A twofer of prickly musicians and their awesome OTPs

[dangermousie]

Ummm, I continue to be obsessed with Ikemen Desu Ne.



Ep 3 pretty much confirmed it's a Mio/Ren show the whole way and I love it! If what you watched the Korean original for was slapstick humor, the interactions between the boys (and boys and heroine) or even secondary lead love, you should skip IDN. If, otoh, like me you were in it just for the OTP, you have basically entered heaven. This is pretty much all OTP all the time. And the heroine is not meek or remarkably dumb this time either and the chemistry sizzles (plus, much as I adore Jang Geun Seok, on a purely hormonal level, the Japanese version of his character does it for me muuuuuch more). The thing I like the most is that Ren and Mio feel pretty much like equals, which is something I never truly felt in YAB.



Mio is distraught learning her Mom has been dead for a long time, so Ren tells her no way can she go to an interview but should go see her aunt instead to get details.





One problem - if Mio steps out, a media zoo will ensue. So he'll dress her in girl clothes and she'll sneak out. So she is dressing when he waits and then she comes out and his face! It looks as if someone has whacked him with a tree trunk. SQUISH OTP.




















But the reporters spot them so he grabs her hand and they run; extra swoon at Mio going: "why is my heart beating so fast [when Ren is holding my hand]". Hhhhm, let me think.














She escapes and everyone assumes it was Nana who was the mysterious girl.





The boys try to cheer Mio up but it is fake-grumpy Ren who succeeds and watching his failure with a celebratory baloon sends Mio into a total fit of giggles. Ren might pretend to be pissed but his little sideways pleased smiles kill me. (Hey, if a girl who looked like Mio looked at me like that, I'd melt and I am a straight female).





























He's not the only one affected :P





I really adored this quiet, lovely scene between them. Honestly, their chemistry is sick.























Here for the pretty.





He misunderstands her note about her visiting her Mother Superior to assume she left for good and comes running freaked out of his mind. When he realizes what is going on he tries to cover by saying that his 'you were going to leave me?' talk was all about his bandmates. Yeah. Right.





























He tells her she should do what she wants - go back to being a girl or continue the charade and be part of the band and sing his songs. (He tells her he was fixated on her voice from the moment he heard her. AWWWW). It's her choice.











She comes back dressed like a boy. That's her answer. She tells him she may be a fake but her voice is not and she will use it to sing the songs he's written. My heart. It's growing four sizes too big.











Why are they so adorable? It's unreal.








He bought her a hair pin she can wear whenever she goes back to being a girl. Hers broke. I love how embarassed-sneaky-proud he is about it. Heeee. And he claims he paid 10,000 yen for it (he did, long story) and her seeing the price tag and telling him not to be embarassed it's cheap :P






































He gets a text from Nana telling him because he turned her down on her offer to become a celebrity couple (saying he'd rather die :P), she is going to reveal Mio is a girl.








Guuuuuh, I love this scene. He asks her whether she really wants to stay in the band and sing, and she says yes.

















So he steels herself, walks up to the harpy skank Nana and leans in for a very public kiss, in front of all the reporters snapping madly.






And Mio sees (and of course has no idea he is doing it to protect her). "Why does my heart hurt?" Awwwww, poor almost-nun, you are going to be hurting badly indeed.






I am also catching up with Heartstrings and my love for it knows no bounds. I've liked it from the start, but in the last few eps it went from that to slavish adoration. I do not think it is any coincidence that the shift coincided with the story's shift and now almost exclusive focus on Shin/Gyuwon.



I'd say 85% of ep 8 was about them. And to see their friendship and teasing and the way Shin watches her (seeing him with that look in his eyes I melt and I am not even the target) and the way he's actually happy for once and the way she's bemused and just their ridiculous chemistry. The story feels so very slice-of-life and reminds me of my college days almost painfully. I am getting ridiculously nostalgic for that time - somehow it captures that vibe, with its excitement and enthusiasm and friendships and love - how everything felt just a bit more vivid - perfectly. Ep 8 also made rock-solid my belief that Shin and Gyuwon are compatible almost on a molecular level - in interests, in maturity levels, in personalities (not similar at all but complimentary. Have you ever seen Shin tease before? It turns out he's got an adorably dry sense of humor). Also, I am a sucker for a guy who takes such good care of his girl.



Post show awkwardness.











Here because it is pretty. I don't like Hee Joo one bit but I do feel sorry for her. Gyuwon has so much joy in life and Hee Joo is incapable of any.





He pretty much follows her all day! He even shows up in class in the morning, just to accompany her. Also, the way he looks at her! Meeeelting.












































OK, after this ep, I am relunctantly on Bulimic/Overeater ship - he's still miles too nice for her but I suppose that is what he wants.











Look at the adorable grin!











Honestly, their chemistry and perfection doesn't even need meta. I especially love her performing at serior center and him watching her and then her drinking his drinks (he can't drink at all due to history of alcoholism in his family) and then drunkenly falling asleep on his shoulder and his pleased little grin and then his lugging her and her instrument home and tucking her in. I. Have. No. Words.





























































































































He's so pleased.











Next morning there is teasing and peeking and talking about music and birthday cake and jamming and stares to die for and other adorableness.













































































Then she falls down the stairs, twists her ankle and cracks her ribs. He feels responsible (though in no way it is his fault) and freaking out but we get him staying by her bedside until nurses kick him out and watching her sleep and telling her jokes (she demands some) which she says are awful (but then giggles about after he leaves) and wheeling her around and watching fireworks with her and just perfection.




















































































And then at the very episode, he kneels by her wheelchair and tells her "Please don't stop liking me." Omo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

I need to watch the third episode! Has it been subbed? Other than DarkSmurfs, if they've subbed it already. And thank you for what you said about the descriptions being perfect. It made me happy. XDDDDD;;

I fell down some stairs when I was in Vietnam, and while it wasn't to the extent that I twisted my ankle or broke some ribs, it hurt like a bitch nonetheless. x_x

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

DS is the only one that has it subbed but it's fully subbed and is fine.

OMG, I hope you are OK now.

[boycottbananas.livejournal.com]

Ah, I shall check it out then.

I'm totally fine, really. XD It was probably about a month-ish ago and when it happened the only thing that really hurt after the initial shock was my big toe, and my dignity. My cousins and sister were laughing at me! D:

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Awww, that sucks :(

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

I love the Mio in this version. She is so spunky and has a backbone. And they are just too cute together. And a lot of the mom angst/backstory is condensed thankfully.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Mio gives as good as she gets and I love it. Good-hearted doesn't mean wimpy.

Honestly, I am glad the mom/backstory thing is minimized. Yeah, we get it, Ren's childhood was awful and his Mom is emotionally abusive. We don't need miles and miles of time spent on it - I catch on quite quickly, thank you. (I was fine with it in kdrama when I thought it was leading to fakecest but it wasn't so it really was too much time except YAB had a much slower pace overall due to longer running time).

I wouldn't even mind if they ditch the whole 'his mom did her best to break up her parents' thing because the only reason I was even OK with that storyline was because (a) they were both quite immature so I could see this overreaction from Minam - I never could figure out how it was TK's fault (b) they needed time apart for her to figure out what she really wants and to grow up.

But neither of these reasons is present here. Mio is miles more mature than Minam ever will be (and Ren >>> Tae Kyung, in terms of maturity as well) and she doesn't need time apart to grow up/figure herself out, not really. They are pretty much equals already.

We'll see.

I honestly don't remember the last time I adored a jdrama so.

I saw someone complain that they left out Yuki/Jeremy's dog and what a travesty it was and LOLOLOLLOOLed. I will never get fangirls. All I know is I am so grateful they took all the OTT humor and annoying secondaries out and concentrated on the main leads and their development.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget darkeyedwolf's post about You're Beautiful and the overly dramatic mother story line. So freaking funny and perfectly summarizes the ridiculousness of that story.

I know a lot of people hated the parent storyline, but I found it hilarious, sometimes even on purpose. Picture a high drama confrontation full of tears and anger and Tae Kyung demanding -- with a completely straight face -- "Did you eat my mother's cookies?!"

WELL, MINAM? DID YOU? DID YOU EAT THAT BITCH'S BAKED GOODS?

Unfortunately the Hong Sisters have been developing their male leads as a man/child which is what Tae Kyung was. So I like this subdued version much much better.

Yes they focused so much on random characters in You're Beautiful that it was quite dragging at times.

But so far I have been on a jdrama roll. This one, Ouran, and Arakawa Under the Bridge are all great dramas so far. And one twdrama Material Queen is getting my attention as well.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I repressed that bit in YAB.

I don't know what Hong Sisters' recent kick about manchildren is about, but I wish they'd stop. The hero of My Girl was very much a grown-up from beginning to end, and heroes of Chunhyang and Hong Gil Dong were quite amazing and very adult by a third in, at most (and Mongryong started the story as a highschooler and Gil Dong was never truly a manchild, even if he was deliberately oafish). And then with YAB it's like they uncovered a hidden fetish and from then on their heroes have been getting more and more infantile. I can deal with it in Tae Kyung, who I would be shocked is older than 20, even if I wish he would be more mature. But Dokko jin in their latest made TK into Confucius by comparison and the man was twice TK's age. I do not get it.

I agree, I love that this version of his character has kept TK's prickliness, pefectionism and a bit of oddness but he doesn't come across as manchildish at all. Thank God. Cannot stand that fictional type really. It's a credit to JGS' awesomeness that I really did love his Tae Kyung.

The biggest difference for me though is Mio v. Minam.

YAB honestly didn't have enough story for 16+ hours. You don't need to have City Hunter levels of plot but there has to be major character complexity and conflict to fill the time up and there really wasn't - if the drama was 8-10 eps it would have been perfect. Stripped to its bones, the way IDN has done, it is 10 times more effective.

I've only seen first ep of MQ because I am buried in my backlog but I loved what I saw.

[(Anonymous)]

Lol I couldn't help but laugh at the guy's lips in the japanese manga. I haven't watched YAB's japanese version and I stoped watching YAB kversion at episode 4 because I couldn't feel for the characters. But your impressions about this jversion pretty much show why I tend to like jdrama better than kdrama : the lead couple chemistry. In kdrama they tend to make the second male lead have better chemistry with the main female character than the latter has with the main male lead. And I feel jdramas don't try too hard to impress unlike kdrama do.

[quaggy]

I have to admit that I'm more intrigued by Ikemen Desu Ne than I thought I'd be. I liked YAB fine, but the ending was kind of lame and far too dragged out, so I wasn't keen on watching a remake. But the streamlined story might mean they keep all the good things and brush over the bad.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

the streamlined story might mean they keep all the good things and brush over the bad.


Pretty much this. The pace is excellent, most of extraneous stuff is gone (which was put there to fill the time) and the leads are very well-developed. Instead of emphasis on the comedy, the emphasis here is on romance and that is what I like.

YAB's biggest weaknesses to me were that it did not have enough meat for a 16ep kdrama and thus got draggy and that Minam was dimmer than an arctic night. Both of these have been fixed.

[quaggy]

it did not have enough meat for a 16ep kdrama and thus got draggy and that Minam was dimmer than an arctic night

Yeah, that's the thing. YAB could have come to a natural end twice. First at the press conference where he yells for her not be where he can't see her and then later when drama with the Mother of All Evil (trademark DB I Am Legend recaps). Actually, I was hoping with that press conference was going to be when the twins switched back and that's why she was there in girl clothes.

[puion.livejournal.com]

Omo...the real life shipper in me is slowly creeping out...

psh and jyh are SO good together! like them ever since YAB...

oh well...i am just happy they are collaborating again! and this time, jyh actually gets the girl woohooo!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

They have gorgeous chemistry!

[o-galen-o.livejournal.com]

I barely made it through 1 1/2 eps of YAB despite finding all the leads objectively more attractive (it's like they can have have higher levels of only either looks OR acting talent and the Koreans and Japanese choose differently. Not that they're not attractive, but on a scale of celebrity hotness). On the other hand, IDN is proving to be, although not an addiction like HS, a pretty enjoyable ride.

HS is making a fangirl of me, though. :) I'm loving so much about it it's getting ridiculous. I now have an urge to dust off my Photoshop skills to make myself some HS icons and banners.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

HS is seriously so fresh and real. I love it.

[moraitika1.livejournal.com]

ur post makes weird connections in my brain... first Ren and Mio with ShinWoo and Minam and this time PSH's char is more mature even for her age

I love that Heartstrings shows all the naughty things u can do in college: crying on the bench and a random(u r sure he isn't random at all) classmate comes to rescue, passed out coz of drinking, bark coz of drinking :)), run from security for trespassing, feed the roommates or a group with food on ur taste... but the forgot that s/he prepares the own food a bit "different"- ofcourse s/he is the only one who can eat the stuff, the student got lost in the trip(every time it happens an airhead), the

[moraitika1.livejournal.com]

grrr I posted before finishing the "usual college activities" which I truly lov in Heartstrings
except a single line in IDN they keep OTP as equals which I love... somehow YAB was successful coz implied a lot of cosplay and submission from her - those type of relationships do exist but that was way over the top, it was fetish level submission we just didn't had the handcuffs

despite my love in MGIAG I FF some side chars too for some ppl they are funny for me it was bore so I can understand ur feelings about side chars in Hong sisters dramas

[cantfillthevoid.livejournal.com]

I am so obsessed with IDN right now, I love the small changes that made this OTP even better than the other version.
Like in this episode, he actually held her hand while running from the reporters instead of the usual wrist grabbing. I also love the fact that he picked out the hair pin himself.

Heartstrings is also cute, especially after Shin got over that boring teacher.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know! The little changes totally work. I think it's because YAB was a romcom (with emphasis on the 'com' part) but IDN is a romance and I much prefer the latter.

HS is sooooo adorable now.

[paatriiing.livejournal.com]

Darn, I am so addicted to Ikemen Desu Ne, it's not even funny. And gdi, Tamamori Yuta is super jailbait. Noooo!!! ;_;

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL come to the dark side with me!!