Last Friends

MissMonika wrote:

For which I am grateful for.

On this other forum I visit, the Last Friends thread there was mainly a bunch of girls spazzing about "how so good" this show is with a "completely satisfying ending." According to them, "Ryo should win an award." :bleh:

Spoiler — click to reveal

Apparently to them, Sousuke was a misunderstood character who was just looking for some love in the world. The fact that he physically abused and raped Michiro didn't really matter to them because he apologized for it in his suicide note.

WTF?!?!?! I have a feeling this was what the writers were hoping the audience's reaction would be when they wrote in Sousuke's suicide. Ugh, how utterly....disappointing that these girls would lap it all up.

I can actually find some merit to 'the fangirls argument' you laid out above. The drama definitely could have done that.. and included the

Spoiler — click to reveal

raping and beatings

if only they had allocated like half the series to talking about Sousuke's persona..

However, the production team didn't do that and really never focused on any story to a satisfying conclusion, so I think I'll 'respectfully disagree' with their analysis.

bmwracer wrote:
The writer(s) could've possibly done that if they probed deeper into his life rather than have the "beatdown of the week" every episode... :shakehead:

Yeah.. I agree completely - they definitely could have 'redeemed' him - it would have just taken a focused, well written drama to do so :grumble:

Watched 9 mins sp anyway

I wish I could understand the conversation between Takeru and his sister.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Michiru, instead of visiting Sousuke's grave, should send satanists there :usuck:

And I got the idea why the show is entitled Last Friends - maybe because nobody else could stand Michiru's stupidity :bleh:

Spoiler — click to reveal

When I see a woman like her I'm not surprised Ruka thought about changing her gender.

About fangirls. I'm a fangirl too and I really adore Ryo. But I can separate my love for him from the character. But maybe I'm the one who isn't normal :mrgreen:

meoinkie2 wrote:just finished watching the 9 minute edited SP.. :shakehead:
it's just like the SP from 1 Litre of Tears, although it's got more depth in the story compared to LF..only thing im curious about is the convo between Takeru and his sister..hopefully somebody cud share some translations?? :fingerscrossed:
now im wondering how are they gonna make this a movie?! :crazy: :doh:

According to the D-Addicts thread, someone has subbed those challenging nine minutes...

Gosik wrote:But maybe I'm the one who isn't normal :mrgreen:

Maybe. :victory:

OMG....

Spoiler — click to reveal

even though he is dead, they still managed to make him appear in the SP as part of Michiru's flashback!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

=.=!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everybody...for me, in my opinion (in my opinion though, every person have different opinion) this series is bad...the acting is terrible...nagasawa masami and ryo nishikido acting are horrible...OMG...and ueno juri and eita acting are so-so...they are trying sooo hard..but still bit unconvincing for me...
The storyline is getting boring and boring and just over the place...its too inconsistent....and sooo over dramatic...
so i keep skipping the parts...coz its boring...

ANYWAY... :metaldevil: KISS and PEACE :bow:

Gosik wrote:
About fangirls. I'm a fangirl too and I really adore Ryo. But I can separate my love for him from the character. But maybe I'm the one who isn't normal :mrgreen:

Well considering the norm here is criticizing the Sousuke role, I'd have to say you are normal around these parts of the internet :victory:

I'm still thinking about what score to give the drama, one with shoddy, uncreative writing which only happened to be interesting initially because of the issues and with the acting of Juri-chan and Eita. Everyone else was stuck in roles that were really never fleshed out. There was potential with the issues the show tried to tackle, but it was more for shock value than anything else.

The show was good enough that I actually watched every episode, so at least I'd give it a 5.0. Add a point for Juri-chan and Eita, .02 for Sousuke's cheap demise (at least he finally left), .35 for Asami (just her, not the role) and maybe .0001 for what transpired at the end of the first episode, totaling up to a score of 6.3701 out of 10. :victory: Well, J-Dorama score would be a 6 then. :sweat: Good to watch once, but never again.

deseipher wrote:Well considering the norm here is criticizing the Sousuke role, I'd have to say you are normal around these parts of the internet :victory:

I'm still thinking about what score to give the drama, one with shoddy, uncreative writing which only happened to be interesting initially because of the issues and with the acting of Juri-chan and Eita. Everyone else was stuck in roles that were really never fleshed out. There was potential with the issues the show tried to tackle, but it was more for shock value than anything else.

The show was good enough that I actually watched every episode, so at least I'd give it a 5.0. Add a point for Juri-chan and Eita, .02 for Sousuke's cheap demise (at least he finally left), .35 for Asami (just her, not the role) and maybe .0001 for what transpired at the end of the first episode, totaling up to a score of 6.3701 out of 10. :victory: Well, J-Dorama score would be a 6 then. :sweat: Good to watch once, but never again.

Yup... I gave it a generous 7/10.

Though maybe I should've given it a 6/10, considering how crapass the SP was... The viewers got swindled big time there. :shakehead:

I'm not going to even bother creating a DVD-Video... I'll just keep the raws and my edited subs on disc.

bmwracer wrote:I'll tell you guys this: it's gonna be a sad day in J-drama history if this series wins any awards, aside from maybe Juri-chan or Eita's performances... :sweat:

Two Words: Yukan Club.


In all fairness, I can see 3 awards being given to the show by the actual press:

- Ueno Juri: Best Supporting Actress
- Eita: Best Supporting Actor
- Best Theme Song: 'Prisoner of Love' by Utada Hikaru

Let's be honest here folks, Utada is STILL hot in Japan, and the song itself doesn't have all that much competition from the other shows (at least the ones I've been watching anyways).

Tenshigure wrote:- Best Theme Song: 'Prisoner of Love' by Utada Hikaru

Let's be honest here folks, Utada is STILL hot in Japan, and the song itself doesn't have all that much competition from the other shows (at least the ones I've been watching anyways).

I suppose...

It seems that's the only track in the entire drama... Or a variant of it. :rolleyes:

That song beats on the viewers ears as much as Sosuke beat on the other characters... :sweat:

Kijinnmaru wrote:
No kidding. Since I finished the series and posted my opinion, I went back to read the rest of the posts. "Reality" is an excuse lazy filmmakers use to justify their lack of effort. It's not reality; it's a reality-based drama, with emphasis on the drama. That has to be the objective, first and foremost. And if everything was reality, how about all the "reality holes"? It's a drama? :rolleyes:

The chicken or the egg?

We were lured in by the reality part... the drama was supposed to be tackling modern, "real" issues. Of course, once we got past the first few episodes, "real" apparently meant "we're going to beat up/abuse somebody pretty much regularly". So that's real?

Giving it a 6. They wasted Asami's character, stuck Ryo with an absolutely horrid one-dimensional role, and couldn't even develop any of the issues that they brought up at the start. Not even Eita or Juri could save the series from that.

I'd describe the drama overall as 'progressively deflating'.

FarOutFreak wrote:I'd describe the drama overall as 'progressively deflating'.

LOL. :lol:


Like a tire with a slow leak. :hehe: :rofl:

FarOutFreak wrote:

The chicken or the egg?

We were lured in by the reality part... the drama was supposed to be tackling modern, "real" issues. Of course, once we got past the first few episodes, "real" apparently meant "we're going to beat up/abuse somebody pretty much regularly". So that's real?

Giving it a 6. They wasted Asami's character, stuck Ryo with an absolutely horrid one-dimensional role, and couldn't even develop any of the issues that they brought up at the start. Not even Eita or Juri could save the series from that.

I'd describe the drama overall as 'progressively deflating'.

I was thinking more of the "reasoning" the show's supporters used to explain what was happening in the series. When Michiru continued to be a rock, the excuse was it was reality. When nothing made sense in terms of reality, the excuse was it was a drama. I think the writers thought they could toss everything in and expect it to win an award without effort simply because they were the "issues of the day".

Spoiler — click to reveal

Sousuke's "redemption" is one of the laziest filmmaking conventions. It's right up there with being evil, then repenting the moment before you die to slip out of hell. Sorry, FAIL. In my opinion, if they wanted Sousuke to be a pitiable character, they would have tried to show that in any of the preceding nine episodes, which they had ample time to do. So I find little merit in the fangirls' argument.

bmwracer wrote:
I'm not going to even bother creating a DVD-Video... I'll just keep the raws and my edited subs on disc.

You should edit out most of the Sousuke/Michiru's parts. The show might be better upon viewing. :mrgreen:

Kijinnmaru wrote:You should edit out most of the Sousuke/Michiru's parts. The show might be better upon viewing. :mrgreen:

I'll leave that to the viewer and their fast-forward button. :mrgreen:

Last Friends SP garners 17.4% in VRs

Compared to Last Friends' Final Episode's VRs of 22.8%, 17.4% is rather low. Viewers also commented that the ending of Last Friends [i think they refer to the last episode, and NOT the SP] was 'confusing and ambiguous'. The company president, Yutaka-san admitted that it was a bit 'confusing and ambiguous', but nevertheless thanked the viewers for their support while explaining that the themes and issues addressed in the dorama were "difficult" ones.

source: mainichi
translations: myfirstgossipblog

meoinkie2 wrote:Last Friends SP garners 17.4% in VRs

Compared to Last Friends' Final Episode's VRs of 22.8%, 17.4% is rather low. Viewers also commented that the ending of Last Friends [i think they refer to the last episode, and NOT the SP] was 'confusing and ambiguous'. The company president, Yutaka-san admitted that it was a bit 'confusing and ambiguous', but nevertheless thanked the viewers for their support while explaining that the themes and issues addressed in the dorama were "difficult" ones.

source: mainichi
translations: myfirstgossipblog

Well duh, they could've finished the series in Episode 10, 11 was the end-all be-all wrap-up show that could've served as the last 5 minutes of 10!

*******

Now to post what I was going to before having to restart my machine:

I think what's worse about the whole series is if you completely removed or gave yourself the perception that Ruka / Takeru's characters and their conflicts are the MAIN story and make Michiru / Ryo's story secondary (hell, dead last), it could be slightly better.

The problem is, with the directing and the editing, there was absolutely ZERO main plot in the end! Sure, there were countless beatdowns and everyone was seemingly petrified of the Japanese Jason wannabe, but the fact of the matter is the main plot itself was fleshed out just as much if not LESS than what the sidestories were!

I haven't done research on this so I can't confirm, but I wouldn't be honestly surprised if all of the plots that were going on were written by individual groups of writers at first as separate series in themselves and then it was decided to combine them together and assemble a Frankenstein's monster-style show that we got in Last Friends.

Spoiler — click to reveal

The worst part is you can tell by the resolution stage that they had spent so much time trying to combine these 'issues' that they, in typical J-Drama fashion of a sub-par show, FORGOT to tie in the rest of the series at the end due to limited schedule (at least that's how it seems, see 'SP', 'First Kiss', etc.).

Riding too high on the ratings-based scenes, they keep throwing more and more at you and FORGET to progress the plot! How did they solve this? Send Sousuke to beat the story to conclusion and mix in with his story! That selfish bastard character took out the rest of the story with him! :beaten:

Such high expectations...such a great start...and then when you realize they got nothing left by episode 4, you're too into the show to give up just yet (not to mention you wanted to see Sousuke's character pay for destroying the show :hehe: .

When I watched the episode 11 last week, I thought I'd comment but rather preferred waiting for the SP to comment on the whole thing, hoping that the SP would at least change my mind.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Those nine minutes were totally unneeded. Michiru's decision to keep the baby just made me feel sick. I was waiting for the part where we'd get the details about Ruka's story. The SP already ended and where's Ruka?

About the drama, I felt that there was such a difference between the first and the second halves of the series. I was so interested at the beginning where I found myself losing interest later on. I think because viewers expected a lot from the drama, that we found many disappointed people here.

Bleh.

Tenshigure wrote:

Well duh, they could've finished the series in Episode 10, 11 was the end-all be-all wrap-up show that could've served as the last 5 minutes of 10!

*******

Now to post what I was going to before having to restart my machine:

I think what's worse about the whole series is if you completely removed or gave yourself the perception that Ruka / Takeru's characters and their conflicts are the MAIN story and make Michiru / Ryo's story secondary (hell, dead last), it could be slightly better.

The problem is, with the directing and the editing, there was absolutely ZERO main plot in the end! Sure, there were countless beatdowns and everyone was seemingly petrified of the Japanese Jason wannabe, but the fact of the matter is the main plot itself was fleshed out just as much if not LESS than what the sidestories were!

I haven't done research on this so I can't confirm, but I wouldn't be honestly surprised if all of the plots that were going on were written by individual groups of writers at first as separate series in themselves and then it was decided to combine them together and assemble a Frankenstein's monster-style show that we got in Last Friends.

Spoiler — click to reveal

The worst part is you can tell by the resolution stage that they had spent so much time trying to combine these 'issues' that they, in typical J-Drama fashion of a sub-par show, FORGOT to tie in the rest of the series at the end due to limited schedule (at least that's how it seems, see 'SP', 'First Kiss', etc.).

Riding too high on the ratings-based scenes, they keep throwing more and more at you and FORGET to progress the plot! How did they solve this? Send Sousuke to beat the story to conclusion and mix in with his story! That selfish bastard character took out the rest of the story with him! :beaten:

Such high expectations...such a great start...and then when you realize they got nothing left by episode 4, you're too into the show to give up just yet (not to mention you wanted to see Sousuke's character pay for destroying the show :hehe: .

I hear ya... The writers just wanted to hit on a bunch of hot-button topics for ratings... It seemed quite obvious that they didn't have a complete story/plot plan all thought out before the drama started, which explains why they couldn't make up their mind how many episodes the series would be... :shakehead: :crazy:

I guess you'd call that "seat-of-the pants" writing.

Lifo wrote:When I watched the episode 11 last week, I thought I'd comment but rather preferred waiting for the SP to comment on the whole thing, hoping that the SP would at least change my mind.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Those nine minutes were totally unneeded. Michiru's decision to keep the baby just made me feel sick. I was waiting for the part where we'd get the details about Ruka's story. The SP already ended and where's Ruka?

About the drama, I felt that there was such a difference between the first and the second halves of the series. I was so interested at the beginning where I found myself losing interest later on. I think because viewers expected a lot from the drama, that we found many disappointed people here.

Bleh.

The Last Friends Disappointment Boat is getting awfully crowded, especially after that awful SP...