during a rehearsal, she bursts out and runs to the basketball court where Naoki was playing the game of their lives. Well…  she started yelling at him again, as she did when she first saw him playing on a basketball court. So…

Well this is the end. I love happy endings!

This dorama won lots of awards: best drama, best scriptwriter, best theme song, best actor, best actress…

You can watch Buzzer Beat here: http://www.dramacrazy.net/japanese-drama/buzzer-beat/

Here’s a cool Yamashita Tomohisa wallpaper as Kamiya Naoki.

Well if you haven’t seen Buzzer Beat yet, you go see it now!

Jaa ne!