karened | 全開ガール：久しぶりにこんなにいい感じのJドラマを見た

Surprise, surprise! In spite of what appeared to be a Jdrama drought (one that has lasted many a season, with a short reprive brought by Jin 2), I found myself enjoying 2 of this season's offering.

One is Ikemen Desu Ne, which, strictly speaking, isn't a Jdorama more than a 1-for-1 remake of the Kdrama less the original punchlines.

Besides, I'm really watching more for the ikemen (namely the guy from HSJ and the guy from Kis-My-Ft2, not that lead) than the storyline, which is fresh when newly presented in the Kdrama but cannot withstand scrutiny of the flaws.

But this one, this one which I had just discovered, is the kind of subtle romcom Jdoramas do so well.

Zenkai Girl.

Starring my beloved Ryo and Gakky.

Our OTP gets their first kiss right in the first episode! And it wasn't the over-used 'opps, I fell/crashed onto/into your lips' ploy. At first I thought they were going to use YB's classic scene of having the female puke into the male's mouth while 'kissing'. But no, there was a twist to it!

Wakaba (Gakky) manages to hold the puke in (ewwww), and everyone wonders if she's still going to go ahead with plan to prove that a kiss can be just the meeting of skin, and nothing more than that!

Well, nothing can stop her from getting what she wants! That's the principle she's been living her life with!

Of course she will stop at nothing. Look at who she's kissing! Shota (Ryo) is as hot as he was in 1LOT, 6 years back.

I really like Gakky's character in here. She's materialistic, but unlike the many drama-craved materialistic woman (in particular, this tw drama that is airing at the moment), it's not too far-fetch. She's a hardworker, but only when it comes to things she believes will yield results.

Ryo's role is well-written too, and some of my favourite scenes involve him.

He chanced upon Sato's love confession (is it even out of love? Or a calculated move?) to Wakaba and accidentally drew attention to himself when his bike crashed into a pillar, causing the bento he had prepared ofr Wakaba to spill onto the ground. To see his emotions do a 180 degrees turn from when he was racing to her place to when he saw the two about to kiss was heartbreaking. And Wakaba had to deny her attraction to him by demanding he stop doing things that would make her new-boyfriend Sato misunderstand. See those sad eyes as he looked up at Wakaba informed him that she is on a different road as he is on, and that only Sato can walk with her to her goal? T.T

That Sato of a rascal. There's no sure proof, but I bet this scene was part of Sato's plan to drive it into Shota that he's not worthy of Wakaba. Sato was sent on a delivery to the law firm, and to his surprise, Sato had left instructions that Shota deliver the food directly into the meeting room. There, Shota sees for himself how capable Sato is at work. When Shota starts to place the food on the table, he was told off by one of the staff for allowing some of the soup of splash onto the table. Shota got up to clean it up, but in the process touched one of the meeting chairs. He was told to be careful of dirtying the chair with his greasy fingers. And tada. When he left, he was so conscious about touching the elevator button with his 'greasy' fingers! T.T Oh the pain.

In this scene, Wakaba had overworked herself and fell into a deep sleep at the pre-school. Due to two very adorable kids, Shota ended up helping Wakaba to bed at the pre-school. Shota sat by her side, watching over her as she slept, and he finally confessed his feelings to (a soundly asleep) Wakaba.