So this season is the season of 'gender-benders' in Japan...meaning the main actress wears boy's clothes and disguises herself as a boy...and of cause she(or he) will fall in love with the main guy and the other guys will all fall for her and think they are gay since they fall for her(or he...so confusing~~~~)...
Well there are a total of 3 gender benders this season....which is A LOT!!!!but i like this genre since it's always hilarious...not very logical but just plain fun...so here are my reviews on these shows based on 1-2 episodes...
1) Hanazakari no Kimitachi e 2011 (remake)
2011 version
Original 2007 versionSo....this is the remake of one of my FAVOURITE japanese dramas...Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (or HANA KIMI)...the original version came out in 2007...which is barely 4 years ago...so i have NO IDEA why they wanted to remake it...but since I was a big fan of it...So I was quite excited for it!!!
Story: So Its about the main girl Ashiya who enters an all boys boarding school (disguised as a boy of cause) to help her idol, high jump pro Sano to restart high jumping again after an incident...and ya, he so happens to be her roommate...
Yes yes i know the story is quite plain and ridiculous but what i LOVED about the show was its humor ,fun and characters...the story is okay-ish...but what make the show good was the jokes and really really funny actors...it's a really good laugh out loud romance youth comedy...nothing to take seriously...
BUT!!!!!!WHAT THE F*** !! THE REMAKE sucks!!!!!!!
1) They used the same sets, background music(yes they just copied the WHOLE soundtrack from the original!!!!), same concepts and its just like a REALLY REALLY bad copy of the original.
2) The main actress
In the original, the actress playing the main character was not really boyish at all,but at least she was kind of convincing plus she CAN ACT!!!!!AND she's naturally funny and lovable
In the remake...the main actress is Maeda Atsuko..which is a member of AKB48...and is REALLY REALLY REALLY BADDDDDD at acting...she is so out in your face a GIRL!!!! she did not even bother to lower her voice at all and sounds super duper high pitch girly...so.not.convincing.....
3) Characters
COPY COPY COPY of the original...all of them are just trying to mimick the original cast and its like akward acting with the characters being so flat and NOT intresting at all.
4) Story
Really really bad....*seriously angry of why the heck they want to remake it and make the story soooooo not true to the manga at all....*
Conclusion: *DROPPED
Ya...Sorry but I really hated this show...It's really like they copied EVERYTHING from the original without changing ANYTHING...and made it really really bad...and I am pretty sure they made this show to make AKB48 more popular (AKB48 is a pop singing idol group with 48 members which is really popular in Japan...and I have no idea why)...the main actress is from AKB48...another 4-5 actresses are also from that group AND the freaking theme song of this show is by ....u guess it...AKB-freaking-48....I am not hating this group but seriously...none of the girls can act...really CAN"T act...and since they are idols...thus they can't make 'ugly funny' faces or actions in their acting....so NOT funny....they are like...just pretty dolls standing there...=_=
2) Ouran Highschool Host Club
Based on a popular manga and anime(which are my favourites)...
Story: It is set in a rich highschool where the main girl is a scholarship student...she broke a vase in the hostclub and is forced to join to repay her debts...oh,and she got mistaken for a boy without her even pretending to be one....
Believe me....the story is WAY better than what I summarised...(I'm too lazy to type it out in detail)...and yet again,what made me love the manga and anime is the characters...the characters are really well written with a real depth in them...plus you get to see them grow throughout the series...
When I heard they were making my favourite gender-bender story into a drama I was really freaked out...excited yes but still really scared they will screw it up REAL bad...but to my surprise...the drama was actually enjoyable and the actors who play the characters are spot on like the manga/anime....so I really was happy with that:D
Sadly each episode is only 30mins!!!!grrrr....but for now the series look promising and it's quite funny~~~
Conclusion: will CONTINUE watching~~~Love it
3) Ikemen Desu ne (remake of korean drama 'you're beautiful')
Japanese Version
Original Korean versionYes,another freaking remake...but AT LEAST this remake is better than Hana Kimi....but really???this is a COPY & PASTE JAPANESE VERSION of the original....everything is like deja vu...the characters,the music and the acting are IDENTICAL.....
Story: Main girl disguises as a boy to take the place of her twin brother in a popular band
Well,I did like the korean version...It was not THAT good, but it was enjoyable...and I guess they remade it into a japanese version was because the korean version was SUPER DUPER popular in Japan, more so than korea itself...so ya...*chi ching...money money money!!!*
I really am amazed how so alike the two versions are...seriously???Its like rewatching the korean version in japanese...with less handsome main actors...and the story compressed into less than 11 episodes (korean version with 16 episodes)....=_=....ARGHHSSSSS!!!!
Conclusion: uh....CONTINUE for another episode to decide wheather to drop or not...
Tips: IF you want to remake something...PLEASE remake it after the original version was released more than 6 years ago...and PLEASE don't copy the entire soundtrack and just change it into japanese.....and PLEASE make the characters yours actors!!!don't copy and paste EVERYTHING from the original!!!!GAH!!!!!
Verdict:
Most convincing 'I'm a girl pretending to be a boy' actress :
1)Ouran; 2) Ikemen desu ne ; 3) Hana kimi remake
Gender-benders this season are really disappointing...the 2 remakes are just lazy productions with no original or fresh ideas....GaAaAhhh!!!!so sad!!!!!
