Last Friends

Kijinnmaru wrote:
Yeah. Watching Last Friends was like watching your little girl graduate as high school valedictorian, then dropping out of college to become a stripper. High hopes and potential, great moments, but ultimately a waste.

LOL. Wow, nice way to summarize the show :applaud:

deseipher wrote:I hope for once Asami-chan gets a role with a lot more substance and depth. She really had nothing going in this drama.

Can't argue with that. Of all the main characters, her story seemed to be of the least priority to the writers. She only served to introduce other minor points pertaining to the other major characters, but there was nothing in the drama that was of significance that could be traced to Eri's own story.

Regardless of the roles, I do give all the actors and actresses props for choosing to be in a drama that brought up issues such as domestic violence and gender identity disorder.

I'm wondering if somewhere along the line the writers felt like they were probably in way over their heads by deciding to tackle so many things in the drama. I mean, it started out fine that they were going to deal with the DV stuff, and then someone else decided to up the ante by adding gender issues and marriage issues, and then suddenly the whole thing got out of hand already. It just felt like they gave up on any idea of developing the seemingly interesting parts of the story, and just went on trying to top every other episode with some insane scene or cliffhanger to keep the audience in check.

It's too bad that this is the resulting experience of watching a new drama, as it forces me to temper my expectations for everything else that comes after it.

FarOutFreak wrote:

I'm wondering if somewhere along the line the writers felt like they were probably in way over their heads by deciding to tackle so many things in the drama. I mean, it started out fine that they were going to deal with the DV stuff, and then someone else decided to up the ante by adding gender issues and marriage issues, and then suddenly the whole thing got out of hand already. It just felt like they gave up on any idea of developing the seemingly interesting parts of the story, and just went on trying to top every other episode with some insane scene or cliffhanger to keep the audience in check.

It's too bad that this is the resulting experience of watching a new drama, as it forces me to temper my expectations for everything else that comes after it.

Somehow I suspect you're giving them too much credit :beaten:

My impressions after the final episode

Spoiler — click to reveal

Sousuke's goodbye letter, Eri's and Ogurin's marriage, Ruka's and Takeru's accident, Michiru's pregnancy - all of that was so lame and so predictable. It reminds me of a brazilian show my grandma's watching right now. I'm really disappointed - that dorama had a great potential and could be really good, but the writers totally failed.

The only thing I liked was that Ruka and Takeru decided to raise up Rumi together with Michiru, so there's a chance that cute little girl will be normal and strong woman in the future and won't repeat Michiru's mistakes.

Michiru should be killed just for many times of saying "sorry"

I have no idea what a special will be for. Everything is clear.

Gosik wrote:My impressions after the final episode

Spoiler — click to reveal

Sousuke's goodbye letter, Eri's and Ogurin's marriage, Ruka's and Takeru's accident, Michiru's pregnancy - all of that was so lame and so predictable. It reminds me of a brazilian show my grandma's watching right now. I'm really disappointed - that dorama had a great potential and could be really good, but the writers totally failed.

That's pretty much unanimous... Here at J-D, at least.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Michiru should be killed just for many times of saying "sorry"

LOL. :lol:

Spoiler — click to reveal

One of the very few times people were hoping for a murder-suicide.... :hehe:

I have no idea what a special will be for. Everything is clear.

Not to the writers. :crazy: :shakehead:

As usual, I am late so I haven't gone back to read any of the spoilers that have happened.

But yeah, they haven't even announced the brand sponsors for the drama and I'm already all :banghead: :bleh:

Spoiler — click to reveal

I wasn't happy with Michiru crying/mourning the loss of the guy that abused and raped her, but she was in love with him at one point so I guess its understandable on some level.

However, I'm rather appalled at Sousuke's suicide note and the treatment of it. They really played him off as some sort of ultra passionate/ romantic character. That whole "killing himself while his body still remembers her warmth" might have been somewhat romantic in an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet- but its just creepy and wrong considering their last time together was when he raped her. Its almost like it was his one last stab at emotionally controlling her and it worked. Also, that long list of things he was sorry for and the closest thing her got to "I'm sorry for beating you senseless, trying to ruin/kill your friends, and violating you in the worst way possible" was "I'm sorry for not knowing how to love".

Such bullshit.

*nauseous due to that whole body-warmth comment*

Usually I don't post until after I've watched everything and then I go back and read the spoilers to make sure I'm not just parroting stuff- but the disgust just could not wait.

*continues to watch the episode*

KeepMeCaffein8td wrote:As usual, I am late so I haven't gone back to read any of the spoilers that have happened.

But yeah, they haven't even announced the brand sponsors for the drama and I'm already all :banghead: :bleh:

Something to look forward to. :beaten:

Spoiler — click to reveal

I wasn't happy with Michiru crying/mourning the loss of the guy that abused and raped her, but she was in love with him at one point so I guess its understandable on some level.

I suppose so.

But it's sickening/frustrating/insane as well.

Spoiler — click to reveal

However, I'm rather appalled at Sousuke's suicide note and the treatment of it. They really played him off as some sort of ultra passionate/ romantic character. That whole "killing himself while his body still remembers her warmth" might have been somewhat romantic in an interpretation of Romeo and Juliet- but its just creepy and wrong considering their last time together was when he raped her. Its almost like it was his one last stab at emotionally controlling her and it worked. Also, that long list of things he was sorry for and the closest thing her got to "I'm sorry for beating you senseless, trying to ruin/kill your friends, and violating you in the worst way possible" was "I'm sorry for not knowing how to love".

Such bullshit.

*nauseous due to that whole body-warmth comment*

Spoiler — click to reveal

A farce, ain't it? :shakehead:

Probably the most bogus piece of "redemption" I've ever seen in a drama.

You know, I was thinking about Nagasawa Masami's acting in Last Friends, and how I thought it wasn't exactly up to the standards of the rest of the cast. But I tried to cut her some slack because it must be tough with Ueno Juri and Eita there.

Then I accidentally caught the trailers and several clips of a movie that recently came out in Japan - Kakushi toride no san akunin / The Last Princess. I couldn't stop laughing at Matsumoto Jun's really bad fake facial hair, then lo and behold... Masami shows up! And she has so much more presence as an actress!

Which leads me to this: Was the directing for Last Friends extremely inconsistent or something? Sometimes she nailed a scene, sometimes she didn't (and when she didn't, I always thought it was cringe-worthy... they were usually the crying scenes btw). There's lots of hype surrounding her as an actress, but Last Friends is all I have to go by so far.

If the directing really did get sub-par as the series went, then... that's really a shame for the cast, and yet another bad point for the series as a whole. Well, it already is a shame for the cast, but you know what I mean... (not being able to fully showcase their talents and all that).

roon wrote:You know, I was thinking about Nagasawa Masami's acting in Last Friends, and how I thought it wasn't exactly up to the standards of the rest of the cast. But I tried to cut her some slack because it must be tough with Ueno Juri and Eita there.

Then I accidentally caught the trailers and several clips of a movie that recently came out in Japan - Kakushi toride no san akunin / The Last Princess. I couldn't stop laughing at Matsumoto Jun's really bad fake facial hair, then lo and behold... Masami shows up! And she has so much more presence as an actress!

Maybe she had less acting competition with Matsumoto as opposed to Juri-chan and Eita... :beaten:

Which leads me to this: Was the directing for Last Friends extremely inconsistent or something? Sometimes she nailed a scene, sometimes she didn't (and when she didn't, I always thought it was cringe-worthy... they were usually the crying scenes btw). There's lots of hype surrounding her as an actress, but Last Friends is all I have to go by so far.

I'd think if there were inconsistencies, it falls on the director: he should be able to spot it and make the necessary adjustments...

Yeah, I haven't seen much of Masami's work either... She seems more an idol than actress, IMO... :sweat:

Finally finished!

Spoiler — click to reveal

Thankfully, there was little else that was really, really infuriating in the rest of the drama after the first 3 minutes of absolute awful. I think I only really wanted to tear my hair out when Michiru started blabbering about how she was happy that she was pregnant because then she wouldn't be lonely anymore. Please, if you are lonely- get a puppy, don't have a kid.

Then she started on about how the baby was a sign that Sousuke had forgiven her... :banghead: :shakehead: Um, last time I checked it was his decision to slit his wrists and drape himself in some sort of nightgown/ wedding dress thing. Its not her fault that he was thinking about her @ his time of death, I mean when was he ever NOT thinking of her? He was an obsessed loony. I wanted to grab Michiru and toss her to a shrink. She's got issues upon issues. Yeah and all those flashbacks with a smiley Sousuke didn't make me sympathetic-it made me a little sick cuz it makes it seem like Michiru's gonna feed some sort of idealized sugar-coated image of that asshole to her kid.

During the scene where Ruka and Takeru meet her baby, part of me wanted Michiru to look at the two of them holding the kid and say "I want you guys to raise her" then like suddenly die.

I guess the best things to come out of this were the further solidification of Ruka and Takeru's friendship and the fact that they are not allowing Michiru to raise that baby alone.

And I'm with you guys, I have no idea why they even need a SP.

On a random note- why is the drama name so weird? I mean, its not like they're not allowed to make any more friends outside the group... maybe there is a nuance to the word phrase that is only present in Japanese, but not English (ex- like the Japanese usage of the word "boom" to describe something you're really into at the moment).

KeepMeCaffein8td wrote:
On a random note- why is the drama name so weird? I mean, its not like they're not allowed to make any more friends outside the group... maybe there is a nuance to the word phrase that is only present in Japanese, but not English (ex- like the Japanese usage of the word "boom" to describe something you're really into at the moment).

The show didn't make sense, so I guess it was only logical for the title not to make sense either. :mrgreen:

KeepMeCaffein8td wrote:Finally finished!

Spoiler — click to reveal

Thankfully, there was little else that was really, really infuriating in the rest of the drama after the first 3 minutes of absolute awful. I think I only really wanted to tear my hair out when Michiru started blabbering about how she was happy that she was pregnant because then she wouldn't be lonely anymore. Please, if you are lonely- get a puppy, don't have a kid.

Spoiler — click to reveal

LOL... There's a great message from the drama: if you're lonely, get raped and have a kid. :nut:

Spoiler — click to reveal

During the scene where Ruka and Takeru meet her baby, part of me wanted Michiru to look at the two of them holding the kid and say "I want you guys to raise her" then like suddenly die.

LOL. :lol:

I think we're coming up with better storylines than the writers do. :hehe:

Spoiler — click to reveal

I guess the best things to come out of this were the further solidification of Ruka and Takeru's friendship and the fact that they are not allowing Michiru to raise that baby alone.

Spoiler — click to reveal

And possible having the kid be as screwed up as Sosuke... Gotta break that vicious cycle.

On a random note- why is the drama name so weird? I mean, its not like they're not allowed to make any more friends outside the group... maybe there is a nuance to the word phrase that is only present in Japanese, but not English (ex- like the Japanese usage of the word "boom" to describe something you're really into at the moment).

Who knows.... Yeah, it's a odd title, which, like a lot of things in this drama, leave you guessing... :headscratch:

People over at D-Addicts are giving a play-by-play on the 90-minute SP which is currently airing.... So far it's been nothing but a recap of the previous 11 episodes.

Surprise, surprise. :shakehead:

bmwracer wrote:People over at D-Addicts are giving a play-by-play on the 90-minute SP which is currently airing.... So far it's been nothing but a recap of the previous 11 episodes.

Surprise, surprise. :shakehead:

Meh. :dotdotdot:

From a D-Addicts post:
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I found this at jdrama.cc

ƒ‰ƒXƒgEƒtƒŒƒ“ƒYƒXƒyƒVƒƒƒ‹ƒAƒ“ƒR\ƒ‹“Á•Ê•Ò (Last Friends Special Encore Tokubetsuhen)

Last Friends Special that will be broadcast today 6/26 is just a collection of highlights with a few scenes not included in the Drama Series edition.
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There were a few "present" scenes and a scene that was cut from Ep10, but otherwise...

Wow I can't believe I just wasted an hour and a half watching that.

What's even worse, is that they showed a new scene in a sponsor-ish preview thing... but THEY DIDN'T AIR IT IN THE ACTUAL SP EP. Unless I missed it, of course. My broadcaster gave out for the first 5 minutes or so...

I really would have been better off not watching the SP. Suddenly I'm feeling really, really irritated at its lack of relevance and general uselessness.

P.S.
If you don't like Sousuke, you're not going to like it. I didn't like him but I didn't care very much anyway, but after watching the SP I am feeling a lot more rage towards his character. Must be something about all his stupid scenes consolidated into one long block.

The best thing about the SP?
When waiting for it to start, watching ‚Æ‚ñ‚˂邸‚ð and Becky, and Becky doing her awesome "Don't touch me! Shut up!" gag. At least I got something out of the broadcast... I guess...

roon wrote:There were a few "present" scenes and a scene that was cut from Ep10, but otherwise...

Wow I can't believe I just wasted an hour and a half watching that.

What's even worse, is that they showed a new scene in a sponsor-ish preview thing... but THEY DIDN'T AIR IT IN THE ACTUAL SP EP. Unless I missed it, of course. My broadcaster gave out for the first 5 minutes or so...

I really would have been better off not watching the SP. Suddenly I'm feeling really, really irritated at its lack of relevance and general uselessness.

P.S.
If you don't like Sousuke, you're not going to watch it. I didn't like him but I didn't care very much, but after watching the SP I am feeling a lot more rage towards his character.

Looks like I won't waste my time downloading the SP... :bleh:

I wonder how the fangirls over at D-Addicts are gonna spin this worthless SP episode.


Dang, look how this show has degenerated from Episode 1... :shakehead:

man, now I'm so glad that I decided to walk out because of the heat& completely forgot about this lol

bmwracer wrote:
Looks like I won't waste my time downloading the SP... :bleh:

I wonder how the fangirls over at D-Addicts are gonna spin this worthless SP episode.


Dang, look how this show has degenerated from Episode 1... :shakehead:

Hurray for commercial television!

Surprisingly, there's near-unanimous disappointment with the SP over at D-Addicts... :shocked:


Some are deriding the SP as the "Sosuke Special."