i can't begin to express how much i love eddie peng as morita. this



can write over my concept of morita from the anime and i wouldn't necessarily mind.

the innocence and hilarity, the way morita's feelings for hagu was explored... the way it felt genuine, a discovery to him as well as to the viewer, when he realized what he felt for hagu might be the heart leaping out of his chest love that mayama was talking about. hard to swallow mayama having such a conv. w/ morita, but since it sets up this hilarious and touching episode i'm all for artistic license (in this instance).

after ep. 6 i was pretty peeved, but ep. 7 made me forgive all. this morita i would like to remember a long, long time.

plus, he looks great with chiaki ito.

lots of other hilarious moments too--like when shuu strangled the beaver that hagu had named morita (for the crime of kissing hagu), and takemoto ended up giving the beaver chest compressions (what? no mouth to mouth? takemoto, you call yourself a friend?) takemoto clearly felt the spirit of morita within that beaver, because when he was at hagu's place at night building tiny rococo furniture he turned the beaver to face the other way. ^_^

i even like the way morita packed up mayama's shirts and knitted that scarf for hagu. so tiresome to see girls knitting for guys (zettai kareshi), but when morita does it, it's charming.

my only gripe: the lack of eddie peng pictures on boys paper. there's got to be a forum somewhere that celebrates the glory of eddie.

joe cheng love in a separate post. ^^

that was a blast! i love this morita. hubby thinks this morita was even better than the anime, who in his opinion was rather bland. i told hubby that's blasphemy, nothing beats the original anime. but this morita (eddie peng) has such animated expressions-- i'm looking forward to his gian recital, expecting that to be the highlight of the series this time around. ah, to see him in such gaudies... not that he's not plenty flamboyant as is. i loved seeing him flip through the book of birds and seizing on just the right haircut for takemoto.

hagu... uh... the voice... ouch. still, she did a reasonable hamu imitation while slurping down food. and those things they put in her hair to simulate the hamster ears... i... *look down* kinda like them...

bonus points: hubby's joy when he understands a bit here and there, recognizes the characters and explains to me that grown ups call their fathers 'ba' not 'baba'.

but... i was hopeful through the first 2 episodes of the j-drama, too. certainly i have gripes as well, but since this is a sunny post, i'll leave those for later.

damn. i _am_ loyal to the honey and clover franchise--i'd rather watch the 4th iteration of honey & clover (in a language i don't understand and was grateful to find easy on the ears) than episode... is it 8 or 9? of zettai kareshi, fully translated. as for osen, i'll be thrilled if someone subs up to ep. 6.

spoilerific since i've forgotten how to use lj cuts






AWESOME THINGS
shizu and osen--so like mother and daughter. i could feel the love. really excellent chemistry.

osen--at the beginning, when shizu is talking her into going on the miai, enjoying the life of a normal 23 year old. 'tatoeba, hamburger...' and when she got home from the miai, and says tanoshikatta! when she battled through her hurt feelings while pounding out hamburgers. plus the smile when she's talking w/ uchi/yocchan on the bridge (after sendo rushed to the western-style restaurant to say he had to cancel because of work)... that smile there is worth 50 thousand screencaps.

osamu mukai (tome) and his comical moaning. i concede the man has talent. honey and clover was an aberration due to woeful script and direction.

uchi was good, though he's still over the top now and then i think he's done a great job as one of the anchors of this series.




LESS AWESOME THINGS
not understanding what sendo said in the key scene at the end. if he was leaving japan, why would he go looking for a wife _now_, why employ the miai baba now? was he planning to take his new wife along like a light novel bought at the airport gift shop?

next epis. preview didn't look that intriguing, but as long as it's still osen with aoi yuu i'll surely be watching.

so i downloaded rainbow song simply because aoi yuu is in it. and i cried, then had to play the Dutoit version of The Planets really loud--Jupiter, of course. must reclaim it from this sappy movie. which was actually good, thank goodness, since aoi chan was in it for all of 20 seconds.

juri ueno, huh? all i know is she looks hot in those last friends cap w/ the short hair (thanks for confronting stereotypes of dykes). i don't think i'll watch her in nodame--the hair is unbecoming. besides, not even ayako (seiyuu for lafiel in crest of the stars) could make me endure the anime version, so forget the live action. and last friends sounds like it has some overacting from masami n., so i'll pass. better to look at pictures and imagine the rest.

the actor who played kishida would've made a good takemoto. why doesn't any casting director realize this? sakurai sho was a terrible miscast. ikuta toma was a miscast too but he's so good that i could bear his turning takemoto into a perv who would chant 'nudo, nudo'...

still, the part of the movie where kishida almost lets the psycho woman marry him dragged for too long--a little judicious editing would have done. same with the end. aoi-chan did a good job, and was adorable in the goldfish scene. she was a bit of a wise yoda here and was convincing in her role.

thanks to aoi-chan i discovered osen, and now rainbow song. after the honey and clover j-drama i sort of lost faith in live action, so this is rather welcome.

another 5 minutes of cool down, and i'll put on osen to chase away the down.

good translation makes me adore this episode even more. and such a fun, uplifting feeling. i will be watching this again and again. already paid tribute to ETA :) for the awesome work, to our hour for the caps and raws.

on memento garten made a remark about the US version of honey and clover. joke or not, i started thinking of a name for takemoto. how does brad smith sound? should they cast one of the guys from gossip girls as takemoto? :p

can't get the BGM for osen out of my brain. and i keep referring to 'osen' as 'onsen.' the show, not the cutie :p

found a blog for someone who enjoyed the h&c drama, at least the early episodes. here.
http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/search/label/Honey%20and%20Clover

he made some good points.

something smells yummy.

must play some spitz lest the osen sprain my brain...