Extravagant Challenge (Skip Beat) Review

Review

CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

I've just recently finished this drama a few days ago and I loved every minute of it. If there's one thing that I can say about Taiwanese Dramas is that they try to stay as close to the source material as possible and I commend them for that. 

Summary:  High school graduate Gong Xi(Kyoko Mogami) gives up her chances for university in order to support her childhood friend and romantic goal, Bu Po Shang(Sho Fuwa), in his pop idol career. Upon arriving in Taipei, Gong Xi starts working on multiple jobs in order to support Shang, whose popularity quickly rises, eventually becoming one of the top idols in Taiwan. One day, Gong Xi catches Shang flirting with his manager, and learns that he only used her so she can help him with his living expenses. Heart-broken and betrayed, Gong Xi vows to get revenge by becoming a bigger star. Gong Xi auditions for L.M.E., Taiwan's largest talent agency, and joins L.M.E.'s new-found department "Love Me" with Jiang Nanqin(Momose), also a new recruit. At L.M.E. famous actor Dun Helian(Ren Tsuruga), disgusted by Gong Xi's reasons for joining the show business, consistently finds ways to annoy and taunt her. As Gong Xi's acting career starts to take off, she begins to discover a new sense of identity and purpose, separate from her initial plans of revenge. Lian also eventually warms up to her, and although at first in denial, he finds himself falling more and more in love with her

This drama was adapted from a Japanese manga called Skip Beat which is still ongoing in serialization. The ost, actors/actress were spot on with their characters and was overall a great live-action adaption. Yes, at the ending there was a little cock tease but it also left the drama open to the possibility of a second season. This drama can be time consuming as each of the 13 episodes are over 1hr each,but the drama is so entertaining and time will seem to fly by as you watch it.

Verdict

A great drama and a definite watch. 

Hiiro No Kakera Review

Review

Talk about an anime with potential but ultimately falls short of the mark and spirals downward. 

Hiiro no Kakera is one of the many otome games (dating simulation games for girls in Japan) that was adapted into an anime this past spring and that has a 2nd season set to air this fall. I don't even know if I can stomach any more of the horror that this anime has left to dish out. The male characters are bishies with little to almost no personality except the're pretty things to look at. The main heroine of this anime is weak and has no character development at all in the whole span of the 1st season. She's a miko (priestess) in training and for the majority of the lst season she's trying to figure out how to awaken her miko powers which in turn goes nowhere. This anime left me with more questions and rarely gave me any answers. Lately, I've seen that these reverse harem animes that are coming out are lacking in plot, story and character development but I know that they can be done right. Fushigi Yuugi is a perfect example of a reverse harem done right, but of course it was adapted from a manga and not an otome game...

Verdict

Don't watch this anime unless you have time to waste because that's what this anime is a big waste of time that will leave a bad taste in your mouth. You wish for character development, plot development and good story telling  but never get it. The only good thing that this anime has going for it is the music, the villains and the supernatural elements. I can only hope that the 2nd season will fix the major faults in the 1st season and will redeem this mess of an anime. This anime is a major pass.  

Nikita Season 2 Review

Nikita Season 2

There are SPOILERS in this review so read it at your own risk!!!!

Overall, season 2 of Nikita was great and chock-full of emotions and twists and turns and I can't wait for the 3rd season as I'm sure the action, suspense and thrills will pick up at a much faster pace. The mini different story arcs that were intertwined with the main story arc were interesting and well told. The relationships between what I like to call Team Nikita ( Nikita, Michael, Birkhoff, Alex and Sean) were well developed and could develop even further into season 3. Season 2 definitely gave closure and tied up some loose ends from the first season that's for sure and some shocking revelations did occur. Alex found closure about her family and the whole Zetrov ordeal, Percy and Rone finally died and seemingly Team Nikita is now in charge of Division the very thing that they were trying to take down and destroy.

Relationships

MichaelxNikita

Michael and Nikita dubbed "Mikita" by the fans is the driving relationship for Nikita in the series and I don't think it's letting up any time soon. I like Michael and Nikita together as a couple as they compliment and understand each other in many ways. In season 2 their relationship was put to the test as Michael had fathered a kid with another woman unbeknownst to him until Nikita revealed it to him. The're a solid pair and I doubt anything could break them apart unless one of them dies..  

SeanxAlexanda(Alex)

Sean and Alex's romance is the main romance that budded during this season and came full circle by the end of the season. They work very well together and share common past experiences. In my eyes they are a solid couple.

Season 3 Romance Predictions

Nikita as the series has gone on has seemed to unconsciously formed her own little harem per se.  In this harem she has Birkhoff, Michael, Ryan and Owen in her back pocket. Even though Nikita's and Michael's relationship is solid for the most part I can't shake the feeling that a love triangle or square may form in season 3. Birkhoff is mostly out of the equation seeing as yes he does harbor feelings for Nikita but he respects Michael too much and won't make a move romantically towards Nikita besides him and Sonya seemingly hooked up at the end of the season anyway. So, that just leaves these two choices for the possible love triangle: Michael/Nikita/Ryan or Michael/Nikita/Owen and I think the latter has the higher chance of happening as Owen demonstrated clearly to Michael in the 2nd season and a little in the 1st season plus we'll be seeing a lot more of him during this upcoming 3rd season. Ryan does deeply care about Nikita, but seeing as he'll be mostly stuck running Division I don't think to much will be happening in the romance department for him sadly. As for Alex she's pretty much solid with Sean.

Season 3 Plot Predictions

Amanda and Ari will be the main villians.

Threat of the last black box remains

Multiple rouge Division agents will be taken down

New leaderships and partnerships will be forged

Overall, Nikita is a great series full of espionage, action, romance, humor and thrills and it's a very mature show with good actors/actress, music, plots, settings and story telling. If you're not watching it you're really missing out.

Blogging

Geisha Maiden

This is my blog where I'll talk about and discuss my interests, thoughts and give reviews on different types of media whether it's video games, comics, animes, tv shows, etc.

Here's a link to another one of my blogs with older entries before I moved here to blogger
~http://kurozuka47.livejournal.com/

I think from now on this will be my main blog as livejournal just shut down on me for some unknown reason.