Musings of the Obsessive Kind

You know that I did "Top" lists for My Top 10 dramas: Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese. But what's the fun in separating them, the fun is how they compare, right? So I bring you my Top 10 overall dramas, which consists of 3 kdramas, 2 twdramas and a whopping 5 jdramas. And yes, it's a threeway tie for the first place.

Also, if you know me, it's unsurprising that there are only two dramas on the list which may be classified as "light" and one of them is Capital Scandal, which involves assassinations, freedom fighters and torture, and the other is Utahime, which starts out light and funny only to STOMP ON YOUR HEART. I really should do a Top 10 Best Pick-You Up Dramas, too.

Anyway, without much ado, here is my list:

( List with pics and reasons behind cut )

I finished the pilot of The Gossip Girl and it's official: I want to murder every single character in this show. It's as if someone took all those awful 09ers from Veronica Mars and made them the supposed-to-be-likeable protagonists. Ugh.

But in the news of a show which has high schoolers but doesn't want me to give up my faith in humanity, I continued with my rewatch of Majo No Jouken and got through eps 2 and 3.



( Eps 2 and 3 summary in caps )

So good even on rewatch!

I finished the pilot of The Gossip Girl and it's official: I want to murder every single character in this show. It's as if someone took all those awful 09ers from Veronica Mars and made them the supposed-to-be-likeable protagonists. Ugh.

But in the news of a show which has high schoolers but doesn't want me to give up my faith in humanity, I continued with my rewatch of Majo No Jouken and got through eps 2 and 3.



( Eps 2 and 3 summary in caps )

So good even on rewatch!

As I posted earlier, I started rewatching Majo No Jouken and it's even more excellent the second time around.

I have metaed extensively about MnJ when I first watched it, but I guess I have more to say, and yup, I have learned how to screencap in the two years since I have seen it first.

So I bring you caps and thoughts on ep 1 behind the cut.

(Caps from the opening scene are here)

( If you gotta lose it and risk jail for a student, might as well be Takki. Or MnJ ep 1 )

I promise to reply to everyone asap :)

I guess after Yoshitsune, I had a craving for more Takki so I started rewatching Majo No Jouken (Forbidden Love), starring Matsushima Nanako and Takizawa Hideaki as the drama's genuinely disturbing (to me) OTP. MnJ is a story of a woman who escapes her meaningless, colorless existence by falling in love with her 17-year old student from a seriously messed-up family. It was the first student/teacher drama I saw and, ironically, the only one which still disturbs me (even as I place it in my top 10) for two reasons: (1) in the other dramas, nothing happens until the student is out of high school and (2) this is the only time I've seen casting where they cast the actors at the age of their characters. Takki has 17 and MN was 26. In dramas like Loveholic and Hello My Teacher, the squick is gone because the male actors are actually in their mid-20s.

But MnJ is an incredibly powerful, well-written and well-acted drama, because even if the OTP squicks me out to start with, I end up being convinced that, however odd, they cannot exist without each other, and need each other desperately. Being with him makes her alive and strong and not a sleepwalker barely moving through life and being with her (in a lot of ways he is more mature than she is) makes him happy and free from his monstrous mother (the drama never says it explicitly, but it's pretty clear that being with an older and mother-like figure who is not his biological mother is a healthy for him way to deal with the fact that his mother is an incestuous freak hot for him).

So yeah, all that, but the drama is brilliant because even until the end, I root for them so badly but have moments of 'WTF woman, are you insane? There has to be something seriously wrong with you (and the drama does indicate there is) for you to go for someone who looks so young!

Anyway, I started rewatching and had to run, but MnJ still has one of the most awesome drama openings for me.

( Screencaps from the drama opening )

Here is a pretty awesome MV for the drama.

I guess after Yoshitsune, I had a craving for more Takki so I started rewatching Majo No Jouken (Forbidden Love), starring Matsushima Nanako and Takizawa Hideaki as the drama's genuinely disturbing (to me) OTP. MnJ is a story of a woman who escapes her meaningless, colorless existence by falling in love with her 17-year old student from a seriously messed-up family. It was the first student/teacher drama I saw and, ironically, the only one which still disturbs me (even as I place it in my top 10) for two reasons: (1) in the other dramas, nothing happens until the student is out of high school and (2) this is the only time I've seen casting where they cast the actors at the age of their characters. Takki has 17 and MN was 26. In dramas like Loveholic and Hello My Teacher, the squick is gone because the male actors are actually in their mid-20s.

But MnJ is an incredibly powerful, well-written and well-acted drama, because even if the OTP squicks me out to start with, I end up being convinced that, however odd, they cannot exist without each other, and need each other desperately. Being with him makes her alive and strong and not a sleepwalker barely moving through life and being with her (in a lot of ways he is more mature than she is) makes him happy and free from his monstrous mother (the drama never says it explicitly, but it's pretty clear that being with an older and mother-like figure who is not his biological mother is a healthy for him way to deal with the fact that his mother is an incestuous freak hot for him).

So yeah, all that, but the drama is brilliant because even until the end, I root for them so badly but have moments of 'WTF woman, are you insane? There has to be something seriously wrong with you (and the drama does indicate there is) for you to go for someone who looks so young!

Anyway, I started rewatching and had to run, but MnJ still has one of the most awesome drama openings for me.

( Screencaps from the drama opening )

Here is a pretty awesome MV for the drama.

Nothing is as good as a good jdrama, so favorite jdramas are my favorite dramas of all.

I did a Top Jdramas list some time ago, with reasons and vids, but time to update. Why? Well, for one, current dramas number 3-5 weren't even on the list then, because I haven't seen them.

Same rules as earlier apply: it’s all about which are my favorite jdramas? And why? Here is the list of my favorite dozen, with reasons, vids, and pics. Note: no drama that I haven't finished completely is on this list, because who knows how it will turn out. Beautiful Life might end up on the list once I have enough courage to finish it, but am not done yet. Also, I have a 'favorite scene' from each drama, and I described it very briefly, if at all, to make it as unspoilery as possible.

( List behind cut, with reasons, caps and vids )

You know how I did a list for my favorite kdramas, here (even if it already has to be revised, seeing that The Legend is my fave kdrama ever, and actually my fave drama, period). Well, this is my Top 10 jdramas list.

Same rules apply: it’s all about which are my favorite jdramas? And why? Here is a Top 10 list, with reasons, vids, and pics. Note: no drama that I haven't finished completely is on this list, because who knows how it will turn out. Beautiful Life might end up on the list once I have enough courage to finish it, but am not done yet. Also, I have not yet seen a lot of famous jdramas (Friends, Million Stars, 1 Litre etc), because of a recent kdrama binge, which is about to give way to a jdrama one, so my list might be very different a few months from now ;) Also, I have a 'favorite scene' from each drama, and I described it very briefly, if at all, to make it as unspoilery as possible. Except for the Top 3, the places within Top 10 get reshuffled quite often. A drama I rank number 8 this week might be number four next ;) But the content of Top 10 stays the same.

( List behind cut, with reasons, caps and vids )

ETA: Yes, I plan to do the same list for Taiwanese dramas as well. But I need to finish a few twdramas I am currently watching first (Romantic Princess, Corner with Love, My Lucky Star) so as to know whether they should be included.

You know how I did a list for my favorite kdramas, here (even if it already has to be revised, seeing that The Legend is my fave kdrama ever, and actually my fave drama, period). Well, this is my Top 10 jdramas list.

Same rules apply: it’s all about which are my favorite jdramas? And why? Here is a Top 10 list, with reasons, vids, and pics. Note: no drama that I haven't finished completely is on this list, because who knows how it will turn out. Beautiful Life might end up on the list once I have enough courage to finish it, but am not done yet. Also, I have not yet seen a lot of famous jdramas (Friends, Million Stars, 1 Litre etc), because of a recent kdrama binge, which is about to give way to a jdrama one, so my list might be very different a few months from now ;) Also, I have a 'favorite scene' from each drama, and I described it very briefly, if at all, to make it as unspoilery as possible. Except for the Top 3, the places within Top 10 get reshuffled quite often. A drama I rank number 8 this week might be number four next ;) But the content of Top 10 stays the same.

( List behind cut, with reasons, caps and vids )

ETA: Yes, I plan to do the same list for Taiwanese dramas as well. But I need to finish a few twdramas I am currently watching first (Romantic Princess, Corner with Love, My Lucky Star) so as to know whether they should be included.

vierran45 started watching Majo No Jouken (Forbidden Love) and it made me think about Hikaru and Michi, so here this is.

( The line of the collarbone. )