bury me in this dress

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, or Hana Kimi for short, is one of the funniest Japanese dramas I’ve watched. It has 12 episodes and not a single one bored me. What makes it even better is that fact that all 12 episodes are full of hot young Japanese boys. It’s really a feast for the eyes…at least for a female viewer. My favorite hotties in the series are Ikuta Toma and Hiro Mizushuma. I never liked Oguri Shun but I must admit he looks a lot better in this series. He looks buff now.

Ikuta Toma

Hiro Mizushima

Some of the boys

Hana Kimi is about a girl who disguises as a boy so she can enter an all-boys school her friend attends. She does this because she feels guilty for causing his injury which resulted to him quitting a future career as a high jump athlete. How it goes, I won’t spoil the details. He he.

I highly recommend this drama for the entertainment value if not for the boys. It’s a bit yaoi but it’s okay even if you don’t like that.

According to DramaWiki, this dorama is adaptation of a manga. It stars Matsumoto Jun as Ban Shogo, a young man who wants to be a good Italian food chef and set up his own Italian restaurant someday. I find this drama okay. It’s pretty much all about cooking. Hardly any romance stuff. I’m just not used to watching Jun acting so goody-goody. Compared to his roles in Gokusen and Hana Yori Dango, Jun comes out a bit boring in this drama but I guess that’s because of the character. Ban Shogo is obsessed with cooking and doesn’t have much of a life outside of that. To those who are planning to watch this, I suggest that you have a full stomach whenever you view it because it will really make you hungry.

This series is a sequel to the jmovie with the same title. The old “water boys” have graduated already and they were idolized by their juniors in high school. Two years have already passed and the Board of Education wanted to stop the yearly performance of synchronized swimming because it was disrupting the peace of the town. Shindo (played by Takayuki Yamada) is in his last year and wants to perform synchro because he missed it the year before due to diarrhea. With this regret, he decided to create a Synchro Club because the swimming team wasn’t supporting him. He makes friends with 4 eccentric boys and they hurdle numerous hardships while trying to make their dream of performing come true. In the end, the group earns the support of his school mates, the teachers, the town people, and the Education Board. They were able to put up a spectacular synchro performance.

Although I like the movie more, the drama is still amusing. The series isn’t really a comedy. I don’t know if it was meant to be one but it wasn’t funny for me. Some old characters make guest appearances but the focus isn’t on them anymore. I’m not fond of Takayuki but he’s a pretty good actor. The best part for me in the series is the performance itself and this was only in episode 11.

I’m sharing my copy of the Hana Kimi Soundtrack. Just download it here.

I signed up for Mozy online storage. I think I get 5gb but I’m not sure. I want to upload some of my doramas so I can have friends access them. I signed up for mediamax but that site really frustrates me since I always get timed out. Grrrr. Anyway, it would help me a lot if you sign up for mozy through

https://mozy.com/?ref=JDTM56

or suggest a better online storage than mediamax.

I  don’t want to have Bishie as crush anymore.  He’s bad for my mental health. So let me introduce my new and improved crush.

He is Ikuta Toma. He’s a Japanese actor. He’s 24 years old so that won’t make me a pedo. I liked him when he appeared as Junpei in Hana Yori Dango 2 even though he only had a bit part. He has a better part now in another dorama. I say good for him! Good for me too because it means I’ll see him more.

Yes, I’m back to pathetic fantasy boys but I would rather have it this way.

Yahoo! It’s almost official that there’s going to be a HYD movie next year with the same cast as the dorama. I got the news from http://arashi.vox.com/

And here’s a message from the cast (taken from here)

Inoue Mao (as Makino Tsukushi) - Last spurt! I will do my best!!
Matsumoto Jun (as Domyoji Tsukasa) - We made you wait, didn’t we!
Oguri Shun (as Hanazawa Rui) - I’m sleepy…but if I can see everyone (again, I will do it.)
Matsuda Shoota (as Nishikado Soojiroo) - Keep your hopes up for the finale.
Abe Tsuyoshi (as Mimasaka Akira) - Lets meet at the movie theater. [hehe he wrote in Chinese.

I wish they’ll include Ikuta Toma in the movie but I doubt it.

I just hate the limitations of Mac sometimes. Well that hardly happens except for subtitling applications. I’m a part of Japan-TV fansubbers and I mostly do quality checks. That involves correcting grammar, spelling, timing, etc. Right now I’m QC-ing Hana Yori Dango and it’s one of my favorite doramas. I really want to QC it properly to do the dorama justice but how can I do that when most of the subtitler apps for Mac just fucks up the files! I need a decent substitute for Advanced Substation Alpha (which only runs in Windows) but I couldn’t find any. I’ve tried Jubler and it just messed up the timing. I also tried Miyu but it doesn’t read .ass files. It’s so frustrating. My only option, at least that I know of, is to edit using an HTML editor. I couldn’t check if the timing’s correct through that. *sigh*

I finally got to watch this series and I regret not watching it earlier but it’s now one of my favorites. HYD is based on the popular manga of the same name.

The story is basically about Makino Tsukushi, a commoner, and a group of powerful rich boys called F4. I liked it because it’s funny and the actors are very good. They’re not as beautiful as the actors in Meteor Garden, a Taiwanese drama based on the same manga, but they act better. Matsumoto Jun who plays Doumyouji Tsukasa has terrible skin but is oozing with sex appeal. Yummy boy!

I highly recommend this dorama. If you don’t feel like downloading the series, crunchyroll.com has a streaming video of the series. BTW, if you have a crunchyroll account, add me there. My nick is kareninsilver.

I’ve been really busy lately that’s why I haven’t been blogging. Anyway, I was able to get some rest today because I worked from home. I’m redesigning the company stationery and calling card. So far so good but I still have a lot to do. Then tomorrow there’s a seminar at work so I have to be there. I have to QC Hana Yori Dango for Jtv-drama. Yes, that’s a dorama. I don’t know when I’ll be able to squeeze that in. So many things to do for next week as well. Surprisingly, I like working for our company. It’s very challenging.