Here's what everyone should read before going to the rest of the site
1) If you have anything you want to say to me, please leave a comment in this entry! Or email me: ninomiya_himitsu@yahoo.com
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Release: August 2008 Genre: Pop Featured: Theme song for Ohno's dorama "魔王 「Maou」" Star: Riida, hands down! Review: Finally, a video I could totally get into! Well, it's been about a year, but it's been worth the wait, clearly! Maybe they just do better when it is tied in with some project a member is working on? In any case, this really fits Maou and Riida really well. The tone is set really well, kind of chilling and thrilling, which is something I've yet to see Arashi really do. The violins and orchestra in the background were a nice touch and the costumes were also done very well (Aiba's red pants were a little distracting though, they kind of draw your eye away from Ohno, when he is supposed to be the real star, ne?). Riida is really into it and the others are pretty into it too. I love the end of the video, I really got chills all over! The camerawork was excellent, very fast-paced. The dancing was kind of off, but who cares at this point? Arashi is an unstoppable monster. I really liked this video.. it's a perfect fit to the song and to the dorama it's promoting. Rating:/5
Release: August 2008 Genre: Pop Featured: NTV Beijing Olympics Theme Song Star: Again, no stand outs Review: Another filler video. This one really doesn't have much heart or coordination or anything in it. It's probably warranted though since Arashi has been so busy with so many other activities--this PV was released alongside "Truth," which is arguably a much bigger deal. Anyway, it was nice enough since Arashi was in it of course, they all looked great with flattering conditions on set and what not. The colors were kind of muted with that gray/white theme going on. Mmm.. There's really not much to say. Honestly, I kind of forgot what I was doing WHILE watching it for this review so that must not be a good sign.. very, very average I'd have to say. One big plus though: it's always nice seeing Nino with an acoustic guitar. Simple and heartwarming, the big draw for any fangirl (; Rating:/5
Release: June 2008 Genre: Pop Star: Everyone and no one.. blargh Review: I wonder sometimes what the point is of reviewing a music video.. but then I stop and realize--yes, I am just that crazy about Arashi. (= This video though.. it was.. nice. I don't know, it suits the song in a whimsical, kind of pastel, dreamy way, but it is definitely not something for continual viewing. The guys have a watercolor photoshopped look in the whole thing and while it makes them look like they have perfect complexion (which Nino does), I think they are fine without all the effects. It has other nice additions as well, such as the frames and cake and whatnot. It's eye-pleasing. Except Nino's shorts, which give him the appearance of a little boy you would see riding a sailboat in some older English movie. Overall, it was ok. Nothing to get too excited over. Hmph. Kind of a disappointment actually.. but it was alright~ *sigh Rating:/5
As many of you may already know about, Riida will have his first starring role in a dorama (FINALLY, NE?) which is entitled 魔王 「Maou」 and it is set to start next Friday, July 4 at 10 PM on TBS. Hooray!
Even greater news! Nino is set to be a guest in at least the first episode and they finished filming that as well~ The news appeared in various magazines and periodicals already, saying things like how the staffs loved working with Ohno and Ikuta Toma, that they were such nice people who were very polite and professional. The staffs had also previously worked with Nino on last year's hit dorama 山田太郎ものがたり 「Yamada Tarou Monogatari」 which he starred in.
And last of the great news! Even though Arashi's newest single is set to release TOMORROW (HOORAY!) news of their latest single is already out as well! It is called "Truth" and will be released as the theme song for Riida's dorama!
So much going on, they sure are busy people! In the meantime, buy "One Love" coming out tomorrow and wait for the first episode of Maou next Friday!
大野智： 早く僕を捕まえてみろ
Translation: Hurry up and try to catch me. (Ohno's character talking to Ikuta's)
Our very own Nino was born today! He is 25 years old! Amazing!
He's too beautiful!
And amazing!
In his 25 years, he has already accomplished all this:
- Released 8 albums, 2 compilation albums, and 21 singles with group, Arashi.
- Acted in 3 stage plays
- Starred in 10 doramas
- Starred in Hollywood movie, Letters From Iwo Jima
- Taken part in/hosted 10 different shows with fellow Arashi members
- Learned how to play many instruments; especially good at guitar
- Has been a voice actor in an animated film
- Held hundreds of concerts, including ones all around Asia
- Starred in several movies, including 3 with all Arashi members
- Captured my heart
And the new PV has been out for a couple weeks now! I will promptly put up a review of that along with the CD review too. All in good time, sorry I'm so laggy~ (=
Til then, here is a link to download the PV so you can enjoy it on your own before reading my review of it ^^
I have some time now so I should be more active in posting, plus there is so much going on with Arashi now, if I don't update I might as well just close this. (=
In case you didn't know, here is a quick run-down on what has been happening with them recently that I hadn't reported on here:
- Riida made an amazing achievement! He was the first and only Johnny's to have his own art exhibit. He has been working on many pieces throughout past ten years or so, even while he's been so busy with Arashi activities, but they collected his pieces and held a massively popular exhibit entitled "Freestyle." I will put up some samples of his work later, it's really good!
- Arashi's 8th full album has been released about a month ago, securing their 7th #1 spot in a row on the Oricon charts. The album includes 2 of their singles, "Happiness" and "Step and Go" and come in two editions: normal edition has a bonus track and limited edition has an extra long booklet with bonus CD of member solo tracks.
- Arashi has had two more shows come out since! Golden Rush Arashi and Himitsu no Arashi-chan. Aiba is hosting GRA while all of Arashi is going to be taking part in Himitsu no Arashi-chan.
- Arashi's 2008 tour starts this month and will go until June/July and they will be the 3rd ever group from Johnny's to go on a tour of all the Dome locations (there are 5), the first two groups being SMAP and KinKi Kids. Congratulations! They are sugoi ne?
- Another news about Riida! He will be starring in his first ever dorama, a remake of a popular Korean drama called "The Devil." He is the lead role and will be acting with Ikuta Toma, also of Johnny's. It will start airing in July, watch out for it!
- Matsujun will also be on the screen this summer, but his is a movie! Hana Yori Dango Final is set to come out this summer as the final installment to the immensely popular Hana Yori Dango series in Japan. All the original cast members agreed to return for this last part so it looks very promising!
- Arashi's newest single, "One Love," is the title song for Hana Yori Dango Final and is set to release June 25 of this year! It is their 22nd. Support them and make sure they make this their 8th straight #1 in a row! (=
WHEW! I think I got the biggest stuff down. Of course these guys have been super busy with all these different activities going on though, so it's hard to know everything! ^^ Come again and I will have posted more stuff in detail about all this as well as CD review of Dream"A"live and more~
They are coming into their 9th year! Ganbatte boys! And seriously, they have been doing amazing, ne? ^^
Release: February 2008 Genre: Pop Star: Jun just seems to stand out in this one. Ok, Riida does too, but Jun moreso ^^ Review: There's not much I can say about this one. I was really looking forward to it, of course, but I had a feeling "Happiness" would be a really hard act to follow--that PV showed the guys in their element doing what they do best.. to do the same would be dry, but that was them at their best! So what now? I guess they decided the answer to that question would be to make any video.. and they did. It kind of felt like watching a really long commercial. Mind you, it still had plenty of Arashi in it so it was easy on the eyes, but still~ I felt like they didn't really do the song justice with this video. It's a really upbeat and catchy song but this video really did nothing for me. Of course they kept with the clean, white look, which I personally really like. But there was also those costumes.. to tell the truth, it reminded me of "Typhoon Generation," which I liked but.. that was then. I feel like this is just something that is one of their filler videos.. horrible to say, but not every song/video is going to be a competitor for the title "Best Arashi Song Ever!" Ahh, it gave me my fix for a while, but I really can't wait to see the next one. Kind of disappointing but.. it's worth watching. Give it a shot, they look nice (well, I'm kind of mad about Nino's stylist, wth is he wearing!). And did anyone else notice that Sho does that a lot (see screencap) in their videos/performances? Hahaha silly guy. Rating:/5
Released: October 18, 2002 Starring:Ninomiya Kazunari as Onda Takuma (恩田琢磨) aka "Takuma" (タクマ) Sakurai Sho as Kamogawa Tadashi (鴨川忠) aka "Chuu" (チュウ) Ohno Satoshi as Takada Haruhiko (貴田春彦) aka "Haru" (ハル) Matsumoto Jun as Futaba Rentaro (二葉廉太郎) aka "Bon" (ボン) Aiba Masaki as Okano Shun (岡野瞬) aka "Shun" (シュン) Theme Song: "PIKA*NCHI" by Arashi Synopsis: Five friends living in a small prefecture in Japan struggle to figure out as their teen years are ending what they are going to do with their life. After a trip into the big city, it dawns on them that the world beyond what they know will become a reality soon and they must choose a path to live. All leaning towards different destinations, they still travel on together bonded by commitment to each other and despite all their personal differences, remain friends to the end. !! WARNING: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS !! Review: There's a lot I could say about this movie. The two biggest points I want to get across with this review though are 1) this is a movie purposely made to include all of Arashi and 2) you have to watch with an open mind. If you come into this thinking either it will be horrible because of #1 or great because of #1, you are not allowing yourself to truly see the movie for what it is. That said, let's go onto the review.
The movie and plot itself were nothing spectacular. I mean, it's a simple enough story, ne? In fact, it's pretty much expected that the movie would be about friendship. It's also one of those movies that when it ends, you reflect back on it and realize you can't sum up the whole plot in one concrete sentence, you are more left thinking "wait, what did I just watch?" This isn't necessarily a bad thing of course. I find straight plot-driven movies to be kind of a bore actually. The main draw of the movie then was, of course, not the plot, but the characters and character development.
In all three of Arashi's movies, they really utilize Nino's acting ability very well. Although Sho is the tough guy in the group, Nino definitely stands out as the lone wolf and leader of the pack at the same time. I had a friend say it was unnecessary to have his father die and all that family tragedy happen, that it was just cheap sentiment, but I feel like including that really helped in developing his character more. Seeing how he deals with it really nods to the title about how life is hard, but happy. I mean, they are all struggling through their own hard times but somehow are all coping and finding happiness in small things, such as their friendship with each other.
The whole mood of the movie was executed very well too. The shots were very interesting, especially when they did the still pictures in succession. I liked the colors and lighting they used because it was bright but had a dark overcast, also kind of nodding to how life is hard (the dark) but happy (there's still light). Nothing was really sugarcoated in this movie either, I feel like it was a pretty courageous direction to go, especially for a boy band.
While pretty serious at many scenes, I found a couple scenes really hilarious. It starts out pretty light in fact and I laughed out loud a good number of times. And I can't believe they showed Arashi mooning that boat! Shocking, ne? They sure are adventerous boys.
In the end, this movie was only great because it was Arashi acting it out. Like I said, the plot was nothing to rave about but the chemistry the group has with each other made the character development interesting and the movie itself more believable. I know I said you have to watch with an open mind and you can't think it's great/bad just because it's Arashi. But after watching it, you realize that they really made the movie. It is not a good movie because Arashi is in it, but Arashi made the movie good by being it in.. does that make sense or is it too hard to understand? Makes sense to me. (= Favorite Scene(s):
1) I like when Aiba was trying to find the song "Michi" in the karaoke place but couldn't. It symbolizes how special their small town is and makes the song more unique to them.. plus it was just hilarious how angry he got when he felt that their teacher had "brainwashed" them by teaching them the song ahha.
2) There was a scene when they mooned the people on the boat.. it was so random but so funny! And it really captured the kind of reckless spirit of the movie and showing memorable but normal parts of their life.
3) Actually.. just watch the movie, picking scenes is kind of hard ^^ Rating:/5
Release: July 5, 2006 Album: #6 Review: Going in reverse order I guess. This album had some solo songs just as the previous one and the one to follow, but it was not listed as solos. You could just tell from listening that it was. It's their best selling album to date (sans their debut album and possibly Time now) so I want to see if it is deserving of that. There's a lot of things going for this album to begin with. So many of my all time favorite songs are on this album alone that it kind of sways me to believe it is great without thinking about it.
To start off, there is the title track Wish that is used in Matsujun's dorama "Hana Yori Dango." It's a really upbeat but at the same time mellow song. I remember listening to it nonstop after watching the dorama. It's also one of the few songs where they really put good use to singing altogether because usually it doesn't sound as good as it does on this track. It's a good start to the album.
From there we step into kind of uncharted waters.. of course there is Kitto Daijoubu, which we are already familiar with, but most of the tracks were not used in promotion for anything so it was up in the air. Kitto Daijoubu is what I like to think of as "pure Arashi" and at the same time "pure J-POP". It's a really happy sounding song that just makes you want to dance in the most childlike way possible. Just jumping around kind of. One funny thing about the song though.. Sho's rap was shockingly provocative for an Arashi song (well, for me anyway). It was surprising at first, but then I grew to accept it and actually come to like it since it seems to show that yes, Arashi is a group made up of men who have grown up, not merely just the boys we knew years ago. Besides that song though, there were some great songs that I hold very dear to me now. I love COOL & SOUL because it really is just what the title says.. soo cool! Most of it is rapping but I like the way it was arranged and the steady build up to the end. It's an amazing concert song and I just like the way all the members rapped in it. Another song very dear to me is Caramel Song, which is Nino's solo. I'll talk more about that later, but it is lovely.
Of course, I wasn't thrilled about every track. After all, sometimes it can feel like there are some fillers. On most of the songs I was neutral--I liked them, but they didn't really stand out to me as amazing songs. Good examples of this were I Want Somebody and Raise Your Hands, which were both nice songs but I feel like they didn't have much oomph to them. I Want Somebody was a little too blah and Raise Your Hands a little too repetitive. Other songs in the album didn't stand out much, but I liked them enough.
In all, Arashic was a really good listen. I feel like the power of the great tracks kind of makes up for the weaknesses of some of the others. At the same time though, I can't let a couple tracks win a whole album a great rating.. I mean, if I like just one song, that's singles are for, ne? (=
01. This is pretty mellow for one of their songs and stands out because of that. It's happy and so catchy but pretty low key.. complex! But it doesn't seem complex when you are listening to it! Weird, ne? Anyway, if you haven't heard it yet.. NOW is the time! This is really an excellent song.
06. Wow. This is one of my favorite Arashi songs, really! Nino's solos are always freaking amazing and this is pretty much the epitome of that. It starts off soft and slow but then a couple beats break in through background noise and then we are rewarded with Nino's beautiful voice right after it. Ahh, it's only uphill from there! His soft and sweet vocals are what make the song, especially during the verses, which I actually like more than the chorus. It's like he's actually singing to you.. hahah! ^^
07. One of the coolest songs ever! I think watching the video of them performing it in concert may have swayed me to believe this, but really, it's pretty unique. We never get to hear all the members rapping so that's a plus. I don't know exactly why I like it so much, it just so.. well.. COOL. Give it a shot! (= Rating:/5
Aired: July 6 - September 14, 2007 Viewership: 15.2% Duration: 10 Episodes Starring:Ninomiya Kazunari (二宮和也) (lead) as Yamada Tarou (山田太郎) Sakurai Sho (Ť桜井翔) (lead) as Mimura Takuya (三村卓也) Kikuchi Momoko (菊池桃子) as Yamada Ayako (山田綾子) Matsuoka Mitsuru (Ź松岡充) as Yamada Kazuo (山田和夫)
and Tabe Mikako (多部未華子) as Ikegami Takako (池上孝子)
Other notable actors in series: Oshinari Shugo (忍成修吾), Otsuka Chihiro (大塚ちひろ), Shibata Rie (柴田理恵) Synopsis: Based on the popular manga, this is the story of "poor prince Tarou," played by Ninomiya Kazunari. Yamada Tarou is a poor boy at a rich school and is mistakenly believed to be rich by everyone in school. He and Mimura Takuya are unrivaled in academics, looks, popularity, and (apparently) wealth at their school. At first Takuya is cold towards almost everyone but finds Tarou to be an interesting person and soon befriends him, sometimes putting him in what he would find "amusing" situations. Of course, being the kinds of guys they are, both attract much attention from admirers who try to win them over. Unfortunately, Takuya is distant. Tarou is as well, but simply because he is oblivious--having a family of 6 children, a dependent mother, and a frivolous father, Tarou is heavily depended on not only for food and income but support in every other way. This doesn't dampen his spirits in any way though, for Tarou loves his family with all his being and does everything he can just to see the smiles on their face. But as high school starts to come to a close, Tarou has to figure out what to do with his future. Teachers are pressuring him to go to college.. but will he be able to leave his family on their own? !! WARNING: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS !! Review: This is a site about Arashi. Nino and Sho are best friends and they are playing leads in a comedy dorama.. I mean, it's pretty obvious how I would review this, ne?? (= But let's go for it anyway~
Let me just say from episode one, I was pretty convinced this would be an AMAZING dorama--I was completely right. There's something so refreshing about seeing a dorama like this after what feels like swimming in your own tears over so much romantic ones. Family was the key in this one and more than "love" it focused on friendship as well. They really did cast Nino and Sho so well, they suited the parts perfectly! Even though Nino says that the character is nothing like the real him, I feel like there were parts of Tarou that are definitely in Nino.
The best scenes for me were obviously the family scenes. It's odd because it doesn't take much to really pull at the heartstrings and it isn't so completely mushy. I know a lot of people disagree with me and say it's overdone, but I really don't think that at all. It is just so sweet! The simplest things can be such a big deal! For example, the karokke he promised to get his little sister for her birthday.. going through all that trouble for it, and seeing how graciously they took the news when he couldn't get it at first. Little moments like that really got to me. And there were a ton of those throughout the dorama. I really can't get over how well they did these scenes.
Another thing was the love side story. It kind of annoyed me how stringent Takako was about finding a rich husband so I felt as if she really didn't deserve Tarou. It was a little too superficial for my tastes, even though she ended up changing her mind in the end. They were right in making it just a side story though and focusing more on Tarou with his family and his relationship with Takuya. And of course there was the other side love story with the teachers.. this is one of the things I felt this dorama could do without. First off, I think the main woman teacher is one of the worst actors in the business and she did a pretty horrible job with the role throughout the whole series. Add to this the annoying side story of her love life with that cocky lab professor and we just get a lot of wasted filler time in the series.. it was completely unnecessary. What was a better idea was the little crush Ikegami's friend (Masami) had on their other friend (Keichi). That crush led to the interesting development of one of the first homosexual crushes I've seen in doramas.. pretty funny stuff!
In all, this was an amazing dorama. Really. 10 episodes doesn't feel like enough. I love how consistent it was with the love stories, how they didn't just make it somehow work out in the end and turn it all sappy. Also, I like how Tarou stays true to his wishes and the family stays the most important thing in his life. This dorama made me appreciate my family so much more and of course made me think.. if only there was a person like Yamada Tarou in real life.. (= Favorite Scene(s):
1) Tarou is playing a role as a maid in the Mimura household in one of the episodes. In the end when he is asked to do the flower arrangement, I was really wondering how he would get out of that one but the result was incredible! So simple, but so touching! It really summed up Tarou's character in that one gesture, very touching.
2) Out of the many scenes that Tarou has with his family, one of my favorites was when he is having his summer vacation day but the storm comes. Seeing him torn between staying with his friends and going home kind of foreshadowed the result of what was to be with his relationship with Takako for me. Watching him run back home with all his might.. it was so sad.
3) I love the scene where Masami realizes Keichi likes Tarou.. it was just TOO funny.
4) Of course the air guitar scene and the cameo by Riida.. AMAZING!! Hahah, those were way too good! Rating:/5
Trust me, my Arashi fandom is not wavering in the slightest (it's actually increasing!!) but I've been pretty busy with school, clubs, etc. that I've barely had time to keep up with Arashi myself no less be able to keep updating this site. Of course, I made time to do the essentials (i.e watch 山田太郎ものがたり）but I'm sorry for my long, unexplained hiatus.
Fear not though! After I turn in my essay on Halloween, my schedule will be a little more freed up, academically anyway, so I'll exert my energy from that onto writing for this site ^^
Look forward to:
- YTM dorama review
- PIKA*NCHI, PIKA*NCHI DOUBLE movie reviews
- 黄色い涙 (Yellow Tears) movie review
- 青の炎 (Blue Light) movie review
- More CD reviews
- Lyrics.. hopefully
- Finished singles discography
How does it feel knowing Arashi has been around for 8 years now and not only are you still popular, you are one of the top groups in Japan?
Ohno: What can I say? We are Arashi.
Agreed.
8 years have passed but they are still as going strong and the end seems nowhere near in sight. With the release of their newest single "Happiness" just days past, Arashi still has a lot more to offer us with the release of their 3rd movie "黄色い涙" (Yellow Tears), Ninomiya's remake of popular Korean movie "Marathon" airing in 5 days, the finale to ”山田太郎ものがたり” (Yamada Tarou Monogatari) airing last night, and so much more. These boys are probably some of the busiest idols in Japan!
I know I've put this up already, but seeing as it is most appropriate for today, here's a fanvid I made for their 8 year anniversary.
I just saw this on the vox arashi blog and I had to post as well, seeing as its about YTM and..
You guessed it. The very special guest star in the next (?) episode of Yamada Taro Monogatari will be
*drumroll*
OHNO SATOSHI!
Yes, our very own Riida will be coming on as guest star. As you probably know (or you can see from the filmographies), Riida is not very involved in doramas at all in comparison to the other members. He just doesn't like it very much. Never had a starring role in a real series. Not like this is one. But cheers!
Release: August 2007 Genre: Pop Featured: Theme song for Nino and Sho's dorama "Yamada Taro Monogatari" (山田太郎ものがたり) Star: Riida and Nino. A little more Riida but.. I had to give Nino some props as well. Review: Wow. What more can I say? This was a pretty intensely anticipated PV to say the least. Everyone was jumping on the previews and everything that had anything to do with Arashi or Johnny's or YTM was flooded with talk about this. Sugoi, ne? It certainly doesn't disappoint! It's seriously everything it should have been. The video suits the song so well and is just so happy! I love when they just let them run around and do things on their own and edit it to show just the good stuff. What was great about this video was that you can watch it a couple times over and catch new stuff each time cause each scene has stuff going on everywhere. Surprisingly, there were a good number of Riida+Sho moments! Doesn't happen much, but it really worked! And of course, there was possibly one of the best Ohmiya moments ever (see above caps) which made every fangirl pretty much die/explode. Anyway, Riida is the one to watch in most of these scenes, his facial expressions are so outrageously funny! Well, if you're an Ohno fan anyway, you'd be able to pick up on more, I think. The lighting was really, really bright since it looked like it was filmed in bright sunlight and usually it makes people look bad but in this it just suits the mood really well and honestly, it takes a lot to make them look bad, ne? Also, I loved how they slyly incorporated the dorama without doing it blatantly like having Sho doing the flower arranging and Nino orchestrating (since they do both in the dorama). You wouldn't pick those things out as YTM promotion if you hadn't watched it, it blends in with all the other stuff they are doing and looks like them just fooling around. Very fun video, very highly recommended! Rating:/5
True to its name, "Happiness" is a wonderfully vibrant, fun, and well.. HAPPY video! You must all see it! The previews did it no justice, I love it! Full review + caps will come this weekend but for now, here's the link to the FULL VERSION YAYYAY!
It's been almost 10 days since I've even touched the site but it's been pretty hectic.. plus I don't have internet at my residence for the time being so bear with me.
Anyway, here's ratings updates for the past couple episodes of YTM
Alriiiiiiiiiiiight! It took the biggest dip of its run on episode 6 (which isn't that bad actually!) but now it's starting to go back up once again. The series finale is in TWO WEEKS! Crazy, ne?
And there's a special event coming up in TWO DAYS.
If you don't know what it is.. check back in two days. Til then, be ashamed of yourself
Aired: January 5 - March 16, 2007 Viewership: 21.7% Duration: 11 Episodes Starring:Inoue Mao (井上真央) (lead) as Makino Tsukushi (牧野 つくし) Matsumoto Jun (松本潤) (lead) as Domyouji Tsukasa (道明寺 司) Oguri Shun (小栗旬) as Hanazawa Rui (花沢 類) Matsuda Shota (松田 翔太) as Nishikada Soujiroh (西門 総二郎)
and Abe Tsuyoshi (阿部 力)as Mimakasa Akira (美作 あきら)
Other notable actors in series: Matsushima Nanako (松嶋菜々子), Nishihara Aki (西原 亜希) Synopsis: It's been a year since the conclusion of Hana Yori Dango and Makino hasn't spoken to Domyouji for months now. Their relationship had been going well at first but abruptly Domyouji stops answering her calls and has cut off all contact with Makino for no known reason. Getting increasingly frustrated and confused at this, Makino goes to New York (courtesy of her father winning tickets at work) to confront him. Instead she runs into the rest of the F4 gang and then finally meets Domyouji to see he has changed completely--her childish tactics have no effect on him anymore. Makino returns to Japan expecting to never see him again and attempts to forget about him when suddenly she is invited to his birthday day by his mother. Surprised but cheerful, she attends only to find that the party is used to announce his engagement to another woman. As his mother's evil scheme unfolds, the story begins and great love tangle unfolds. !! WARNING: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS !! Review: Ah, sequels are always such a gamble. It is hit or miss--absolutely great or a horrible, unnecessary addition. You never really run across one that you think "Oh, well it was about as good as the first." It's just never the same, right?
Right. I was really excited for this series because I loved the first one. It seemed like everything was right about the first one and it was done with flair, especially for a manga adaptation (even though I've never read the manga).
The first episode was really good for me. Makino was typically overwhelmed being in New York and thinking that everyone looked like some movie star or other, it was cute. It was also a nice touch to have Hanazawa come to her rescue (once again) even though it was pretty unrealistic I admit.. Either way, it was entertaining. However, I think the scene that got me most intrigued was when Makino attempts to knock out Domyouji again as they fight and he dodges it. "I don't have time for child's play" he says as she lies on the floor after her deflected punch and he walks away. I got really excited thinking "Oh wow! This is going to be really interesting, a total spin from the first!" Not to mention he looked really, well, cool is the only word for it.
Then.. down the drain. It was late, I was intending to sleep right after the first one but I just couldn't wait so I immediately watched the second one.. and third.. and fourth.. each time getting a little less interested. What was the big problem?
Makino got hella annoying. REALLY annoying. What did they do to her character? They took away so much of her fire, her passion, her personality.. and made her into this two dimensional figure that was more of a bunch of traits rather than a strongly developed character. It was rather like watching a carefully constructed sand castle be kicked to the ground by some punk kid. I don't know who that kid would be symbolically, but I'm just saying they took a lot away from her character.
But. They managed to do one thing again.. they managed to confuse us once more. Confuse us with emotions. Everyone knows Makino and Domyouji are supposed to be together right? But then they introduce us to Shigeru, Domyouji's betrothed, and as the "other woman" she is nothing like she should be! I found her charming and likable, which was interesting since she was, after all, the "other woman." It felt like you wanted Shigeru to win but at the same time.. what about Domyouji and his feelings for Makino? Confusing indeed. Throw in Rui and his feelings for Makino.. and it got even worse. Rui is amazing, ne? He's always been there for her and even stands up to Domyouji in his attempt to be with her. He is someone who has always cared for her and always done everything in his power to help her.
Then after going through a number of so-so episodes, you get to the best parts (towards the end) where Domyouji is finally able to step up to his feelings and things are starting to unravel and his intentions are revealed. As it starts getting good though, ANOTHER girl comes into the picture at the last minute and even in her first scene my head was screaming "No! It's too late for her, it's too late for another huge complication because it would be a watered down way to complicate and show Makino and Domyouji's love for each other!" Yes, yes I knew from the beginning she would be just another complication and you know what? She was the worst character ever. And I mean ever. Even her little redemption bit at the end, I think it would have been better without it. I hated her. A lot. Not even as a character, but as an actor. She pushed all the wrong buttons, I think her part was a big mistake in the series.
Somehow.. I feel the end was a little too much. Too happy go lucky. Why is everyone there from before? And they are all there just to congratulate the couple? Not likely! It was just too much. And of course they went back to the old stand-by of sequels.. way too many references to the original! I mean, she completely re-did scenes from the first to jog his memories so he would remember her.. that's a pretty easy way to recapture the magic -_-
Ah, this whole season was a bit too much for me in the end. The best performances came from Matsujun, Matsuda Shota, Oguri Shun, and Kato Natsuki (Shigeru). From the first season that was more toned down and spoke through the characters more than the plot, this one was completely plot driven. Favorite Scene(s):
1) This is the ultimate scene: the one where Yuki shows Soujiroh what he missed one year ago at 6 AM. It was such a great gimick (yes, it was pretty sappy you know) but all the same, it was something I'd never think of. Also, it was the climax of the whole side story to Soujiroh. I feel the side story was one of the things that makes this series worth watching, Soujiroh was always one of the best characters.
2) I liked the scenes where Hanazawa Rui is playing the violin. It just looked really elegant, amazing. Rating:/5
Ohno: What can I say? We are Arashi.
