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I read the news about Subaru leaving Kanjani8 like... 10 minutes ago. I didn't know about the Friday article because currently my only source of news about K8 is tumblr and I don't check it every day. So I was taken by surprise.

I can't honestly say that it wasn't expected.
Subaru never liked being an idol, he got trought so much stuff, slumps and hard times in these years. There must have been multiple times when he did not agree with the musical direction the group was taking/was forced to take (Eightertainment, anyone?). Still he stuck with it, maybe for a sense of loyalty towards the members, the fans, I don't fucking know. Maybe because he just loved the members, and overall he enjoyed most of what he was doing?
I have no idea. Still, I'd be more shocked if, for example, someone like, idk, Hina, or Maru announced something like this.

What is weird, what rubs me in the wrong way, it's the damn timing. This was NOT the moment to leave. There are 2 movies promotions that are about to start, Ohkura's drama will start airing in a few days, they fucking annuonced that 2018 was Eito Year or whatever, they are about to realease a Best Of album, they are going to have a goddamn tour in the summer, to which Subaru won't partecipate.
The timing is so wrong.
And we can talk about him now liking the musical direction etc, but... recently K8 have been writing A LOT of their songs. Subaru himself, in the last year, entirely wrote one song for a single and one for the album. They were FINALLY going to get recognized as a band and not as just idols, esp. after the Metrock performance. Thanks to Kanjam they're performing with HUGE artists, getting recognized as musicians. Hell, if I remember correctly they recorded a performance with the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. One with Hakase Taro too.
The last tour, they performed as a band for one hout straight, which never happened before.
I don't know, I had the feeling that something huge was coming for them, and that now it all went into shit.

I get why he's doing this, and I applaude him for having the courage to just... go away and pursue his dreams or whatever he's going to do. Even if the moment is not the best, even if for the group is probably a shit-move.
He was the very 1st K8 member that caught my eyes (and my ears: I loved his voice since the 1st time I heard it), has been my favourite member for months, and after that, I've always had a soft spot for him.
Subaru was SO important for the group's music and dynamics, I honestly don't know how everything will be from now on. I don't know how old and new songs will sound, without him. How the group interactions will be.

Aaaand I just thought about the intro of Osaka Romanesque sung by someone else, and now I'm really crying. Bye.

It was, overall, a really nice season (finally!), even though, as always, I didn't manage to watch everything that was on my watchlist: I've only watched 2 episodes of Repeat (which didn't seem bad, so I'll finish it when I have time) and Kimi ga Kokoro ni Sumitsuita is being subbed in these days, so I'm going to wait. The one with Ichihara Hayato didn0t get any subs but I haven't heard anyone talking about it, so maybe it was nothing special.

99.9 Season 2
I haven't finished it yet, but I can already say that I have loved every second of it. It's so dumb and clever at the same time, well written, well acted, never boring and did I mention dumb?? It's just a lot of fun, I love it.
And I appreciate that they changed up things a bit from the previous season, both with adding Ozaki (who I probably like even more than Tachibana) and with exploring a different problem of Japanese legal system (the judges); also, in the first season you could guess who the culprit was in the middle of the episode, this time I feel it was harder. So yeah, the general scheme and feel was the same, but with some small changes, so I didn't get the feel of seeing season 1 all over again.
It was good that in the first episodes they talked again about Miyama's father case, for once we have a Jdrama that actually ends without leaving something to the imagination!
Anyway, I loved it so much. I would watch many more seasons, but I get that would be hard to make XD

Unnatural
Nogi Akiko keeps delivering. When she writes this kind of dramas (focused on some job and the characters relationships) she produces jewels. Do I give a fuck about forensic pathologists? Very little. Did I love this drama? Absolutely yes. It's just the way the characters were written, the way they interacted, the relationships between them. This time there was also some kind of mystery, so even better.
It's still not at the level of Soratobu Kouhoushitsu (because there we had that beautiful love story too and the characters were TOO GOOD), but still, a beautiful drama.
I loved Mikoto (and I appreciate a lot that in the last years Ishihara Satomi is playing something different from the "dumb pretty chick in love"), Rokuro was a lil cute puppy, and while at the beginning I really didn't get Nakado, after like... 2 episodes, I started liking him a lot too.

Todome no Kiss
Okay. It was trash, but the good kind of trash, and it also had some nice points (Yamazaki Kento's face being one of them).
The plot was... not dumb, but with some cliches. Guy with ruined childhood becomes a jerk who only cares about money, is hot, find a dumb rich girl and tries to "catch" her. The good thing was the time slips and, most of all, how they used them. I think they used the time travelling stuff in a very clever way, because the more the story went on, the more "complex" everything got, and in the end the drama was never once predictable.
The ending really surprised me as well, and I really liked how they decided to do it. I did not expect that.
So yeah, not a masterpiece, the characters were a bit weak, but overall I enjoyed it, especially towards the end.

Kuragehime
I'll be quick: everything was waaaaay over the top, for my liking. I get that was their intention, that the manga is like that too, but I prefer something different. Characters that weird and exasperated are just hard to connect with.
I'm not saying it was bad, I still watched it without problems (some bits were fun too), but it's not my cup of tea.

If this winter is going to be anything like this past fall, I'm putting on this list way more dramas than what I'll actually watch. Both because of lack of time and lack of subs (luckily, few of the dramas that were on my watchlist this fall are being subbed now, so I'm sloooowly watching them).
Anyway, these are the titles I'm most interested in.

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I better write this post now, before I forget everything about what I've watched. Once again, I was most surprised by things I didn't expect anything from!

Kahogo no Kahoko
I have one word: adorable.
Who writes the plots need to be fired, because I was expecting something totally different: an episodical drama about an overprotected but kind girl who solved random people's problems (something like Bartender). Lucky me, it wasn't like that.
Yeah, Kahoko is overprotected and her family (especially her mother) is quite toxic, she doesn't know how to live but she's oh so kind and full of love. We can say she's almost stupid. But it's that kind of character that I am unable to hate. She reminds me a little of the main character from Fruits Basket, Toru, so nice that she can be considered dumb, but that you can't help but love. Kahoko, for me, is like that. She's adorable and super fun. Aaand after meeting Hajime she somehow helps her family to solve its problems (they are many).
I read that a lot of people skipped this drama because they're sick of girls that find their own purpose only when they meet a guy, and that are useless without him. But Kahoko isn't like that??? The only thing Hajime does is helping her opening her eyes, and understand that she is actually able to think with her own head and not be totally dependent from her mother.
They were an adorable couple and I love them.
The family member were all full of issues and I hardly suffered them. From her mother's family the onlydecent person was the grandmother, the others were all awful. The father's side wasn't normal either, but in the end I liked them more. Kahoko's mother was so full of problems, despotic and just toxic.
Despite the family, I loved Kahoko (and Hajime) so much that I liked this drama a lot!

Akira to Akira
I watched it for the eye-candy (sometimes I forget how beautiful Mukai Osamu is) but I actually liked it.
It's like Hanzawa Naoki, since they talk a loooot about banks, shares, companies etc, but this one also focuses on the personal lives of the two main characters, so it's not only "business" related.
If you liked Hanzawa Naoki or you found it sometimes too boring or hard to understand, definitely watch this! Also, it's only 9 episodes long ;)

Gomen, Aishiteru
Since it's a remake of a korean melodrama, I wasn't expecting to fall in love with it, but man if it was boring.
Most of the episodes were 1 hour long, the story was slow (I can't imagine how boring was the koran one then, with 10 episodes more), the characters were all tedious, there was no plot twist because we know from the start the guy is going to die... boring.
The only upside was Nagase's beautiful face.

Uchi no Otto wa Shigoto ga Dekinai (dropped)
Only the first 5 episodes have been subbed, but it's not a problem because, when the subber stopped, I took the chance and dropped the drama. In 5 episodes nothing happened, the message seems to be "it doesn't matter if you suck at your job and cause actual problems to your company, you are very nice so they're stupid to not understand you", which is bullshit. The characters are all unsufferable, the wife of the main characters is so stupid it hurts, and the main character is quite stupid too. I just don't care about this drama at all.

Some things start airing like... tomorrow? but better late than never, right?
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Later than usual, but I like to procrastinate. Also, I watched two dramas after they aired, so I needed more time.
The dramas I watched on air - Kizoku Tantei, Reverse and Boku Unmei no Hito Desu - were quite a disappointment, with the only exception of Kizoku Tantei, which I liked a lot.
This current season seems pretty dull too, but we're only at the beginning so it's too soon to talk.

BOKU, UNMEI NO HITO DESU
I can't even say it was a bad bad drama, and I can see how so many people liked it. But for me it was too. damn. boring. I didn't care about the plot, I didn't care about the main couple, I didn't care about anyone of the characters. The bits in his office were especially unsufferable.
The main couple did not have any chemistry, I still don't get how and when he fell in love with her. Was it just because Yamapi kept telling him they were destined to be together? Is this fact enough to start liking a person? Or did he just... finally know she was the right one and started liking her before actually liking her? Am I making any sense? Anyway, I didn't care about them.
Also, Yamapi can't fucking act. No, wait. Maybe he can act, but he always has the same face??? His voice too is kinda monotonous??? And he's like that in real life too (well, on tv at least), so he isn't doing that purposely for the character. In this specific case, the fact that he keeps the same expression all the time is actually good, since his character says a lot of stupid stuff, and it's kinda funny if he says them with a straight face. But other than that...
Anyway, no good. I fastfowarded the last episodes because I really didn't care.

REVERSE
Not bad, but not what I expected from the person who wrote N no tame ni and Yakou Kanransha.
The mystery just wasn't there. When we discovered how the guy died, there is no surprise. At the end of ep 9 (maybe?) I thought they were giving us, finally, a good plot-twist, but no, it wasn't like that. They tried to shock us with the girl, but she was suspicious since minute 1, so, again, not a surprise.
But, you know, I could go pass that if at least we had nice characters. But no. Everyone was unsufferable??? Maybe the teacher was the only one who wasn't that bad, but the others were bad people or just tedious ones. The main guy? A besotted idiot. His girlfriend or whatever? Burn her with fire. The other friends? They were scum when younger and the death of a friend didn't make them change for a bit (well, the poor souls stopped drinking, but if a friend of yours dies bc he was driving drunk it's not that strange if you don't want to drink anymore?? Even if I think that we are humans and we can control ourselves, so you can just drink ONE GLASS AND NOT GET DRUNK BUT O K A Y).
And maybe it's bad, but I didn't like the guy who died either. He was the typical boy who tries to be liked by everybody, to not cause problems... either he's fake as hell, or he's just stupid.
And the ending was just stupid.

KIZOKU TANTEI
In this dark, cruel world, I can only trust my man Aiba. That's not completely true, because he did that bore of Bartender, but you got me.
After the 1st episode I was not sure about how I felt, because I was expecting something else. Not a silly thing with an Inspector maybe worse than Kazamatsuri from Nazodi, people dressed like idiots and the main character that appeared for maybe 15 minutes.
But with the second one I already changed my mind. It's not a serious drama AT ALL. It's full of stupid moments, that kind of silliness that I like because it's yes silly, but not idiotic. Hanagata was SO dumb it was beautiful, and the 3 servants were the most amazing thing ever. I love them all. The Female Detective grew on me throught the drama, at the start I couldn't stand her.
Kizoku sama was an attractive son of a bitch and I'd love to call him "master". Aiba was good. For the first 2-3 episodes he was a little awkward, but then he got better and became Kizoku. He's also the most beautiful person I've ever laid my eyes on.
The ending was a bit meh, because they made us think that things were in a certain way... but it was ok.
Overall I really liked it! It was a lot of fun.

CRISIS
A simple action drama with not too much plot, that focuses on the question "who are the real bad guys?", since most of the terrorists they have to stop fight against the unfairness of the government and stuff like that. It was quite extra, like I predicted from the trailer.
The thing that bugged me is that we don't really get to know much about the main characters, just snippets here and there.
I also think there's going to be a special or a movie in the future? Since the ending was reaaaaally open.
Oh, Oguri Shun has the face of a man ho drinks too much and sleeps too little, but he's still attractive.

HITO WA MITAME GA 100%
After the 1st episode, I was about to drop it. Because the premise of this drama piss me off.
To be a "real woman", to be considered by others, a woman NEEDS to be pretty. And there's only one way to be pretty! Only one way to be a Real Woman.
If you're not like that, not only you'll never find a man, but you're also going to be mistreated at work. It doesn't mean if you are a genius, if you excell at your job: if you don't "take care" of yourself (where by "take care" I mean "be pretty, put your makeup on, dress fashionably) you won't be liked by your colleagues and by your boss.
But there is also the opposite thing, because they make you think that girls that, on the contrary, use makeup, like fashion etc, only think about that! They can't talk about anything else! They only think about being cute! The main character couldn't make friends at school because she liked science, while all the other girls thought about boys and makeup. Like we're all monocellular beings that can't have more than one interest!
So, to be considered by others and eventually find a guy, the main character starts to try to understand and follow all the various trends. because THAT is how she's going to be a better person.
So, I wanted to drop it. But I didn't. Maybe because I like Mirei too much, maybe because I wanted to see where it was going this mess.
And... it wasn't bad? I mean, it's a drama that you have to binge-watch and even skip some parts, because there are bits about the beauty research" they do, when they reasearch trends, that are boring and useless. There isn't so much plot either. But I still watched in a few days, mostly because I was curious about the "love story", if we can call it that.
The good thing is that, even with those premises, they actually made fun of all the trends for the whole drama. And in the end the girl gets recognized on her workplace because she's good at her job, and finds a guy that likes for how she is. Meaning that you don't need to be "pretty" to live well. Then, the fact that the guy she finds is a total psycho-jerk is a mere DETAIL.
The drama went in a direction I did not expect, so I'm glad I didn't drop it. Still, slow plot and too many boring parts.

I also watched he first episode of "Frankenstein no Koi" but I immediatly dropped it because it was very disturbing. AYANO GO WHY DO YOU KEEP CHOOSING WEIRD DRAMAS. 

Soon I will write something about this spring's dramas (half of those I watched disappointed me :<) but I'm already late for this one, so!! There's nothing I'm really excited about I'm just hoping this season will be better than the past one t b h.

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This spring is going to be an Attractive Men Festival.




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