Ao Haru Ride ~ アオハライド
Jun. 28th, 2015 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spsnIo Sakisaka is probably the only mangaka that I know having 2 of her works turned to movies in such short period gap, not even a 1 year gap! Between Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge, I personally prefer Srobe Edge storyline, but I find that Ao Haru Ride has more popularity as they turned it into anime first then movie. Like most of shoujo manga live action, Ao Haru Ride is about high school life and the romance blossoms within it. We call it 青春 (seishun), youth. Like all its counterparts, it has the standard elements of first love, friendship, angst, complication, cute moments, and off course the munekyun moments. With the so many shoujo manga turned to live action these days, what make this one stand out aka worth watching?
Ao Haru Ride is about the story of Futaba and Kou. They met before in middle school, had mutual crush, but for certain reason Kou dissappeared from Futaba's life. Fast forward to high school, Futaba became a tomboy and tried her hardest to keep up with her circle of friends, and Kou returned to her life but not as the same Kou that she knew. With both of them change, will their feelings from years ago reunite?
Well, meet Kou and Futaba.
Yes yes, they're sort of pushing it with casting Higashide Masahiro as Kou. It's the same as casting Ikuta Touma for Bokura ga Ita. With the current batch of actors, the option for casting shoujo manga dudes is not that much, to be honest. It's not like couple years ago with Hana Kimi generation going strong (they can rotate so many boys just from that drama alone). The thing with shoujo manga dude is that he has to look good, tall (this is the department where lots of Johnny's boys fail), and can act in multiple layers. Acting is needed because shoujo manga dudes are mostly complicated dudes, not your average dudes. We have Fukushi Sota everywhere doing shoujo manga guy (he's in Strobe Edge, thank goodness he's not in Ao Haru Ride too) and he's looking literally like a live shoujo manga guy (zero complains on this), but his acting still need to improve (he's in so many live actions that the lacking is visible especially if you read the manga and know what to expect of the characters). In such environment, I think casting Higashide Masahiro as Kou is just right. His interpretation of Kou is spot on. I can see Kou from manga based on the way he nonchalantly walks, not paying attention act, moody expression, and not to mention the angst. It's not easy to show angst when you're supposed to put up the expressionless facade according to manga. So, do I really care if Higashide doesn't look much like a high school kid? That'd be the last thing that I'd nitpick on.
Afterall, there're so many things that the movie has to offer. If you check on the director, it's Miki Takahiro. He's the same director who did Bokura ga Ita, Hidamari no Kanojo, and Hot Road. I didn't know this when I watched the movie and I thought, this movie is neatly packed and pretty, and no wonder. Like Hot Road and Bokura ga Ita, they make sure the must have scenes aka all those munekyun ones are there, beautifully shot and as much as possible faithful to the manga. The storyline are cut and diced, but, they don't leave much gap so that people who never read the manga still can follow. I'd think they've taken lots of TLC in ensuring this. People who've read the manga will always say that it's not as detailed, but you can't deny that the flow is there. For example, they don't really elaborate as to why Futaba decided to act as tomboy and not flattering as possible in high school, but they make sure that the Futaba being accused of not paying for the breads at the school canteen are presented in full and detailed.
One defining scene from Ao Haru Ride is the raining at the temple scene. The way they do the scene is so detail that it's no joke! The slow focus, zoom in, the lighting, it's so pretty. Faithful to the manga, they have these 2 shots, as past and present. Same position, same spot. And you have all the feels brewing inside you when you watch this.
When I say detail, it's this kind of detail. It makes you feel like the time stopped for awhile.
Another must have scene that they do in lots of details. Zoom in and out, different angles, lighting, you name it, they have it in this scene.
Did I mention the lighting just now? Kiss scene is so important in any shoujo manga live action and it musst be done oh so beautifully. This one is no exception. Look at the lighting, zoom in, zoom out. And the color scheme is similar to Hidamari no Kanojo <3.
And off course when you're talking about high school life in Japan, you have to have:
Beginning of the school term, complete with sakura blooming (In Japan the new school term starts in April --> Spring --> Sakura)
School trip. Love how they put this together. Cuteness overload. The ending word about seishun caught me. '
One thing about Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge, the heroinne is not that weak girl that everybody want to protect. She has dilemmas, unsure about her feelings, makes mistakes that cause her emotional distress and so on, but at the end, once she makes up her mind, she'll strongly cling on to the dude and not wavering. In fact, she's stronger than the guy, mentally. It's the guy that I thought to be weak willed and need some smacking to toughen up. Though I sort of sympathize with Kou for all his tragic pasts, but the boy need to be straight forward. The movie picked up this part of Kou but didn't show how Kou worked hard to get Futaba back, probably due to the time limit that they have, which is a shame. But, other than this, it's another lovely shoujo manga live action to watch.
Ao Haru Ride is about the story of Futaba and Kou. They met before in middle school, had mutual crush, but for certain reason Kou dissappeared from Futaba's life. Fast forward to high school, Futaba became a tomboy and tried her hardest to keep up with her circle of friends, and Kou returned to her life but not as the same Kou that she knew. With both of them change, will their feelings from years ago reunite?
Well, meet Kou and Futaba.
Yes yes, they're sort of pushing it with casting Higashide Masahiro as Kou. It's the same as casting Ikuta Touma for Bokura ga Ita. With the current batch of actors, the option for casting shoujo manga dudes is not that much, to be honest. It's not like couple years ago with Hana Kimi generation going strong (they can rotate so many boys just from that drama alone). The thing with shoujo manga dude is that he has to look good, tall (this is the department where lots of Johnny's boys fail), and can act in multiple layers. Acting is needed because shoujo manga dudes are mostly complicated dudes, not your average dudes. We have Fukushi Sota everywhere doing shoujo manga guy (he's in Strobe Edge, thank goodness he's not in Ao Haru Ride too) and he's looking literally like a live shoujo manga guy (zero complains on this), but his acting still need to improve (he's in so many live actions that the lacking is visible especially if you read the manga and know what to expect of the characters). In such environment, I think casting Higashide Masahiro as Kou is just right. His interpretation of Kou is spot on. I can see Kou from manga based on the way he nonchalantly walks, not paying attention act, moody expression, and not to mention the angst. It's not easy to show angst when you're supposed to put up the expressionless facade according to manga. So, do I really care if Higashide doesn't look much like a high school kid? That'd be the last thing that I'd nitpick on.
Afterall, there're so many things that the movie has to offer. If you check on the director, it's Miki Takahiro. He's the same director who did Bokura ga Ita, Hidamari no Kanojo, and Hot Road. I didn't know this when I watched the movie and I thought, this movie is neatly packed and pretty, and no wonder. Like Hot Road and Bokura ga Ita, they make sure the must have scenes aka all those munekyun ones are there, beautifully shot and as much as possible faithful to the manga. The storyline are cut and diced, but, they don't leave much gap so that people who never read the manga still can follow. I'd think they've taken lots of TLC in ensuring this. People who've read the manga will always say that it's not as detailed, but you can't deny that the flow is there. For example, they don't really elaborate as to why Futaba decided to act as tomboy and not flattering as possible in high school, but they make sure that the Futaba being accused of not paying for the breads at the school canteen are presented in full and detailed.
One defining scene from Ao Haru Ride is the raining at the temple scene. The way they do the scene is so detail that it's no joke! The slow focus, zoom in, the lighting, it's so pretty. Faithful to the manga, they have these 2 shots, as past and present. Same position, same spot. And you have all the feels brewing inside you when you watch this.
When I say detail, it's this kind of detail. It makes you feel like the time stopped for awhile.
Another must have scene that they do in lots of details. Zoom in and out, different angles, lighting, you name it, they have it in this scene.
Did I mention the lighting just now? Kiss scene is so important in any shoujo manga live action and it musst be done oh so beautifully. This one is no exception. Look at the lighting, zoom in, zoom out. And the color scheme is similar to Hidamari no Kanojo <3.
And off course when you're talking about high school life in Japan, you have to have:
Beginning of the school term, complete with sakura blooming (In Japan the new school term starts in April --> Spring --> Sakura)
School trip. Love how they put this together. Cuteness overload. The ending word about seishun caught me. '
One thing about Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge, the heroinne is not that weak girl that everybody want to protect. She has dilemmas, unsure about her feelings, makes mistakes that cause her emotional distress and so on, but at the end, once she makes up her mind, she'll strongly cling on to the dude and not wavering. In fact, she's stronger than the guy, mentally. It's the guy that I thought to be weak willed and need some smacking to toughen up. Though I sort of sympathize with Kou for all his tragic pasts, but the boy need to be straight forward. The movie picked up this part of Kou but didn't show how Kou worked hard to get Futaba back, probably due to the time limit that they have, which is a shame. But, other than this, it's another lovely shoujo manga live action to watch.
