some j-dramas i've watched this year

Old Fashioned Cupcake (2022) 

Right. This is based off a BL manga which, I have never actually read, I tried to but found the panelling of the manga to be really cluttered and confusing to read. To be honest, i feel like a lot of times when you watch j-dramas you need to be sufficiently divorced from the source material in order to fully enjoy them. You can refer to Cherry Magic, or Coin Operated Laundry, a lot of the time, jdramas take a lot of elements from the original material and change it to fit their ideas - especially narrative wise. This also happens very very obviously in My First Love Mixup - just a lot of changes made to fit a more conventional narrative. I could also talk about the previous few dramas, but I might later. But what I do want to really state, is that BL as a trope is often not given a lot of funding, perhaps from the idea that queer media is still very much a fringe genre, and doesn't have mainstream appeal. As a result, a lot of these shows have actors who, to be frank, aren't very good actors, and can't sell a relationship (which is the KEY point here.) (also please? stop hiring the straight people to sell gay relationships). But also, camera work or the sets can often look a little shoddy, because, it's not getting funding, and not a lot of attention. But I think why I love OFC, is because it sets the scene. It feels like a show that got a lot of love and thought and patience and good actors and decent funding. It's like the potential of every piece of queer media, of what it could be but hasn't be allowed to become. 

OFC is actually quite a short series, only at 5 episodes. The stars are Kouhei Takeda, and my love forever, Kimura Tatsunari (better known as the first Kageyama in the Haikyuu stage plays). I wasn't actually very interested in the show (more for Kimura san), but I was honestly, pleasantly surprised by this. A lot of BL jdramas are very let down by the fact that most of the main actors are horrifically straight, with zero chemistry. Cherry Magic is, passable. Hatsukoi Keita is also passable, since they're supposed to play a bumbling high school couple without too many ideas of what they want. But some of the other shows which have a more ero undertone, like coin operated laundry, does a very poor job at selling their relationship. 

But oh no, not OFC. Kimura Tatusnari almost singlehandedly smolders and eyefucks his way through the entirety of this show with the upmost of dedication and passion. We'll get back to that. 

The show's premise is relatively simple, you have the manager and his subordinate at work who strike up a relationship. The manager finds his life boring and starts finding some pleasure in doing some different things with his life, while his subordinate hides his feelings for him - but this all is revealed at the end with the growing affection they have for each other and some complications happen, before they reconcile and agree to try a relationship. 

The structure of the show basically spends most of the time setting up the tension between the two characters (Nozue and Togawa) and how they grow to learn more about each other - before Togawa caves in and confesses his feelings, and they have to resolve that. But it's the build up that counts. Kouhei Takeda is decent as Nozue, he basically spends most of his time being a sort of absent minded sweet manager, who gets pushed around a lot by Kimura's more pushy and straightforward Togawa, but I think there are really obvious moments that are marked by great acting by the both of them. Of course, Kimura as Togawa is the absolute stand out performance for me. 

The artistry in this show, for me, is solidly cemented in ep4, the scene where Nozue and Togawa are in Togawa's apartment, and Togawa starts flirting with Nozue and touching him a bit more. They start to confess their feelings and gratitude towards one another (another theme i really like), and as Nozue starts to feel anxious, he starts to move towards the door, before Togawa, out of desperation, blurts out his feelings and kisses him twice. The camera work in this scene struck me as oddly vulnerable, it's basically a one take close up shot on the actors, and Kimura does an amazing job and conveying his dismay, desperation, longing, desire, while the camera never flicks away from the rawness of their performance. 

While the ending of this show is a little conventional (nothing else much happens besides their reconciliation and agreeing to try out their relationship), I have to say, the scene is cemented in my mind as one of the most striking and bare moments I've watched. 

I'm not sure if I'm projecting, but I feel a real earnestness and love poured into OFC - and the end result is something that starts to live up to the beautiful stories of queer media that's often been overlooked, and I wish for more BL dramas like OFC. Please. Also more Kimura Tatusnari never hurt anyone. 

Kyou Kara Ore Wa (2018) 

This is one of the best jdrama I've watched. Admittedly I haven't watched a lot, but damn I know a good show when I see one. There's also an additional movie, which just feels like an extra long episode of the show. 

This is a new(ish) show based off an old manga about tsuppari (yankees, as theyre better known now. or deliquents.), and the main premise is about two guys who decide to be tsuppari and somehow get into a bunch of hijinks with other tsuppari around the area. 

I like a lot of things about this show, the comedy in this is the stand out for me, but all of the actors make half the scenes feel like just an ongoing comedy skit that they just filmed, in-dispersed between these amazingly choreographed fighting scenes. The actors are great, the scenes are fun, the plot is fun, and I love having a little giggle at all their shenanigans. 

I think this show is just a hella fun ride - I ended up watching this show on repeat for about a month because I just love it. I have no complaints. 

Also I love Hayato Isomura. 

Blazing Transfer Students (2017)

This is objectively not a good show. But I love how silly it is. 

Johnny's tends to create shows for their boy groups (as promotion I guess? It's not a bad plan.) and this one stars the whole cast of Johnny's West. The line up is basically the whole group, they're named Kakeru, and they keep their last names (which is cute!). 

The actual plot is like an episodic structure, the first episode is slow and hard to trudge through, but it sets up the stage for the rest of the happening - all 7 of the lads are called Kakeru and they're here to work as transfer students to investigate problems in other schools. Each episode, they go and face zombies, hosts, and other things. The acting is, fine, the sets and special effects are definitely not the best, but I like how endearing and silly and fun it is. I don't know if I would recommend it to people, but I definitely enjoyed it and ended up rewatching this a few times too. And listen, it made me a fan of Johnny's West too. Big success.