More HYD. And is anyone up for a Mars watchalong? Please? Pretty Please?

[dangermousie]

Either I am getting brain-washed by Hana Yori Dango fashion, or it's getting better. I loved a few of Rui's outfits in the later eps and I have kinda a yen for Doumyouji's greatcoat, very 19th century military style. Plus, I like the fact that the guys wear ties a lot. Hmmmm. Soon I am going to like fur collars at this rate.

As you can tell by the above, I am still watching the HYD jdorama and it continues to be a great deal of fun. It's totally hitting all my kinks: guys telling girls they will protect them. Guys giving girls their coat. Yeah, I am kinda easy.

Also, I've decided I love Rui. I am a D/T shipper (which makes it the same ship in all four incarnations of the story I've come across :P) but Rui is just so cool. I love it when he takes Tsukushi's hand in the cafeteria, telling her he'll take care of her. And he takes care of her family later. He shouldn't work out his relationship issues by screwing with D/T but it's kinda understandable and I do think he decides to fix it for them because his own ship has gone FubAR. I think I am rather a sucker for guys and girls being friends, really good friends, with no OTPishness involved. I hope Shizuka comes back for him in this version too, because he's a great guy. Oddly, in Meteor Garden, I liked Rui a lot but didn't fancy him (I was all about DMS once he got his hair taken care of) but when the same actor played Ling in Mars, I found him sex on legs. I guess I like my fictional men violent and troubled, huh?

Also, while I am not keen on the Teen Pageant stuff (I know it was in the manga), but it's worth it for the hilarious and cool scenes of F4 teaching Tsukushi stuff. Also, in any incarnation, Soujiroh and Yuki are total adorableness together. And so are Doumyouji and Tsukushi on the roof (coat! he gave her his coat! squeeeee) and it's rather disturbing but I like Tsukushi best when she is hitting people. I do love that she is such a strong female character. Just as I like that ultimately, both she and Doumyouji are pretty weird people, misfits, and are fun to watch.

In other news, lesbiassparrow and I are going to do a watchalong of Mars, my favorite Taiwanese drama. It's 21 episodes, it's based on a manga of the same name, and it's really cool. We are looking for other volunteers to join in (or to discuss it with us if you've seen it already) because the more the merrier. The story revolves around the very dysfunctional yet very compatible college lovers, Ling and Qi Luo and the manifold issues they have to overcome. It's a great great mini, chockfull of angst, hot guys, star-crossed lovers and other good stuff. It also stars (for those who've seen Meteor Garden) Lei and Shan Cai from MG. You can download it all subbed here, so if you want to watch, it's easy to get. If you need more inducement, I have some pictures of the male lead wet. Would those help?

Comments

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

Soon I am going to like fur collars at this rate.

Heh. You get used to it after awhile. Not sure how/when it happens, but it does happen. When I first started seeing the crazy fashions, I thought I would go blind. Now...I just laugh and enjoy myself even more.

Also, I've decided I love Rui.

I always loved Rui. Even though I thought he was wishy washy at first, he improved immensely and I also loved his strong protective streak. I will confess what is probably heresy to HYD fans - I really didn't like Doumyouji that much, mostly because he was way too over the top at first and I couldn't get into the development of his character and the other reason is ridiculous but I could NOT STAND Matsumoto Jun's hair! It drove me crazy, and distracted me through the whole dorama. Jun's an idol and extremely popular and looks way hot in other things (like in concert), but as my first introduction to him...I wish I'd seen him in something else first. I have other doramas of his in my queue now, so I looking forward to something new to get rid of the memory of that hair. And he scowls so much in HYD! He's very pretty when he smiles. So sue me, I'm shallow.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Not sure how/when it happens, but it does happen.

LOL. It seems it's Bollywood Mark 2. When I first started watching BW I thought I'd go blind but now I either like the fashions or laugh and either way it adds to my fun.

I also loved his strong protective streak.

Oh yes, that's the thing I loved most about him. The thing that I really love in the jdorama (as well as in the Tdrama and later part of the anime) is that he has no romantic interest in Tsukushi but he is still very caring to her. He's just a good guy, all around.

I really didn't like Doumyouji that much, mostly because he was way too over the top at first and I couldn't get into the development of his character

I do think that's the biggest problem with the jdorama. Because it has to compress everything so much (and since Doumyouji's a more 'main' character than Rui, his stuff gets compressed more), it really compressed Doumyouji's character arc, which was actually probably my favorite thing in the anime, hands down (I am still impressed how I started loathing his guts and horrified that Makino was going to end up with him and by the end was yelling for her to give in already). Tsukushi's stuff got compressed a lot, but she doesn't really change or 'arc' as much so it's not as detrimental.

I could NOT STAND Matsumoto Jun's hair!

Oh yes. The hair. The weird hair is such a distinctive feature of the manga character that they had to keep it but the results aren't pretty. It actually looks OK in the manga and anime, but on a live person, it's quite odd. In Meteor Garden they solved the problem by having him fix his hair halfway through, and it worked miracles. Before that, I thought that Jerry Yan who played Doumyouji in MG was OK but the hair was so repulsive I couldn't really find him appealing, and afterwards, I thought he was sex on a stick. I wish they'd done the same thing here :P

I've seen other pictures of Jun and I agree, he looks quite hot, but here it's taken me ages to get used to the look and I still don't like it. I got won over because I liked his character by the end (e.g. the way he looks when he sees Makino play with kids in that competition), though that was influenced by this being the fourth incarnation of the story I've seen so I could fill in the blanks or character stuff that was excized. I really do want to see him in something else.

I have no idea if you have any interest in Tdramas, but I actually would recomment checking out "Meteor Garden." I think it's a better version of the story, with more drama and character arcs, and in that one I really was all about Doumyouji and loved him to pieces (that's where the icon is from).

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if you have any interest in Tdramas

Heh. The better question is what Asian drama am I NOT interested in at this point? ;) So long as it's good and english subbed, that's all I really care about. Meteor Garden has been percolating on my mental list as a "want to watch at some point" because, yes, I've heard that it's good and much better than HYD.

I really, really wish I'd seen one of the other incarnations of HYD before seeing the jdorama, because I think then I could have "filled in the blanks" and enjoyed it much better. I wonder if it was so short because of Jun and the others' schedules? Otherwise story-wise the compression doesn't make sense. It's the shortest jdorama I've seen.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, MG is both good and English subbed. I've checked and it's available to download on one of the links you gave me. Alternatively, if you ever decide to watch it and won't be able to download (though I can't imagine a problem), I have the official boxset (yeah, I went crazy) and you are welcome to borrow it if you like.

Otherwise story-wise the compression doesn't make sense. It's the shortest jdorama I've seen.

Exactly. And it's based on a 36 volume manga. The other versions, and they were both done when manga wasn't even complete, clocked in around 20 hours and it seemed just about the right about of time.

I am actually impressed they managed to fit as much as they did into 9 episodes without it feeling too chopped up, because talk about too short for the source material (though as I said, since I've seen the story repeatedly, I have no idea how abrupt it would actually come across to someone unfamailiar with it).

The better question is what Asian drama am I NOT interested in at this point? ;)

Heee. Any way I can interest you in Mars? :P

Btw, if you are interested as to why Jun's hair was so odd, my icon has Doumyouji's hair in the manga. That's why :)

[redrogue9.livejournal.com]

Mars with Vic Zhou and Barbie Xu, right? First Tdrama i've ever watched and I loved it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, that one. It was my first Tdrama too and I loved it so much (and posted about it way more than was healthy) and it started me on all the others.

[ilanala]

I just started watching Mars, actually. I'm watching with friends, so I don't know how quickly we'll go through the series, but I'm good for discussion of whatever I've seen. We've watched 6 episodes so far, I think, and it's really interesting so far, and full of angst, just the way I like it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

YES! Someone else! We are not really doing a reginmented pace or anything. I've seen it before, after all. We are going to do an ep a day but it's not a severely formal schedule or anything or with formal discussion questions.

But yes, I love Mars. SO angsty.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I cannot wait to start up the Mars viewing; I've been reading about depressing things all day and I need a good angstfest to make me forget it all.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heee. You are definitely reading my mind. There is such a difference between genuine misery and glorious angst.

If you want, we can start tomorrow (Wednesday) actually.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

HYD gets better. the theme song? it got stuck in my head for weeks! i loved/hated it til i found out that Jun is in Arashi, the boyband who sang the song. :P

gah!!! i wish i can do a watch-a-long. MARS!! arrrghh! i loved the manga very much, so imagine my happiness when i found out who were the taking the lead roles!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, I finished HYD. I actually did enjoy it a lot. Interestingly, it was the most light-hearted adaptation of the bunch. If the anime was like a three course meal of angst and MG was a banquet of it, this was like a light snack, angst-wise :P

I haven't read enough of the manga to know which one is more faithful vibe (though as a personal preference, I prefer angst).

I totally love the theme song. It's been stuck in my head for days and I want to download it somewhere. I like the more angsty song they play intermittenly too.

gah!!! i wish i can do a watch-a-long. MARS!! arrrghh!

Let me check, but I think Mars might also be on youtube in which case you won't even need to download (unless you mean you have no time, in which case sorry). I just love that total angst fest. And Mars is the first manga I ever read. Way before I even liked manga/anime/whatever.

I need to bring back my Mars icons.

Btw, your post reminded me. Need to get Hot Gimmick 11.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

here ya go on WISH:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/th3an0


Oh god, HG 11 makes me bleed myself dry.

and HYD...the ending kiss? i expected more. like i wish the sun didnt block it. but heck, theres talks for another season of HYD...

hopefully i'd get to do a little list of asian dramas i've seen or want to see soon.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Re: HG. I just love that as arrogant as he always sounds, it's always Ryo who caves in emotionally. They both believe the other person slept with someone else, but his reaction? 'I don't care as it's me you clearly want anyway.' Impressive.

theres talks for another season of HYD...


Really? That would be cool.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

aaahh HG! yeah Ryo, was so adorable in HG. i have a crush on Azusa, but i love Ryo. such a dork. ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I never got over Azusa trying to do the gang rape thing :)

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

i never thought he'd do that but for some reason, i still liked him. for myself, not harumi. LOL

P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link!

Re: P.S.

[catdecember.livejournal.com]

no problem, enjoy!!!