Last Friends

Now.. I too realised they are trying to keep us in with one cliffhanger after another cliffhanger... and left many issues untouched.
Till now, I still dunno what is Takeru's real problem with his sis.
I still dunno what is up with Eri.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Have enough of Sousuke's beatings and nonsense.. and enough of Michuru... I rather the plot move on to the other characters... and making him killed himself is just lame!

Iatheia wrote:

Spoiler — click to reveal

A very dissatisfying ending. Quite unrealistic. I don't believe that a man like Sousuke will go through with suicide idea. He tried that once, couldn't do it. And what's with that dress? Gah. Sleeping beauty. He is not exactly the type.

During the last few minutes I kept screaming at Michiru "Leave you bags and RUN!!!!!" But no...

And then he had a nerve to pretend that he is suffering about what happened more than she did!

You know... the sad thing is that people in Sousuke's position

Spoiler — click to reveal

tend to think of themselves as the victims, "forced by the circumstances", the "other made me do it"... If you have any doubt, just read what the guy who locked up his own daughter in the cellar of his house and raped her for two decades and fathered her 7 kids says. He still claims he did this "to protect her".
Reality's much more gruesome and repulsing, and people are much more sick in their heads, than that show can ever portray.

chokakoi wrote:

Spoiler — click to reveal

Have enough of Sousuke's beatings and nonsense.. and enough of Michuru... I rather the plot move on to the other characters... and making him killed himself is just lame!

I agree. Through watching this series, I started to feel that Sousuke is one of the main characters although I totally had the idea in mind (before watching the series) that he wasn't. We're left with episode 10 now and many questions unanswered and I don't think I'd favor rushing all of these things into one episode because of the huge focus on Michiru x Sousuke in the previous episodes. We'll see how this goes ..

Actually I don't think it's quite a big problem for them to not explain Sousuke's problems. It's a good way to get viewers thinking for themselves and I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing to do.

chokakoi wrote:Now.. I too realised they are trying to keep us in with one cliffhanger after another cliffhanger... and left many issues untouched.
Till now, I still dunno what is Takeru's real problem with his sis.
I still dunno what is up with Eri.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Have enough of Sousuke's beatings and nonsense.. and enough of Michuru... I rather the plot move on to the other characters... and making him killed himself is just lame!

Please be considerate with spoilers... Spoiler tags added.

Lifo wrote:I agree. Through watching this series, I started to feel that Sousuke is one of the main characters although I totally had the idea in mind (before watching the series) that he wasn't. We're left with episode 10 now and many questions unanswered and I don't think I'd favor rushing all of these things into one episode because of the huge focus on Michiru x Sousuke in the previous episodes. We'll see how this goes ..

Yup, the Sosuke character's stench just permeates the entire drama: it just about completely dilutes all of the other more significant stories... The writers screwed this drama up big time. :shakehead:

bmwracer wrote:

Spoiler — click to reveal

Watching Episode 10 progress, I realized (yet again) that Ruka's story and to some degree, Takeru's involvement with her were the most interesting and probably could've been a (good) drama unto itself...

Michiru's story is sad (in more ways than one) and pretty much shows zero growth/development/evolution... And what can you say about Sosuke that hasn't been said repeatly and angrily?

In all honesty, two meaningless characters that no one particularly gives a hoot about... Just a waste.

Spoiler — click to reveal

Exactly what I said earlier, and I still stand by my words. If we had a love TRIANGLE between Ruka, Takeru, and Michiru with none of the others involved except for maybe minor interactions, it would have been a fantastic show!

I mean, had they resolved the DV issue early on, or at least put it on hold and have the 'emotional damage' eating at Michiru through the whole series (minus the Stockholm syndrome issues they have now) until near the end, it would be much better.

Instead, they were relying far FAR too much on the shock value of the one character, and then get rid of him in the stupidest way possible. What angers me more is that judging by the tone of everyone during the series, EVERYONE is going to feel guilty about his suicide! :banghead: :banghead:

This thing is begging for me to give it a 7/10 at this point. It'll be extremely lucky if it does, and only because of the acting done with such a weak script.

Tenshigure wrote:
This thing is begging for me to give it a 7/10 at this point. It'll be extremely lucky if it does, and only because of the acting done with such a weak script.

I agree. It's barely a 7 but it did have some exciting scenes. The final ep. better be damn good!

A quote from the D-Addicts LF thread: " He [Ryo] is one talented actor."

GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK. :shakehead: :crazy:


What drama are they watching over there??? :headscratch:

bmwracer wrote:GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK. :shakehead: :crazy:

What drama are they watching over there??? :headscratch:

LOL. He pulls off the creepy, psycho character pretty well, more so than the other roles he's played (I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing :hehe: ). It fits him, since he usually gives off a cold vibe normally.

MissMonika wrote:LOL. He pulls off the creepy, psycho character pretty well, more so than the other roles he's played (I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing :hehe: ). It fits him, since he usually gives off a cold vibe normally.

If playing a dimensionless, one-note character who sheds a tear is considered talented, I guess he's the greatest actor who ever lived. :rolleyes:

bmwracer wrote:If playing a dimensionless, one-note character who sheds a tear is considered talented, I guess he's the greatest actor who ever lived. :rolleyes:

LOL. Oh, the sarcasm. :rofl: But yea, I agree with you. The girl who posted that is probably one of his fan girls. Not the best judge of talent.

I really hope the writers give us something better in Episode 11, but I doubt it.

MissMonika wrote:LOL. Oh, the sarcasm. :rofl: But yea, I agree with you. The girl who posted that is probably one of his fan girls. Not the best judge of talent.

I really hope the writers give us something better in Episode 11, but I doubt it.

Wow, so you've seen all the episodes?

Wow, y'all sure HATE this show! It's not that bad ;) Though I sometimes wonder how it can go from SO damn good 1 moment to SO damn bad the next.

Still, the acting is impeccable. The themes LF touch on have been treated pretty well, considering. I wish there'd been more time to address them all (they crammed too much into too little time), but nothing can be perfect. For what LF is, I think it's definitely one of the better shows I've seen.

I think LF was pretty well-written, though the Sousuke beatings...enough already! I've been entertained from week to week and even shed a few tears. Good enough for me and no use really getting all worked up over what could have been.

magicmusic wrote:Wow, y'all sure HATE this show! It's not that bad ;) Though I sometimes wonder how it can go from SO damn good 1 moment to SO damn bad the next.

Still, the acting is impeccable. The themes LF touch on have been treated pretty well, considering. I wish there'd been more time to address them all (they crammed too much into too little time), but nothing can be perfect. For what LF is, I think it's definitely one of the better shows I've seen.

I think LF was pretty well-written, though the Sousuke beatings...enough already! I've been entertained from week to week and even shed a few tears. Good enough for me and no use really getting all worked up over what could have been.

Speaking for myself, I don't hate the show per se... More like I'm disappointed that Juri-chan' and Eita's heartfelt performances were wasted and that the story possibilities were completely thrown away for cheap thrills/ratings...

I think the entire show could've focused on Ruka, her issues, and trying to gain acceptance... That could've been an awesome 11 episodes.

Judging from what I've read at D-Addicts, a lot of people would've been immensely happy with that... :victory:

"Last Friends" breaks 20%
Fri, June 13, 2008 (11:02am EDT)

Thursday's episode of the Fuji TV drama series "Last Friends" registered a 20.7% audience rating, placing it not far behind this season's leader, "Gokusen 3." Boasting a cast of popular young stars, "Last Friends" has steadily been gaining steam since the 13.9% ratings of its premiere episode in April.

Despite its heavy themes such as domestic violence and sexual identity issues, the show has proven to be very successful, and is one of the few series this season to show a trend of improvement in the ratings. It is now less than a point behind "Gokusen," which has fallen about five percentage points since its strong 26.4% start. "Last Friends" also surpassed this week's episode of "CHANGE," which has scored less than 20% for two consecutive weeks despite starring the super-popular Takuya Kimura.

source: tokyograph

bmwracer wrote:
Speaking for myself, I don't hate the show per se... More like I'm disappointed that Juri-chan' and Eita's heartfelt performances were wasted and that the story possibilities were completely thrown away for cheap thrills/ratings...

I think the entire show could've focused on Ruka, her issues, and trying to gain acceptance... That could've been an awesome 11 episodes.

Judging from what I've read at D-Addicts, a lot of people would've been immensely happy with that... :victory:

QFT.

I think that's what the majority of us think here: that the potential of the show and the acting from the stars has been extremely well played, but for some ungodly reason the writers have been focusing so hard on the DV / Sousuke beatdowns that it's become an unbearable aspect of the show.

Hell, if we could by any means edit out the character of Sousuke from the show, we'd have an A+ show on our hands.

meoinkie2 wrote:"Last Friends" breaks 20%
Fri, June 13, 2008 (11:02am EDT)

Thursday's episode of the Fuji TV drama series "Last Friends" registered a 20.7% audience rating, placing it not far behind this season's leader, "Gokusen 3." Boasting a cast of popular young stars, "Last Friends" has steadily been gaining steam since the 13.9% ratings of its premiere episode in April.

Despite its heavy themes such as domestic violence and sexual identity issues, the show has proven to be very successful, and is one of the few series this season to show a trend of improvement in the ratings. It is now less than a point behind "Gokusen," which has fallen about five percentage points since its strong 26.4% start. "Last Friends" also surpassed this week's episode of "CHANGE," which has scored less than 20% for two consecutive weeks despite starring the super-popular Takuya Kimura.

source: tokyograph

I mentioned this on the previous page. :rolleyes:

bmwracer wrote:A quote from the D-Addicts LF thread: " He [Ryo] is one talented actor."

GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK. :shakehead: :crazy:


What drama are they watching over there??? :headscratch:

bmwracer wrote:
If playing a dimensionless, one-note character who sheds a tear is considered talented, I guess he's the greatest actor who ever lived. :rolleyes:

I think you just hatin' cause he's been closer to juri than you'll ever be. lolz.

Tenshigure wrote:
Hell, if we could by any means edit out the character of Sousuke from the show, we'd have an A+ show on our hands.

We'd also be left with about 3 episodes of material. That's one damn short drama.

pancakes wrote:I think you just hatin' cause he's been closer to juri than you'll ever be. lolz.

I'm more jealous of Masami-chan getting into a lip lock with Juri-chan... :usuck: