Dorama

[senshikoi]

Not sure Chit Chat feels like the right place for it, but couldn't see anywhere else!

 

So, does anyone else watch Dorama? I'm technically referring to Dorama based on an anime, manga and/or light novel, however this can be extended to original Dorama too, I would probably watch original Dorama too, but would mean having to find the time to identify what I'd want to watch!

 

I stumbled across an interesting anime from 1982 (The Kabocha Wine), and whilst reading about it, I learned that a live action had been made for the third manga (The Kabocha Wine - Another) - I wouldn't mind watching it, but can't find any links for it, heck even AsianWiki doesn't believe it exists, as no hits come back from "kabocha"!

[spoiler=The Kabocha Wine]Shunsuke feels that his masculinity is in danger, his family owns a lingerie store, so feels the only to save his masculinity is to transfer to a boys only school! He turns up for his first day of school, only to find it closed, a girl jumps down from a tree, and informs him that the school is closed for a holiday, and that she attends this school! Confused by this, the girl explains that the school has be come co-ed since last year! The girl introduces herself as Natsumi, but is usually referred to as Eru (L), standing up, it is revealed what L alludes to, she is quite tall!

 

 

Still, there are Dorama that I have watched: You're Under Arrest, Cutey Honey (movie), xxxHOLiC, Cutey Honey the Live, Space Battleship Yamato, Saishuu Heiki Kanojo (She, the Ultimate Weapon/Saikano), Death Note Trilogy, a couple episodes of Negima!!, one episode of Death Note (2015), and although it's not technically a Dorama, Persona 4 Visualive!

[spoiler=Dorama descriptions]

• You're Under Arrest - is set over nine episodes, mainly revolve around the love lives of police partners, Miyuki and Natsumi, with the latter receiving a dorama only love interest in replace of the one (or two?) in the series;
  
• Cutey Honey (movie) - something that Hideaki Anno actually gets right for a change, hilarious, and very stylised computer generated effects, starring Eriko Sato as Honey Kisaragi;
  
• xxxHOLiC - covers a couple of events from series one and two of the anime, although merges some of the arcs together such as the second arc featuring Zashiki Warashi, and Himawari's arc;
  
• Cutey Honey the Live - a kind of prequel to even the original manga/anime, set over twenty-five, it features Cutey Honey before she "became" Cutey Honey, Mikie Hara stars as Honey Kisaragi;
  
• Space Battleship Yamato - a movie that possibly sticks quite close to the original version of Space Battleship Yamato, given that there's not a great female representation amongst the crew (as with 2199), although there is a female doctor, possibly serving as a replacement for Harada Makoto and the ship's doctor;
  
• Saishuu Heiki Kanojo - a movie about a boy, Shuji, and a girl, Chise that have just started dating, however Chise is soon approached by the JDSF as she is apparently compatible for a program they have started, like the anime (and manga) it's depressing;
  
• Death Note Trilogy - the first two movies follow Light as he has a battle in the shadows against L, as to who will find out the other's identity first, whilst the third movie follows L's final days;
  
• Negima!! - based on the original anime (and manga), although with less fanservice (however Shizuna-sensei and the ecchi situations revolving around her remain), and borrows the occasional thing from Negima!? ("Sasaki Makie fails at life" *ga~n*), follows child teacher, Negi Springfield as he takes charge of Class 2-A, with a variety of characters from brash Asuka, to bookish Nodoka;
  
• Death Note (2015) - same as the movie trilogy above, it follows Light and L as they battle in the shadows, in a fight to find out the other's identify first;
  
• Persona 4 Visualive - follows Persona 4 up to the completion of the "Retro" Dungeon, featuring Narukami Yuu (Seita Yuuya in this), Hanamura Yousuke, Satonaka Chie, Amagi Yukiko, Tatsumi Kanji, Doujima, Adachi, Mitsuo Kubo, Kou and Daisuke, Ebihara Ai, "Morokin", the Moel Attendant, minor appearances by Konishi Saki and "Funky Student", and voice appearances of Kujikawa Rise and Teddie, and features some original content!
  

I need to schedule another watch of You're Under Arrest at somepoint, it's been a while since I've watched it! Although HOLiC was good, I was disappointed that they needed to make a "physical" villain for the Hydrangea episode, and how the second arc featuring Zashiki Warashi, and Himawari's arc were merged together, but then, I wasn't a fan of those episodes in HOLiC: Kei either, they rushed them too much; why was Kei only 12 episodes, not 24?

 

As I said, Saishuu Heiki Kanojo was depressing, but given that the material it was based on was depressing, I don't know why I decided to watch it, you really wish you could prevent the JDSF ever approaching Chise, but then you would be taking away mankind's only hope! It's interesting how similar Negima!! is to the original material, although I would have liked it better if Chamo had been a CG rodent, rather than a CG patch on Negi's jacket; was Luna in Sailor Moon Live that bad that it was decided such a thing should never be done again?

 

Watching the first episode of Death Note (2015), I started to notice how it, and the original Death Note Trilogy differ from the original material, when comparing the two, I feel the series works on getting the event details right (first victim, a biker, although he's a school delinquent, rather than harrassing a woman), whilst the movies get the "thing" details right (the layout of Light's room, etc.), I also feel that the movie cast is a little more visually "impressive" than the series cast!

 

With Persona 4 Visualive, I think some of the voices are better than their original game/anime counterparts, although this may be based on the fact that we only got the dub voices for the games, and thus hearing the original voices in the anime, they didn't feel right, and then when hearing the voices in this, and them sounding "like" the dub voices, decide that they are "better" than the original game/anime voices!

 

 

There are a couple of others I'm aware of, but not watched: Tokyo Babylon, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Densha Otaku, Sailor Moon, Tennen Kajuu Sayaka, Peach Girl, Good Morning Call, Another, Mirai Nikki, Ouran High School Host Club, Black Butler (I think), GTO - Great Teacher Onizuka, Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo, and although technically not dorama, Sakura Wars!

[spoiler=Some descriptions, not all]

• Tokyo Babylon - Subaru Sumeragi discovers a project by a deceased enemy involving seven teenage girls, including Kurumi to be taught in using dark magic, only with the help of his friend-turned-enemy Seishirou Sakurazaki, which is only possible due to the pleas of his deceased sister, Hokuto, can he stop this project;
   
  
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - at least two versions exist, that I know of, revolving around Kazuko Yoshiyama, who stumbles across the ability to travel through time, our protagonist is the aunt of Makoto Konno, the protagonist of the anime;
  
• Densha Otaku - 23 year old otaku intervenes when a drunk man starts harrassing women on the train, the otaku starts to date one of the women, who is subsequently known as "Hermes", again there's at least two versions of this too, actually learnt about it because of Getsumen to Heiki Miina, where Mina Tsukuda is part of "Rabbit Force", a team responsible for the policing the Earth from sports loving aliens;
  
• Tennen Kajuu Sayaka - Tsuzumi Sayaka wants to be a 'normal' high school girl, but she has a dirty mind that gets her constantly aroused, she has to fight becoming aroused in any situation, even in teaching some supplemental lessons for her peers or trying out the judo club;
  
• Good Morning Call - when her father moves back home to take over the family farm, Nao Yoshikawa remains behind, to finish the final semester of junior high, however discovers that her appartment has been double-rented, the landlady suggests that she and Hisashi Uehara can just live together, as the rent would be cheaper;
  
• Sakura Wars - stage shows featuring the seiyuu of Imperial Floral Assault Unit (Shinguji Sakura, Kanzaki Sumire, Iris Chateaubriand, Ri Kohran, Karishima Kanna, Tachibana Maria), Paris Assault Unit (Erica Fontaine, Glycine Bleumer, Coquelicot and Kitaoji Hanabi), or New York Combat Revue (Gemini Sunrise, Sagitta Weinberg, Diana Caprice, Rikaritta Ares and Kujo Subaru)!
  

Not had any luck tracking down Tokyo Babylon yet, and I was surprised that Good Morning Call had got a live action, it's actually recent, currently being released as a "Netflix Original"! I need to get round to seeing if I can watch Sakura Wars, the live shows; I've played the first game (well muddled through, in Japanese) and So Long my Memories, and watched all of the anime, I think!

 

 

Now I'm going to move onto up and comming, it appears that Death Note in AMERICA, is finally getting started, apparently Warner Bros. were almost ready to start the project, when they decided to drop it, it has since transferred to Netflix, with Nat Wolff being cast as Light!

 

If you don't know Nat Wolff is, neither did I, until I went onto imdb, he was in Paper Towns, and Paulo Alto, neither of which I've seen, but him being in Palo Alto might be the reason as to why (Sarah) Margaret Qualley was cast as Misa, she too was in Palo Alto!

 

I rememebr when they were talking about having Zac Effron as Light! It also seems that like with Death Note, we can't have too many Cutey Honey live actions, with Cutey Honey - Tears on the way, Mariya Nishiuchi taking over the role of Honey Kisaragi!

 

Next I'll look at the live actions that have not been, such as Clover (CLAMP), Full Metal Panic!, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Bubblegum Crisis 2041 and Akira (not writing one for trash)!

[spoiler=The American Dream(s)]

• Clover (CLAMP): A four-leaf clover is not something that can be anyone's, if a four-leaf begins to consider someone precious to them, it is the same as saying that the world is in the hands of he who is thought of that way, that is why the four-leaf clover is left alone, Su is a four-leaf clover, someone who seemingly has a magical ability to manipulate technology;
  
• Full Metal Panic!: Sousuke Sagara, a member of a covert anti-terrorist private military organisation, and tasked with protecting a high school girl, Kaname Chidori, who like his captain, Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa, is an Awakened, so this means he's going to school, something he's not done before, meaning this covert private soldier has to act like a student, and not do anything that will arouse suspicion;
  
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: in 2015, the Angels, huge, tremendously powerful, alien war machines, appear in Tokyo for the second time, and mankind's only hope lies in Evangelion, humanoid fighting machines developed by NERV, a special United Nations agency, only a handful of people can pilot the Evangelion, teenagers born fourteen years ago, nine months after the Angels first appeared;
  
• Bubblegum Crisis 2041: recovering from a devastating earthquake, Mega-Tokyo's recovery is greatly attributed to Boomers, androids that look, think, and act like human beings, however the company responsible for creating the Boomers have grander plans than just rebuilding a city, enter the Knight Sabres, Linna Yamazaki, Nene Romanova, Priscilla S. Asagiri and Sylia Stingray, four women equipped with hardsuits with the courage and firepower to stand up against the Boomers and GENOM!
  

When Darkhorse assumed the rights of many former TokyoPop released CLAMP manga, they were apparently in talks with Universal to make a live action to Clover, this is something I would have like to happen, especially if it meant that the manga would be revived, given that it went on hiatus, when the magazine it was serialised in closed!

 

Clover has not received an anime outside a six and a half minute long

, same is true for Wish, whilst Wish's

more like a music video (featuring ALI Project), Clover's is more like a trailer, or an abridged version of the story, with Ichiko Hashimoto providing a fantastic "score", she also did the music to RahXephon, another good soundtrack!

 

I don't know if it was ADV Films who thought of making a live action to Full Metal Panic!, or if it was someone else, although I think I heard about this after ADV (sadly missed) went under, so might have been someone else! Looking at Wikipedia, they've broken my heart, in that apparently Zac Efron to possibly play Sousuke, I thought it was Zac Braff, although he's probably a bit old to play Sousuke, I could see him in the role!

 

Although Full Metal Panic! is good, I prefer the second series, Fumoffu, which introduces Student Council present, Hayashimizu Atsunobu, with his versed ability to translate Punk to English/Japanese, and back, and Mikihara Ren, his secretary, and gives more air time to Inaba Mizuki!

 

Given the success ADV had with Neon Genesis Evangelion -don't know why, RahXephon was better-, ADV decided they would make a live action series, with the same special effects company as Lord of the Rings, this has never happen in the end, it sits on Matt Greenfield's shelf, although images from Weda for there part do exist! Another series ADV thought they'd do their own version of was Bubblegum Crisis, however now that I think about it, I don't know if that was to be a live action, or an anime!

 

Akira has seen a couple of proposed versions, one with DiCaprio as Tetsu or Kaneda, and another with K-Stew as Tetsu or Kaneda, thankfully they remain non-starters! Ok, Akira wasn't bad, but the ending was a bit out of control - by this I mean the anime, not read the manga!

 

 

Lastly we look at the unconfirmed, someone told me that they were possibly making a Pokémon Live Action, is this true? I remember the jokes about Shia LeBeouf as Ash, don't tell me this could be a reality? I am aware that there was Pokémon Live, which was a dream come true for Ash-Misty fans (shame the introduction of May was still three years away ;D), and had Giovanni as Gary's father! The other unconfirmed is apparently Ghost in the Shell is receiving a live action, with Scarlett Johanson, again, is this true?

 

Oh, there's a couple of other live actions I could mention, Legend of Zelda (and it appears it will be a Blonde Zelda, woop, I feel Zelda looks better blonde - cite. Hyrule Warriors and Skyward Sword), Battle Royale, Azumi, Shinobi (based on Basilisk) and Mushi-shi (released in US as Bug Master)! I think I had another, but I've forgotten it!

 

Right, I think I've taken up enough of your time, I know I've taken up enough of my own, I leave you with these questions:

• What dorama do you know of, and have seen?
  
• What dorama do you know of, but have not seen?
  

[spoiler=Edits]

EDIT1: Oh, there's Attack on Titan, isn't there, forgot about that, not actually watched the anime, or read the manga, might do it at somepoint, some kids in a bookstore recommended it to me, one of the highpoints they mentoned was Sasha Braus, seen pictures of Christina Renz about too!

 

That said, the Attack on Titan manga I'm most interested in, is the high school situation one, I get the feeling it might be a bit similar to Petit Eva, if the Titans take on the same role as EVA-01, or "Evahoncho", or something like that!

 

EDIT2: There's even a Hell Teacher Nube live series, that stars 2015 live Misa (Sano Hinoko) as one of the caharacters, Hosokawa Miki!

 

I've also seen a concrete article that Ghost in the Shell live action with Scarlett Johanson, is real!

 

EDIT3: Oh noes! I've now found evidence that the possibility of a live action Pokémon, could be happening!

 

Edited April 26, 2016 by Guest