J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Hal「ハル」the movie (2013).

Hal is an animated movie that's depressingly beautiful. It's a sci-fi romance themed animated film that has a twist at the end. I can say that it's pretty good, but I'm not just a fan of the kind of animation for this. The story though was good, and will definitely leave you hung over the main characters after watching.

The story is set on a time when robots can completely act like humans, and I assume that anyone can own one if they can afford to..

Hal is the guy in the picture while Kurumi is the girl. They are in a relationship when Hal suddenly died from a plane crash.

Kurumi was left devastated..

Then this old man asked the robot, Q01, to become Hal so that he could comfort Kurumi who's suffering from Hal's death.

When Hal the robot showed up, Kurumi didn't easily open up to him because she's still afraid.

However, as time went by, Kurumi opened up to Hal the robot while he makes some of Kurumi's wishes come true. (Her wishes are written on rubix cubes that are completed and Hal had to solve each of the faces to be able to read the wish).

Hal also started to get to know the old Hal. Robot Hal tried to understand what kind of person Hal was back then..

Hal and Kurumi started hanging out again and went to a festival together.

After having fun, a guy by the name of Ryu who is supposedly Hal's friend showed up. He expressed his desire to sell Kurumi..

Hal and Kurumi ran from Ryu and his apparently gangster-like friends. 

While running away, Kurumi fell in a gushing river, and it was also raining hard.

I will end my story-telling right here, since anything beyond this scene will be huge spoilers. I think the beauty of this movie is the plot twist because right there, the reality of this story was revealed. Even in this advanced society, there is the existence of humanly feelings of regret, depression, and love. The reality in the story reveals the true essence of it, which is supposed to be telling a story of love between these two people who became victims of a harsh fate.

That's all I can say about this movie. It gave me the chills, and the feeling of finding the meaning of life upon watching it. I'm not even exaggerating. 

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Strobe Edge.

English translated volume 1 of Strobe Edge.

Strobe Edge is a shoujo manga by Io Sakisaka. It's set in high school, like most shoujo mangas are, and is about a teenage girl who falls in love for the first time. Ninako is a 15-year old girl who falls in love with a popular guy in his grade, Ren. Everyone loves Ren because he's charismatic and so many girls have already been rejected by him. One thing about Ren though is that he already has a long-time girlfriend who is older than he is and is really pretty. His girlfriend, Mayuka, is a college student and is a model. Mayuka is Daiki's older sister. Now who the hell is Daiki? Daiki, during the first few chapters, is shown as Ninako's best friend and apparently had a crush on Ninako for quite a while. He was into Ninako until she rejected him because of her love for Ren. Now Daiki will have a new love interest, and I'll leave it at that. 

There are other characters that will pop up in later chapters of this manga who are all quite important to the story. Since it's a shoujo manga, expect a lot of cheesy and fun moments in the story. In this first volume that I have, the author mentioned that she wanted this manga to become something that everyone could relate with, and created it to contain such emotions that most of us had probably already felt. When I read that, it really stuck with me through my reading of this manga. To be honest, if I didn't read that statement by the mangaka, I wouldn't have continued to read this manga because of its cheesiness. However, the emotions being shown in this manga mostly by the main character, Ninako, is of an innocent love for Ren, and I quite understand that despite the excessive "shoujo manga cliché" that it shows the readers.

Anyway, I just finished this pure and cute story of Ninako and Ren, and I want the song that's stuck with me since it was mentioned that this song is the one Ninako was listening to in a certain chapter of this manga. For those who have already read Strobe Edge, may this song make you remember Ninako's pure and innocent love for Ren.

Chiisana Koi no Uta 「小さな恋の歌」 by MONGOL 800

Enjoy and Happy New Year!「明けましておめでとう」

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Christmas in Japanese Dramas & Movies.

For this post, I'm going to talk about a movie and a drama which are both of the romance genre. As some of you might already know, Christmas in Japan is a time for couples. Unlike what we're probably used to, me being Filipino, our Christmas is usually spent with our families. In Japan however (and same with S. Korea), their Christmas is about spending time with your lover and just before Christmas is approaching, everyone (or most people) will be stressed in finding someone who could be their date for Christmas. Well, it's not far from what is usually happening here in the Philippines just before Christmas, where everyone will also be stressing out about being lonely for Christmas, with lonely meaning having no boyfriend or girlfriend to spend the rest of the Christmas season with, after spending enough time with your own family. However, Christmas here is really about getting together with the family (or even the clan), cooking Christmas eve dinner (Noche Buena), giving gifts to each other, and going to church together on Christmas day. 

Going back to Japan, I've emphasized that Christmas is a time for couples to be all lovey-dovey and not be judged by other people. They're even envied by some "lonely" people on Christmas day. On Japanese media, I've also noticed some reflection of this practice. I saw "Christmas" on romance-themed shows, but I doubt that there really are movies of the Christmas genre about just the essence of Christmas itself, in Japanese movies or TV dramas. (but if there is though, please do inform me)

Tokyo tower illuminated in rainbow color for Christmas. (screenshot from the J-drama Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu)

After the Christmas "light down," a heart shaped light from Tokyo tower was seen, which is (by one of the character from the drama) said to be a "Christmas present for everybody who wants to be in love." (screenshot from the J-drama Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu)

I'm going to start with Christmas for these three ladies of Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu (The Reason I Can't Find My Love). I also did a blog post about this drama which is linked above. In the last episode of this drama, it was shown that it was the winter season in Japan, and that Christmas is approaching. These three ladies went out for dinner, just the three of them, celebrating their life and not stressing out about finding the love that they deserve. Maybe they've already found love, or maybe taking a break from falling in love, or maybe they're just happy with themselves that it is not a problem anymore whether they're dating or not. I think that this drama showed people that even if it's the Christmas season, finding love should not be rushed, even though the pressure of Christmas is there. It's more than enough to have people to spend it with.

Risa thought that she would be spending Christmas alone, with all of the couples and families spending their Christmas together around her. (screenshot from Lovely Complex live-action movie)

But then Otani shows up, and that made Risa happy and even grow feelings for her frenemy, Otani. (screenshot from Lovely Complex live-action movie)

Next is the movie Lovely Complex (live-action). This is the first Japanese romance live-action movie that I've ever watched, and it was when I was still in high school. In the movie, we see Risa going alone on a Christmas concert of her favorite singer, which is also Otani's favorite. She was supposed to go with Otani but then Risa insisted that Otani spend Christmas with his ex-girlfriend who had asked Otani to join her on a Christmas reunion party. However, Otani didn't attend the party and instead went to Risa just before the concert started. It was the cutest!

Now, I didn't know back then about how Christmas is in Japan, but I figured that it was not spent with the family because how could Risa be allowed by her parents to spend Christmas in a concert? I even thought that if I were Risa, I will not be allowed by my parents to go to a concert by myself, on Christmas! And why the hell is there a concert on Christmas anyway? And if that's so, then who will go to that concert? Christmas should be spent with the family, right? Will there be a family who loves that rapping guy (whom Otani and Risa loves) who apparently only few appreciates? Those were my questions back then. So that's when I knew that Christmas was celebrated differently in Japan, and I did a little internet research, so I found out what it's all about.

Even though Christmas in Japan is mostly about lovers, probably because only a small portion of their population are Christians and probably because Christmas is highly commercialized, we can't take the fact that it gives people cheer (except for those single people who feels lonely every time) and something to celebrate on a cold day. 

That's it for Christmas in Japanese Dramas and Movies. I hope I provided more insight as to how Christmas is spent in Japan as it's shown on TV and movies, and how it differs to a Filipino or even Western celebration.

A trivia though: Christmas food in Japan is usually fried chicken (KFC, usually) and cake, while Christmas food in the Philippines is puto bumbong, bibingka, fruit salad, and many more!

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Daisy by Stereo Dive Foundation (Kyoukai no Kanata ED song)

Daisy by Stereo Dive Foundation

This beautiful song is Kyoukai no Kanata (fall anime 2013) ending song, and just by listening to it, it gives so much emotions (and feels) about the anime. Kyoukai no Kanata has a somehow tragic storyline, and this song is able to capture the essence of that. I personally prefer songs like this, with the smooth melody mixed with strong beats. Isn't that like the story of Kyoukai no Kanata? It gives off an aura of cuteness and being light-hearted, yet beyond it is a tale that's very mysterious.

Alright, I'm going to confess. I do love this song and Kyoukai no Kanata, but these days I'm really busy with everyday of the week occupied with lots of stuff to do for grad school. You see, I'm still starting to adjust to the atmosphere and I'm keeping myself busy. For three weeks already, I haven't even posted a Reel Thursday entry. I was planning to do a Catching Fire post, but it was too difficult to not include a spoiler. Nonetheless, I'm thinking of doing a Christmas Special of Reel Thursday and next week I'll be on a 1-week hiatus. I promise to bring quality blog posts when I come back.

Do listen to Daisy by Stereo Dive Foundation, because it's a beautiful song.

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Super Seisyun Brothers (Anime 2013)

Chou Seishun Kyoudai-s (超青春姉弟s) or as the animators put it, Super Seisyun Brothers, is a slice of life anime based from the manga of the same name. Kyoudai literally means brothers but it is also widely used for siblings regardless of sex or gender. The 4-minute anime is about two sets of siblings, the Shinmoto's and the Saito's who are complete opposites of each other yet are the best of friends.

The Shinmoto siblings.

Shinmoto Chiko, a 2nd year university student, is your "average" chic girl, as what she likes to be considered as, yet very unpopular among men (and also probably women.. or animals..). The reason for that is because she is your (not so) typical "otaku" who likes to go to Otome road from time to time, collect character figurines, and the like. However, she's still your typical girl who wears make up and dresses up nicely, and also a really annoying older sister to her younger brother, Chika.

Shinmoto Chika is a 2nd year high school student, and is the younger brother of Chiko. He is similar to her sister in a way that they both like beautiful people, and only beautiful looking people. Chika is popular among girls and boys alike, which is the subject of his older sister's vexation with him.

The Saito siblings.

Saito Mako is Chiko's best friend. Mako is also the elder among the siblings and she's a freeter. A freeter is a person who has different part-time jobs to earn a living instead of having a full-time job. Mako is also popular among all sorts of people (including cats, dogs, and even birds), which adds to Chiko's broken ego.

Saito Mao is Mako's younger brother, and he's in his 2nd year in high school. Much like her older sister, he is also weird and has a calm looking face. Again, like his sister, he's popular among all sorts of people. Whenever these siblings are bored, they go visit the Shinmoto's. 

Even though each episode of this anime series lasts for only 4 minutes, it's fun-packed and interesting, and I especially find Mao cute! Looking forward to more episodes since I'm only in episode 2. Finally, the ED song for this anime also sounds nice, and the artwork looks lovely.

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Summer Nude (J-drama 2013)

Summer Nude is a Japanese drama that aired last summer 2013. It stars Yamashita Tomohisa or as we like to call him, YamaPi. Together with YamaPi, whom I really miss, is Toda Erika and Karina. These three make up the lead characters in this summer drama. I shall now introduce you to the story and the main as well as the supporting characters.

Like in the subtitle above, it is indeed, Asahi's (YamaPi) third (lonely) summer since the girl on the billboard vanished from his life. Why and how did that happen? Let's find out later in this post.

The lady in the wedding dress is Natsuki (Karina), a respected chef who initially just got married in the first part of the first episode. The man standing, just on the right corner of the screenshot, is the official photographer of the wedding and our male lead character, Asahi.

Just after getting married and in their reception area, Natsuki's husband ran away, and didn't want to continue with the marriage anymore. Asahi also captured this moment, and also the start of Natsuki's sorrow.

Here is Toda Erika, who plays the character Hanae, Asahi's best friend. Hanae likes Asahi a lot, and she also usually expresses her feelings to him, but Asahi does not think much of Hanae's feelings. Hanae has liked Asahi ever since they met in high school, but Asahi never seems to care about whether Hanae likes her, especially when Asahi fell in love with a certain girl who left her three summers ago.

That girl is Kasumi (Nagasawa Masami, she's also the actress in Proposal Daisakusen, whom YamaPi was also chasing/loves). They met three years ago during summer, and also fell in love during those days. However, Kasumi suddenly left town and never came back, without saying anything to Asahi.

Now, back to the present summer. Because of certain circumstances, Asahi ended up asking Natsuki to go to his town and manage his friend's restaurant, since his friend, Setsuko (Itaya Yuka), just gave birth and still couldn't manage the restaurant.

Natsuki went to Asahi's town, thinking that it was only a one time job. However, she immediately found out that it was for the whole summer, and so she outright rejected the job. In the mean time, she stayed the night in Hanae's house, and they bonded together.

Finally, we have Hikaru (Kubota Masataka), another one of Asahi's close friends. He likes Hanae, but of course, Hanae is not aware of that, and no one knows. He is well aware of Hanae's one-sided liking for Asahi, and also knows of her suffering because of it.

In the next episodes, Natsuki will eventually manage Setsuko's restaurant in the mean time. Also, Natsuki will be showing her support for Hanae's pursuit of love, and that makes it all the more complicated since we can already foresee a love web going on within the group. Summer really is the season for adventures and new experiences outside of our daily lives. Let's see how each of these characters' summer goes as we go on with the drama. I'm hoping to finish this soon, because it only has 11 episodes and I'm already on the 5th episode. Looking forward to a refreshing summer drama despite it being (almost) winter already. Nonetheless, there are only two seasons here in the Philippines and it always feels like summer anyways. Might as well enjoy it!

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Kyoukai no Kanata

In addition to those Fall Anime 2013 that I mentioned here, I would like to talk about Kyoukai no Kanata or Beyond the Boundary. It first aired last October 2, 2013 in Japan, which also makes it a Fall Anime. Why I didn't include this to those anime that I mentioned in my Fall Anime 2013 post is a mystery to me, but one speculation that I have is because it's set in high school and is a supernatural/action type of anime. I don't usually watch those types of anime (I'm more of a slice-of-life fan) but I do watch some rather interesting ones such as this.

Kyoukai no Kanata is mainly about two supernatural beings with special powers (of course), namely Kanbara Akihito and Kuriyama Mirai. I will try to introduce the anime series without much spoilers.

Kuriyama Mirai is the lead female in the story. She is on her first year in high school, and wears a cute red glasses. She is some kind of an exorcist (Spirit World Warrior) who's able to get rid of "youmu." (spirits) She's able to make use of her blood (and manipulate it) as her weapon, literally, since she uses it as a sword in order to kill a youmu. She lives alone, and she makes use of money she earned from killing a youmu to sustain her lifestyle. When a Spirit World Warrior defeats a youmu, it turns into a stone of some sort and those can be traded for money.

The male lead is Kanbara Akihito, a second year high school student. He's an immortal, but he can also still feel pain when hurt. His existence as an immortal is the result of being half human and half youmu. He finds Mirai attractive because he apparently likes girls with glasses or he's what we call a "megane mania."

Akihito and Mirai met when Akihito tried to save Mirai from attempted suicide. Mirai was not pleased with what Akihito did and ends up piercing her blood sword into his body. That's when Mirai discovered that he's an immortal, and so afterwards, Mirai would always attempt to make Akihito her practice dummy (for defeating youmu). 

Finally, we have the two supporting characters, Nase Mitsuki and Nase Hiroomi. Mitsuki is also in her second year in high school, while Hiroomi, her older brother, is already in his last year in high school. Mitsuki and Hiroomi are both Spirit World Warriors and their family (Nase) is a well-known family of Spirit World Warriors especially in their town. Mitsuki, Hiroomi, and Akihito are all members of the Literary Club in their high school. Mitsuki is a 'cool' type of girl who knows how to handle Akihito and her brother well. On the other hand, Hiroomi is a guy who is a 'siscon,' (obsessed with the idea of a sister, or well, their own sister), and so he usually gives in to her younger sister, Mitsuki.

There are more interesting characters in this series, but I don't want to discuss any more information about this series in this post, since it's just an introduction. Also, one thing I really like about this anime (besides the story) is its animation. I actually tried watching it because I saw that it had a really attractive animation style.

That ends my post, and will continue to look forward to more Kyoukai no Kanata episodes from here on!

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Switch Girl!! (J-drama)

I started watching Switch Girl!! around last year, but it was really hard for me to get a copy of its first season back then, so I stopped after watching the first episode. I then read the manga, because I wanted to know how the story goes. As far as I remember, I've read the manga quite a lot. I even bought a volume of its manga (in Japanese) when I went to Singapore last year. Now, I've gotten a complete copy of Switch Girl!! seasons 1 and 2, and I plan on watching it all consecutively.

The main character is "Switch Girl" Tamiya Nika, a beautiful and popular high school girl. She's popular among girls and boys probably all because of her appearance and friendly personality in school.

Nika, when at school, always has her switch "ON." However, when she arrives at home, she lets her switch "OFF" and becomes like the girl in the screenshot above. When at home, she does not care about her appearance (but her hair needs to be like that), she's stinky and dirty (and also her room), and she's just like everyone of us at home, carefree. She's the complete opposite of the Nika in school, and that's why she's afraid that someone at school might know about her appearance at home, because they might end up bullying her and disregard her.

This is Nika with her older sister (who's much like her, also has an ON and OFF switch), Rika. 

Nika's life will change upon meeting this guy, Kamiyama Arata. She met Arata for the first time in a supermarket, and she taught him how to make many cucumbers fit in a bag, because apparently, the supermarket near their house has a promotion that all cucumbers that could fit in a bag are just for one price. 

When they went to school the next morning, Nika met Arata again.

After the two of them met again, Nika found out that Arata was the handsome (but rude) guy that he met at the rooftop back then. Nika was shocked upon finding out that Arata has a handsome face and that he's just hiding it with the use of the fake glasses. Arata doesn't want attention, that's why he's doing that. The two related with each other, and became friends. However, Arata also knows Nika's OFF side, and so their friendship is also bound by a secret that these two doesn't want to reveal to everyone at school.

Now for my comments. I find this similar to Horimiya, the manga that I wrote about back then. I first knew about Switch Girl!! before finding Horimiya, but I think I find Horimiya to have a better concept. I think that Switch Girl!! might be just your typical shoujo manga/story because of the way the characters react to situations, and I'm only realizing that now. There's this reaction unique to shoujo manga characters that are the same in every manga. Nevertheless, Switch Girl!! is also interesting, but seeing as it has the same concept with Horimiya, I now have lesser interest in it than before. I still am going to finish watching it though, because even though I said that it's the same with Horimiya, it still has something special to offer.

P.S.

I am writing this on a Thursday and I should be ashamed. My night was so spontaneous yesterday, and I got home at midnight so I didn't get the chance to write J-Wednesdays yesterday. Okay, I'll admit it. I watched OneRepublic's concert last night! It was awesome.

J-Wednesdays 水曜日だ！: Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu or The Reason I Can't Find My Love. (J-drama 2011)

Watashi ga renai dekinai riyuu or The reason I can't find my love is a Japanese drama that aired last 2011. I watched it when it was still airing in Japan, but I only get to write about it now. It's really hard for me to look for Jdramas nowadays and I think that this might be the last romance Jdrama (apart from ItaKiss ~love in Tokyo~) that I liked. I love this Jdrama and I think that most Jdramas that involves romance like this are really heart-warming and thought-provoking. This drama tackles the topic of finding love in a way that involves every aspect of a person.

This drama stars Karina as Fuji Emi, a woman who does not entirely act lady-like, and usually dresses in a boyish kind of way. It's probably a reflection of her personality and her chosen career, which is a lighting technician. Emi finds love troublesome, and that's why she doesn't want to get involved in it. This is likely because when she fell in love back then, it didn't work out that well and she just chose to become distant in that matter.

The next main character is Ogura Saki, played by Yoshitaka Yuriko, a woman who's Emi's kohai (lower classman). Saki has a hard time finding a perfect job for her, that's why she winds up becoming a hostess. She is a woman who doesn't want commitment when it comes to love, and has her own set of rules when it comes to dating. She's the most knowledgable in dating among the group.

Lastly we have Oshima Yuko as Hanazawa Mako. Mako is the youngest among them. She's a zealous person but very naive when it comes to love or dating. She wants to fall in love and experience dating but she can't seem to have the courage because of her lack of experience.

These three girls end up living together, and with that, they share all their worries about life and love with each other. They find out what they're capable with when it comes to love. Even though one finds love troublesome, another is afraid of commitment, and the other lacks the courage to find love, they all gave love a chance but ultimately fails, because it seems that they found the "wrong" ones (in the first episode, that is).

At first, they were introduced as people who are incapable of falling in love. They tried, yet they failed. Will they eventually find the love that they deserve?

***

In the final episode, they finally move out of the house where they all lived together, and went on with their separate lives. The start of this drama was when they moved in that house, that's why it ended with them leaving it.

It was also finally revealed that Saki was the narrator of the story of these three women in Tokyo who tries to find love.

Finally, it was shown that they meet up casually to enjoy dinner together, even after leading their separate lives. It is up to you to find out who among them ends up finding their love by watching the show. Rest assured, these three ladies learned their lesson well and throughout the show you'll also learn together with them.