Kaleidoscope

Day Thirty Four.

Okay, it’s four in the morning and I just couldn’t sleep or work so I decided to finally finish this blog entry. So my week was almost completely the same as last week, except from the new anime, drama and movies that I watched. So, where do I begin?

I guess I should begin with the movie part because that would probably take-up the biggest space in this post. After the unbelievably amazing superhero movie that is Iron Man, I went out to watch another highly-anticipated Hollywood Blockbuster: Speed Racer. As we all know, Speed Racer is based on the hit 60’s anime: Maha GoGoGo. You can’t be an anime otaku and not watch Maha GoGoGo. It’s one of the most popular classic anime there is. And it’s one of the first anime that I’ve seen when I was a kid. Who doesn’t recognize the names: Speed, Trixie and Racer X? So, it’s no surprise that I’ve been eagerly waiting for this movie since the first time I’ve heard of it.

Since Iron Man did not disappoint me, I had high hopes for Speed Racer. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. It was unique, bizarre and creative, in a way, as expected from the Wachowski Brothers, but it’s just not my cup of tea. Some critics and viewers loved it. One critic even called it a brilliantly, manically, brain-meltingly bizarre, the coolest nonsense you’ll see all year. Sure it’s brain-meltingly bizarre but I don’t think being a “non-sense”, no matter how cool, is a good thing. I think this is one of those movies where people have extreme reactions. It’s either you really love it or you hate it with all your guts! Unfortunately, I have to go with the latter. The first few scenes even made me cringe.

But first of all, I salute the Wachowski brothers for paying tribute to the story’s Japanese roots. They certainly made sure that everyone knows that this movie is based on a Japanese anime. I mean, they cast a lot of Japanese actors and even Rain was portraying a Japanese character here, they also showed the kid watching a Japanese anime complete with subtitles and all, one of the car races was held at Mt. Fuji and there are Japanese translators in every car race. But aside from that, I was utterly disappointed with this movie.

I loved the Matrix trilogy and I’m a huge fan of the Wachowski brothers so I was expecting Speed racer to be this really cool, exhilarating movie with kick-ass special effects. I thought it would be like a futuristic Fast and the Furious or something along the lines. But instead I got a dizzying kaleidoscope-of-a-movie. It looked like it was made by the same people who did “Spy Kids” and “Shark Boy and Lava Girl”. It was just too darn bright and colorful that my eyes felt like they’re gonna pop-out of their sockets. And while other producers spent huge amount of money for their special effects to look as real as possible, Speed racer strive to look as artificial as possible. Everything just looked cartoony and fake. I know, they did that on purpose but I just couldn’t see what’s good about it. I guess little kids would find that amusing but I simply couldn’t. The racing scenes were also not how I expected them to be. I thought they would be thrilling, breath-taking and would take me to the edge of my seat. But I guess I was wrong. I didn’t see any car race in this movie. All I saw were dizzying whirls of colors and computer-generated cars. I had more thrills watching the car race in Disney’s “Cars”. And this movie was just too darn long, I actually wanted to leave the theater half-way. It was also filled with useless scenes like that part where the kid and the chimp were pretending to be anime characters. What was that for? As for the script…Wait, what script? Did it have one? Sorry, I barely noticed because I got too distracted by the bright colors. The music was okay. I was expecting kick-ass rock music to go with the racing scenes but I think they made the right choice in incorporating 70s type of music since the anime became popular around that time. As for the cast, well I’m afraid they didn’t put them to good use. This movie has a great cast. All of them are really good actors but their talent have gone to waste in this movie. They could have placed computer-generated talking animals here and no one would notice the difference. But if you’re going to base it on looks, well everyone in the cast looked the part. Although they’re more like soulless wax figures than actors. They just spent all the time showing-off their dizzying car races instead of building up the characters. So the audience have no connection with any of them. And Ricci and Hirsch have zero chemistry. They didn’t even look like they’re the same age. Well, she is five years older than him in real life and that does show in the movie. So, their big kissing scene at the end of the movie looked like a guy kissing his older sister. But then again, that’s just my opinion. Oh, and the kid and the chimp were not adorable at all. The chimp was a bit funny but the kid was annoying as hell.

Anyway, one of the things I was looking forward to was seeing Rain in his first Hollywood movie. I’m not a huge fan of Rain but I think he’s a pretty good singer and dancer and I love his dramas, “Full House” and “A Love to Kill”. Besides, as an Asian girl, I was just proud of him for making his big Hollywood break. Well, he did alright in this movie. He looked really cool especially when he’s fighting. He almost looked like he’s dancing. But this movie did not give him the opportunity to show his acting skills. Oh, and he was quite annoying whenever he shouts “Hoo!” He did that several times in this movie and he actually sounded like Michael Jackson. It was really freaky.

All in all, Speed Racer was a bit of a let-down for me. All my anticipation was for nothing. I should have read the critics reviews first. Maybe if I did, then I wouldn’t be this disappointed.

From one disappointment, I move on to my latest obsession. Every now and then I become obsessed with a certain drama, anime or manga. Well, my previous manga obsession is now my drama obsession. I’m talking about the hottest new drama: “Zettai Kareshi”. I wrote about the manga version in one of my previous posts. It’s about a shy and timid highschool girl named Riiko who accidentally purchased a robotic perfect boyfriend online. She also have a childhood friend named Soushi who lives next door and has secret feelings for her. Well, the story of the drama is slightly different. Instead of a highschool girl, Riiko is now a temp worker in a big company that makes yummy cakes and desserts. She’s older and more mature in the drama but she’s still shy, timid and clueless when it comes to love. Hmmm, sound a lot like me. They also changed a lot of other things in the drama. In the drama, Soushi is not Riiko’s childhood friend and neighbor. He is now her boss and the son of the President of the company where she works. And instead of purchasing a robotic boyfriend online, she was now personally brought to the robot-making company, Kronos Heaven, to answer the questionnaire that would decide what her perfect boyfriend would be like. Gaku-san is also older and simpler in the drama. Riiko also have a devious two-faced bestfriend named Mika who did not exist in the manga.

But surprisingly, even with all the changes they made I still loved the drama. I guess, it’s because I could relate to the drama more. It’s more age-appropriate for me. Riiko’s a 20-something single office worker and I’m a 20-something single office worker (at least I used to be, now I work at home). Riiko and I have so many things in common that it’s mind-boggling. She’s smart, independent and not bad looking but somehow she scares guys away. I know the feeling because I’m just like her. Although I’m not the type who give guys hand-made sweaters and cream puffs, I have also been told by some guys that I’m too serious. Some say it’s too hard to like me because I don’t easily fall in love, I don’t know how to express my feelings and I’m not sweet and cheerful. I’m also too much like a guy. I could talk about all sorts of guy stuff and most guys could talk to me about everything. But I don’t smile that much, or flip my hair, or bat my eyelashes or whatever other girls do to look cute in front of guys. I look and dress like a girl but I don’t act like one. I guess you could say that I’m too straight laced. Plus I’m one of those silly girls who believes in true love and wouldn’t just fall in love with the next guy who shows up. So just like Riiko, I still haven’t been in a relationship with any guy. So I think that’s why I was so drawn to the manga and the drama.

But aside from the very relatable story, I really love the casting of this drama. I would have never thought of casting Hayami Mokomichi as Night since there are tons of hot young actors out there that I adore. But the moment I saw him inside that Kronos Heaven box on the first episode, I said to myself, “That guy IS Night”. There’s just something about him that simply fits the role so well. His face also has that child-like innocence that is expected from a guy who’s only been in this world for a few days. Some people complained about him moving too much like a robot. Well, he IS a robot so I think that makes sense. If Night talks and moves like a real guy, we might forget that he is a robot. Plus, seeing a robot interact with real people is a lot more interesting. I really think this is Mokomichi’s most interesting role. It’s unique and challenging. And it’s tough to keep the robot-act throughout each episode but he managed to do it. There wasn’t a moment where he moved and talked completely like a human. So my hat’s off to him!

As for Aibu Saki, she did a pretty decent job as Riiko. Some say that the Riiko in the manga is prettier and I agree. But then again, the Riiko there is a highschool girl so they shouldn’t even be comparing the two. As for Mizushima Hiro, well there’s nothing special about his performance here so far, but he still looks cute. He’s one of the main reasons why I watched this. I loved him as Nanba-senpai in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e so I was looking forward to seeing him in a different role. Unfortunately, his role and his acting is not so different here. He’s still another carefree playboy in this drama. But his character is starting to evolve as the series progress so I’m looking forward to seeing a different side of him. Besides, I like the Soushi in the drama better than the one in the manga. The manga Soushi is just too serious. Hmmm, although, if they followed the manga then Mukai Osamu (Honey and Clover) or Hiraoka Yuta (First Kiss and Proposal Daisakusen) would be much more appropriate to play the role of Soushi. Why? Because they both played a similar role before.

Moving on, I haven’t had the chance to watch any new episodes of the other drama I’m watching, “Ashita no Kita Yoshio”, because of download problems. But in the last episode I watched, I realized that there’s more to the story than just a guy planning to kill himself. There’s a conspiracy theory, assassination attempts and even a psychological experiment. I guess, I couldn’t relate to this series after all…But Heita-san sure looked cool though.

Well, that’s all for the drama part, let’s move on to anime. As of now I’m watching three anime: Bleach, D.Gray-man and Vampire Knight. Let’s start with Bleach. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t like the Hueco mundo arc of Bleach. It’s just like an imitation of the Soul Society arc only this time it’s about Orihime, whom I despise. So I stopped watching Bleach. But now, the Hueco mundo arc is over and a new filler arc has began so I decided to watch Bleach again. Filler arcs are a bit scary because most of the time they end up being horrible but I thought, this arc couldn’t possibly be worse than the Bount arc or the Hueco mundo arc, so I’m going to give it a try. And it turned out to be pretty entertaining. It’s a lot lighter and more humorous than the last arc and it’s kind of refreshing because of that. They introduced new characters and they’re actually quite likable. The new Shinigami Captain has a very interesting and eccentric personality and he makes a nice addition to the cast. I’ve only seen one episode because of certain download problems but I’m looking forward to seeing the rest.

As for D.Gray-man, all I can say is that this anime is getting better and better. I’m glad that Allen and the gang are done fighting small-fries and are now going head to head with the members of the Noah Clan. After Skin Boric, they are now facing Jasdevi. As I kept saying before, I think the Noah Clan have some of the most adorable and likable villains I’ve seen so far. So I love seeing them interact with the exorcists. And after the intense battle between Kanda and Skin, the episodes now are more comedic because of Jasdevi. Those two are simply hilarious. The episode about Cross’s debt had me giggling like a school-girl. Who has ever heard of deadly villains washing dishes at a restaurant because their target tricked them into paying his debts? It was just too funny!

Anyway, I also started watching a new anime called “Vampire Knight”. It’s based on a shoujo manga but since it has the word “Vampire” on the title, I just had to watch it. I kinda like it better than “Rosario + Vampire” since it doesn’t have too much fan-service. It’s also darker and creepier which I love. Plus, I instantly fell in love the character “Zero”. He’s just one of those rude, silent mysterious types and as I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for those kind of characters. This anime also reminds me so much of “Zombie Loan”. For starters, Yuki, Zero and Kaname looked a lot like Michiru, Chika and Shito. Yuki also have short hair like Michiru, Zero have white hair like Chika and Kaname have dark hair like Shito. Yuki’s a shy and seemingly ordinary girl like Michiru, Zero’s a hot-headed guy like Chika and Kaname’s the cool silent type like Shito. It’s kinda weird, it’s like Vampire Knight is the shoujo version of the shounen anime, Zombie Loan. Oh well, I’ve only seen one episode so it’s too early to judge. But I’m really hooked on this anime and I can’t wait to see the next episode. Too bad, I’m having download problems so I can’t watch the next one just yet.

Anyway, since I’m starting to realize that shoujo manga is not as bad as I thought it would be. I did a shoujo manga marathon yesterday. I read four shoujo mangas consecutively: “7th Period is a Secret”, “1/3 no Kareshi”, “Akuma de Sourou” and “Akane-chan Overdrive”. Akuma de Sourou is actually the manga version of the hit Taiwanese drama: “Devil Beside you”. I just got curious so I read it yesterday. As it turned out, the series was actually quite faithful to the manga. They didn’t change much at all. As for Akane-chan Overdrive, I didn’t quite like the story. It’s just too weird for me. But the other two: “7th Period is a Secret” and “1/3 no Kareshi” really surprised me. I just realized that most of the girls in shoujo manga are almost exactly like me. Art really does imitate life because I had numerous flashbacks while reading those two mangas, especially with “7th Period is a Secret”. It’s as if they were about me. I saw scenes from my own life in those pages. It was so weird that I had goosebumps. I felt like the authors read my diary and based those mangas on it.

“1/3 no Kareshi” is about a girl named Rei who believes in true love and is waiting for the right man to come along. She’s quite pretty and got a lot of attention from guys but she never accepted any of them since she doesn’t fall in love that easily. There are very few girls like that in the world and sad to say, I’m one of them. Most of my female friends kept telling me to accept the guys who were courting me but I just couldn’t. I only want to be with the person I really like so I ignored all of them. And because of that I got less and less attention from guys. And most guys started to think of me as too serious or too straight-laced. That’s why I ended up alone now and Rei is just like me. She’s the only girl her age that still hasn’t had a boyfriend. Plus she’s looking for a guy who would accept her for who she is and the same thing goes for me. Oh well, of course like almost all shoujo manga, it had a happy ending. She ended up with an older guy who has liked her for five years. She ignored him before but he kept hoping until they met again and she finally fell in love with him. I hope I could get that chance too. Maybe one of the guys I ignored before is the guy for me but I was just too clueless to notice.

The second manga, “7th Period is a Secret” is a story about a shy, quiet and serious girl named Shun, who decided to pretend to be someone she’s not in order to fit in. When she transferred to a new school, she started smiling falsely and agreeing with everyone just so people would start liking her. She changed her personality and physical appearance just to be like everyone else. But even though she made a lot of friends, she felt empty and lonely inside. Until her teacher, a handsome young man named Jun, showed her that she could be herself in front of him. For the first time, she found someone who accepts her for who she is. Someone who would listen to her thoughts and problems without judging her. Someone who understands her. He even said that he went through the same thing she’s going through so he wanted to help her.

This manga reminded me so much about my college years and also about Kazu. You see, when I was in highschool, I was often bullied for being quiet, for not smiling so much, for having good grades and for being different from others. I didn’t have many friends and I was a complete outcast. So when I got to college, I decided to have a fresh start. No one know who I really am in my new school so I decided to be someone that I’m not. I pretended to be friendly and chatty. I put on a fake smile everyday and talked to everyone I meet. I laughed at everyone’s jokes and agreed with everyone’s opinions. I even started to change the way I dressed. Just like Shun, I read fashion magazines just to know what girls my age wear. And because of that, I became quite popular. Almost everyone at school knew me. I was even part of a popular girl group in our campus. When we walk on the hallways, people would look at us. I also got a lot more attention from guys. But I felt empty inside. I couldn’t talk about the stuff that I like because people would think I’m weird. When my friends laugh at some nerd, I laugh with them even though deep inside I hate them for doing so. I pretended to like cute boys, clothes and shoes because my friends like them. I even tried to hide the fact that I’m an otaku. But I couldn’t go on living like that so after I got really sick and had to leave school for a while, I decided to finally be myself. When I came back to school, I was a completely different person. I was finally myself: a shy, quiet and serious otaku. I started losing friends and guys didn’t approach me anymore. There were some guys who still liked the new me but I ignored them. By the time I graduated, I barely had any friends. In fact, in my graduation ceremony, while everyone was taking pictures with their friends and crying because they’re going to be separated, I was all alone with my dad and my sister. I had no friends there to celebrate with. It was actually worse than highschool. At least I had a few friends back then. So I learned my lesson and I’m never going to pretend again.

After college, I met Kazu, and he was my Jun. Just like Jun, he’s a few years older than me and he allowed me to be myself. He listened to all my troubles and he never judged me. He also told me that he understands me because he was just like me when he was my age. When I’m with him, I feel at ease. And just like Shun, I also fell in love with the “Jun” of my story. Although, unlike her, I never had the courage to tell him.

I guess, that’s why I feel empty again. In the manga, Shun could only cry in front of Jun. He was the only person that could fill the emptiness inside her heart. He was her most important friend. And Kazu was just like that to me. Jun could also sense if Shun feels sad and left out. Like at that time, when the class had to group themselves into 3 for the class trip and Shun got left-out because she was late, she really felt sad. She didn’t like being left-out because it reminds her of those days when she didn’t have any friends. Jun noticed that and he made sure that Shun was not left-out by assigning her to be his babysitter for the class trip.

Kazu also did a similar thing for me. I remember during my birthday last last year, all of my friends were so busy with work and other stuff that no one even remembered my birthday. I was really sad then. I felt out of place and it did remind me of my college graduation. Then the day before my birthday, Kazu suddenly asked me what I’d like to do on my birthday. I told him I don’t really care. Everyone’s really busy anyway and I don’t want to bother them. Then Kazu got angry and said “What do you mean you don’t care? It’s YOUR birthday! We’re going to do something fun tomorrow and I”ll make sure of that even if I have to drag all of them! And if they still don’t want to come then we’ll go even if it’s just the two of us!” The next day, he set up a nice dinner at a really cool place and even paid for everything. He even managed to convince everyone to come. They all came late so it was just the two of us at first so I was so shocked when everyone showed up! And that night became one of the happiest nights of my life! Kazu was also the only person who gave me a gift that day. Not even my parents gave me a birthday gift. So I was really grateful to him. He knew me so well. He knew that if I spend another birthday by myself, I’ll be more detached from others and lonely so he made sure that I had fun on my birthday and I did! I will never forget what he did that day! And I guess that’s one of the reason why I like him so much!

Too bad my life isn’t a manga. Well, Shun did call herself a coward several timesand we certainly have that in common. I am a coward so I won’t get the happy ending that she got.

End of Day Thirty Four.