Taiwan

so now that I am completely obbsessed with Japanese and Korean cultures I have moved on to Chinese culture :). Well mostly just  Taiwan and mostly just their drama's an music. so yeah i will update this soon with more information

My Princess Drama Review

My Princess

Sunny, stubborn college student Lee Seol  has a fairly ordinary life. She squabbles with her adoptive sister and mother, has a crush on her good-looking professor, and has a part-time job as a decorative Korean "princess" at tourist events. Her life turns upside down when she discovers that she is in fact a real princess, a blood descendant of the last emperor of Korea. With a large faction of the government pushing to turn Korea into a constitutional monarchy, she's quickly instated into the palace and assigned to Park Hae Young  to be tutored in etiquette and how to be a princess. Hae Young, however, is her political rival - his grandfather is pushing to put Lee Seol in power, but if he does so, all of Hae Young's inheritance will go to her. Hae Young initially intends to do all he can to thwart Lee Seol, but when he finds himself falling for her instead, he's caught between his heart and his life goals. (dramafever.com)


The review:


Plot:
    The basic premise of a girl finding out  that she is a princess is not a new idea and has been done many times before. Also another theme with in this drama is opposites attract and love hate relationships. Even though these themes have been done before it is a cute drama. The main characters are on a journey to find out what  happened to Lee Seol's father and to reestablish the monarchy. Both of these tasks are very hard to accomplish. I had originally thought that this drama would be like the drama 'Goong' but really the only similarities are  that the main characters become royalty. Their journey takes them all over South Korea. One of the main locations where the drama takes place at is  Palace. Though you get to see the areal from outside you only get to see maybe 6 rooms inside the Palace.  Other places are the country side, Lee Seol's mother's inn, Hae Young's house, and other parts of Seol (the city).


Characters:
     Lee Seol is this drama's main character. She is quirky and frugal but she tries her hardest which makes her endearing. She at the beginning  is in love with her history professor that she also works for as an assistant.Lee Seol also has a fondness for historical dramas which she often quotes at Hae Young.  As the Drama goes on you get to see her grow up in to the princess that she is.
      The main male lead is Park Hae Young. He his a handsome young diplomat that is put in charge of Lee Seol. He knows how the government and high society really works which makes him a great adviser to the princess. Although his actions are sometimes questionable with his motives but he has Lee Seol's best interests in mind. 
      The antagonist of the show is Oh Yoon Joo. She is a brilant curator that becomes head of the Royal Foundation. She hates Lee Seol because when the monarchy was reestablished it took away Park Hae Young's inherentace. The reason why she cares so much about Park Hae Young is because she feels that she is going to marry him. She also had a past relationship with the professor that Lee Seol was in love with. 
       The last of the main characters is Nam Jung Woo. He is the professor that Lee Seol was in love with. He also had a past relationship with Yoon Joo. He also joined Yoon Joo as part of the Royal Foundation but unlike her he was a constant ally to Lee Seol.
   The other characters of the show are Park Hae Young's Grandfather. Yoon Joo's Father, Lee Seo's adopted mother and sister. Two of the characters that are important to mention are two of Lee Seol's allies in the Palace and they are   Lee Geon a royal chef and  Shin Mi So one of the princess's maids.


Acting:
     The acting in this show was pretty good. Everyone was well suited for their role. Kim Tae Hee who played Lee Seol played her role so well that I didn't realize that she had also played the main female lead in IRIS. 


On the side know i just wanted to point out that Lee Geon is played by B2ST's Lee Ki Kwang. He was adorable in this role though I'm pretty sure that his character was suppose to be older than 20 which he is. 


My rating:

I give this drama a full 4 stars. It was a pretty good drama with a lot of ups and downs. Park Hae Young and Lee Seol were a cute couple to watch. 

Change in Drama Review Criteria

So I'm getting rid of the sections Overall Feel and Setting. Honestly they don't have much impact on the review of the drama. I'll just mention the setting in the Plot section and if i have any comments on overall feel I will mention them in My rating section. I'm doing this to not only make life easier on me be but to hopefully make a better review blog.

Tokyo Dogs Review

Tokyo Dogs:

Takakura So witnessed his father's murder at a young age. Pledging to catch the killer, he grows up to become an elite cop in New York City, where the criminal lives. His character is cool-headed and disciplined, yet adapts well. Because of major drug dealings, he gets sent to Tokyo to conduct a joint investigation with the Japanese police. There, he gets teamed up with, Kudo Maruo, a detective from a special investigative division. Kudo is a hot-blooded fighting expert due to his earlier days as a delinquent, but he makes a strong impression with his stylish appearance and is always interested in going on group dates. His personality, interests, and investigation methods are completely mismatched with Takakura's, but the two somehow work together to crack the case they've been given. (mysoju.com)

Plot:

This was the first real cop drama that I've watched so the only other cop shows that I can compare it to are american. Compared to American cop shows Tokyo Dogs is more a comedy than a drama. There is several different threads working to create the plot. There is main thread about finding the man that killed Takakura's father which is behind every episode. All the other threads are just as important and give some humor to the series. Although the whole "you killed my father prepare to die" story has been done before this drama gives it some spice to the sterotype.

Characters:

The characters are hilarious. Takakura is a serious and has a cold exterior that really cares for his family and his partner. While Kudo Marou is street smart and a playboy cop. Their partnership is a classic example of opposites attract. Although they seem to not like each other and fight over the strangest things (like how to eat noodles) their partnership is very successful. The third main character is Yuki. She is a young women who has lost her memories and her past is tied to the man that killed Takakura Sou's father. The three of them end up living together. The other characters are the rest of the department and the Takakura family. 

Acting:

Oguri Shun plays Takakura Sou. I have to say that I liked him better in this role than when he portrayed Sano Izumi in Hana Kimi. The short hair and suits really suit Oguri better than the school uniform. This role was basically written for him with how well he protrayed it. 

Kudo Marou was played by Mizushiba Hiro. The role was really a stereotypical role for Mizushiba so he played it well and made you love his character as much as him. Besides that all the other actors portrayed really what a police department would be like realistically. 

Setting:

This drama took place mostly in Tokyo hence the name. The drama was probably actually filmed in Tokyo

Overall Feel: 

The overall feel of the drama is really good. It has the viewers feeling a roller coaster of emotions from going to suspension, to action, and humor.  Although the main feel was that of comradeship which always leaves a pleasant after taste. 

My Rating:

Gosick Anime Review

Gosick

GOSICK takes place in 1924 in a small, made-up European country of Sauville. The story centers on Kazuya Kujo, the third son of a Japanese Imperial soldier, who is a transfer student to St. Marguerite Academy, where urban legends and horror stories are all the rage. There he meets Victorique, a mysterious yet beautiful and brilliant girl who never comes to class and spends her days reading the entire content of the library or solving mysteries that even detectives can't solve.


The Review:


Plot: The story is very interesting and fast paced. Each episode has its own mystery to it with the underling mystery of who and what Victorique really is. There are not many different anime's that take place in the 1920's and in Europe so that gives it some uniqueness to it. The plot is so laid out that even at the end you are not sure if it is magic or science. 


Characters: 
Victorique is one of the the two main characters of this Anime. She is a child genius who resides on campus and spends the majority of her time in the library tower reading. She like s puzzles and sweets. Victorique may look very young but she is actually 15 years old. She looks more like she is 10. Through her adventures with Kujo she searches for her mother. Her mother looks more like her identical twin sister. That is honestly the thing that bothers me about Victorique is the fact that she doesn't look her age. In fact i wasn't sure of her age till they mentioned it in the last episode.


The other main character is Kujo. He is a foreign exchange student from Japan. Because he resembles the "Grim Reaper who comes in the Spring" he didn't really have any friends so his teacher kinda set him up to be friends with Victorique. They form an unbreakable bond. While Victorique is aloof from society Kujo acts as her key to humanity. He is very loyal and kind. 


Artwork:


This anime as some gorgeous art work in it. The overall drawing style is realistic with hints of watercolors added in giving it a beautiful feel. In fact the opening is done completely in watercolors and a stain glass effect. 


Voice Acting:

The voice acting was good. Each of the voices matched well with the characters. Also there weren't any spots where the mouth and the voices didn't line up. 


Music:


The music of this anime fit will with the time that it was placed in. The only real modern sounding music was in the opening. I believe that if someone from the twenties heard the background music they would not question it at all. 

My Ratings:

This was a really good anime. I thoroughly enjoyed it and infact I almost cried at the end because it was so moving

Summer Wars Movie Review

Summer Wars

summary:
  When timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family’s Nagano home for a summer job, he agrees without hesitation. Natsuki’s family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they’ve all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the spunky matriarch of the family, Sakae. That’s when Kenji discovers his “summer job” is to pretend to be Natsuki’s fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki’s act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can’t resist solving. As it turns out, the solution to the mysterious equation causes a hijacking of the social networking site through which most of the world's social and business traffic flows. (animenewsnetwork.com)

Plot:
   This was a very interesting story line and honestly could happen some day. Society as a whole is becoming more and more dependent on social networks that someday a huge social network is probably what we will be doing most the managing of our lives on.  It was really interesting how they basically created the online social networking site as basically another world that the the characters were in. It was also interesting to see how the Jinnouchi clan who are so immersed in their history deal with a modern problem. 


Characters: The characters in this movie were great. the Jinnouchi clan had just about every type of person as a member of their clan. Kenji Koiso  is the unlikely hero of the story. He is just a slightly awkward math nerd that gets caught up in the whole mess. One of his best traites is that even though he could have ran he doesn't give up and tries his hardest making him even more likable. Though one of the most influental characters in this movie is the Grandmother Sakae Jinnouchi. Not only is she matriarch of the Jinnouchi Clan but she serves as a leader and influences the whole story. 


Artwork: This movie features some great artwork and in several different styles. When the story is in the real world then the characters are realistically drawn (or as close as you are going to get for an anime) while when they are in OZ then they are less realistic. In OZ there is a wide range of styles for each character making them unique. The colors are also bright and the computer graphics that they use mesh well with the drawn animations. 


Voice Acting: I can not complain about the voice acting in this movie. Many of the voice actors have done several well known anime's like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood so they were familiar to hear. They matched what they were saying with the lips of the characters and overall matched the characters personality. 


Music: This was just the icing on the cake. The OST (original soundtrack) was amazing. I am not one to go out and find the OST for a movie or an anime but for this one  I did. The music is a great combination of classical styles and more techno themed. It flowed perfectibility with the movie. 

Final Rating: 

five out of five stars

This is a great anime movie and I would recommend it to anyone.

Anime Review criteria

so I've realized that there needs to be a different set of criteria for the reviews of anime than there is for dramas

1. Plot
2. Artwork
3. Voice Acting
4. Characters
5. Music (though not nearly as important as the other categories)

as with all other reviews they will be scored on a five star scale