Fan reviews: Last Friends

ester_grace · 14 Dec 2010

Heavy and complicated story

ester_grace · 7 Dec 2010

complicated dorama about controversial issues like sexual violence and gender.. amazing story and the actors played their character so great especially ueno juri, nishikido ryo and eita,

MonsterZero-65 · 26 Oct 2009

A simply incredible cast in this drama and it really deals with so many important issues that are prevalent in society I thought it did really well in this aspect. It was just missing something for me though and I can't place it. I think part of me was just not able to really understand some of the motivations of some characters. It is certainly interesting and encourages a lot of dissection and discussion.

harusamesarada · 19 Oct 2009

That show is difficult to rate. The main triangle relashionship is interesting but it's some kind of slow and depressive story. The Ueno Juri play is awesome as Ruka.

fate-ss26 · 20 May 2009

I'm pretty new to this generation of J-doramas. I originally watched this because of Nagasawa Masami, seeing that she was excellent in Proposal Daisakusen.

I didn't know who Ueno Juri is, and I didn't understand all the praises for her. That was, until I watched this.
And OMG, needless to say I was blown away by her acting. She's turned me into a believer and is now my #1 most favorite Japan actor of all time. The girl is a natural genius, and from now on I'm looking forward to all her future projects. But before that, I'll check out Nodame Cantabile to see more of Ueno Juri's goodness.

As for the show, it started off pretty slow, and then picked up around ep.5 until the end. By the time you hit ep.7 and forth, it became very intense, depressed and dark. I was pretty much on the edge of my seat and couldn't stop watching to find out what will happen next.

Although the show itself -when you judge it as a whole- was a little disappointing in the resolutions, and over too soon, this is definitely a drama to see for the great acting (particularly Ruka and Takeru) and the intense storyline.

weetzie_bat · 20 Apr 2009

i give 9, almost 10 for juri and eita alone. but it could have been really great, it's just there were too many heavy issues to be dealing in one drama. i'm still wondering what really happened with takeru, eita's character. it wasn't really explained. and the way they handled ryo's sousuke at the end was just a little too convenient. that made me upset a bit. but over all, i did enjoy last friends. the maturity level on the drama was refreshing considering i mostly watch high school dramas, light stuff.

jed_ka · 19 Apr 2009

a friend can not buy

idiotcat · 11 Jan 2009

So often main female characters really piss me off in dramas, and this was no exception. I absolutely hated michiru, and i don't know if this was the target reaction to the character or not. The rest of the actors were awesome. Eita is always wonderful, and Ueno was really spectacular. Except for michiru, the characters really endeared themselves to me. The actor playing Sousuke did excellent- he really made me hate the character.

For me, though the drama was really melodramatic, I quite enjoyed it. I agree it is messy in places but when i watched it I really got into it and it had my emotions in a frenzy the enitre time- a really good response. I couldn't wait to watch it every week (wednesdays at 10!!) Of course, it was the first drama I watched while in Japan, so some of my judgement may be clouded due to this emotional attachment...!

judochick · 26 Oct 2008

i loved this drama from the start. seriously, everytime i would watch an episode, i couldn't wait to watch the next one. juri and eita are extremely talented actors. without them, this drama wouldn't be the same. i highly recommend this drama!!!

Limes · 18 Oct 2008

Ueno Juri steals the show with an excellent performance as the gender-confused Ruka, and easily outshines the lead character Michiru, played by Nagasawa Masami. Eita performs well as the sweet and sensitive Takeru with an aversion to sex, and Nishikido Ryou - terrifying, yet incredibly persuasive and endearing as Sousuke. I wished there was a bigger part for Eri and Ogurin in the show, however their story seemed to move along at a snail's pace with little development - and suddenly it had ended.

The storyline moves seamlessly between the present and the past and back to the present. Sometimes things characters do seem to make little sense, and there's always that 'overheard conversation/meeting coincidence' which gets on my nerves, but I liked the way it dealt with the controversial issues that no one likes to discuss yet are so prevalent in society nowadays.

Utada's 'Prisoner of Love' is a great song for this drama, though I hardly paid attention to the rest of the soundtrack except for the piano version of the theme song.

My verdict? Recommended!

Jackykero · 4 Oct 2008

Yes there are so many controversial topics in this dorama. But they all fit in a rather classic plot about friendship and people overcoming their differences and their past.

I thought that the plot was good, with a lot of twists. The acting was mostly very good (OMG Ueno Juri what an act), despite some situations being a bit awkward (there were some shortcuts, particularly on trying to explain why Michiru so easily submits to his violent boyfriend).

All in all, a dorama of very good quality and excellent casting, definitely worth your time, even if despite the attempts to make it different with all of these difficult topics, it remains something classic that won't make it to my Top10.

benderoftheelements · 29 Sep 2008

this dorama is intense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITS SO GOOD, i had like 30 fangasms from it, its so fuking good. Its like crack, thats how good it is
here are the characters, lesbian, confused girlfriend (cgf), cracy boy friend (cbf), and a gay guy
now the lesbian loves the cgf, and the gay guy loves the lesbian (turns out he isnt gay), but the cbf is using domestic violence agains the cgf, and she runs away from him, to the lesbian, who then tries to protect, who then tells the gay guy that she is a lesbian, and then has the cgf overhear it, and the eventually the cbf comittes suicide
ITS SO GOOD
so many turns and twists, and plot twists, w/e its soo fuking good.OMG im gettin goff just by talking bout it.

eiza · 10 Sep 2008

Must watch it!
All the actors and actress do well in this drama..
Really like it =)

nattou8temaki · 3 Aug 2008

This dorama involves mainly DV (domestic violence), along with some sexual issues which float around the main issue. It is obvious that the creators found that productions with modern issues would be both important and interesting not only from the capitalist point of view - or so I hope.

However, this dorama fails to present such issues, for after a few episodes it becomes repetitive and the story seems to lose its intelligence and dinamicity, and the characters turn out to be somehow unreal.

Another negative point from my point of view would be the way how things just seemed to be pushed forcively to the so-called modern issues which this dorama had the goal to present. In other words, it only tries to involve such things, forgetting that life - and consequently the lives of those characters - has more things just than that.

I have to say it was quite disappointing to see actors such as Ueno Juri and Eita working hard to present their characters as they would be in real life, while the story seemed to tear itself apart as it progressed. In matters of acting, however, I should state that Nagasawa Masami's acting was very poor and she didn't deserve to work with outstanding actors such as the ones mentioned before just because of her pretty face.

Along with that, I think I should mention the unreal way money is used in the dorama. Even while Nagasawa's character Michiru is forced to hide in the sharehouse, she seems to be too fit in terms of money than in a real situation like that. It's just a point that kept me in the nerves.

Also, as some have mentioned, the theme song "Prisoner of Love" by Utada Hikaru was too much used in the dorama it becomes boring and tiring to hear the same thing over and over again, with the original arrangement and piano version. In that way, Last Friends also lacks the good and old soundtracks productions from Fuji TV never failed to astonish and create an emotional aura around the doramas.

I should say I expected a lot more from Last Friends, not only because it's Fuji TV or the casting, but the issues which it was meant to concern. Although the numbers say Last Friends had a better viewership than CHANGE from Kimura Takuya, I think it was one of the poorest of Fuji TV's productions. In spite of that, I think the casting and the producers deserve an "otsukaresama deshita".

8thSin · 16 Jul 2008

Homosexuality, domestic violence, (attempted) rape, pregnancy... this show's got them all. On the other hand, character behavior makes no sense, and production being generally poor, with third-rate music (OST) for suspense.
After few episodes, it's painfully clear the scriptwriter just threw in whatever it takes to stir up controversy in order to get ratings without concern for story flow or character development.

Acting in general was horrible, except Nishikido Ryou did an excellent job when finally breaking down. Unfortunately, he was playing a poorly conceived character for most episodes, and only had one episode to shine in. Similar case for Eita. Acting by the other 4 main cast were just plain joke.

This show started very poorly, but actually started getting interesting around episode 7~10, but it was ruined by one of the worst final episode ever for a dorama. One thing gained for this series though, is that I hated Utada's "Prisoner of Love" when I heard it before watching this series, but the song itself really grew on me by the end.

Wynter · 12 Jul 2008

I should have known this would be a depressing drama with such a foreboding title. Nevertheless, I didnft find it a complete loss. To be sure, I really enjoyed the beginning of the drama, and the very end (more specifically, the last episode). Everything in-between was a complete mess.

The writers did a terrible job. The concept of the drama, in terms of the social issues being covered, was good. There was gender-confusion/homosexuality, child abuse, molestation, and DV. There were even subtle, substantial issues as well, such as neglect, empowerment, abandonment, etc. There was so much meat here that the writers could work with, but quickly the storyline began to cater to the shock value of these issues, and not the essence or importance of bringing about awareness. The characters were not developed, the history of the characters were not fleshed out, and in the last few episodes I found that everything was just rushed and justified in a very weak manner. The overkill of DV – and here I mean showing the actual abuse, not the actual mention of the act – was frustrating to watch, as was the constant repetition of the charactersf actions.

What saved this show for me were the actors/actresses. I have to give them props for playing successfully only one-sided characters. All the actors and actresses did a fine job, considering what they had to work with. I really felt for Ruka, I was madly in love with Takeru, I freaked out when Sosuke was around, Eri brought a smile to my face, and Michiru successfully made me want to smack her around (no pun intended).

Ifll probably never watch this drama again, but Ifm not upset that I watched it this first time. Regardless of all the middle mess, overall the drama really made me feel for the characters and the issues being brought forth. I was also glad that they didnft overplay the homosexuality, and that in the end it was about humans loving humans, and not letting gender disturb the beauty that is love.

dekatrain · 2 Jul 2008

I remember watching the first episode and being like "wow, this is intense" - great selection of cast, excellent choice of theme song, original storyline - it seemed like it was going to be memorable. But it all ended up as one big melodramatic mess. My hat goes off to nishikido - he was genuinely terrifying and believable as the psychopathic lover (so different from ichi littoru), but im sick to death of nagasawa masami. She bores me and her acting is often cringeworthy, weighing down what is otherwise an excellent cast - juri, eita (excellent as usual) and mizukawa is a breath of fresh air. I've decided after watching her other shows that seka chuu was somewhat of a fluke (although ayase haruka was better) because she just seems lost on screen and her expressions are limited and predictable. Maybe she needs to make a few more movies and stop the j-dramas cos shes just so mediocre. But its not all her fault - the dialogue gets very predictable, and we never really get to explore the inner depths of mizukawa or eita, which was disappointing. So quite disappointing.

deedlitmurata · 2 Jul 2008

This jdrama dissappointed me a little bit, because it started amazingly good, the first half of episodes are amazing! the cast is great, all the episodes were really intense and extremely good, but the last 3 or 4 episodes it started to get too cliche and predictable, the characters had so much depth, but at the end you don't get to know their past very well which is something that you linger to know since the series started, and also it felt like there was not enough time at the end and tried tl squish everything in a bad way, in the few episodes left.. =\ I recommend it because it's a very different drama (at the beginning..) , very mature, but u will be dissapointed with the lasts episodes

bmwracer · 26 Jun 2008

Fine performances by Ueno Juri and Eita (or else it would've scored much lower) are ruined by the DV-obsessed story and poorly developed characters. The writer(s) blew an opportunity to make this drama really special. Also, the DV-related violence was excessive and gratuitous. Don't bother watching the SP: it's mostly just a recap of the previous 11 episodes... What a joke.

hirowei87 · 16 Jun 2008

Maybe de combination of brilliant artists and de unusual storyline have given a high expectation for dis drama..It looks quite good at de 1st eps...but den gettin draggy since ep3 til eps 8..the story didnt progress much.. everyone in de de show is so problematic which is quite disturbing.. Takeru n Soskei 's problems r not explained well and there r quite few scenes which served no purposes..