I want to tell you the truth

[topazera]

As I was a little inspired again but how much I love the drama community (and I've been watching a lot of dramas lately), this post will just be a little catch-up of my recent shows. Warning: I kind of love everything I've been watching. Also, I'm going to try out blocking the spoilery parts, please do the same in the comments and make this a spoiler-free space? Okay? Okay!


Last Friends
Status: Finished and Missed Greatly!

Ahhh, Last Friends! ♥ This is a drama that I had noted the existence of quite a while ago due to Ueno Juri, Eita and Mizukawa Asami all being together again but also with a note reading *BUT TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPENING TO PEOPLE I LOVE, I AM READY FOR THAT? I'm kind of a lightweight when it comes to angst, even though I still watch moderately angsty shows. Finally, I girded myself and watched and I'm so glad I did! Yes, it is a drama about issues and therefore not the most subtle of shows sometimes. If you're uncomfortable with depictions of domestic violence and talk of various forms of abuse, that would be reason enough to steer clear. Yet, happily, there's a hopeful core at the heart of the show: that meeting other broken people might help fix you. I never felt overwhelmed after an episode, in fact I had to stop myself from watching it all at once.

Important things!
1) Ueno Juri as Ruka!

askjdhgdjghhafl First of all, Ueno Juri could not be any more physically appealing to me than she is in this role. We all owe Last Friends a debt of gratitude for inspiring photoshoots like this one. Previously I had only seen and loved Juri-chan as Nodame but she was just as compelling as I thought she'd be in this next role I watched. The character of Ruka really deserves a whole separate post. Basically, I'd never before seen a drama deal with unconventional gender and sexuality before and that was something very welcome to me. Ruka was kind of the best. I'm easy in that, if you have a character breaking established gender roles, I'm probably going to be all over them. This drama delighted me by having not one but two such characters! Speaking of:

2) Eita as Takeru!

AH I'M RUINED FOR OTHER PEOPLE FOREVER. Okay, it is not hard for a drama to sell me on Eita whom I already love and am attracted to in everything, but in it he plays just an unambiguously great guy. Seriously, marry me, Takeru. He gives people the most supportive looks ever. And his hair, I shallowly think this is the ideal hair for him. Like with Ruka, he just isn't quite what society expects him to be. I don't want to give away too much if you haven't seen the show but I think they did a great job with how his character was shaped by his history. ALSO GREAT: EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM.

3) Nice to meet you, Nagasawa Masami!

I don't know why people dislike her (the actress) at all! Well, I do, but it probably has more to do with Nino's face or co-starring with Pi in many cases. Michiru, her role, is one of those characters that I can see people disliking due to plot reasons, she's a victim of abuse that has a lot of trouble freeing herself from the cycle but I thought they did a great job with her. She couldn't compete with my level of adoration for the other leads but her smile made me happy and I was rooting hard for her.

4) Hey it's Ryo! Look, Ryo can act! ...AHHH SOUSUKE, OH GOD.

^Pretty much my exact reaction to my first Ryo drama. He was great because he effectively traumatized me, I respect that.

5) The coffee cups of love and house sharing!

Ahhh, I'm such a sucker for people living together and becoming a family unrelated by blood. You hit so many of my kinks, drama. All of these scenes were my favorite parts, proving that I am indeed a fluffly, fluffy soul. XD

6) The ending!
Spoilers for EVERYTHING:

SO SO MUCH HAPPIER THAN EXPECTED! While, yes, it could definitely be argued that killing off the abuser was the easy way out of the plotline, I was just so happy not to have to lose a beloved main character. That sort of thing tends to tarnish shows in my memory so since someone was destined to die, I felt only relief.

AHAHAHA ALSO ALSO, I completely fell for their ~trap~ in the last episode: a truck is heading straight for our main characters in slow motion, they don't see it coming until the last second, someone sprawled on the ground... PSYCH! IT'S JUST A SPRAINED WRIST. GUESS WHAT, EVERYONE LIVES! Oh, dramas. Well played, sir. By the way, I would have killed you had you actually done that. This is why I can't watch a lot of kdramas. ♥

Finally, have you ever seen a show that more canonically ended in an OT3? Seriously. Seriously, that was more OT3-y than Nobuta. They are going to live together and raise a baby. I'm normally not the sort of person that goes for a "and then they have a baby!" ending but in this show the point is that traditional things like marriage and babies can be done in a unconventional way and that unlikely happiness is in reach for everyone. I cried happy tears. A lot of them. Takeru is going to braid this little girl's hair and Ruka will teach her how to ride a bike and Michiru will see her daughter grow up with not one, not two, but three parents who love her! LAST FRIENDS! I LOVE WHAT YOU CHOSE TO BE! ♥

7) Just a prisoner of looooooove~

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I sang along with the opening, Utada Hikaru's "Prisoner of Love", every time. I would replay the opening after I finished an episode because I already missed it. The lovely, sparse visuals with lots of white! A coffee cup shatters on the beat! Everyone is so pretty! ♥

8) A personal favorite when done right, the OT3!

It's funny, I used to never have OT3s that worked for me because I was just such a faithful shipper, who would decide an OTP and that's all I was interested in. But when canon presents me with a three people who love each other instead of two, why, I do not turn this down nowadays! It's important to note that this is not at all of a love triangle situation, it's people loving each other in all different ways and combinations. I will happily imagine all the patterns of love these three pretty, pretty people could settle into. Thank you, show, you giving me so many interesting angles to consider! ♥

So yes, as you can probably tell, I came out firmly in favor of Last Friends! It isn't a perfect drama, something I could recommend without disclaimer, but I loved watching it. It was a nice contrast with my usual fare and I will never turn down Ueno Juri, Eita or both of them together. See: upcoming post on Sunao ni Narenkute. :DD