Break’s Over

Day Forty Two.

Just when I thought I have all the time in the world, I started to get busy again. New projects started pouring in and what’s worse my internet’s back to being slower than a turtle. By the way, to everyone who commented or even just read “Saeko’s Story”, thank you! Your encouragement really meant a lot to me. I was really really scared to post it but now I’m glad I did. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before I could post the continuation of the story. Things are pretty hectic now. The only time I have to watch dramas and anime are during mealtimes.

But of course, I couldn’t keep away from this blog. I just have to express my opinions on the dramas I’m watching because, as weird as this sounds, I would feel bad if I don’t. So I’ll try to make this as quick as possible. Shibatora’s still just an ordinary drama for me but I did notice some similarities with Gokusen. Shibata Taketora helps juvenile delinquents and he believes in them when no one else would. Sounds very Yankumi-esque to me. But it’s still fun to watch and Fujiki Naohito keeps me glued to the screen. I placed Maou on-hold for now since I don’t have much time to watch dramas from streaming sites since they take too long to load. As for Code Blue, I’m loving it more and more each week! Episode 4 was really touching and tackles lots of important issues about family and friendship. It’s starting to be like an adult version of Tantei Gakuen Q because just like in TGQ, the interns in Code Blue started as rivals but are slowly becoming really good friends. But of course, Code Blue is more mature and intense. Plus I also learned a lot of medical stuff from it. It even made me realize what my past illness could possibly be.

You see, when I was in college, I had this terrible illness where I suddenly collapses without warning. It happened all the time and I often missed classes because of it. I went through all sorts of tests to find out what was wrong with me but the doctors couldn’t figure it out. Until recently, it remained a mystery to me but after watching episode 4 of Code Blue, I think I finally know what it was. You see, in the drama, they have a patient there who vomits blood, faints and have all sorts of symptoms but no matter how many tests he went through, the doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. They only know that he’s a lonely man who lost his wife, child and job all at the same time. Since then, he’s been extremely sick all the time. In the end, the doctors found out that he has Munchausen Syndrome. There’s nothing wrong with his body but his loneliness triggered this illness. People with Munchausen Syndrome, wants to be cared for by others so they inject themselves with all sorts of drugs that could make them look sick, they even pretend to vomit blood by swallowing fake blood. They love being in the hospital because it’s the only place where complete strangers would care for them like family.

Ever since I was young, I loved being inside the hospital. Most of the kids my age hated getting sick and were scared of doctors, but I was different. I felt at home at the hospital and eventhough getting stuck by needles was painful, I loved it there. I even wished to stay longer when I was confined for a week. Then, when I was in college, I’ve made friends with really popular and pretty girls. I pretended to be just like them. But I still wanted to do my best academically. (I’m still a nerd deep inside) So whenever we had group projects, I did everything by myself because I knew it wouldn’t be that good if I let them do it. Because of that, my group always had the best projects and presentations. Teachers, classmates, everyone praised us. But my friends never thanked me. I was so stressed-out trying to make everything perfect for all of us but they never appreciated it. I felt so alone and uncared for. And that’s when I started fainting all the time. During that time, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. But looking back, I think I made myself faint without realizing it. The first time I collapsed, I was late coming to school because I stayed-up all night to finish one of our group projects. I could have finished it earlier but I wanted it to be perfect. When I got to school, I was tired, sleepy and I was even soaking wet because it was raining. But instead of worrying about me, my friends asked me where the project was so that they could submit it. I felt so bad at that time. I felt like I was surrounded by faceless people who couldn’t care less about my existence. Then I thought, I wanted everything and everyone to just go away….and they did. Everything turned black and when I woke up I was at the infirmary. The first thing I saw was the worried faces of my friends. They said I collapsed and my entire body was so cold and stiff. They didn’t know what to do, they were so worried. I know it’s wrong to make people worry about you but I loved the feeling. It was the first time people cared about me so much. So whenever I felt like my friends were neglecting me, I just thought of wanting everyone to go away and I would faint. It’s like, I discovered an on/off switch inside my body. I could shut it down subconsciously whenever I wanted to.

Of course, back then, I didn’t believe I was capable of doing that. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to shut down her body whenever she wants to. I thought it was just pure coincidence. But what if it wasn’t? My Psychology professor once talked to me after she asked the class to take an IQ test. She talked to me to warn me. She said that the result of my test was exceptionally high and although that is a good thing, it also have some negative implications. The mind is a very powerful thing and it could make your body do things that it doesn’t normally do. I didn’t know what she meant at the time but maybe, somehow, she knew what was happening to me.

After watching Code Blue, I saw my similarity to the patient with Munchausen Syndrome, but instead of injecting myself with drugs, my mind ordered my body to shut down so everyone would think I’m sick. Without realizing it, my negative emotions and feelings of neglect caused it to happen. I know this is weird, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation. I’ve been to numerous doctors and they couldn’t explain it either. But at least, now that I have an idea of what my illness could have been, I could prevent it from happening again. And that is all thanks to “Code Blue”! Who would have thought medical dramas could be so educational!

As for Tantei Gakuen Q, I have just finished episode 9. I’m watching it on a streaming site so I’m taking forever to finish it. The drama is still very disappointing in terms of the mysteries to be solved. They’re still way too easy. You would be able to guess the culprit and how the crimes were executed at the very beginning. I really miss the challenging cases in Kindaichi. But eventhough the cases are very predictable, I’m absolutely loving this drama! The story is really engaging and the characters are all simply adorable. Even the villains are amazingly creepy. Cerberus is like a Japanese version of The Joker and Miss Yurie is like the devil pretending to be an angel. They all did a wonderful job portraying their characters especially Yamada Ryosuke as Ryuu. I always thought Yamada is just a cute kid with a girlish face. But in this drama, he’s actually really cool. And his character was surprisingly manly even though he has feminine features. I even have a fan-girl crush on him now because of his performance here. The complicated relationship between Ryuu and Kyuu is also really fun to watch. They’re bestfriends, rivals and arch-enemies all at the same time! And although this a story about friendship, I love the tiny hints of a love triangle between Kyuu, Ryuu and Megu. That one scene where Megu was feeding Ryuu was hilarious! Kyuu looked like the whole world just came crashing down on him when he saw them! And Ryuu was going all defensive too! It was so funny! Waaaah! I really want to finish this! Ryuu is about to go over to the dark side! I wanna see a cute kid like him become a villain! That would be really interesting!

By the way, here’s an upcoming dramas update. A live-action version of the manga “Cat Street” is on its way. Cat Street is a shoujo manga created by Kamio Yoko, the genius behind the super popular manga Hana Yori Dango. I don’t know anything about the cast yet but if it has the same feel as HYD then it’s definitely worth watching! Another drama to look-out for this Fall, is the suspense drama, “Ryusei no Kizuna” starring Ninomiya Kazunari of Arashi, Nishikido Ryo of NEWS and Toda Erika. With a stellar cast like that we could expect nothing less! Plus the story’s pretty interesting. It’s about three orphans, whose parents were murdered long ago, and they vowed to avenge them someday.

As for the anime department, I’m still watching the same stuff. The last episode of D.Gray-man: “Homecoming” was seriously funny! It’s quite refreshing since the past episodes were all action-packed. It’s nice to have a light-hearted comedic episode every now and then. Oh and it was really cute when the serious General Tiedoll and even the grumpy old Panda (Bookman) started crying when they saw everyone’s alive. Everyone’s just really silly in this episode but the plot was also beginning to thicken. This anime is really getting more and more interesting! Bleach, on the other hand, is starting to annoy me. It’s great that Orihime is practically out of the picture and the ending video is about Rukia and Ichigo. But the plot of the filler is really stupid and some scenes contradict the original storyline. I thought the Bount arc was horrible but this arc is starting to be even worse.

By the way, I watched the new Mummy movie this afternoon. I don’t really feel like talking about it since I didn’t find anything special about it. It’s just one of those soul-less, big-budgeted family movies. But what I don’t get why they cast Luke Ford to be Brendan Fraser’s son. They look like they’re the same age! It’s really weird when he calls Brendan “dad”. But I’m glad I watched this movie since I saw the trailer of “The Watchmen” because of it! Oh my God! The trailer was freakin’ awesome! I was in total geek-mode when I saw it! It’s like one of the best graphic novels ever and now it’s a movie! I want to watch it so bad! Why does it have to be on 2009?!!! Why?!!!

Oh well, that’s it for now. By the way, I want to leave you guys with this line from one of my favorite episodes of Tantei Gakuen Q:

“Our world that we’re supposed to live in, isn’t inside the internet. In the real world there is suffering, things don’t always go our way, there’s a lot of those but if you have a dream of becoming something, you shouldn’t run away from that.You should accept yourself the way you are and face reality.”

All I can say when I heard that line was: “Ouch! That hits the bullseye!”

End Day Forty Two.