Last Friends

bmwracer wrote:
Can I get a collective "UGH!!" from everyone??

Make 'em say UGH!!

Sorry, just had a flashback to a late '90s Master P song :beaten:

As I've posted before, I have no plans to watch this movie :victory: [/i]

deseipher wrote:
Regardless, thanks for your take on Ryo :victory:

No problem =)

Tenshigure wrote:I have to be honest...at Episode 2, I had felt the same way in thinking that the entire case (yes, even Ryo) were doing a fantastic job, and I had even thought this show would've been one of those "recommend to all" shows. However as the series progressed and with little depth changes from him or the writing, it just showed it's true colors (as opposed to, say, Juri's evolving of the Ruka character or Eita executing Takeru's complex yet lacking story in near-perfect form).

Yep, Actually, i've like 20 minutes left of the last episode, and honestly when I started to watch I started with a "Oh lets get this over with"
Im actually really dissapointed at this drama

Like I, and everybody else said, it was good at the beginning, it can be the storywriters who are dumbasses or maybe this drama would be good for a special drama for like 3 or 4 episodes at the most.
They clearly lost it...

if not the 20 minutes ending will be strongly surprisingly good...

deseipher wrote:As I've posted before, I have no plans to watch this movie :victory:

I actually don't have any energy to do that either... but don't you feel sometimes you just have to? I mean, if I watch a drama, I have to watch the whole thing, including the movie, god damn, I finished Bambino! with a relieved sigh a month ago, took me like 3 months to look through it so x'D

Forget what I just said... I just found out that there are 11 episodes....
one more to go...

Swedish_Japan_Lover wrote:

I actually don't have any energy to do that either... but don't you feel sometimes you just have to? I mean, if I watch a drama, I have to watch the whole thing, including the movie, god damn, I finished Bambino! with a relieved sigh a month ago, took me like 3 months to look through it so x'D

I consider the movie as just a sidestory, with the main storyline completed during the drama, so I don't really feel the need to watch the movie. Personally if I start watching a drama, I do wonder if I should finish, but there are dramas that I have stopped watching after just three or four episodes. I guess it varies, though I will have to admit whether or not Juri-chan is in it goes a long way in deciding if I'll stick to a drama :victory:

deseipher wrote:

I consider the movie as just a sidestory, with the main storyline completed during the drama, so I don't really feel the need to watch the movie. Personally if I start watching a drama, I do wonder if I should finish, but there are dramas that I have stopped watching after just three or four episodes. I guess it varies, though I will have to admit whether or not Juri-chan is in it goes a long way in deciding if I'll stick to a drama :victory:

And whether the movie has Juri in it will likely go a long way to determining whether our body watches it.

Though I have to admit, I watched the special (at least the new material) just to see how the story was 'filled in'. I liked that Takeru was more comfortable with his sister.

phlargo wrote:

And whether the movie has Juri in it will likely go a long way to determining whether our body watches it.

Considering I watched Arch Angels I may end up having to take back what I said about watching the Last Friends movie. :beaten:

I think the only way I would watch it is if the movie gets a lot of positive reviews, especially if those reviews are from those who were disappointed by the drama. As it is, I'm set on not watching it since I was pretty disappointed with how the drama turned out. I don't have much faith in the writers.

deseipher wrote:Considering I watched Arch Angels I may end up having to take back what I said about watching the Last Friends movie. :beaten:

But there was no precursor to Warau Mikaeru...

bmwracer wrote:
But there was no precursor to Warau Mikaeru...

That's true, but if I can get through that train wreck, I just might be able to get through the Last Friends movie. :beaten:

Finally got around to watching this drama, even after reading spoilers and horrible reviews, haha. I think how I feel has pretty much been said already. If it was a little different, I think it could've been great.

As for Ryo Nishikido, I think he did a good job even if it didn't require much skill. He succeeded in creeping me out and I was nervous whenever he was around.

And as a final note, I think it was adorable how Eita always had rolled up pants and ankle socks. :beaten:

the end was disappointing ...

PaperCaged wrote:As for Ryo Nishikido, I think he did a good job even if it didn't require much skill.

The very definition of a doorstop. :beaten:

Haha. :mrgreen:
The ending was disappointing.

And now that I'm more awake, I agree with this person’s review up until the part about Sosuke:

Spoiler — click to reveal

I hated Sousuke's character. The reason I hated Sousuke's character is because they tried to give him this pitiful background as an excuse for why he behaved the way he did. Well, I hate to tell the writer, but many people grew up without parents or grew up in a lot shittier circumstances than he did and don't grow up to repeatedly abuse their girlfriends with no remorse. It was a complete cop-out at making his character "complex" or some ridiculous crap, which was completely ineffective for me. He was weak and that's why he did what he did. He was someone who did not deserve to be alive, and while I'm glad he died, I think the way they did it was an utter cop-out. I refuse to believe that after all the horrific beatings he gave Michiru that a few damn pictures of her eating shish-kebabs made him release he'd done wrong. I don't think he would have ever had the courage to kill himself. I think he was a psychopath who would never ever kill himself because doing that would mean setting Michiru free, and I don't think he ever intended to set her free.

Spoilers~

Spoiler — click to reveal

It’s obvious he wasn’t just a cold-hearted monster. I think he was like a kid himself because he wanted to help them so much, like with his job and that time he risked his life to save the kid. He would never hurt a kid, but he had no problem hurting adults because he didn’t trust them and was extremely paranoid and afraid of being left behind.

He would follow Michiru around and even slept outside near the garbage because he wanted to be close to her. In the end where he raped her, it wasn’t for sexual pleasure; it was because he wanted to feel her warmth, kind of like a mother’s warmth. That seems childish to me.

Which leads me to believe he knew what he was doing was wrong the whole time but just couldn’t control himself. He never once smiled when beating Michiru, but he bit his lip and would clench his fists sometimes. The way he would beg her to come back was pitiful. He killed himself not only to release her, but to release himself as well because he couldn’t fathom being left behind by another woman.

Or maybe I’m analyzing him too much. :crazy:

PaperCaged wrote:
As for Ryo Nishikido, I think he did a good job even if it didn't require much skill.

Doesn't one cancel out the other? :beaten:

^ Well, I guess I should say he was just suited for that part. xD

PaperCaged wrote:Or maybe I’m analyzing him too much. :crazy:

I think you're giving the character too much credit...

That's the fault of the writer: if he/she had fleshed out the character, we would've seen what drove him instead of speculating based upon those few piddly morsels of clues...

Yeah, I agree with that. The writer could've done so many things to make the characters more real. :puppydog:

I still have to post my would-be lengthy LF rant on the LJ community, but ranting so much is exasperating.

Spoiler — click to reveal

I hated Sousuke's character. The reason I hated Sousuke's character is because they tried to give him this pitiful background as an excuse for why he behaved the way he did. Well, I hate to tell the writer, but many people grew up without parents or grew up in a lot shittier circumstances than he did and don't grow up to repeatedly abuse their girlfriends with no remorse. It was a complete cop-out at making his character "complex" or some ridiculous crap, which was completely ineffective for me.

I agree with this 100%. I wish Sousuke hadn't turned into the staff's way of getting ratings, because the show had SO much potential to work off of. They had 4 other characters whom they could have developed into ratings attractions. In fact, wasn't Ruka's very existence and the end of EP1 already buzz-worthy enough?! Meh, whatever.

As an aside, I'm sure it's unintentional since the writing was so damn sloppy, but I noticed Sousuke and Takeru are the very antitheses of each other. Takeru: the nice guy with the past that traumatized him, but doesn't let it define him. Sousuke: the jerkish girlfriend beater because he had a rough past. (Except, Sousuke's past has nothing on Takeru's, IMO.)

I'll watch the movie if 1) it's with the same cast, which I kinda doubt and 2) it's nothing like the SP, which was essentially just a Sousuke marathon. If it does have a different cast, I might take a look at it to see if they can pull off what the drama didn't.

roon wrote:I still have to post my would-be lengthy LF rant on the LJ community, but ranting so much is exasperating.

Consider it cathartic.

My continual ranting really helped me get other the frustrations that the drama provided.

As an aside, I'm sure it's unintentional since the writing was so damn sloppy, but I noticed Sousuke and Takeru are the very antitheses of each other. Takeru: the nice guy with the past that traumatized him, but doesn't let it define him. Sousuke: the jerkish girlfriend beater because he had a rough past. (Except, Sousuke's past has nothing on Takeru's, IMO.)

Good observation.

And both characters' backgrounds were woefully underdeveloped/unresolved by the writer. :grumble: :bleh:

bmwracer wrote:
And both characters' backgrounds were woefully underdeveloped/unresolved by the writer. :grumble: :bleh:

Which leads me back to my original observation of the show after the conclusion: what if these four characters were supposed to originally be TWO characters? Takeru and Sousuke and the exact opposites, and Michiru and Ruka were practically the same in mentality as well. Had they combined the parts, you think we'd have actually have a half-decent show on our hands? :beaten: :hehe:

Tenshigure wrote:Which leads me back to my original observation of the show after the conclusion: what if these four characters were supposed to originally be TWO characters? Takeru and Sousuke and the exact opposites, and Michiru and Ruka were practically the same in mentality as well. Had they combined the parts, you think we'd have actually have a half-decent show on our hands? :beaten: :hehe:

We'll never know. :sweat: