Zíza

I want seconds! :-) A house full of weirdos is visited by Kuranosuke, who also has his own perversion. No one in this anime was normal, and that may have caused me to see them all as perfectly normal over time. I had fun with them, and I wanted to see what would happen next. This anime is the only one from the 2010 fall season where I listened to both the opening and the ending every time. Both are absolutely brilliant and fitting – both visually and musically. The quirkiness of the characters was so nice and accessible that I looked forward to the next episode every time. A better 4 stars. It's not for nothing that I would call josei my favorite genre ^^

The beginning was really interesting. And promising. But where did it go? Someplace boring. Routine. Weepy sentimentality. Plus, I found Haruka's character very irritating throughout the story, which also doesn't make for a pleasant viewing experience. As cool as it was, it ended pretty awkwardly. Plus, the middle of the anime was so boring that I was afraid I would have to put it aside... The mystery plot turned out to be uninteresting kitsch. A weaker 2 stars for the beginning and the occasional bright spot.

I was really looking forward to the main trio, especially the Keun-Geun couple. Unfortunately it turned out to be a severely mediocre dorama with eye-candy performers (my beloved Moon included); even the change of screenwriter didn't help. It's all so standard, mediocre, seen a hundred times, that even a good cast can't save the experience. It's completely without suspense, without the substance I was expecting. It's a shame. But it has a good OST – I’m even listening to “Hello, hello" right now. ^^ It ends nicely, predictably, and even the resolution of the "problem" they had there was just elementary. They could easily have saved on about half the footage :-) But it's definitely better than Moon's previous series Cinderella's Sister, even Jang Keun-Suk clearly outclassed Cheon Jeong-myeong... Yeah, but I'm really sorry for the untapped potential the series had.

Yeah, the scene at the end where Azumi gets it on with the long-haired dude in white is really good – the best part of the whole movie, in my opinion. Fine, but otherwise? A piddling film with an overly long running time but a lot of old familiar faces that I really liked seeing together (except that they didn't stick around long; I wanted to watch the movie for the sake of seeing Hiroki and Shun together and got nothing out of it). So Jae seemed like an artificially planted figurine whose job was to delay our assassins' assault (actually, to delay the two of them), but I only had this line for her: "You're good, just get lost." If you like sword swinging, this is a movie you might enjoy. If you don't like that, or hectoliters of blood, then don't even try it, because it doesn't offer much else. And notice that Azumi doesn't get injured for the entire movie, I give that plus points :-) That's another thing I liked.

So we finally fought our way through to sentiment and romance. Yay! Nothing has changed from the first season (we just had to gradually say goodbye to all the bishis until only Chizuru was left :-D). Once again my ears were most lovingly caressed by Shin'ichirō Miki’s voice, and that was once again the best thing about the whole anime. The bishis, the battles, the bushido, all mixed, shaken not stirred, a kind of historical 007 agent soaked in blood. In the end, you'll have nothing left but eyes for crying (which can happen, because if you're not used to these types and/or haven't just had a glass of cynicism, that tear just might be shed). As I wrote before, nothing new since the first season, except maybe that Chizuru isn't an absolute moron anymore, she's just a moron. Anyway, I didn't have much more fun than I did with the previous one...

This was one of the shows of the 2010 fall season that had me looking forward to every episode. The story may not be the most original, nor the characters, but I was still entertained, not bored, and didn't have to roll my eyes at the silly dialogue. I liked the idea. And the execution. I'm satisfied. The animation suited it nicely too – I liked Zakuro a lot. It's really such a nice, relaxing anime. Plus the chanting of the four was always great to hear :-) And I was really amused by the ending – the way the kids trotted in and ratted them out; I really laughed.

A chest waxing commercial. No, it definitely has a story and a great one, after all the cast is perfect, the soundtrack too, the action scenes are top notch, but I'm just on a different level so I don't get it yet, when I reach nirvana I'll understand the magic of this movie. Just a perfect C (or is it D?) movie.

It's such a good B movie with a vampire theme. It's just a shame that the vampires were allowed to go out in the sun, and that the ending is so... silly. I was rooting for Hideo so hard (I was screaming at him: "Go Shiba-kun!!!", even though he was playing Akira here (I still have that from Hammer Session! ^^)). There were probably more sword fights than in any other historical big screen movie. :-D Atsushi was played by Ken Watanabe's son, he probably takes after his dad, although I can't jump to conclusions from just one movie (especially one like this)... Oh, and Koji – he looked awfully cool; the white hair, the outfit (for a Japanese guy, it's just... :-D), when he rode his horse, he looked awfully elegant – I haven't seen an elegant vampire in a long time, so plus points (you just don't come across an elegant vampire in Twilight, a virginal one maybe, but still... :-D). A weaker 3 stars for the fact that I wasn’t even bored, but I also watched it on and off and in the meantime I managed to watch Chuck Norris in Logan's War with my mom... :-D

I've never particularly liked Mokomichi, but here... I can't help it, he was the biggest reason I watched this series. I'll put it differently – the main character is beautiful, smart, and I liked her right away. Once again, a series similar to Gokusen or GTO has appeared, but this one has a little more going for it in one sense – nothing is solved by force, it's not about the teacher solving everything because he's an invincible badass or anything like that; everything is solved by reason, and I really like that. As it happens, some of the episodes were boring, some I really liked (like the one where there was so much running around). You'll see a plan of some sort, and sometimes you'll be surprised how well thought out it is. Mokomichi was supported by Shida Mirai (who I’m seeing quite a lot of lately, just recently in Seigi no mikata), who didn't show anything new and some may find her character annoying; I found her annoying at times, but it wasn't anything too horrible. The one who annoyed me a bit more with her presence was the kind, indecisive teacher, Higa Manami. A bonus for me though was the presence of Sano Kazuma, who I liked a lot in Otomen, and here he was given an episode (I actually feel the same way about Suda Masaki, whom I met in Veterinarian Dolittle; I think I'll be keeping an eye out for him too, he definitely caught my interest as an actor...). It's definitely a series I can recommend if you want to see some pretty boy faces, an interesting idea here and there, or if you like Shida Mirai, or a bit of fan service (and not just its own fans :-D), all in the form of a good-looking school nurse. I think everyone will find something they like here. It gets 4 stars, mostly for all the familiar faces and the intelligent Hachisuka-sensei. ^^

I admit I'm not a fan of Rain as an actor (although he did a decent job here at times). I absolutely did not enjoy the first three or four episodes and had a hard time forcing myself to finish it. I kind of had an inkling of how it was all going to turn out and what would come of it, but I figured that the writers couldn't go that way. Boom, crash – they could, and did. The story is exposed to a lot of clichés – but that's okay, you can live with clichés. But I was bored: the twists and turns were so artificial, all the misunderstandings too, and the story is predictable. All of which doesn't matter if you enjoy the show, if you get swept up in it. I didn't. But if you like Rain, go ahead, because here you will see him in so many different variations that every fan will be satisfied – for me, all I need is to dance with him. I'm not really enthusiastic about this dorama.