タイガー、タイガー、ありがタイガー!

[fenlings]

Kisarazu Cat's Eye
This was a very enjoyable series. Sho from Arashi! Okada Junichi breaking out his acting skills! A bunch of people I vaguely know! Plus what seemed like the entire cast of IWGP. I noticed that this show shared producer, director, and writer with IWGP too. This drama isn't based off anything I can see--an original story. But it was made two years after IWGP and, since TBS wasn't allowed to make an IWGP sequel because of the number of copycat gangs IWGP inspired, I have a feeling they made this show instead. It's not that this isn't a good show, and it doesn't really feel recycled, it's just that IWGP does a lot of the same things about 10 times better.

I do however love how the group of male friends here is just seriously a bunch of GIANT FANBOYS. Their spazzing out geekily at their idols, their crying at Ghibli, their *complete manga fannishness* (the entire premise and title of the series is inspired by a manga), with everyone making manga and pop culture references every two seconds (some of which I got!) is just so realistic and endearing. They're like me! And they're like stupid boys too! Bussan and his friends and family's process of grief at Bussan's approaching death was handled well, both in terms of realism and drama. There was a good balance of comedy and tragedy.

What I didn't like was the ending. The entire pathos of the series is based on the fact that Bussan is going to die. And Okada and everyone managed a beautiful death for him. But then he magically comes back to life. Usually I'm a fan of beloved characters coming back to life, but the way they did his revival I didn't feel the rush of happiness and relief I should have--I only felt confusion and betrayal that the show had toyed with my emotions this way. I was honestly sad for Bussan's death, and I felt like they kind of stepped on and invalidated those feelings with his revival. Because there was no *reason* for it. And they never hinted it could happen, so I didn't know to hope. If, for example, Bussan had always carried around a good luck charm, but got separated from it when he died, and then one of his friends brought it back to his body and it magically revived him, then I would be more okay with something like that. Because at least there would have been a *reason* for him to revive. And it would have made sense with the previous good-luck-charm narrative. (I don't think the Koshien soil counts as this magical plot device because, besides being narratively lame because we have no emotional connection to Little Yamawhatever, Bussan was starting to open his eyes before Little came in the room.) Also his revival broke my suspension of disbelief. What kind of hospital doesn't notice that someone's *not dead*?! And how is Bussan so completely recovered from his collapse so suddenly? If, say, he had gone brain-dead and they were preparing to pull the plug when some new medicine/magic happened to wake him up again, then we would still have gotten the sadness from him being dead + the happiness at his revival. Believably. But as it was, at the end I just kind of gave up caring.

Kisarazu Cat's Eye: Nihon Series
I agree that it feels like Bussan's milking it! It's been a year and he's not dead! Also why isn't he showing any signs of illness?

That "There was a mistake in the calculation" line--that's good. So is Okada's reaction to it. He's being replaced by his father's new baby! He's not dying fast enough and is inconveniencing people's schedules! But he has to be noble and try to be happy for their plans to be happy without him.

Ozzy seemingly coming back to life inexplicably after months of being dead? That's BAD. What is this, like JESUS TOWN? Apparently all dying people should go to Kisarazu to breathe the magic undying air. Or else maybe everyone's a zombie. And Yassai Mossai is their voodoo zombie dance!

But oh. Ozzy turns out to be Smiley George in disguise. Yay? Makeup is magical! I love how everyone (myself included) just accepted that this dead dude had risen from the grave.

Bussan never asks for anything for himself. I think that's what I like best about him. He's the character that has the most moral justification to be selfish, but he's always the most unselfish and caring for his friends and community. In his immature fanboy way.

Okay the whole trash monster thing? WTF. And Bussan fake dies *again*? This is ridiculous. The whole deserted amazon island is ridiculous as well. Just WTF, writers. WTF.

The movie as well as the series suffers from narrative problems. As in, there is none.

So basically we just hang around with these characters who are great and entertaining yes, but any story there is is either pointless or unbelievable. And there are so many different kinds of stories jammed together in the series--the writers seem confused as to whether this is a sports story, heist caper, melodrama, slice of life... The sudden turn to King Kong disaster movie with the monster at the end of this film is the most extreme example of this endemic narrative confusion. Just to compare, IWGP was always clearly a mystery with side elements of drama and comedy. (In structure it actually reminds me a lot of Veronica Mars season 1.) The only kind of "arc story" I could find in Kisarazu was that this is Bussan's attempt to live a normal life.

And even that is an unbelievable narrative, because in no way is his life normal, even for him!

The Kisarazu series isn't serial in story--there is backwards continuity, and even forwards continuity with some flash-forwards. But there's no consistent evolvement in the character development, so it *seems* almost serial, in that a lot of the time it seems that characterization keeps returning to what it was in the beginning. There are good individual moments of emotion, but I didn't see any real growth or change in characters or relationships. So that's why the stories that aren't unbelievable seem pointless. There's no result, no lasting effect on the characters from the stories. This is probably best represented in Bussan's inexplicable deaths and resurrections. So any kind of grief the characters felt on Bussan's death is immediately erased with his resurrection and they return to their previous characterization.

But I still recommend this series and movie, just because the characters and plot elements are so hilarious and loveable and quirky.

Gohatto
The RPS movie! See? RPS can be classy! And OCs can be interesting!

This movie was cinematographically beautiful. And I liked the imdb review that was like "Gay samurai EVERYWHERE." Hahaha, just like yaoi fic. But even after reading the imdb boards, I still don't know what "really happened" plotwise. It's a little frustrating, but I recommend this movie just because it keeps you thinking.

Boys Love
Okay. So from the title you'd think this film would be awesome, right? Well, you'd be wrong. The ending, especially, is retarded. God.

And the acting is extremely *questionable*, especially on the part of the repressed journalist. His wide-eyed stare makes him seem as if he's in a perpetual state of blank surprise. No emoting at all. The model slut was better. I didn't believe he was in high school, but he had good magnetism and he was hot. But the pretentious quotes about love didn't always work, especially the last one. And even though at the beginning repressed reporter says, "This is not a tragedy. This is our love story." I don't think the love story part was actually fully developed. Not just that they never had sex, so the film was valorizing the "pure" form of chaste love (WTF), but I just didn't feel a deep connection between them. I believed they were friends, and had little crushes on each other, but the film just didn't show them falling in love. It was more like they were on the brink. They didn't share anything with each other, except for model sharing his childhood trauma.

And that was stupid. Model's actor tried his best, but that revelation scene was a bad idea. The trauma wasn't bad enough to warrant that. Speaking of trauma, what was up with that rape scene! Not only does it stretch my suspension of disbelief, what was its narrative purpose? I guess to break him down enough so that he would open up about his real childhood pain? Just seemed kind of gratuitous because it was never mentioned again. But model's actor played his secret angst fairly well, even if the writers made his secret angst stupid.

All in all a disappointment, especially because with that title it lays tacit claim to representing the entire Boys Love genre. It's not all like that, really!

Tiger and Dragon
Another drama by Kudo Kankuro, this time using both the stars of his other dramas, Okada Junichi and Nagase Tomoya. I was extremely impressed with the writing here.

Being a fan of seeing different versions and retellings of stories, this series was like made for me. In contrast with Kisarazu, there's very clever uses of narrative here. I'm also much more a fan of magical realism used within a storytelling fantasy than used in the actual reality of the story like it was in Kisarazu. This is serial in that each episode is centered around a particular rakugo story, but the characters show arc growth as well.

Being a fan of Nagase and Okada, it's just SO GREAT to see them doing their thing here. Nagase plays his usual gangster-out-of-water, but he adds little things to make this character special. I enjoy the compulsive tongue wagging. The other characters are well-rounded as well. Character motivation is made clear for everyone (except Megumi).

The relationships are also well-developed (and develop*ing*), and the family-cum-rakugo-troupe setup is good for drama and conflict.

This is just a really enjoyable series. The running jokes never get old--it's amazing.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Tiger, tiger, miniikitaiga~!

Haru wo Daiteita
The manga:
So there are these two male porn stars. Who have sex with women. But then they have to have sex with each other as an audition for a "real movie" (yeah I don't know). And then continue to have sex on the drop of a hat with no motivation, despite one dude's continued protests that he really doesn't like the other dude.

But then of course eventually they develop their, uh, TWU LUV. And come out as a couple to the world and their families, and they live with each other and--wait for it--GET MARRIED IN AMERICA. And that's just the first half. I'm working my way through fairly quickly because it's all total candy.

The author has at least one character keep saying "they're not gay, they just love each other!" So it's like bad original yaoi fic, *beautifully* illustrated. With lots of sex!

The anime:
I just watched these 2 OAVs. I think there may be a third one raw? Anyway, they're so totally sketch. What was hot in the manga is *so sketch* in the anime that it makes me uncomfortable. I wonder why. Maybe it's the style of movement or animation style they use when blondie does things slowly, but it's kind of creepy. Maybe I need to rewatch those hentai yaoi animes I remember being good--for comparison to pinpoint the problem here. Yes, research...

Winter Cicada anime:
Again I just watched the first 2 of 3 OAVs. This is like, a period film that the two actors in Haru wo Daiteita acted in I think? Anyway, it's WAY BETTER than the Haru wo Daiteita anime. I mean, it's still not good, but it's better. I didn't notice a big quality difference between the Winter Cicada manga and the Haru wo Daiteita manga, but I sure do with the anime. The relationships and characters are more interesting, the animation and character design better, and there is some actual semblance of a coherent plot, confusing/boring historical stuff granted. And the sex scene is, some unfortunate angles aside, not creepy and really sweet. Aww, samurai in love.

Comments

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you find my random spy!fic lark enjoyable. For some reason, the idea of Kurosaki and Tsurara as gun toting operatives with secret, angsty, UST-ridden past seems to fit really well into canon for me. Either that, or I just have a horrible weakness for hot people with guns. XD

And there's going to be more than a Kurosagi SP -- there's going to be a Kurosagi FEATURE FILM. I know. I can barely contain myself, I'm so excited.