@ v

butt in.. not minded at all! yep, my twin is right.. the only jdorama i've watched was 1Ltr of tears.. and that was by accident (cuz my friend didn't know the difference in korean and japanese, so she lent me the DVDs). i keep telling myself i'm gonna start Nodame cuz it's been recommended so many times.. but i just haven't gotten around to it. i LOVE melos more than light dramas.. but still get caught up in the cracktastic ones just the same.

i've only recently come back to kdramas (Feb 2009) after having not watched much since WLS way back when, squeezing in a few kdramas now and then.. i was totally into Thai dramas (called lakorns in thai). but w/ the newer actors/actresses nowadays, i've not been too fond of them. i like the veteran thai actors/actresses--who are getting less roles because they are "aging" at 30-35 yrs old. ha!

ok random post. Just heard about this new korean r&b trio called One Way. Anybody else heard of them? 2 Korean Australians and one Korean American and they compose their own music. Anyways they did a cover of Taeyang's "Look Only at Me" and Ne-Yo's "Sexy Love" and man they are GOOD. First time I heard them they reminded me of a Taeyang/Ne-Yo mashup so it's cool they covered both artists.

Taeyang "Look Only At Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzjlB6q9tyo&feature=related

Ne-Yo "Sexy Love"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49c5T73bOGM&NR=1

One Way "Wrong Number"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MotpjuNXnU

New obsession? Perhaps.

@ lb_tmi

I watched an equal mix of jdoramas and HK/TW dramas in the entire decade of the 90s. And then I quit them both (for the most part, still watched the occasional jdorama) until recently restarting my jdorama watching en masse with the stuff from the 2000s.

It is much more engaging to know the actors. Other than KimuTaku, Toshiaki, Yutaka and Tsuyo (Kusanagi Tsuyoshi), i.e. the "old" dudes (btw, old is merely what they are compared to the lithe young things gallivanting around the school doromas, but none of these guys are really that old, well, except for Toshiaki, but he's old school, baby!) - I didn't really know the new kids as well. I kept up with their existence, read news and magazine articles, know who they are, but its was still blank on whether they were good.

But once you start, its not hard getting up to speed on the jdorama world of actors. But you can have anyone you want, just Back. Away. From. My. Pi. Thank you. :-D *spies shiny Pi in the distance* "ockoala, swoons"

@ momosan

i'm superficial and into pretty boys (so i've been told, though i myself wouldn't say that's what i like.. it's just what ppl tell me i like based on the boys in my ICOMYM). which outta those listed are the "prettiest"? example: i'd totally choose Vic over Marc (black and white), BYJ over CSW (except now that i've actually seen CSW in something.. i'm so over BYJ!--who happened to be my vortex sucking in person to kdramas). not as fond of "school" dramas.. but not unwilling to watch.. cuz i did enjoy ISWAK tremendously (though i can't bring myself to watch BOF)!!

only historical drama i've ever watched and liked is Damo. Naeuri had me the WHOLE time. :)

@ ockoala

i can't guarantee i'll stay away from anyone once i'm sucked in... that's prolly the only saving grace of me staying away from jdoramas, less ppl to fight over Pi *insert any ICOMYM harem name here* ha!!

@lovenyc52
haha... u know what, when i saw ur list, i almost hesitated to add Pride (it's a MUST freaking Watch!! XD.. glad u have that in ur list) but then i thought that the recommendations u gave was exactly right for a "beginner" so kuddos.
dont know what uve already watched so i'll state not state the really "popular" ones that almost everybody have watched (like kimi wa petto, densha otoko etc.)... but then i'm afraid that u might have missed them too.. have u tried jdorama.com? it has a ranking of 50 (or is it a 100 dramas) and the ranking is quite accurate. well maybe not in terms of ranks, but in terms of good dramas, i would say the 95% or more of dramas on that list are good.
otherwise, hmm, trying to think of not "obvious" dramas... seems like u like "trendy" dramas. have u tried lunch queen since u like Pi? it's lighthearted and tho pi doesnt have a main role in it, it's quite a cute dramas, which cute guys... *wink* of course, pi also other dramas such as BB, and Prodai but uve probably watched that. as for maki, since u like her, she has lighthearted dramas like hanakimi or atashinchi no danshi which is "recent". or there's zettai kareshi with aiba saki, and there's mei-chan no shitsuji with nana and there's otomen which are all "recent". there's hanayome to papa with ishihara satomi. there's Papa to Musume no Nanokakan with aragaki yui.
u can try dramas with Ueto Aya such as Attention please (it got 2 specials too). she has other good dramas in stock too.
there's Ayase Haruka's Hotaru no Hikari which is lighthearted (and is getting season 2!!!)
there's boku wa madonna with takki hideaki.
since u like gokusen, other school dramas like that include GTO, dragon zakura (with pi), and ROOKIES.
since u like kame, he doesnt have that many lighthearted dramas except for 1 pound no fukuin but as for romances, tatta hitotsui no koi or suppli (also called sapuri) are good choices for him.
Anego has Jin from KATTUN (kame's group) and also from Gokusen 2 (agree. hot cast! ^^)... it's not exactly lighthearted but it has it's own charm, a bit like MNISKSS but the chemistry between jin and ryoko is great.
and the following are not exactly lighthearted but there are not tragic either... mainly "mystery" genre but done not heavily and are quite addicting is SP (security police) with JE hottie okada junichi, and tantei gakuen Q and more too if ur interested.
as for LORD kimutaku, he has a whole bunch of good dramas in his repertoire but start with Pride...
and do not hesitate to ask for more recommendations... ^^
hihi.. as u can see, i'm on fire when it concerns jworld.

@ockoala
ur Pi??? really... dont count on that one. XP

@momosan
agree about abe hiroshi rule!!

@lb_tmi
haha... if u like good looking guys, jworld is abound of those...
if u like melo... hmm... the same girl erika who did 1Lt of tears also did taiyou no uta, another tear wrenching drama.
koizora is a movie but it's REALLY good and melo.
kimutaku has a whole lot of romance-melo stuff such as long vacation, beautiful life, and i'm adding Pride, which is not melo but a MUST see.
there's majo no jouken which is melo, if u like ISWAK, the original JP version is called Itazura na kiss.. it's quite old so ull have to get used to that but it's a really good drama if u give it a try (plus the guy is hot... ariel still remains the best Xiang Qin tho).
tatta hitotsu no koi is another melo one. long love letter is long, but melo.
last friends is melo too.
taiyou no kisetsu is melol
but as ur a beginner, dont really know which one is best... probably the one with kimu taku long vacation or beautiful life (he also has sora sora which is INTENSE it can't even be called melo..)or since u r already familiar with erika, u can start with taiyou no uta.
and i agree about BYJ... i had such a huge celebrity crush on him several yrs ago. XD

@lb_tmi
i know i just gave u a bunch of melo stuff for recommendations but i think it's best to enter JE world with trendy dramas first, like lovenyc52 recommended because those are the one with the most eye candies since u like good looking guys (but really, who doesnt? Xd) or PRIDE..
or maybe cool stuff like Hero with Kimutaku. tho i dont know... maybe getting into jworld with melo stuff might work too but since i havent done that myself, i dunno.

@nycgrl @ockoalatwin @v @serendipity

o gosh I hate myself sounding angrier and more batshit crazy when I'm just plain annoyed and not entertained w/ Drama and/or Character. I just felt I gained my rant of the day XD but can I take credit for the great posts by you guys subsequently?! lol

My disdain for PP is sparked by MHR's characterization but it does permeate to the other characters and aspects of show. I dont need my character to be likable, I dont need to root or care when he/she is believable, (eg everyone in WHIB) I just find MHR falling very short on both grounds. IF MHR is to be depicted as a 'brainy ditz', I cant compute the general nonchalance and tolerance of her in the DA. They r affirming her actions to almost a brown-nosing aptitude! Yes, I have same thoughts as @serendipity on firing the WHOLE squad. I'm also w/ you that I can turn my critical brain off IF I can get some rewards for the opportunity cost, I dont even need the romantic variety, I'm that easy to please. I think my biggest pet peeve in drama is mistuned, misscrewed execution, it can be characterization or dramatization, and w/ PP it's both. It left me very bothered as if I'm trapped in an emotional solitary confinement when I felt nth of the intended forcefed emotion/effect of scene or the character. I'm not entertained w/ PP even w/ my brains shut. It's the exact same rant I have w/ FH, twin. Those 2 do not equate besties and YET thro out show we have to let it slide as if no biggie happend and watched SHK repeatedly screwed by them to the point I'm convinced she has a lower IQ than Forrest. The same token w/ TnK, we get a big D'uh this is the KimuTaku renzoku ren'ai's candycoated foray into the chinese market in intention, but a big insult to our sex and ethnicity in execution. Really I'd rather see KimuTaku read a phone book , man-grab, french kiss, make love to it for 11 hours.

I'm not generous w/ my dramas. Continuing show will be asking me to give second chances (actually third...skimmed thro PP real time for the love of KSY) to sth that doesnt deserve the accolades in the first place. tbh I enjoyed PP more first time around as bkgd noise when I'm working on my monthly work report, that saddened me. PSH is not helping, I have a way bigger crush on YooGun in a bit role and I totally am going 'what if' he's IW instead. I hate watching sub-par 'actors' showcasing the lacking. I can start a new rant on how I absolutely dont think PSH's character has to be this blatantly creepy this early on in EVERY FREAKEN SCENE. I digress.

*off to read twin's writing in Thundie's blog*

@lb_tmi
ooops.. in case ur wondering what i meant by JE, what i really meant was Jdrama world... i just slipped..
(JE is like the equivalent of SM/YG/JYP of japan but with pretty boys (not so much talent but really, nobody cares) exclusively and much more powerful.. it basically dominates the industry and the network is so addicting once u get in cuz there's dozens and dozens of pretty boys or man like kimutaku. and the boys are present in a whole lot of dramas that come out (among those, theres matsumoto jun, Pi, kimutaku, kamenashi kazuya, yokoyama yui, other Arashi boys such as nino, sho, kinki kids, nagase, okada etc etc etc)
lol... what i meant as a correction has turned into a lecture about JE.. my bad. but see what i mean?

@ v

wow. you are a veritable encyclopedia of jdoramas haha! Thanks for all the recs! I've hit some of them (AtanDan and Meichan were fun - i really enjoy me some mukai osamu) and have started Kimi Wa Petto (i know i know, i can't believe I haven't watched it yet either). You know what I thought was a cute fun tanpatsu? Meitantei Conan - I wish they had more installations of this. Oguri Shun is adorable with the main girl (whom I also liked in Kanojo to no Tadashii Asobikata with Mizushima Hiro). Glad to have some more dramas to look into :) thanks again!

@ ockoala

i have no problem with you claiming Pi.. as long as I can claim Kame. Then we'll have no problems between us ;)

@ v

JE= Johnny Entertainment? yeah, i've read from other OTers about them.. i'm open to watching jdoramas, just haven't gotten to it . YET. i did wiki Nodame and the story sounds interesting.. so i'll give it a go. i'll go cracktastic first, then head towards melo if that doesn't float my boat.

thanks for all the recs, ppl! i really appreciate it!!!

@mookie
LOL.... what a rant. XD like it ^^
and sure, u can take credit... it's quite amazing how one single post of urs can generate so many responses with as many differing opinions on PP. well, that's y i love OT, it allows us to show the diversity and how the same drama can be viewed completely differently.
supah is gonna love u for liking YooGun!! apparently, he's her BF. XD
i understand what ur saying and i agree about TnK...so far, not connecting to me and rather annoying... *sigh* oh kimu... really.. as much as i love u, i might not stick with this. lol. talk about kimutaku's french kiss. boy can that guy kiss. haha.
as for u giving another chance again... wow. lol. but really, if it makes u be so irritated and suffer, dont put urself through it. it's all good... we'll just each stick to our opinions. XD
and yeah, the sageuk/wuxia post on thundie's is good!

@lovenyc52
oh right! conan is really good and has SHUNNIE in it!!! ^^ (he has quite a few lighthearted drams too). the reason i didnt mention it is because it's really short but glad uve watched it. there's a whole bunch of good tanpatsu out there.
hihi KtnTA with Hiro is good too! if u like him, he pairs with shunnie in tokyo dogs and also is in some dramas ive recommended such as hanakimi, zettai kareshi and others. and a guy who knows how to speak english is HOT in my opinion. ^^
another guy who speaks english with a british accent is matsuda shota (who has LIAR GAME.. a really good "thriller")... my reason for liking those guys is SO random.. lol
but yeah... KwP! not everybody adores it but it's a classic... u have to know it. lol.
and ur welcome :)... i know my list can be confusing.-_-"

@lb_tmi
yep, JE=johnny's entertainment. and yeah, great choice to start with Nodame!! (it also has a manga and anime and 2 movies and a 2-ep special. lol). hope u like it. and ur very welcome! ^^
have fun watching!

@ v

i think gokusen was my first jdorama and i LOVED the ShinKumi "pairing". And oguri and his giant blond hair hehe. Then i jumped to HYD and loved oguri even MORE, so then of course i had to watch HanaKimi which had a totally different feel than the TW HanaKimi (and much better acting IMO, even though Ella looks more boyish than Maki does). Oh, have you watched the j-movie Lovely Complex? It's super freakin cute and Hiro has a small part in it that I totally did not recognize till my 2nd watch-thru. I feel the trendy dramas all have the same actors/actresses though, no? And omg don't get me started on Shota... he's the reason i watched Jotei and the boy was SMOKIN' hot in Love Shuffle. <3 eep!

@supah @v
so over lunch... I did check out rest of PP 3, 4. and I'm finally getting some entertainment out of drama, give me blood and bitchslapping! I'm an awful person.

I prefer J melo >>> K melo, think more realism, yet still pounding on the romance. imo the seminal ones: Hoshi no Kinka (1996), Aishiteiru to ittekure (1996), Beautiful Life(2000) (or almost all dramas by scriptwriter Kitagawa Eriko, just go down her dramawiki) r time well spent. And dorama dealt w/ even darker themes (although I consider incest the lowest in that crap basket and the most frequent ornamentation of TOO many kmelos), a taste of darker stuff or 'Kurai', there's Majo no Jouken (1999) and the even darker High School Teacher (1993) and here creeps another scriptwriter who is seldom boring: Nojima Shinji (of our OT<3 of Pride's fame) I rem watching his End of the World and that dorama itself may explain y I dun care for Kmelo, THOSE exact themes can be done right in the writing of Nojima Shinji and make me care somewhat. I'm ambivalent to Kamisama, mou sukshi dake (1998) but it WAS controversial and it's about AIDS, and frankly who cares when u have Kaneshiro Takeshi at his most 'Kamisama'?!

I think our dorama history is VERY revealing of our age and WHEN we idle off too much of our time lolz

what a great way to start jdramas! ive started young since my mom is a fan of kimutaku (i was only a baby the.. XD) so i dont remember but i think my first jdramas was a kimutaku's one and ever since, ive been on the j-train. the shinkumi pairing was awesome of course.. i didnt watch HYD for oguri tho but rather cuz ive read the manga before hand but of course, i fell for rui, altho makino and domyoji make an awesome couple! ^^
and ur totally right, hanakimi was really j-typical wacky and over the top and fun and better than the TW versions. to be frank, as much as i love ella as a person, i didnt like her acting in hanakimi (she's better in down with love). both series had hotties in it but i like the j-version better altho it gave me a shock when i first saw it cuz it's not only radically different in style from the tw-dramas but also from the manga. but i got used to it fast ^^.
of course... Love Complex ^^. me too, i totally didnt notice that Hiro was Hiro in it.. . ive only saw him in gokusen then so he wasn't as "big" as he is now. i think his role in kamen rider also gave him a boost. but lovely complex is a cute movie.
ur right, trendy dramas do tend to have the same actors over and over again but once in a while, we're introduced to a new ikemen and then that guy appears again and again in other dramas.. lol. but nothing can beat tw dramas in terms of repeating actors... they've got like a handful of actors and stick to it and repeat pairings... nothing much wrong with it (smtimes, i wish k-dramas could repeat pairings) but it lacks diversity.
and yeah.... shota.. i thought love shuffle was really cute and shota was love in it. altho tamaki hiroshi is also yummy ^^. ive watched jotei for him too... if not for him, i dont think i would have watched it..lol. *sigh* how can those guys be so attractive...

wait. what? Takeshi Kaneshiro in Kamisama? i'm so there. nodame will have to wait if there's TK. just saying. *skips off to find someplace to watch Kamisama"

@mookie
lol... after ur last post, i thought u gave up on PP... " I’m an awful person." haha... maybe ur being too hard on urself.. and who knows, like supah u might drop the drama quickly. dunno.

i dont know if i prefer j melo over k melo... in general, i'm tempted to say that i prefer j stuff to k stuff since it's generally less draggy and tends to have quality and are better paced but then, i could say the reverse too since kdramas have something that makes me crazy about them at a rare level that jdramas cant.

hoshi no kinka is great!! i like the sequel too but less than the first. agree, kitagawa eriko is awesome and so is nojima shinji tho they are rather different in style! i think majo no jouken was the reason i like takki and kou kou kyoushi was really good.. better so than its predecessor. lol about kamisama with takeshi... it was hugely popular.. i didnt love it love but i think i kinda loved it and takeshi helped... not so much for acting but for being just his charismatic self. and fukada kyoko got such a boost from that drama i didnt mind the aids issue... anyways, it's cuz of it that we had a story in the first place..

and ur right about drama history revealing our age... i am well acquainted with this decade dramas since im quite young but since my mom is fan of kimutaku since around the time i was born, i watched a myriad of "old" dramas... well, more exactly from the 1990s. and i do think that dramas nowadays lack the something of before but they are still good in their own way.

@ twin

Man, you can't talk about jdoramas influencing K-dramas without going back to the granddaddy of them all: 1994's Imoto yo (aka Tokyo Cinderella Story), with the theme song Meguriai by Chage & Aska (which launched like 7 years of Chage & Aska dominance in the peppy but heartfelt theme songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhOLOJkHYPo (gah, the song just brings back memories, sweet blissful memories of the early trendy days of jdoramas).

Tokyo Cinderella Story was the blueprint for every Cinderella tale to come from Korea, TW, wherever. Hitotsu yane no Shita was earlier but it was a family drama.

I also felt that 9 Ends 2 Outs was based off of Ai to iu Nano Moto ni (1992).

@ twin

waiiiit!!! kamisama is sad!!!!! are you jumping onto a melo?!?!?!

^ O TWIN! AHHH I <3 Tokyo Cinderella Story soooo very much, we do share Toshiaki <3, no?! ;)

I was diggin for melo/kurai stuff as lb_tmi seems to have a taste for that genre...how can I forget our very original Chaebol prince in Toshiaki? If it were up to me, he can play every single reincarnation of it. ;)

um...now u r giving me a VERY good reason to watch 9 Ends 2 Outs, but I'm such an animal of inertia...a rewatch of Ai to iu Nano Moto ni is still more appealing... um..

and I wanna rewatch of Tokyo Love Story now. I've fallen madly w/ it even though I dun care for Yuji Oda and I havent touched it since my first hit of hormones way back when!

@twin,

gah,, thanks for that youtube Chage and Aska! I'm looping it as opposed to my dose of CU heroin.

man I have CASSETTE TAPES then and I ran them bare because of this song!

@ mookietwin

Between Meguriai and Say Yes by Chage & Aska (theme song to of course, what else, the beauty and the beast classic 101 Proposals), those were the theme songs of my high school days. I also burned out my cassette tapes but it was all good.

I LOVED Toshiaki in Tokyo Cinderella Story, like, loved him so much it was burned into my soul and even when he's like 70 and I'm like 50, he will always be THE prince, THE chaebol, THE perfect rich guy who needs the love of a wonderful girl. I loved him even more in Ooishi Kankei, but it was TCS and Ai to iu Nano Moto ni that shaped my love and appreciation for him.

Btw, don't watch 9 Ends 2 Outs, its a pale replica of Ai to iu Nano Moto ni, saved only by wonderful chemistry between the OTP and stellar acting by Su Ae. Not worth watching just for that.

I only liked Tokyo Love Story, but I remember Yuji Oda was all sorts of mad-fine in that drama. Btw, don't talk about Kou Kou Koushi, I was so creeped out by it, its the icky icky type drama.

And my Masaharu phase reach its peak with Meguri Ai with Tokiwa Takako (which I thought was the drama version of Comrades, a Love Story - without the era references and cultural beats of locale). I thought their chemistry was explosive, which is part of the reason why I never liked Beautiful Life with Takako and KimuTaku (too weepy for me as well). Though in hindsight, that role was probably made for Toshiaki, Masaharu was still stiff and off at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtFXYz27w2o (Heart from Meguri Ai)

Yes, and don't watch Kamisama, too NBC daytime movie of the month + melodrama to the max. Did not like it. At all.

@ momosan

haha i love the fantasy sequences in Yankee-kun. I gotta watch Otomen now don't i.... i liked the main guy from Otomen in Hana Kimi. He was a side character, but very sweet and adorable. The premise to Otomen sounds cute too. Too bad I gotta watch it streaming as it doesn't seem like anyone is seeding this on d-addicts anymore :(

all i gotta say is:

I LURRRVE all you gals!!!

from hook, line, & sinker for jdoramas--melos and cracktastic, ICOMYM branches, cassette tape loves (oh! how many cassette films i had to tape together so i could listen to songs over and over again! oh my rewind button!) and YB references that i actually get, and reminding me that i started 9E2O and need to finish it.

i don't think i've gotten this sentimental in OT before *tears* i feel so loved and cared for in this moment. thanks.

@ momosan

OMG i am not home and i can do nothing for another 4 hours at least WAH!! *keeping fingers crossed that they'll still be seeding when i can jump onto d-addicts later tonite* BUT THANKS!!!! VERRRRRY much appreciated!!!!!

@ momosan

you are a godsend. :)

See, my unni suffers from the same disease which has so afflicted me, the "I-know-this-is-crap-but-I'll-burn-my-eyes-out-watching-it-because-OMG-_______-is-so beautiful/hot/reduces me to a puddle-in-said-crap-drama."

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. To each her own, ne? I agree 100%, Takeshi looked simply breathtakingly handsome in Kamisama. But the drama is loads of hooey gooey crap. But Kamisama is like Best Picture Oscar winner compared to Kurosagi, which I watched, and will likely watch again, all for Pi. So who am I kidding? Watch on, ladies!

@ momosan,
o gosh, u r our OT FairyGodMother! OTers, if u r even barely interested in Jdorama, Otomen is a must. I can watch this Otomen ED like for an hour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-CBgM_aA8 (dun be wary if u r not into period, this is just in period because Masaki/Asuka is just that darn pretty in period cosplay) so yes @lovenyc52 if u <3 YankeeKun, and u dun mind the looks of Masaki at all. Otomen is rainbows + unicorns + cotton candy + cute cuddly lab puppies!

@twin,
o gosh we all have our utmost guilty dorama pleasure then, wanna fess up girls?

Langdon (Momosan?) is Kamisama
Ockoala is Kurosagi
mookie is Regatta

Really?! Honto?! @ mookietwin, you have the hots for Night-o? Hayami Mokomichi? I never knew that (til now). He's like the more masculine version of Masaki (or Masaki his puppy-ish younger facetwin brother). Well, it has to be Hayami cuz it can't be Shota that is causing your brain to shut off for Regatta. I have to admit, crappy sports-roms are actually really entertaining.

Too bad the sports-roms in K-dramas by and large sucked so bad (Triple, Heading to the Ground, Strike Love, etc.). I love me a yummy underdoggie sports-rom. Or so I keep saying to myself to justify my love for Buzzer Beat. :-P

And I adore the ED to Otomen. The first time the ED came on after the end of ep. 1, I knew I crossed that line from like to love with Otomen. It was perfection.

Btw, even guilty pleasures have some standards. Kamisama has a don't steal money to go to a concert cuz you might get AIDS parable. Regatta must be the despite all odds, work hard to achieve your dreams uplifting spirit story. But Kurosagi has no purpose for existence, other than to cosplay Pi. So, my guilty pleasure is officially the worst crap ever made. And they made it just for Pi, which is all sorts of meta-funny if I overthink it.

@ mookie

hehe. tooooo cute!!! aww masaki is so adorkable!! now i'm even more excited!!

@ ockoala

is regatta no good? i have it DLed and waiting to be watched because i <3 both hayami and shota. Should i not watch it?!?!?!?

@ lovenyc52

Regatta? I don't know if its good or not, I haven't watched it. But since mookie calls it a guilty pleasure, I assumed it was a crappy sports-rom made palatable by Night-o in rowing uniforms?

Oops, and I made a mistake about Kamisama (watched it too long ago): its the "Don't go sell your body for money to attend a concert cuz you might get AIDS" parable.

haha love all this talk about doramas...

ok, i'm off for the day...
bye guys!!!

and i think i just fell in love with Coffee House

enjoy OT!

@serendipity and mookie
Not that I'm defending the show or anything y'know… (OK, who am I kidding?)

The show wasn't meant to be taken too seriously, it was fun and it threw up plenty of material, the quality of which may be debatable but it was substantial and pacy enough to keep me fully entertained in past weeks and caused quite a few clashes with my girlfriends. (I'm talking real cavegirl-style clashes where we were lunging at each other, rolling around the floor, clawing at each other's hair and screaming: ''sunbaeniiim'' or ''Seo byeon'' depending on which side we were shipping. (OK, so it wasn't exactly like that, but *almost*.)

The competition between both camps IW and SJ was probably the biggest part of the fun with PP. Not to mention online on OT or otherwise.

I understand where if you have a strong actress like KSY on board there's potential to flesh out the story to give the actor a chance to draw out their acting dexterity but when the rest of the crew are not up to the same standard it's a bit of an overambitious and risky move.
And it was risky, it took a serious turn (by serious I mean depressing, in stark contrast to all the fun earlier) and things headed in the direction I had prayed hard wouldn't AND my favourite character got written out of the story, the PP ship well and truly sunk for me. They should have stuck with the fun element.
(Sorry, if any poor soul reads my comments on OT they'll see I have a tendency to repeat myself.)

And... I'm quite partial to a guy with devilish glint in his eye as much as the next girl, but there's one golden rule that *always* applies! Which is, if there's also a sunbae in the show and sunbae comes in the form of Han Jung-soo then sunbae is the only way forward. Oh, Hye-ri, you and sunbaenim were meant to be - you were like ying and yang. What did you doOoOo?!?!

@mookie - Hahaha! We have to get our kicks somewhere...

(OK! O-bah. No more PP-talk from me. Promise.)

@lb_tmi
Haha, yeah, Jjong and skinship = adorable. And he did actually manage to get the most kisses from Yoogeun, however immature he was.

Onew was so *squish*able throughout. I liked that his keeping his distance didn't mean he was indifferent (although he did seem it at times) but that he knows he's clumsy with his Onew sangtae and all and shouldn't be too close to small children. (snort: some excuse but because it's dubu, it's cool all the same!) And yes, progress! Those golden little moments of skinship between him and YG!

I also squeed at the discovery they're into kdrama as much as us in their random hints, Onew has a fixation with characters from Tazza (and I died laughing at his ''namura'' parody), and Jjong is into Smile and High Kick (as in Lee Min Jung and Shin Se-kyung.) Haha! As he sat flicking his hair and shyly admitting his crushes -- cute! If suddenly the female populace begins hate campaigns against SSK and LMJ I'd understand why.
Plus, was it only me who found it freakish how YG looked like he was Minho's real son?

About jdoramas:
I like the ones momosan recommended, and if you're into SHINee and dramas like You're Beautiful you'll love Hana Kimi. It's about a girl who pretends she's a boy (yeah, it's a genre in itself!) and enrols in an all boys' school and you can perve on the whole boys' school, they all range between adorable to smokin' hot!

Check out this MV to see if you're feelin' it. Happy venture forth into the world of wacky, wonderful dorama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9MeI9PIXc0

@v
I was about to check Coffee House out but somehow I'm too fixated with Giant; It's so delicious, I want to watch all its remaining 45 episodes in one sitting -- help!
I've had Fashion 70s and Surgeon Bong Dal-hee on my lust-list for a while and they're exactly the thing I have an appetite for right now. F70s has a Giant-esque feel about it, with it sharing the same political-economical backdrop, except not as epic but it will do as fillers in between my weekly Giant fix. Well, those two and BG.
Now to find the taaaiiimmm!!! Gah!

@ twin

*shame (not really)* yes My eternal moé is Hayami *blush* and Regatta is just generally banished in the sucky pile, but it's a short and sweet one for me. and no way I'm not repeatedly rewatching Moko in swim trunks. I cant explain y I love the mangaka Hidenori Hara, it's the simplicity in his storytelling I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZc0c1vCxao and what is not to love about this CM?!

it's his Nighto, also his Tanaka-kun in Hataraki Man and Ma-kun in Tokyo Tower. I'm defenseless when u put my hot guy in some magical sparkly forest and make some dreamy love confession, and it happened in Regatta mid ep 5 and I'm goner.
I dun mind Shota at all, I actually have seen him in everything he's in, it's just that I think he's overrated acting wise, blame it on Jotei.

@ lovenyc52

o Regatta, is it good? it's actually quite decent to above average if u ask my honest opinion GRANTED u dont mind sports-rom and I'll give it st up that even my moe for everything Mokomichi + Yutaka is not going to make me recommend Rondo. (Mokomichi was at his most cringeworthy wooden self there) It's not Oscar worthy, a lot of ppl hated it, it was cut short due to poor rating (but I'll attribute it to Moko's scandal back then)

if u like Shota and have a thing for Mokomichi and dun mind Saki (I kinda do, but she's actually cute in Regatta and had surprisingly more chemistry w/ Mokochan than Zettai Kareshi, and coming fr me, it's saying a lot)

@momosan
lol TK is NOT just being pretty in Kamisama, he FRENCH KISSED, and frolicked in bed w/ a highschooler half ep in of ep1. ;)
it's 9 short hours, if u absolutely cant stand the rowing, there's always the ff button, the romance front is dripping good.

@ mookie

oh hayami love. thanks.

i actually couldn't watch Zettai Kareshi - i got thru the first like 3 eps, but i couldn't stand the girl... and even my love for both Hayami and Hiro couldn't pull me thru it. I did enjoy Hataraki Man though... hrm, come to think of it, i need to get that dvd back from my friend...

and no Shota love? haha ok good - more for me!!!!! <3

I see OT has formed the Japanese-branch of ICOMYM (+ a few older dudes), and we appear to have peacefully and happily divided our spoils. Let's see if this is correctomundo:

Takeshi = langdon's first husband, so hers.

KimuTaku = gifted to momosan for safekeeping, but we all nomnomnom Pride, CHANGE, Hero, et. al. anytime we feel like it. [unless EG barrels on into OT to have some words about this arrangement]

Kame + Shota = lovenyc52's [Do you want Shun as well?]

Hayami Moko-chan = mookie's kyrptonite (sorry, I cringed thru Zettai Kareshi myself, stopped after 1 ep, the manga is even worse).

Pi = ockoala's little spacy fluffball with serious chocoabs and burgeoning man-boobs (lay off the bench press, Pi, ah, who am I kidding, he's fiming Ashita no Joe, which means boxing = more muscles. I miss babyboy Pi).

Masaki = Japanese ICOMYM mascot.

Oh, and mookie and I want the old dudes - Toshiaki and Yutaka.

Anyone I missed?

o not that I'm pushing ZK in any shape or form, but if I was not on break coz of a sick bout of ailment and saw glimpses of naked dark Moko (whom I referred then as the hot little bro of Hermes in Densha) and happened to be weeks behind and thus marathoned w/ ample ffing semi amused for 5 eps (when it turned into a worthy little frothy dorama) I wouldnt be attached by the hips ( I wish) to my petto-Moko-Nighto. Under normal circumstances, I wouldve stopped at ep1 for ZK as well. (Aibu Saki is still a puzzlement to me WHY she's getting roles in otherwise decent doramas)

o I LOATHED the manga. LOATHEDx1000, but things were changed around in the dorama, again like a fanfiction that I can care for. It's not in the good pile of dorama for me still, but I <3 Nighto and ship him w/ MOI.

@ockoala
Can I have Shun please? MINE!
Since the rest seem to be taken!

Anyone for Matsu and Hiro?