Love love love how the finale wrapped up everything with a neat little bow. Is it too late for sushi? No! Just like it's never too late for a lot of things we think have an expiration date, such as changing career paths, picking up new hobbies, or falling in love.
This was certainly one of the better TBS Tuesday dramas for me. Unfussy storyline + delightful cast = winner!
I feel like they wanted to give Ryo an ashita no joe/the wrestler treatment during creative process, but since…
It's the TBS Sunday Theater's biggest drawback TBH. Too reliant on older established actors to carry the format. I wouldn't be surprised if Ryo and Hitaka were meant to be leads like you said but they got pushback from the higher-ups.
Earlier on, when Gotetsu mentioned that Ryo's star needed to die out, I was fully expecting them to retire him before the competition and I thought that illness would accelerate that. Instead, we get this. His death is so unearned. I was already feeling some type of way about the second half's shift in focus to the primarily able-bodied non-wheelchair user characters, with the team reduced to one member getting the storyline of the week, but this is a serious blow. Why fridge the one disabled character who got spotlight in the show about parasports? Why reduce him to inspiration porn?
It was fun to the end. I liked getting Ryoko's arc in the first half and Luna's arc in the second, because truly this was THEIR story. They were only able to reach that point because they had each other. After all, there's two sides of the moon, right? May we all make that connection in our lives! つながりました!
A sobering look at love, at the rollercoaster reality of it all. How all-consuming it can be, how it can bring out the best and the worst in us, how we end up in the lowest of lows but still want to chase the high. In some ways it reminds me of Tokyo Love Story. Smaller in scope but the DNA is there.
Save for the GenAI stuff, I'm generally having a blast with this and foresee myself enjoying the coming finale. It's Wednesday NTV, not exactly high art but you can tell Shimizu Yukako is having fun with the script. Lots of fun literary references to spice up the usual mystery plots. And it's nice having trans identity actually factor into things! I think Haru does a good job here, portraying a heightened feminity without feeling distasteful. I also found Sanada Reo particularly lovely in her spotlight episode so please put her in more things.
Episode 5 was killer. Now that the ball is rolling, the biggest hurdle is keeping the momentum and that episode proved they know what they're doing. Just the right balance of melodrama and political intrigue.
A lot of me watching this was that one meme of Captain America saying "I understood that reference." The chase sequence was absolutely the best part for that reason alone. The rest of the movie plays a lot like a game. Anzu might as well have been doing a 100% speedrun by the end. I won't spoil any further but... it's a fun way to kill two hours, even if it occasionally falls into the trappings it intends to parody.
Really intrigued by this now. It's got that classic dorama charm, at least from the first episode. And so many wild directorial choices! The camera moving everywhere! The stage-centric blocking! The transitions are like a spice topping, not necessary but I'm enjoying the personality it adds. It's got its own thing going on right now.
This was some light fun for the spring season. More of a rom-com than the typical late night fare. I enjoyed its comic, metaphorical approach to sex and kink. Very silly, but then the act itself can be like that! And by foregoing the actual sex, the sexiest thing ends up being their healthy relationship built on complete trust and communication with each other.
A shame this is only four eps because I feel like the fourth one was the best one, with the right balance of travel, food and cats. There's a lot more they could do with this premise!
Stellar final run. The dramatic showdown was high-stakes and gruesome but nonetheless fun to watch. Who else but a twisted nuclear family adhering to the old guard to take on the contemporaneous and, most importantly, empathic BARBER crew? Their differences only highlight the reasons for the outcome. No point finishing the mission if there's no one to share that victory with, after all.
Honestly, this was really cute. Everything about it just so gosh darn wholesome. Bright and clean aesthetics, very PG, kind of like if the Disney Channel did gay Degrassi. Or, if we're aiming closer, Hormones. I like that things just... resolve, and quickly at that. The episodic nature makes it easy, narrative arcs in bite-sized pieces. For the attention-deficit, quick gratification, TikTok crowd. Very now, very upper class Gen Z, very #vibes. Not obsessed with being #real, not interested in being scandalous, just wanting to impart lessons on life and love in the growing up years from a place of hindsight. Not what we do but what we wish we could have done. There's a market for this too. I'm not the market but I dig it. Now get KenPaul a series.
Cackling at how they found a way to incorporate Shida Kohaku's figure skating past into this. Like what the hell sure. Let this be her audition for a GL. C'mon MBS, I know you want to!
The trailer is privated on ytb so *maybe* it's not happening at all
They've privated trailers before when there's casting changes (MuTeLuv when OhmLeng got replaced by SurfJava, for a recent example). So there's still hope. They were supposed to start filming soon too, it would be a waste.
Crazy how pitch perfect the script to this was. The right balance of cute, sexy, angsty, and earnest. No scene overstayed its welcome. That it was a solo script and by the director also is impressive, really goes to show that GMMTV needs to trust in a creative's vision sometimes.
Of course, can't create this kind of magic without the right cast and boy did it strike with SurfJava (and Louis, but he's one of the most reliable actors they have so that isn't a surprise). I remember everyone being worried about the shoes they needed to fill but clearly there was something already there. Glad they took that chance. Solid acting chops here, they could be hilarious one scene, disgustingly cute the next, then staring at each other in ways that felt illegal. GMMTV, more SurfJava and more PingPong in the future, if you know what's good for you!
This was certainly one of the better TBS Tuesday dramas for me. Unfussy storyline + delightful cast = winner!
Of course, can't create this kind of magic without the right cast and boy did it strike with SurfJava (and Louis, but he's one of the most reliable actors they have so that isn't a surprise). I remember everyone being worried about the shoes they needed to fill but clearly there was something already there. Glad they took that chance. Solid acting chops here, they could be hilarious one scene, disgustingly cute the next, then staring at each other in ways that felt illegal. GMMTV, more SurfJava and more PingPong in the future, if you know what's good for you!