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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I am the one who chose a summer that was unchanging

It's the second day that I have sat through 8 hours without doing any actual work. Never mind that I have a set of guidelines to complete or a newsletter to prepare. Having been at this kind of job for half a year now, my brain's configured to function best when the deadline monster is breathing down my neck. The only way, really, to get work done is to cut my ties with the intarnetz. But then, half my work is tied to the internet, so cutting it off is really rendering me next to useless.

This week, I'm interested to see how fast I can get through the 12, 1-hour episodes of the Japanese live-action adaptation of Honey and Clover.


The live-action cast and the anime cast. Both pastel-y.

I'm a fan of the anime version. Honey and Clover was the first anime series that I bought during my first trip to Manila back in college. My mom thought I was crazy for coming home with CDs instead of tshirts and donuts. Anyway, here's a link to a review of the anime version.

I knew that the anime had a live-action version of sorts (Japanese and Taiwanese adaptations and at least one movie) but it wasn't until I learned that Studio 23 will be airing the live-action version on February that I got interested. I think Studio 23 is going to air the Taiwanese version. I found the Japanese one online and I'm sticking with it for the meantime.

Usually, I'm everything but eager to see live-action adaptations of anime and manga. Think Meteor Garden for Hana Yori Dango and you get my drift. After all, live-action adaptations have a lot of things to consider: visual presentation (no super chibis here), budget, character likeness and plot accuracy. Most important? How to take a 26-episode anime and compress it into 12 episodes. Then there's measuring up to the anime/manga version. Online debates on which is better, and the comparison never ends. In live-action adaptations, many things can, and probably will, go wrong.

Thankfully, the Honey and Clover live-action adaptation is a good one. It does not follow the same story line as the anime, but it does capture its gist. Osamu Mukai is a dead ringer for Mayama sans the red hair and Hiroki Narimiya is impressive as Morita. Toma Ikuta, Riko Narumi and Natsuki Harada all do a great job as Takemoto, Hagumi and Ayumi. Natsuki Harada, especially, looks gorgeous while delivering high kicks. Wiki on the cast here.

On the other hand, I don't think Mayama was that mischevious in the anime. I don't remember Mayama ever teaming up with Morita to pull a prank of Takemoto, though when it does happen in the live-action, its really quite funny and fresh. So nothing majorly disastrous there for me.

Buffering the second episode now. Pretty slow, but I'm still trying to get the hang of these 1-hour dramas anyhow.

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