Musings of the Obsessive Kind
She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Musings of the Obsessive KindShe's a mite whimsical in the brainpan. |
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| Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 07:30 pm Buy one, get one free... | |||
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I have just started Strawberry on the Shortcake and I have only one thing to say - am I going insane or is the (male) student who's been held back a couple of years and the (female) guidance counsellor a secret couple? ???? I mean, I knew about stepsiblings-in-love but I didn't know about this. Ahhh, Japan, how you spoil me. | |||
| Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 02:55 pm And now for a little negativity... | |||
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Poll #1488092 Which one is the most irritating drama heroine Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 40 Which one is the most irritating drama heroine?
View Answers Jandi, Boys Over Flowers - a braindead weepingpot mockery of the manga original Chen Xin Yi, Fated to Love You - fated to be a rug for you to walk on, more likely Go Mineyo, You're Beautiful - needing to be rescued constantly and taught to tie own shoelaces Tachibana Ayaka, Jotei - I shall achieve revenge by sleeping with own father Qiang Xin, ISWAK - braincells are for losers! So is self-esteem! Hayama Minami, Long Vacation - dropped on the head when baby until bounced Kang Hyena, My Fair Lady - selfish, violent, and ridiculously useless Xia Ya, Summer x Summer - I love being humiliated by my equally brain-dead crush Other - see comments | |||
| Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 12:00 pm I-R-I-S | |||
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So, apparently this is how ep 12 ends? ( Pic ) ajsjhshdjddk You know, I need this drama to be all out and all subbed NOW. | |||
| Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 11:02 am Travel help from meighty friends-list | |||
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Mr. Mousie and I are planning to go on vacation for Valentine's Day week (it's also our 10-year anniversary of getting together - hooray). We are going to go to Hong Kong. But we also wanted to go to Taiwan as well until Mr. Mousie brought up the fact that neither one of us speaks/reads Mandarin and apparently Taiwan is not very tourist-geared/English-accessible. So, before we pick somewhere else to combine with HK (we are thinking Singapore or Malaysia as alternatives), I know lots of you have been to Taiwan so I thought I'd ask - how easy would it be to get around Taiwan for two white foreigners who between them understand 6 languages, but not one of those 6 being Mandarin. Ideally, we'd like to get out of Taipei and explore around the island. | |||
| Nov. 20th, 2009 @ 09:59 am Of creatures immortal... | |||
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Mr. Mousie and I watched Doctor Who "The Waters of Mars" special and I am in the minority of not being wowed by it. I was actually bored by most of the episode *gasp* Mainly because I found the main dilemma really easily solvable - Doctor could have jjust detonated the whole thing himself and before that taken all the colonists into e.g. 28th century or something where it wouldn't make any difference - contemporary humanity would still think they are dead so everything would go as planned. And if he did it early enough, he could have saved most of them. Plus, with his little alteration, isn't the story going to be all about cool guy with a weird box saving them and their captain going crazy and shooting herself, and not the previous version of her being a hero blahblah so her suicide wouldn't fix anything. I know they wanted to make the Doctor dark but it didn't work for me The preview looked fantastic, though. | |||
| Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 11:13 pm Innocent Love - yeah right! | |||
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 My next jdrama is Innocent Love, based solely on the poster and the fact that it's by the same woman who wrote my biggest jdrama melodrama love, Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake. Our heroine is an orphan whose parents died in a fire for which her brother has been convicted. She meets and falls for a dreamy pianist with a comatose fiancee. Hijinks ensue. I expect plenty of yummy angst. | |||
| Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 07:38 pm IRIS!!! | |||
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Preview for ep 13 is out: WHAT. THE. HELL!!!!!!!!!!! *gnaws hands up to elbows* One thought on trailer: How DARE Hyun Joon hit Seung Hee. I don't care if he is doing it to protect her because otherwise someone else will interrogate her and do some really horrible damage to her. I don't fucking care. Diediediediediediedie. I hope Sawoo shoots you so full of bullet-holes you are going to resemble Swiss cheese. I hope you get decapitated. Slowly. No, I am not rational about this. I don't care. Clearly, the drama is all about Seung Hee for me. DIE!!! Also, I bet if she didn't buy the coverup about him being a rogue terrorist before, she will after, and will finally turn against him. I hope she shoots him in the face. He can die happy knowing he got to have street cred with his terrorist buddies for beating up Seung Hee-the-NSS agent. I am not fair in the least and I don't care. HATEHATEHATEHATEHATE. I hope his hands get chopped off. RAGE. | |||
| Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 04:00 pm For God's sake, get some medication for that! | |||
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1. I am tempted to watch Crying out Love, in the Centre of the World because I am in the mood for a tragic jdrama (hero loses heroine to leukemia) and because I love Yamada Takayuki and Ayase Haruka. EXCEPT (and here is where I out myself as a terrible non-romantic) I cannot get over the fact that the tragic premise is he dated her for a few months at 17, she died, and now it's 17 years later and he hasn't moved on. THE HELL??? I am sorry, barring some severe mental issues on the hero's part which got triggered by his experience, that is so ridiculous. I hate to say "move on" but move on! I just can't buy it. If they were together for years, fine, but a brief fling at 17? It's weird because I am fine with dramas about stepsiblings in love, people with no English skills apparently being lawyers from Harvard, amnesia, and doppelgangers. But I cannot suspend my disbelief enough for this. Are there any tropes like that for you - where you find them so farfetched that you roll your eyes and go "I'm done here." Maybe I'll check out Taiyo no Uta instead for my "Yamada Takayuki in love with a terminally ill girl" fix as it doesn't seem to make me roll my eyes badly - While working at a seaside inn with his high school buddies, Fujishiro Koji meets Kaoru Amane, a street musician. Kaoru is suffering from an incurable disease called xeroderma pigmentosum, and can’t be exposed to the sun. Under the sun, the two would never have met. Still, destiny brings the two together. Since the day he suddenly lost his job, Koji has lost sight of his dreams. But when he meets Kaoru, who is making positive efforts to become a singer, Koji regains his long-forgotten passion for music. Off to watch... | |||
| Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 09:34 am Tokyo Dogs - episode 1 | |||
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Take one serious cop motivated by vengeance and one flaky goofball cop. Add in a mysterious woman with amnesia who may hold the key to their crime syndicate investigation. You get Tokyo Dogs. This is how I can sum up my thoughts on the first ep: A. Ahhhh! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Kairi (Yoshitaka Yuriko, I mean :P) is in Tokyo Dogs as Oguri Shun's OTP! *squees madly* Is she working her way through the F4 members or what?  B. This is the first time ever I found Mizushima Hiro attractive  C. Most important: OGURI SHUN. My reason for watching. I love him as the serious driven cop. Competence = sexy. Not to mention, he is a rare Japanese actor who (a) looks masculine and (b) seems to have regular meals.  I ship them already:  It's fun. Not earthbreaking or anything but fun. A bit too goofy but by jdrama standards that's pretty mild. | |||
| Nov. 19th, 2009 @ 01:00 am Love Shuffle: the end. My arguably favorite jdrama of all time comes to an end. | |||
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"I will protect you forever. Or something like that." The rest of this post is brought to you by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dangermousie's ghost. You have no idea how hard it was to find a nonspoilery cap for above the cut.  ( Livebloggy thoughts on and caps of ep 10 ) This drama is going on the list of my all-time favorite dramas and Kairi/Ojiro on my list of all-time OTPs. I would so kill for some after-the-end fic! And I want to rewatch it all again and wake up my husband and tell him I love him and volunteer at a soup kitchen and and and and... Seriously. There are no words for how much I adored this. ETA: I just realized I skipped capping ep 9. | |||
| Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 01:05 pm 10 Jdramas whose popularity I do not get - get out your brickbats | |||
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Here are popular jdramas where I do not get the love. These aren't the genuinely bad jdramas (like Jotei or Delicious Gakuin) but jdramas which many many people adore. And I am left rolling my eyes and wondering why. (1) LONG VACATION - I think I am about to be drummed out of the drama-lovers community for putting this here but - there it is. I tried it twice and gave up by ep 4 both times. The production values are nonexistent, the heroine is a terrifying harpy, and the whole thing is deadly dull. Yeah yeah yeah, it's a classic. Classic of my boredom. (2) LOVE GENERATION - I hate to put Kimutaku's dramas on this twice but Good God! I tried watching this in Chiang Mai when I had no other entertainment options except this, unsubtitled Thai dramas on TV, or agressive mosquito-swatting, and the two latter options were still more fun. The heroine is unhinged but supposed to come across as cute. She is so irritating it's nails on chalkboard. Kimutaku himself - I got bored with him in it. (3) HANA KIMI - worst manga adaptation ever. Yes, even worse than the Taiwanese Peach Girl - the latter was just dull, it didn't utterly wreck the premise of the original. Not only that, but even taken in abstraction, this nonsensical over-the-top plotless, logicless, unacted wonder of scands of skeletal pretty boys, would be atrocious as a drama by any definition. (4) LIAR GAME - it has no character development and its plot is so primitive it cannot cover for any lack on the character score. Now in its second season, I just want it to be over so Matsuda Shota and Toda Erika would be in something I actually want to watch. Heck, I'll even take Jotei over this. (5) NODAME CANTABILE - and now I prepare for brickbats. But the ridiculously over-the-top mugging, the comedy so subtle that it can be enjoyed by a two-year-old with brain issues, irritating as hell characters, and a European played by Japanese in whiteface. No thanks. Not even Tamaki Hiroshi's considerable gorgeousness can save this. (6) VAMPIRE GIGOLO - the name says it all. That and the $10 they must have spent on design for the entire production. (7) NOBUTA WO PRODUCE - If I don't get kicked out for Long Vacation and Nodame Cantabile hate, this is bound to do it. Acclaimed blah blah blah blah blah. Maybe I am just too old but the struggles of three highschoolers to grow up are about as exciting as a encyclopedia on beetles. (8) ZETTAI KARESHI - it might be an OK drama on its own, I am not sure. But what is the point of adapting a manga only to gut it and change everything about it? I'd say that's the worst manga adaptation I've seen except that could never be while Hana Kimi exists. (9) KIMI WA PETTO - Sorry. The idea of keeping a real live person as a pet (even if said person is OK with it) is too appalling for me. Maybe if you are into the BDSM scene that is more your bag, but as for me I cringed through half of this drama before finally giving in to inevitable and dumping it. And then promptly doing a happiness dance. (10) BOKU DATE NO MADONNA - God - why! Why why why why why! Yet another one with dull as dishwater hero and an unbearable heroine. She is supposed to be adorable but comes across as immature unhinged stalker to me. A restraining order was invented for her. (10 tie - I cheated) KYOU KYOU KOYUSHI 2003 - a bit of an odd duck. I fully appreciate this is a well-written and well-acted drama but let's be frank - this was so creepy, twisted and horrifying, it put me off jdramas for, literally, months. There are dramas that teeter on the verge of "too messed up to bear" (see Byaukuyakuyu or however you spell that) and then there is this, which falls over into the abyss. When a high school teacher who makes his student believe she is dying from cancer and then takes advantage of her weakened emotional state and said student are about the most normal couple in this - I am out. ETA: How could I forget MEI CHAN NO SHITSUJI. Clearly taking place in some other universe where behaviors are inexplicable and personalities not like anything we see on earth, I could not take the nonsense for too long. And don't get me started on (again) the BDSM implications of butler roles. It's genderfail even if genders are reversed. Yours? | |||
| Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 12:31 pm All tremble in fear - before the mighty PANDA! | |||
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Also, I am very excited about Summer of Bubbles because I adore Barbie Hsu with a fierce, rididculous passion. The angsty storyline sounds right up my alley EXCEPT that I have been reading summaries of the novel this is based on (on AF) and I am going to hate the "hero" with the fire of ten thousand suns - his behavior is that of an unusually heinous secondary kdrama guy. (No - no raping. But horrifically atrocious just the same. Let me know if you want spoilers). Still. Barbie! The funny thing is the other guy in the love triangle is played by Huang Xiaoming who is the hottest thing in Asia, IMO. So I was predisposed to prefer him anyway. Also, LOL for the day - still from upcoming Pandamen - indeed, a story about Panda Superheroes.  | |||
| Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 10:36 am Babble of misc. | |||
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Once I finish Love Shuffle tonight, it's off to watch Tokyo Dogs. Let's see how good it is. I don't care for Mitzushima Hiro as an actor (though I think he is awesome in real life - bizarre, I know) but I adore Oguri Shun to bits. Plus, sexy cops are always good. Also, Strawberry on Shortcake because it's written (as I just found out) by the Pride/Love Shuffle/Bara No Nai Hanaya guy. All that and Takizawa Hideaki and Fukada Kyoko as stepsiblings who might like each other and an ensemble cast? I am set. (I also want to see if Utsukushii Hito by the same writer has been subbed - it's about a plastic surgeon who makes a woman who asks for any new face to hide from her abusive husband into a dead ringer for his beloved dead wife - right up my alley). I think my viewing of You're Beautiful is on-hold indefinitely. I was getting more and more fed-up with the heroine already and then Love Shuffle put the final nail in the coffin - having to go from a story with four different, compelling, strong in diverse ways women to a story with a moronic helpless heroine is just - I can't do it. Maybe I'll finish it some other time. As of 9 eps into Love Shuffle, the characters I love (in no order except that Kei is my favorite) are Kei, Airu, Ojiro, Kairi and Yukichi. I like Mei and Reiko. As for Masato - I am not telling because I am worried if I do he'll come for me at night :) Oh, and apparently Wallflower is going to be made into a jdrama. I am skeptical of the outcome seeing the only shoujo manga adaptation jdrama I ever liked was Hanadan, but we live in hope... | |||
| Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 07:52 am I got up and hour-and-a-half early to watch this | |||
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Fifteen minutes into episode 9 and I have such hate for Masato that even though it's cold here, I bet I'd stay warm even if I turned off the heat. Ughughughughughughugh. But OMG, Airu and Kei OMG awesomeness. And Ojiro, stop breaking my heart. Yukichi - see what I said re: Ojiro? Apply it to self as well, please. ETA: Ahahahaha - a search for dead body shouldn't be so hilarious but it is. Airu/Kei FOREVER. lolololol ETA2: And we have a big reveal. Except that I still don't care and still want to stab Masato in the face - that is a totally unforgivable thing to do. UGHUGHUGHUGH GO AWAY FOREVER. And nobody will convince me that on a level he meant every earlier thing he said and did - it wasn't the sum total of it, but it was there. Because he was TOO convincing (hello, he did not have to tell Airu and Kei that horrible stuff he said - he really thought it on a level, I bet), not to mention the scenes in the apartment. Also - what, he couldn't show Kairi her father's grief? It had to be Ojiro's? Yeah. Not to mention she seems to keep her promises (i.e. she is keeping her promise not to kill herself before her 20th birthday) so why is another promise not enough. And - also, genius, pick - either you want her to show the devastation someone she loves will go through after she dies, or you want to show her they move on. Both sort of makes no sense - in fact knowing the move on part might help to push her over the edge when a next suicidal bout is there - because you know eventually they'll be OK. I really think he is just re-enacting his lover's suicide and projecting a hell of a lot into the situation. Not to mention a weird sort of a karmic payback to his ex by making someone who looks like him go through the same thing Masato went through. Ugh. Go away! ETA3: He isn't even fighting back! OMGOMG. This thing has more angst than a kdrama. ETA4: I understand why Mei reacts the way she does, but it's like kicking a puppy. (((Yukichi))) ETA5: Oh, Kei and Airu, hook up already - a blind mouse can tell you are in love with each other. ETA6: I never thought I'd like Reiko, but I do. She is one tough lady. ETA7: Ojiro! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! ETA8: Kairi crying while crunching her ice with Yukichi is just ----- yes, that's what emotions are like, girl! I love it to bits. Also, (((Yukichi))) - he lost both his friend and the girl he loved. ((())) | |||
| Nov. 18th, 2009 @ 12:34 am Love Shuffle - ep 8. Thank you for breaking my heart into pieces, drama! | |||
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I wish I could say I had coherent meta about episode 8, seeing it's my favorite one so far.  But I don't have any because it kinda brutalized me - good job, drama! Plus, this is the third day I am behind on my sleep because of this drama, so my brain is fried. Also? My main feeling is rage at him, but I don't think I want to put down everything I feel about Masato, because I am terrified of him. That is the most twisted thing I've seen in a while. WHO DOES THAT??????? ( Caps from my favorite scenes ) | |||
| Nov. 17th, 2009 @ 10:57 pm Love Shuffle: ep 7 liveblogging and caps | |||
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 OK, I got so insane, I liveblogged ep 7 of Love Shuffle. This is my most favorite jdrama except for Pride, because nothing will ever knock Pride off the list. But this is thiiiiiis close. ( Liveblogging with caps ) Just to demonstrate how insane I am - I watch the ep on zoomplayer (because I love the crispness) and then load it into GOMPlayer just to cap. | |||
| Nov. 17th, 2009 @ 11:37 am Love Shuffle eps 5 and 6 - the non- Kairi/Ojiro edition (well - mostly. They snuck in) | |||
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 Despite my last night's post, I do love other aspects of the show. ( Meta and caps behind cut ) | |||
| Nov. 17th, 2009 @ 12:31 am Forget Dysfunction City - it's like Dysfunction Universe. And I ship it so bad! | |||
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I have about 100 caps for eps 5-6 of Love Shuffle, dealing with everything under the sun, but majority of those caps are Kairi/Ojiro.  I have a huge, ginormous new OTP, you guys! They take "nobody else will work for the other" to a whole new level of shippiness. Or is it a new level of dysfunction? Probably both one and the same. Maybe it's because I haven't seen anything quite like that in a drama - she is genuinely clinically insane (she has hallucinations, is actively suicidal - you should see her wrists) and he seems normal but is in reality ridiculously closed off (we have actually seen him open up only once so far - to Kairi), hiding behind his camera, and in love with death as a means to art even if he isn't suicidal himself. Plus - when she is with him is the only time she acts like a real person and not a space-alien shell nonresponsive to outside stimuli, and when he is with her is the only time he actually lets anyone in or loses control. ( Kairi/Ojiro caps from eps 5-6 ) You know, it's funny, if I were asked to name my jdrama favorite actors, I'd probably never pick Matsuda Shota but he was in three of my all-time favorites (this, Hana Yori Dango, Bara No Na Hanaya) and I adored him in all of them. Hmmmmmm. (OTOH, I think I am the only person in the Universe who honestly does not get why people like Liar Game - not even he and Erica Toda can get me enthusiastic about it and yet everyone is rabid about it). Also - I counted. Out of a 100 caps, 75 are Kairi/Ojiro - related. I get monomaniacal. I conclude with this Kairi/Ojiro mv I found on youtube (people making MVs for them feel me with glee). I am kinda functioning on little sleep and I haven't watched anything else in days. I am OBSESSED with this drama! fivil told me this is the same writer who did Pride (otherwise known as my most favorite jdrama and in my Top 3 dramas generally) so all of a sudden, it all makes sense. | |||
| Nov. 16th, 2009 @ 04:53 pm OK... | |||
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Ummm. I am a bad girl and just spoiled myself as to who in the group is most like Masato the crazy shrink's dead lover and now I wish I didn't because jaw meet floor Seriously??????????? NO WAY. NO WAY. | |||
| Nov. 16th, 2009 @ 04:24 pm Because I have officially gone insane - Love Shuffle poll | |||
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Poll #1486414 Love Shuffle Poll Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25 Favorite couple
View Answers Ojiro/Kairi Mei/Kei Yukichi/Kairi Airu/Kei Kei/Kairi Mei/Yukichi Thressomes rock - Airu/Kei/Ojiro Airu/Masato Mei/Ojiro Masato/Reiko Airu/Ojiro Airu/Yukichi Reiko/turtle Favorite friendship
View Answers The four dwellers of floor 28 - pajama parties Tara-chans - the oddest duo to ever exist Kairi and Panda - she will cut you if you don't pick this one Mei and Airu - girl power! Airu and Kei - best friends forever Most screwed-up
View Answers Masato - dead girlfriend fixation Kairi - insane and suicidal Yukichi - dependent and lacking any self-worth Ojiro - duh Favorite character
View Answers Mei - I like prim sweet rich girls Airu - pushy, loud, independent gals for me Reiko - older screwed-up ladies is where it's at Kairi - crazies rock Masato - I'd shrink-wrap him Kei - shining shimmering and splendid - like in that Alladin song Ojiro - mmmmmmmmmmm Yukichi - sweet nerdy loveable boy Does Tamaki Hiroshi need to eat a sandwich? | |||
18 (45.0%)