Kimi wa Petto always seemed a little off, but thanks to the fact that the manga somehow was able to walk a very fine emotional line the premise which sounds very creepy comes off as mostly normal. Essentially, an older emotionally unavailable woman allows a younger seemingly homeless man to live in her home as her pet. It’s a supposedly entirely platonic situation but feelings get involved, naturally. The manga is ok, but I think in this case the live action series that I saw (one in 2003andone in 2017) both tell the story more dynamically.
Sumire and Takeshi compliment one another. This is one of those series where what seems to build over time overwhelms both parties despite themselves. They aren’t that similar and neither are their lives, but they both have pieces of themselves that are incomplete and it’s nice to see how they patch the other’s weak points. The running joke about Takeshi being renamed “Momo” and how everyone thinks he is literally a dog because of the way Sumire talks about him stays funny far longer than it should considering how demeaning the whole situation shouldbe.
This is another one of those series that keeps coming back around because the characters are strong and very much themselves. Beware the beginning, however (this is mainly for the manga). It has a questionable starting section about how “Momo” got hurt and homeless in the first place. It’s honestly weird and off putting and if I hadn’t read this long before I got a little more woke about that shiz I probably wouldn’t have continued reading it. Given common prevailing ideas in Japan, it isn’t surprising, but it’s always deeply disappointing to see. You’ll know what I mean when you get there.
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (or Hana-Kimi) in both manga and live action form is a story I have consumed in media time and time again and every time I love it. The base plot is ridiculous: girl (Ashiya Mizuki) ends up at an all boys high school because of the fact that she wishes to encourage her sports hero, (Sano Izumi) a high jumper her own age. Hijinks ensue when she ends up roommates with said sports hero and he discovers her real sex/gender immediately and decides to help her preserve her secret while not giving away the fact that he knows she’s a girl.
The manga has quite nice art, and every time the live action version is cast they always find lots of lovely looking guys to fill the school, but in my heart my favorite version is the Taiwanese one starring Ella Chen of S.H.E and Wu Chun of Fahrenheit. Mizuki in that version had the energy and the perkiness that I love, and Izumi was sufficiently serious and yet good humored. I also think the Taiwanese version had the best Nakatsu Shuichi in Jiro Wang. Nakatsu coming to terms with crushing on a “boy” when he thought he liked girls always strikes me as a more interesting situation than the Mizuki/Izumi angle, but that wasn’t the story being told here.
In stories like these I always end up thinking back to Twelfth Night, and wonder if maybe the author read it and was inspired by it. Clearly, there’s something to this story that brings people back time and again for it to have been remade so much, and other than pretty men I think it’s because the relationships are all weirdly pure. The friendships are strong, and the comedy and drama doesn’t diminish them. Because the friendships are strong the romance is more touching, which is probably easier to see in the manga because it had longer to tell the story, but the best casts in the live action series also convey.
When Takane and Junko were apologizing with each other because of what happened at the hotel then her dad suddenly enter the house and misunderstand Junko and Takane. THIS SCENE WAS HILARIOUS!! ❤️
I would have to say that their break up is very unique. I have not seen any drama character yet who broke up in a middle of a happy celebration, literally in the middle. The most painful element of this is that they both don’t want to break up but also, both don’t want to be with each other and just mess everything up. They want to be close and far with each other at the same time. It is painful yet I love this scene.
