I think I'm slipping away to another blackhole....

[spsn]

My interest in anything related to Johnny's has been depleting for quite sometime. I think it started with the SMAP saga and at the same time, there's an over exposed of Arashi and other groups as well, in a sense. It's not about releasing more singles or albums, which I'd much prefer to actually, but it's the exposure in other media appearances which overwhelmed me. I'm not sure if it's actually already going on for quite some time and I only notice it recently OR it started right after the SMAP saga. But, bottom line is, Johnny's as a company has been pushing too many things at the same time everywhere and my imagination says it's their plan B considering SMAP situation now (I'm still waiting for Sep for the conclusion, and in the meantime SMAPxSMAP is not the same anymore to me :( ). This kind of push may not be so apparent if you only follow 1 group, but it's quite overwhelming when you follow afew, let alone majority of the groups, and if you see Johnny's as one company entity.

In dramaland, if you notice, I haven't been writing anything since Winter 2016 season because I only literally finished 1 drama (DameKoi), and for Spring 2016, I haven't even finished any, nor do I even have the will to continue watching them. I feel like I'm searching for the magic and trying hard to find it with the recent seasons of J-drama but the magic is not sparking or there're not even traces of glitters. It's either because my taste changes (which I don't think so, my criteria for drama is still the same), or my mood changes, or the J-drama land just sucks all together lately. I don't think it's the last part (I still have some faith in J-drama) regardless whether it's complex or simple plot drama. But I find that even the rom-com theme is hard to watch. Is marriage that important? seems that TV station is painting across everywhere in their romcom drama that it's a girl's dream to get married. I'd prefer K-drama blatant inserts of girls must be married after certain age culture. It's sexist and equally annoying, but at least they don't try to be passive agressive about it. And to make it worse, I don't really look forward to Summer drama especially after I watched some episodes of Misaeng (yep, the K-drama version of that Nakajima Yuuto's new drama). If J-drama version if going for the same intensity as the K-drama, then it has better be as intense as Hanzawa Naoki (it has similar feels anyway), else, it'll go south, but I'm still waiting to be proven wrong here, because Misaeng has a good theme, which is very relatable to Japan work culture. At the same time, I'll make a note to check out more of TVN's drama. I like Queen Inhyeon's Man and Another Miss Oh (it better be happy end, else I'll be devastated). What about the live actions? I already see 2 adaptations Happy Mari and Seisei Suruhodo, Aishiteru, and to be honest I don't have good feeling for both. I love the manga version of Happy Mari, and though I like Dean Fujioka, I don't think he can do justice for Hokuto. On the other hand, Happy Mari will be a good source for K-drama because it has all the scheming of a chaebol company and inheritance, which are the regular theme of K-drama anyway, and the current K-drama makes more convincing bed scenes than J-drama (not all, but still better), and Happy Mari is afterall, a smut manga, not shoujo, so if J-drama ends up deleting all the bed scenes, then, well, there goes the so-called live action. I haven't read Seisei, but from the synopsis, it makes me wonder, how the drama actually going to turn up as, another boring live action or there's extra effort to it?

All these factors plus limited internet access (cannot download, only can do streaming with plenty of patience), leads me to... Shinhwa blackhole. Yes it's a blackhole because I only started with re-collecting Shin Hyesung's songs. I used to listen to his songs (his voice soothes me), not Shinhwa, and I forgot about him until recently when I started to check out k-pop again (he had an mini album out early this year - and it's a good one, something different from him). And while doing that, I realized why I never really listen to Shinhwa in the past... it's because their old albums have lots of R&B stuffs. Their newer albums (The Returns onwards) are easier to my ears, and now they're already matured and basically can do whatever they want with their song releases (much like the older Johnny's have a say in whatever they're releasing). Since Shinhwa is still active and started from not far from H.O.T era (yeah I listened to T.O.P that long time ago, and that's the only song I know of Shinhwa), their material is equally abundance like V6's (Kpop being Kpop has Youtube to testify for it, not like... Johnny's), and the more I read about them the more I find that they have the V6's endurance, SMAP's brotherhood and Arashi's charms. Their variety show, Shinhwa Broadcast is like 1 hour version of Arashi no Shukudai-kun. I'd think that if Arashi has V6's popularity trend, it'd be exactly like that. Right now, VS Arashi is boring for me (repeatitive), I'm indifferent about Arashi ni Shiyagare (Nino's yelling out answer is getting annoying and I realized I only watch AniShi nowadays for Matsujun's segment), and I only watch Sho-chan's Yakai show if the guests are the ones I like.

So, in the meantime, unless J-drama offer something different, I'll be going deeper and deeper into Shinhwa blackhole...
And I'd kill if V6 does this choreography!!! V6 may not be able to sing as good (cough - Ken's fault), but they jollywell can dance this and main reason is coz I want to see Ken do Andy's part!

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Hey there ... *hugs* ...

I guess for me it's different with the drama because I'd only watch it if Arashi is in it, but even so it does have to be good ... I mean ... I still haven't watched Bambino all the way through, I haven't watched Kaibutsukun at all, OR Shinigamikun. Admittedly I struggled through My Girl (loved it and hated it in equal measure), Mikiineko Holmes has a poor plot, poor Aiba was basically a clothes horse with not a good script. Bartender improved, but his last one was really watchable ... I guess the only two consistent actors in Arashi has to be Nino and Sho. I have not watched a bad Sho drama, nor even a bad Sho film! He really is quite wonderful to watch.

And ahhhh yes bloody SMAP drama ... I think that Johnny (and the rest of the Japanese entertainment industry) needs to re-think his (their) business strategy, because what worked in the 80's with the older groups and to a small extent, right into the 90's ... Honey we're into the 21st Century now and if you don't change your marketing ploy, the Koreans are already taking over. At least with some of the girl bands (K-pop) if they're not happy with it they go stick it and to some measure of success they succeed with their own sounds, grooves and genres. Plus I have to admit that some of the edgier, grittier sounds are more palatable and in fact pretty cool to listen to. (I'm completely a layman here I'd listen but have no clue as to the lyrics but sometimes that's ok)

I still love my Arashi boys but I haven't really been up to date on their happenings lately and ANShiyagare doesn't have the dorkiness and affability that ANShukudaikun was. The only thing I do want to watch is 99.9 and Ohno's drama, as I do want to give that a chance

Perhaps that is why it was easy to fall back into DGrayman all over again.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

And also on an unrelated note ... I don't know if you ever saw the film "Now You See Me" ? but the sequel is out ... I thought the first one was good ... but the second one was pretty mind blowing. Plus lots of eye candy! ^__^ Because I'm shallow like that.

And .... uhmmm ... don't fall into the black hole ... *pulls you out*

Who am I going to hang out with!?

[spsn.livejournal.com]

and now since you mentioned the 'now you see me' movie, i'll look it up LOL

You can fangirl about d-gray men with me :d :d I like the anime, and also full metal alchemist movie too... I still haven't watched assassin yet though... but bro said it's a disappointment, and he dissed out Nino for being shorter than Kiritani Mirei LOL

the good thing about k-pop black hole is that they're not like Arashi where there's something EVERYDAY (this is why i say they're over exposed), so there'll be a downtime... and when are we gonna get DVD for Japonism? Right now should be about the time...

[spsn.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

Ah, Arashi drama, 99.9% is OK (not overwhelmingly good, but pleasant enough), but I think I'm to stressed out lately to even consume a drama which require A LOT of reading... the translation notes on the subs is amazing!
I think you'd like Ohno's drama, my friend loves it, but I think I'll pass, I don't like a comical Ohno acting and after that AniShi omotenashi segment earlier this year, my impression on Ohno was not so good anymore. :(.
Nino... his rakugo SP is good, but his other SP and movie (which was praised everywhere and I couldn't even finish watching it on the plane coz it's so bloody damn boring, it's even more boring than Okada's samurai movie, which at least I could finished.. also on the plane) didn't indicate any new acting challenge from him. He needs to take up different drama genre... be like Toma for once (though Toma is soon going to be typecasted, if he's not careful).
Sho-chan is smarter in choosing his drama, that's my opinion. His roles is quite diverse, though it's still around human drama genre, and they're with decent to good script. I still haven't watched Kazoku Game but I think I won't watch it ever, too stressful.
Matsujun comes second, he too dares to try different things so I'd still follow his works because he never fails to impress me so far.
Aiba-chan is more worrisome because it looks like he'll just take whatever is handed over to him. In a way, he'll get variety, but he can't control if the script sucks *cough* Mikeneko.

Japan's entertainment industry and the world outside entertainment industry won't change much if those top level management are still filled by the same old folks from bubble era with not much creativity and only on the top due to seniority and politics. They'll keep their current business model until one day the pie is literally wiped out and only then their eyes are opened and by that time it'll be too late. And SMAP saga is nowhere near business decision, it's just a personal vendetta from the senile grandma, which is the downside of Johnny's being a private family company. Imagine if they make SMAP & Arashi do a collab, how much money will that be brought into the company?

Korea actually started with the same mindset as Japan in the late 90s and early 00s. They look their pie share only in Korea because you see so many idol groups disbanded during that period. But they soon realised that the pie can be WIDER then Korea, hence they start utilising all those streaming etc to reach out the external market, and so far it works. With that mindset, it also translates to their music. Hence you'll see K-pop is more leaning towards hip hop, trance, club music, though they stick with their type of ballads, which is a good thing actually. Then we see Japan who create music just for them, hence you see AKB and Johnny's type of bubble gum music which is not necessarily universal. Those older K-pop generation get to do their own music coz literally most of them ended up establishing their own companies one way or another, not under the big agencies, and those under agencies, it depends on the management, can be shitty or decent/better.

What I find it interesting is that I never bother looking up the lyrics for k-pop, but lyric seems important to me for J-pop. it's been like this since ages ago. The only k-pop lyrics that I'm actually interested to look up is H.O.T and that's it.

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure "J-drama land just sucks all together lately" (but that doesn't mean it can't be great again someday). I recently rewatched Orange Days and still enjoyed it so much I then went and watched Love Story (for the first time) and it was great too. I'd really recommend both if you want romcoms that don't really make marriage an issue.

I agree that Misaeng had a good theme that is relateable to Japanese work culture. But it was kind of just a theme without an actual story. Which I don't like but seems to be popular with Jdramas these days. Thought with that cast and in that time slot, the only hope HOPE has (no pun intended) is that the other drama in that slot makes it look like TBS is slacking a bit.

Enjoy your black hole. Don't forget to come back soon (or teleport between the two)! I hardly know anyone who watches Jdrama anymore...

[spsn.livejournal.com]

Is Love Song that good? I watched the 1st episode and I couldn't even finish it. Or I'm judging too quickly and the drama only supposed to pick up after epi 1?

True that's what has been recycled around in J-dramaland for a few years already. Lots of them has relatable theme to the current events or daily life, but the story itself which are built around it is either on or off. Lots of off in the last 3 seasons, hence my interest is dwindling. I'd expect TBS to at least give a decent drama though haha...

Do remind me to teleport back if i start to post too many k-pop stuff LOL... I'll still be checking j-drama, but it's harder to pick now, esp too young ikemen who cannot really act casted as leads (ehem, johnny's or what not)... and the mature drama are heavy themed... i can't even finish Yabai Tsuma 1st epi...

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

Not Love Song, Love Story. I haven't watched Love Song and never intend to.

I've watched the first 3 eps of Yabai Tsuma and thought the first one was decent (I like heavy dramas), but in the next two . . . nothing happens, so I'm kind of like ???

[spsn.livejournal.com]

I tried to search Love Story.. it's not Tokyo Love Story (Oda Yuji & Honami Suzuki), right?

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

Here you go! http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Love_Story_(TBS)

I found it a lot more funny and interesting and a lot less annoying than that description makes it sound though.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

ah i need to find the streaming then... not really fond of Nakayama Miho drama (watched some of her drama before and found her characters are either indecisive or bimbotic), but still, i'm willing to try coz she's Nakayama Miho LOL

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of her, but at least I didn't find her indecisive or bimbotic here.

Can you do without subs? I can send you streaming links if you can. I know there are English subs for it, but I'm not sure about streaming with them.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

I can do without subs, i think, as long as it's not police or medical drama then i think i can somehow manage :)

[tokeruyouna.livejournal.com]

I'll PM you a few links. You could search for versions with English subs elsewhere too since subs do exist.

In other news, I just started Good Morning Call and am rather enjoying it so far.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

Okie, thanks!
Yeah I heard about the drama Good Morning Call and heard people raving it.. I'll try that one too :)

[wonsraed]

I sort of feel the same these days. I still watch anything Arashi but it's more like I feel it's my duty. The only one I like these days is Gutto Sports. The athletes are interesting and are fresh faces~
My enjoyment now mostly comes from K-varieties. 1N2D and sometimes Running Man. I've also been enjoying K-dramas like Six Flying Dragons and Signal(TVN) to name a few.
I also have the same worries about Misaeng Japanese version. I hope they do it justice. Japan does human/office dramas well though.. but still, waa.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

Yes, it feels like an obligatory watch doesn't it? I haven't tried watching Gutto Sports, will check it out. Even Aiba Manabu is getting repetitive, what's started as learning something new and small info becoming just a cooking show or just to have guests promoting stuff, sad, actually.
I used to love 1N2D until they changed the format (around mid season 2, long time ago) and Kang Ho Dong getting louder and louder. I'll tune in on Running Man only sporadically coz I think it's only funny if the guests are funny.

Let's have faith in J-drama to not butcher Misaeng LOL... if they can do First Class (though I don't watch this), why not Misaeng? :d

[wonsraed]

It does. When the guests are boring, what's supposedly a 45 minute variety show becomes a 10-15 minutes watch to me. Hihi.
I haven't seen Manabu in months. And yes, that's sad. I've enjoyed the first ones where they created things, and learning about the culture.
I'm only watching the 1st season of 1N2D. I've heard about that too - that half of season 2 sucked. I'm not fond of Kang Ho Dong to be honest. Like you said, he's too loud. Sometimes he hogs the cameras for himself longer than necessary that his co-entertainers don't get to say what they want.
You've got Running Man right, especially these days.
Other than that, I've been watching Return of the Superman because of the babies.

Oh, was First Class a remake?
I hope so too! I'll probably take a peek and if it doesn't live to my expectations, I'll say bye. Or maybe wait till the entire has aired to see how viewers react.

[spsn.livejournal.com]

What I missed about K-variety is shows like Family Outing (the old cast is gold!).

I don't think First Class is a remake, it's 2 years ago drama, it's about office cat fight and they even made to season 2. But I didn't watch it because of the theme (don't want to get affected emotionally). :)

[qonyta.livejournal.com]

i havent read your LJ for long time..
and i wanna say..welcome to the shinhwa changjo land my dear orange princess...although i dont really follow them nowadays..maybe because i am in korea i am lazy to updating the news lol

i am late watching eric drama because of matsujun lawyer drama..sigh..and i was so busyy these months and i am bored with romance drama lol
the things that i really missed was eric drama location hunting...sobb
and i think i saw their filming b ut i didnt realize it was them..

and i havent watched wannie musical..and it is ironic since wannie is my ichiban lol

[spsn.livejournal.com]

OMG, you're a SHCJ? LOL, yes, I landed safely in orange land. I find surprisingly more difficult to find their stuffs compared to Johnny's stuffs. Still hunting for their concert DVD files, but maybe it's coz I haven't looked hard enough (too tired from work and my RL is full of drama the past 2 mths).

I'm the opposite of you, now I'm into the light romcom stuff, my brain just stop working on the lawyer drama though I really wanna finish it, Matsujun was great in that 99.9%.

Does Shinhwa broadcast still on air? or it's no more? i couldn't find more eng sub anywhere, and my korean is seriously almost zero...

read good reviews on Dong Wan's musical, but is it still playing though?

[qonyta.livejournal.com]

yeap....i have been following shinhwa since 8 years ago lol...
hmm their stuffs...there was shinhwa international forum before,,i am not sure it is still around though...
i only following the company and my friend twitter nowadays..

i watched their dvd concert in youtube..maybe i will ask my friend the DVD files

Shinbang has stopped broadcasting since 2014..i didnt really watch shinbang after they 2013 summer as they changed their format..

yes i know dongwan's edgar allan poe get good reviews but i am not really into musical...i watched wannie revious stage play before but if i am not with a group of friends i will fall asleep and nowadays we couldnt match our schedule lol

i prefer watching their concert :D

[spsn.livejournal.com]

ah, there're several shinhwa tumblr i followed, mostly they have the translated shincom updates, and that's about it.

i watched the clips here and there in youtube, i was curious about the whole concert flow. which con have you gone to? i heard it's so hard to get their tix.

i'd also prefer watching stage play (if i understand what they say) to musical, too much singing LOL.

[qonyta.livejournal.com]

I watched their anniversary concert this year and last year and 2014 concert..and their 2013 encore concert..
All the two days concert haha...here goes my money..haha

For concert ticket..well arashi ticket is still harder..for shinhwa for good seat ticket is a little bit difficult but for normal seat we can still buy from fans who couldnt watch it or who get better place and wanna sell it..it is normal in korean fandom..

For dvd..i only follow my friend upload in youtube now..too lazy to search it

Sorry for the late reply..