femmedesneiges wrote: Forgot about this thread...
Random thoughts:
Ninomiya is the best actor in Johnny's bar none (possibly excepting Kazama). Coming from someone who hates his idol persona's guts, he never fails to charm and convince me when he's in character. The consistently worst, for me, are Yamashita, Ohkura, Akanishi and Sakurai. Akanishi and Sakurai were/are the two that can get by on charisma/idol-factor.
Sakurai is various shades of fake. I actually like his "crazy" acting in Kazoku Game and The Quiz Show 2, but anything that requires expressing emotion is beyond him. His approach is very business-like.
Matsumoto in Smile was the one time I actually thought, hmm, this guy's going somewhere. Recent (the ones in their late-prime now, past 8 years?) Johnny's generally have a spark of potential in one role that gives me hope for their future performance, and they always fall back down to average or worse.
I guess I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone fascinated by idols and their integration within the industry more than someone concerned about acting skills. I'm really a terrible judge of talent.
I think it is the agency that kills the talent. Today's JE is notoriously known for absence of acting training of their talents. They are just lucky having ones who are naturally talented like Ninomiya, and yet due to the disastrous system of the agency, Nino's talent has been hindered from reaching full potential. I think in a proper agency, Nino could have easily become a very good thespian actor, perhaps those like Eita hint what he may have become.
Back to the main topic, I agree with some of you, so-so, by-the-numbers (and some utter garbage) shows dominate in terms of number, but some did stand out. I enjoy Kogure Shanshikan, Tokeiya no Musume (SP), Radio (SP), Biblia, Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi, Made in Japan, Hard Nut, Henshin Interviewer, xxHolic, and of course the mercurial Amachan for dramas. I recommend these shows if you haven't watch them
