Youkai Ningen Bem Review

Title: Youkai Ningen Bem

Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Adventure

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2011-Oct to 2011-Dec

Theme song: BIRTH by KAT-TUN

Cast: Kamenashi Kazuya, Anne, Suzuki Fuku and Kitamura Kazuki.

“Nobody knows when they were born. Split from a single cell in soundless world, three creatures were born. They weren’t human and they weren’t animals. But inside those ugly bodies, the heart for justice beats strong. The creatures are… monsters who couldn’t become human.” (Taken from intro)

Bem (Kamenashi Kazuya), Bela (Anne) and Belo (Suzuki Fuku) are three man made monsters who can’t stay out of human problems. Even though the three are scary once they turn into their true form, they are kind hearted and save humans the moment they are facing danger. But this is not seen by the humans, who cannot see past the posterior. That is until they meet Natsume Akinori (Kitamura Kazuki), a cop who thought they were somewhat involved in the cases they happened to help at. He and his family are a nice loving family of three who have emotional baggage in the past. They welcome the three as good friends, and Natsume even accepts them when he finds out the truth.

The three desperately want to become human, but for some reason they lost their memory and woke up in the forest with a new paper clipping of a man creating humans. So they decided to look for him, but little do they know there is much more of their pasts then they were aware off…

I wasn’t really expecting anything except another ‘kaibutsu-kun’- ish drama, and yes I got that. LOL.

The drama is targeted for Japanese kids like Kaibutsu-kun, and it has the same emotional feel to it, heck I even cried in one situation, which is pretty absurd, since the monsters are really badly made. But else I have to admit very good for kids to watch.

To be honest they cannot be measured the same way other dramas are, and I simply enjoy these kinds of kids show. It is not as tacky as power rangers, again due to the emotional part, but it is - simply put - made for a younger audience.

So based on that - a good drama.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Gloomy Salad Days Review

Title: Gloomy Salad Days
Tagline: Dear death, please take away my misfortune, even if the price is for me to turn into a stone...
AKA: Death Girl
Genre: Human drama, supernatural
Episodes: 20
Broadcast period: 2010-Oct to 2010-Dec
Cast: Aaron Yan and Serena Fang (and many many others...)

This story revolves around several students’ lives and how they come across Du He also known as Death Girl (Serena Fang) guardian of the ‘Bridge of Helplessness’. Every student has something part of their lives that they hate to the point of helplessness: that is where Death Girl comes in.

They can only see her with the black stone, and with that they are also able to summon her. They can request something from her, but if they still don’t overcome their helplessness they will become a part of her bridge as a rock.

Shen Qi (Aaron Yan) has the ability so see Death Girl even without the black rock, and tries to warn every student he sees talking to her, but the matter of the fact is that everyone thinks him as weird because of it. He eventually starts to fall in love with her, and beings to understand the meaning of life and death…

This is a very different kind of drama, with the entire dark setup, and it isn’t really my type of drama. I watched the first two episodes and really didn’t like it, but suddenly this grew on me, and I guess my mind became wicked as well. It deals with crazy stories, not those weak ones like Romeo and Juliet, but hardcore ones if you ask me, the ones that our society doesn’t agree on. Anyhow, all scenarios are unpredictable which is nice, also the endings of every story, as well as the last story. 
One thing was bothering me though: the students really don't give any f*** for their classmate, like he said that he has a braintumor, they laugh at him.. what's with that!?
So: good drama, but not really a happy one.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts