Yukan Club 01
If you're looking for an indepth, objective, completely fangirl-free review of these episodes, I suggest you stop reading now. I am a) a KAT-TUN fan b) a Kanjani8 fan and c) a mystery fan, which means that for me, Yukan Club is incredibly entertaining.
Despite all that, I'll try to keep my raving over Jin to a minimum.
Please bear in mind that I haven't read the manga and am not likely to, so I can't make comparisons. My opinions are based on the drama only. Episode 02 will follow when I can be bothered to type up some notes.
Yukan Club - Episode 01
Plot: Fiendish construction company boss fixes high school dance competition for (fun and) profit, forcing contestants to drop out and going so far as to kidnap a rather adorable dog. Can Yukan Club save the dress, save the dog and save the day? Of course they can, as they have nothing better to do and are all incredibly bored. In other news, Miroku almost gets a girlfriend but she moves to London, causing him to burst into tears in front of everybody.
Characters: Ladies first. I didn't expect to like the girls because all of the promo shots showed them with terribly irritable facial expressions. Happily, I was misled by these.
Karen: I'm not normally fond of narcissists but she and Bido made excellent foils for each other, particularly during the competition. She seems nice enough, but almost everyone's still a caricature at this stage and all we have to go on is their comic potential.
Noriko: I do feel sorry for the girl, but her friendship with Seishirou is very nice and sedate and I enjoy watching them play Go together.
Yuri: There's always an energetic, food-loving one, isn't there? Of the three girls I think Yuri has the most potential to irritate me in the future, since she's very much on the whimsical, flaky side and not that reliable. She is cute, though, and I do like tomboys.
And now for the guys.
Bido: I've never seen Taguchi act in anything before (unless you count Dream Boys 2006, but it's not like he had much chance to distinguish himself there) and I admit, I wasn't expecting a lot. The screaming blond hair scared me a little at first, but now I actually think it suits him. (Especially in a little ponytail, but that's neither here nor there.) I'm not entirely convinced about Bido's playboy status but he's made a good start, and the facial expressions were excellent. I also appreciate the random foreign phrases that he likes to spout out.
Seishirou: Yoko impressed me in Dream Boys, but playing what was effectively a pantomime villain is a far cry from the smart, serious son of a doctor. That said, I liked him here too, especially during his surveillance from the laundry van. I thought he repressed his natural personality very nicely, and I was able to take him seriously in his role.
Miroku: Jin's the only one of the guys I've seen in dramas before, and while he's still nowhere near Nino's standards (or even Kame's) he has improved a lot since Anego. It's not like he gets much practice, after all! Miroku got a bit more depth than the other characters - on the one hand he's the bike-riding rock-loving rebellious type, on the other he's the very sweet, clumsily-caring type. He's at his best when he's with his dog, Otokoyama, who is absolutely gorgeous and needs to appear as much as possible.
He's also surprisingly good with Saki - it helped that she was a sweetie herself, and if she hadn't moved to London I wouldn't have minded seeing her again. (The romance with the dogs was sweet too, though it has been pointed out that Cherry was actually a boy. I didn't notice, but I had better things to look at.)
Actually, Jin seems to do better when he's in a scene by himself or with very few people, because if he's in a group he tends to resort to his Cartoon KAT-TUN behaviour - hang in the back and try to remember to show an expression occasionally, unless he actually wants to say something.
In short, I like Miroku but how big is his ego, typing in 369369 as the password?
And the rest...
- Miroku's dad was great fun - I love incompetent investigators of the Mouri Kogoro variety, and he would've fit in perfectly.
- Miroku's fake moustache? *wince* At least it fit with the terrible wink and thumbs up he gave the couple in the room, which was amusing.
- Don't these kids ever go to class? Are they just paying off the teachers 'cause they're so rich, or something? Are we going to see them under threat of expulsion every single episode?
- The ballroom dancing was fabulous. I can't do it myself, but I love watching other people do it and Bido and Karen looked great together.
- Love Miroku being taken for a walk by his dog, and subsequently transferring the blame for his own emotions to Otokoyama. Because telling your dog not to cry when you're bawling your own eyes out is very cute, I think. More of Miroku in tears, please. ^_^
Okay, so the plot's not particularly elaborate and everything is very over the top - so what? It's a high-school detective comedy, and I enjoy it for being exactly that. If I want something dark I'll rewatch Liar Game. If I want to watch funny, beautiful people who are so bored that they have to resort to making up their own crimes (see episode 2), I'll watch Yukan Club.
Despite all that, I'll try to keep my raving over Jin to a minimum.
Please bear in mind that I haven't read the manga and am not likely to, so I can't make comparisons. My opinions are based on the drama only. Episode 02 will follow when I can be bothered to type up some notes.
Yukan Club - Episode 01
Plot: Fiendish construction company boss fixes high school dance competition for (fun and) profit, forcing contestants to drop out and going so far as to kidnap a rather adorable dog. Can Yukan Club save the dress, save the dog and save the day? Of course they can, as they have nothing better to do and are all incredibly bored. In other news, Miroku almost gets a girlfriend but she moves to London, causing him to burst into tears in front of everybody.
Characters: Ladies first. I didn't expect to like the girls because all of the promo shots showed them with terribly irritable facial expressions. Happily, I was misled by these.
Karen: I'm not normally fond of narcissists but she and Bido made excellent foils for each other, particularly during the competition. She seems nice enough, but almost everyone's still a caricature at this stage and all we have to go on is their comic potential.
Noriko: I do feel sorry for the girl, but her friendship with Seishirou is very nice and sedate and I enjoy watching them play Go together.
Yuri: There's always an energetic, food-loving one, isn't there? Of the three girls I think Yuri has the most potential to irritate me in the future, since she's very much on the whimsical, flaky side and not that reliable. She is cute, though, and I do like tomboys.
And now for the guys.
Bido: I've never seen Taguchi act in anything before (unless you count Dream Boys 2006, but it's not like he had much chance to distinguish himself there) and I admit, I wasn't expecting a lot. The screaming blond hair scared me a little at first, but now I actually think it suits him. (Especially in a little ponytail, but that's neither here nor there.) I'm not entirely convinced about Bido's playboy status but he's made a good start, and the facial expressions were excellent. I also appreciate the random foreign phrases that he likes to spout out.
Seishirou: Yoko impressed me in Dream Boys, but playing what was effectively a pantomime villain is a far cry from the smart, serious son of a doctor. That said, I liked him here too, especially during his surveillance from the laundry van. I thought he repressed his natural personality very nicely, and I was able to take him seriously in his role.
Miroku: Jin's the only one of the guys I've seen in dramas before, and while he's still nowhere near Nino's standards (or even Kame's) he has improved a lot since Anego. It's not like he gets much practice, after all! Miroku got a bit more depth than the other characters - on the one hand he's the bike-riding rock-loving rebellious type, on the other he's the very sweet, clumsily-caring type. He's at his best when he's with his dog, Otokoyama, who is absolutely gorgeous and needs to appear as much as possible.
He's also surprisingly good with Saki - it helped that she was a sweetie herself, and if she hadn't moved to London I wouldn't have minded seeing her again. (The romance with the dogs was sweet too, though it has been pointed out that Cherry was actually a boy. I didn't notice, but I had better things to look at.)
Actually, Jin seems to do better when he's in a scene by himself or with very few people, because if he's in a group he tends to resort to his Cartoon KAT-TUN behaviour - hang in the back and try to remember to show an expression occasionally, unless he actually wants to say something.
In short, I like Miroku but how big is his ego, typing in 369369 as the password?
And the rest...
- Miroku's dad was great fun - I love incompetent investigators of the Mouri Kogoro variety, and he would've fit in perfectly.
- Miroku's fake moustache? *wince* At least it fit with the terrible wink and thumbs up he gave the couple in the room, which was amusing.
- Don't these kids ever go to class? Are they just paying off the teachers 'cause they're so rich, or something? Are we going to see them under threat of expulsion every single episode?
- The ballroom dancing was fabulous. I can't do it myself, but I love watching other people do it and Bido and Karen looked great together.
- Love Miroku being taken for a walk by his dog, and subsequently transferring the blame for his own emotions to Otokoyama. Because telling your dog not to cry when you're bawling your own eyes out is very cute, I think. More of Miroku in tears, please. ^_^
Okay, so the plot's not particularly elaborate and everything is very over the top - so what? It's a high-school detective comedy, and I enjoy it for being exactly that. If I want something dark I'll rewatch Liar Game. If I want to watch funny, beautiful people who are so bored that they have to resort to making up their own crimes (see episode 2), I'll watch Yukan Club.