View topic - Last Friends

This is how I see the series/how it should have been. Feels like the writers got together in the beginning and asked "How do we make a series that will win an award?"...."Let's cram as many issues in as we can!" Chopping down many of the periphial issues and side plots would have made this series much better. Too much ambition, not enough talent.

Ruka: The main focus of the story IMO. Everyone's story seems to affect hers to some extent, and move it along. The best parts of the drama were hers, and that isn't because I'm a fan/devotee of Juri-chan. Mr Green

The gender identity disorder parts, specifically, were ho-hum and conventional, but the strength came when she was dealing with the personal issues of it, ie. the self-imposed loneliness, being so close to the one she loved but no closer, forcing herself to accept it as good enough, etc. These issues weren't specific to her condition, but something all of us could experience, and I thought they were done well. The actual lesbian/gid story was okay, but this is from an American perspective where homosexuality has become mainstream rather than outcast. I'd have to say her most powerful scene to this point was after she fought Sousuke. (The scene itself was a little stretch, though. Ruka is suppose to be aggressive, and physical enough to control a motorcross bike at a male level. How she could be beat by a scrawny runt like Sousuke makes me scratch my head.) The brief scene in the clothing store where she completely broke down from the shame was about close to a perfectly acted scene as you can get. Very good acting by Juri-chan on that part where expression was everything.

Takeru: I see him as the backbone of the series. He's not the central character, but he holds it all together. They failed on his personal story, still not resolving it at episode 10, but the background did act as the glue for the separate plots of the series. Had the writer/writers decided to centralize the story on Ruka and Takeru's issues, it would have been much better. I also have a newfound respect for Eita's acting after watching this.

Eri and Ogurin: Side characters/comic relief. They're there just so the the series doesn't start tunnelvisioning. A pleasant, unimportant yet needed addition.

Michiru: Now we get to the bottom. This girl's learning curve must be a horizontal line. I got tired of caring for her after four episodes. By the sixth, I was cheering Sousuke on for beating her.(Guess I'm an oni) She never matured as a character. At first I thought her domestic violence story was going to support Ruka's development, but that never happened. What does it say when her and Sousuke's plotline can be chopped to five total minutes, or removed altogether, and you wouldn't have to rewrite the script to compensate?

Sousuke: Speaking of dead weight, now we get to nutcase. No acting required here. No personality, no plot-the actor needs to fire his agent for getting him a role that could have been filled by a cardboard cutout. In Hollywood terms, if Ruka is the "breakout" role that all young actors aspire for, Sousuke is the "soft porn/break the typecasting" role. Why didn't anyone call the police on him? Why didn't anyone beat the crap out of him? The guy wasn't threatening at all. Halfway through they added his interaction with the little boy. I guess they were trying to soften his image, but based on who he was, I interpreted it as him "building his family". In other words, had the mother not returned, he would have taken the kid as his property. About the only thing believable about Sousuke was that he can spend all the time stalking and not lose his job because he was working for the city government. Then he finally kills himself. Am I suppose to feel compassion for him looking at the pictures? Hey nutjob, you're not lonely because no one will be your friend. You're lonely because you're a nutjob! I must be an oni because I laughed when he killed himself. Now they can bury you alongside your storyline that died in episode 1.