Ouran High School Host Club

The story revolves around a high school girl named Fujioka Haruhi at the prestigious Ouran Academy, who stumbles upon a group of male students who have formed their own club as hosts. Accidentally breaking an antique vase, Haruhi ends up owing the club a vast amount of money, and she ends up posing as a host in order to repay her debt. -Dramawiki

I know the manga and anime are both popular, but I still haven't gotten around to finishing the manga and I have no intention of watching the anime. (I've given up on watching anime for the most part). However, I did watch the drama because my friend suggested I do so and I really liked it. I haven't watched a drama like this since I watched Nodame Cantabile over a year ago and compared to all the other dramas I've been watching this was a nice change. I'm surprised this got such low ratings considering they're making a movie now. On the other hand I've read other reviews on this drama and found mixed feelings. Seems either people hated it or they loved it. I wonder if that has anything to do with reading the manga and watching the anime beforehand.

Gokusen

Anyone familiar with the j-drama Gokusen would know that there have been three made plus a movie. Most of these actors have gone on to be well known in the acting world (at least from Gokusen 1 and 2). It's also known to be a sort of "starting place" for some JE idols such as Matsumoto Jun and Kamenashi Kazuya.

"The story of a young, idealistic teacher who enters Shirokin Gakuen with hopes of making a difference in the students' lives. However, Yamaguchi Kumiko is in for a rude awakening when she finds that she will be the homeroom teacher of 3-D, the hardest class to maintain in the school. The students have multi-colored hair, sloppy uniforms, and show absolutely no respect to her. The leader of the class, Sawada Shin is lazy but bright and shows some interest in Yamaguchi when he notices that she is very different from other teachers. The students try to bully her to make her quit, but their attempts don't get them very far.

What the class and the rest of the school does not know is that Yamaguchi Kumiko is actually the 4th generation heir to the Ooedo Group, a notorious yakuza clan. Even though her family would like her to take the title of Ojou when her grandfather dies, they have accepted the fact that Yamaguchi would rather be a teacher.

Eventually, the students learn to respect their quirky teacher because of her devotion to them, and even give her a nickname: Yankumi." - dramawiki


[The synopsis is for Gokusen 1, but almost the entire gist of it goes for both Gokusen 2 and 3 as well.]

If I were to summarize this drama in one sentence... it's pretty much a comedy with a tad bit of drama in a school setting with some messages about friends, family and life. That's the easiest way to summarize it. It does have some resonating factors such as what to do after high school, looking forward to the future, believing in yourself, and etc. But I think the main theme in this drama is having someone believe in you constantly and always seeing the good in you when you don't see it yourself. Honestly, I have never had a high school teacher I was extremely close with or that I could depend on to support me and knock sense into me when I needed it most. Yankumi for the most part is the idealistic teacher no one ever gets (excluding the part where she's an heir to a yakuza group). Gokusen depicts the delinquent students as being given up on by every teacher, except Yankumi. The students, themselves have given up on having a good future in society because society looks down on them with disdain, yet Yankumi somehow opens up their eyes, mind and hearts again. She has the power to see good in everyone and never gives up on anyone which allows her to reach the hearts of her students.  That's what makes this drama so captivating. What if there was a teacher like her? Would you also have her back when she needed it? How would you react in a situation where you don't know who to trust, not even yourself?

Kimi Ni Todoke (movie)

Ok. So I totally lied about reviewing stuff during break considering I start classes tomorrow again. On the other hand I did finish reading two books and decided to review a movie not on my list.
I know there's been a lot of reviews on the Kimi ni Todoke film, but I couldn't resist after rereading the manga. So here's my take on the film.

Sawako Kuronuma, called Sadako by her classmates for her resemblance to the character from The Ring, has always been feared and misunderstood because of her appearance. There are rumors that Sawako can see ghosts and curse people. However, despite her appearances, she is a sweet and timid girl who longs to be able to make friends with everyone and be liked by everyone else. When her idol, popular boy Kazehaya, begins talking with her, everything changes. She finds herself in a new world, trying to make friends and talking to different people and she can't thank Kazehaya enough for giving her these opportunities. Slowly, but surely, a sweet love blossoms between the two as they overcome circumstances and obstacles that stand in their way. - Wikipedia


The overall film was sweet and not overbearing just like the manga. It's definitely a slow paced movie, but that sweet innocent feeling of first love makes up for that. While the manga is very cute, it never over does the sweetness or cheesiness that come with most Shojo Beat manga. The movie is much the same. It's not exactly realistic, but neither is it over dramatic in terms of angst or sugar coating, which is mostly the reason I enjoyed the movie. On the other hand however, because it is a movie, many scenes had to be condensed and left a lack of character development and relationship development between any other character beside the main two. Many scenes left me wanting more and at times puzzled as to what significance certain scenes were suppose to have The friendship scenes between Ayane, Chizuru and Sawako weren't weak, but neither were they the greatest. And the scenes between Sanada and Chizuru? I don't want to get started on that, the writers literally left you hanging. It was like they couldn't decide whether to leave the entire relationship between the two out or to keep it in  Not even the acting could make up for the script. It ruined what could've been an amazing film, but didn't cause extreme damage to make it cringe worthy.

In terms of casting, I was thrilled. I had my doubts about the main actors when I first heard about the casting. Miura Haruma (Kazehaya) and Mikako Tabe (Sawako) weren't my first choices for the roles, but in the end they were actually the perfect duo to play the parts. I thought their chemistry was initially awkward, yet as the film progressed the chemistry improved. Haruma outdoes himself as the "refreshing and popular boy", even I couldn't help but feel my heart race when he smiled. It's completely different from some of his roles in like Koizora, Bloody Monday and Gokusen 3. Mikako also was amazing as Sawako, I didn't think she could pull off the timid, kind, innocent and honest nature of Sawako without exaggerating her drastically, but she didn't have to. She kept the essence of Sawako while bringing her own version of the character in. The roles of Chizuru, Ayane, Sanada, and Kurumi, I felt were also well casted. In terms of actually resembling their characters physically it was pretty much dead on in my opinion. The overall chemistry between them all as friends, classmates, enemies, and acquaintances was convincing and didn't hit any rough bumps during the film. So all in all, movie was decent, but the acting definitely surpasses the movie.