Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

I know, I know. You're thinking, yet again, how has she had time to watch another whole series when she should be super busy with NaNoWriMo? Well, I'm going to do exactly what I did last time with Ikemen Desu Ne, and just ignore the issue. ^^

I'll be honest, this series didn't keep me particularly hooked. I more watched it as light relief between writing and or avoiding doing actual work than I did because I was desperate to see the next episode. This is not to say I didn't enjoy it though. It was amusing and the characters were fun, as well as having enough action to keep it entertaining.

The story focused mainly on high school student Shinagawa, who was constantly targeted and coerced into fights by delinquents, who are known as Yankees, because he cannot be beaten, even though he actually wants to study hard in school to become a doctor. On the first day of school, he meets Hana, a girl with plaits and glasses who acts like a stereotype school girl, but is in fact trying to turn over a new leaf from her Yankee days in middle school, when she was the famed Hurricane Ada. The plot of the series is mostly about Hana trying to make Shinagawa join in with their class mates to enjoy their school lives together, with a little bit of random fighting thrown in here and there to add a bit on tension.

It was a good series, and having just watched the last episode, I was nearly in tears and laughing out loud throughout, so that's always a good sign. I particularly enjoyed the 'this development ...' moments, when Shinagawa was expecting Hana to confess to him when she wasn't. To be honest, Hana was to stupid to realise whether she liked him or not, and Shinagawa was majorly hung up over a girl who had lent him a pen at the entrance exams without even realising it was Hana all along. Basically, they are both stupid. I have to admit though, that whenever Hana went into a fight, I always half expected her to pull out her plaits and take off her glasses Gokusen style, not that she ever did. Also, I constantly got distracted by how Shinagawa actually had the mouth of a cat.

From Google. Hana being Hana, resorting to childish means to get Shinagawa to do what she wants. I wish you could see his cat mouth, but I couldn't find any decent pictures of it.

Shinagawa was in Gokusen and Tokyo Dogs, not that I can recall him in the latter, but that he was in Gokusen means he must be like late 20's and still playing high school students, so that's a little concerning. Hana's best friend and somwhat less reformed Yankee, Rinka, was also in Tokyo Dogs, again I have no idea as who, but was Haruhi in Ouran High School Host Club. Shinagawa's hot best friend was in Tokyo Dogs, Mei-chan no Shitsuji and original Hana Kimi.

Next on my list is 1 Litre of Tears, which is a a drama I have been hearing about for a long time as one that will make the title come true. I think I'm going to have to wait to start this one until NaNo is over and I have finished my short, because if its anything like Koizora, its best if I'm not around people for a while. 

Also, if I remember correctly, along with Nobuta wo Produce, it is SuJu's Heechul's favourite drama ^^ ....oh Heenim, I miss you.

ANYWAY, after this drama I only have one film and one drama until I have made my way through all the japanese dramas on dramacrazy.net's top 50. Then to go back and watch the other Asian ones, including different language versions of most of what I've already watched ... XD

<3 x

Drama: 1 Litre of Tears 1

Manga: Same

NaNoWriMo backlog: 6305 words (catching up! Wrote 5.5k today, hence finishing YankeeMegane treat ^^)

Nano 2010

I was just reading my posts about NaNoWriMo last November. They amused me.

At this point of the month in 2010, I was on just a fraction over 2000 words, and had just decided that finishing was totally feasible. Talk about optimistic.

I'm freaking out now because I have only just hit 20 000 words, leaving me 30 000 words to write in 10 days as opposed to the 10 000 words I have managed in the same time frame through out the month, although at least I'm not fooling myself into thinking it is achievable when it is not. Its going to be tough, but it is do-able. Its only a little over 2 500 words a day.

I know you're thinking that maths doesn't work, but I was rounding the numbers down and up, OK? Smart arses.

Anyway, time to stop wasting words on blogging.

<3 x

Drama: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan ep 6 (last nov I was still watching anime, oh, how I've grown up)
Manga: Hana Kimi 57 / Love so Life 7 / Black Bird (reread, again) 17
NaNoWriMo Backlog: 12 092 words (eeek)

Ikemen Desu Ne

Right, I know what you're thinking.

'How could Heather possibly be doing her review post of this new show she only started last week when it is NaNoWriMo? Surely she is far too busy WRITING 50 000 WORDS IN A MONTH to be spending all her time watching J dramas?'

ahem... so anyway ....

This show didn't make me nearly so ranty as I was afraid it would, and I managed to contain all afore mentioned rantyness to the edits of one post. That it not to say I wasn't practically screaming in annoyance to Mio's lack of recognition of Shu throughout the whole thing. I also nearly cried when she turned down lovable Yuki, even though it was super funny how he was all conflicted thinking he was in love with a boy, while Shu and Ren knew she was a girl pretty much straight away. But for the most part, it was really good fun and I even found myself cheering for Mio and Ren by the end.

I just love the comedy of these dramas. Obviously there were loads of things that could go wrong with a former nun taking her brothers place in a top idol pop group while he recovered in hospital, although literally everyone falling in love with her just because she is the only girl in the vicinity, no matter whether they realised it or not, is a little annoyingly unrealistic.

The manager of the group always came out with odd phrases in English, normally just bits like 'hurry up' or 'wonderful', but in the first episode, a minor problem had cropped up. Everyone else was like 'oh bother' while he stood up and screamed out 'HOLY SHIT', which amused me greatly. Obviously there was the whole falling on to the guy's lips, which was conversely followed up with vomiting into his mouth, which was new. Lots of dramatic hugging and barbie kisses too, which always amuses me.

Haven't had a picture for a while ...

From Google. Look how jealous they all are! Ren sitting on the left, Shu standing up at the back, Yuki standing up on the right, and Mio looking idiotic in the middle. The guy with his arm around her was in the Korean version, I think, playing Ren's character.

The only thing that really bothered me, other than the whole Shu thing, which I'm not going to go into it, I'm not going to say how lovely he was and how he took her on a telephone date and brought her loads but she didnt even know he was there, or how when he was telling her about the girl she liked, she was so heartbreakingly clueless that he was talking about her, and how he cried when she turned him down... where was I? Oh yeah, the thing that bothered me was the lack of relationship between Miko 'Mio' and the real Mio, her brother. Mio was supposed to get into showbiz for his sister, so they could meet their mother, who ended up long dead, and while we saw the conflict this gave Miko 'Mio', as far as we are aware, real Mio never saw his sister to hear the story. Obviously, they were the same actor so that was probably why, although it was impressive how much more manly they made real Mio, but it just didn't make sense to me that they were 'so close' and yet never bothered to see each other. Also, for a show with Ikemen in the title, basically meaning handsome guys, I didn't really notice that many hot men. Sure, Shu and Yuki were cute after you got over the fact that they were a little too pretty, and Ren looked much better when his hair was natural, but there was a distinct lack of hot manly guys. Throw in a Yamapi and it would have been much more agreeable.*

Connections. Ren was in the Gokusen movie, so there's the Gokusen link even though I haven't seen it yet. Jealous Nana who constantly threatened to reveal Mio's identity was also in Mei-chan no Shitsugi and Gokusen 3. Ren's Mum was in the original Hana Kimi special, although I have no idea as who. Wow, not very many connections here, although I didn't really recognise anyone, so that makes sense.

Now I'm back on my list after that little backtrack and next up is Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, something along the line of bad girl goes good and good guy goes bad, so that should be fun.

<3x

Drama: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan 1
Manga: Hana Kimi 57 / Love so Life 7
NaNoWriMo backlog: 10 128 words (damn it, and I was catching up!)



*I was wikipedia-ing Yamapi (Yamashita Tomohisa of Nobuta wo Produce, Kurosagi, and Buzzer Beat who happens to be rather hot) when I found some photos not leaving much to the imagination. I think I nearly got a nose bleed.

P.S. In other news, I downloaded Super Junior's Super Show 3 album last night, and on the track names, the solo's were in hangul, which obviously I cannot read.. I correctly identified everyone by just the sound of their voice ^^. I'm so cool.

WARNING

Remember my Hana Yori Dango rants about Makino always choosing Tsukasa the douche over lovely Rui?

Well, you very well may be getting some Ikemen Desu Ne rants over Mio choosing Ren the moody arsehole over super sweet Shu.

Just to forewarn you ...

<3 x

Drama: Ikemen Desu Ne ep 5
Manga: Hana Kimi ch 57 / Love so Life ch 7
NaNoWriMo Backlog: 7801 words



EDIT (after watching ep 6): AHHHHHHHH! He is SO SWEET! Definately cheering for Shu. I want Shu. I love Shu.

EDIT #2 (ep7): GAH girls in Jdramas make me soooo mad!! How is it that she cant see how amazing Shu is, how its always him that comes to her rescue and helps her, how he is so heartbroken that you are only looking at Ren? And how is it that you go all starry eyed over Ren telling you that he gives you permission to like him, but he wont admit that he likes you too?! What a dick!
OH YEAH, and at least you arent possibly Shu's SISTER.
.... somewhere in that I started ranting TO the character rather than ABOUT her, so thats a little worrying.I get far too involved in these things.

EDIT #3 (ep8) oohhh yeah, Shu fights back ^^ 'I won't let you have Mio!' *fangirl giggles*

Hana Kimi Remake

Well, I said I'd do a review post when they had finally subbed the last two episodes of the Hana Kimi Remake, so now they have, and now I've watched it, here it is.

You may remember my first impression of this drama wasn't a particularly good one. I didn't understand the point of making another version of a much loved classic Japanese drama just 4 years later, especially when there was already a Taiwanese version out there and a Korean version much rumoured, although still no sign of it yet. The characters were pretty much the same, and the first episode was just far too familiar.

From there on, it improved in my eyes dramatically. Yes, I know you are probably sick of me saying it, but I ENJOYED THIS SERIES IMMENSELY. Yeah, I may have known exactly what was going to happen, but that didn't stop me from looking forward to each new episode. It was light hearted, easy to watch, made me laugh and brought tears to my eyes. And Sano and Nakatsu were hot. I think I prefer them to the originals, although pretty much every other character will always be the actors from the 2007 Hana Kimi for me.

Connections. Pretty much sure that there won't be a Gokusen link as they are all too young. Sano was in the Koizora movie (knew there was a reason why I loved him so much, although I don't know who he was). Nakatsu was in TV Koizora (omg Nozomu!!) and Gokusen 3, so I stand corrected there, although he is 23 as opposed to everyone else pretty much being born in the 90's. Kayashima was in Samurai High School, although I dont know as who, and that about as many people I can be bothered to look up. I can't say I recognised anyone until I looked them up, and I'm particularly disappointed in myself that I missed Nakatsu being NOZOMU even though he made me cry in Koizora.

OK THIS IS NOT FUNNY. I just looked up who Sano was in Koizora Movie, and he was Nozomu too. HOW THE HELL DID I MISS BOTH OF THEM BEING NOT ONLY MAJOR CHARACTERS BUT THE SAME EFFING PERSON IN THE ONLY JAPANESE DRAMA AND MOVIE THAT I HAVE WATCHED MORE THAN ONCE?

Next is still Ikemen blah blah blah pissed off now.

Inappropriate Google Search

The last thing I searched for on Google was 'TAKEN YOUNG BOY'.

Kpop makes me sound like a pedophile.

<3 x



Drama: Hana Kimi Remake Ep 11 / Ikemen Desu Ne Ep 1
Manga: Hana Kimi Ch 57 / Love so Life Ch 7
NaNoWriMo Backlog: 8, 899 words