Dear One Pound Gospel,

Thank you for being so wonderful. I had so much fun with you, for those few short hours that we were together. Thank you for giving me lolz, for having such endearing characters who, although flawed, were such fun to be around. Thank you for your cute love story, for showing the value of friendship, and for giving me a glimpse into what it means to be a professional sportsman.

What I'm most thankful about, however, are the many, many opportunities you gave me to stare at and love Kame's adorable, squishy little face.

I appreciate this from the bottom of my heart.

Yours in eternal gratitude,

Me.

( Examples of the K-Man's face under the cut - SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES )

Does anyone know where I can find some OPG icons? I combed a couple of communities but I couldn't see anything - I know it's an older series so it can be harder to find. Do want Kame's face!

One Pound Gospel continues to rock my socks off - I thought episode three started a bit awkwardly but I was in love by the end. I'm so enarmored with it that I'm actually PACING MYSELF and rationing out only one or two episodes each day, which is something that I've never been able to do. I don't want it to end!

Anyway, I have two favourite moments from this ep that need to be shared in pictorial form. Each episode seems to revolve around Kame's character starving himself so that he'll be able to weigh in for whatever match he's scheduled to box in, which is implausible at best considering Kame is probably the skinniest man in the world and every opponent of his is easily 10kgs heavier than he is. LOL WHAT. This particular episode has him trying harder than usual to impress Sister Angela, and it gets to the point where he is so hungry he's lying facedown on the table, GULPING IN AIR LIKE A FISH.



I wish this was a .gif because he is seriously snapping at the air with his mouth. I wanted to shove a slice of pizza in between his lips, the boy could do with some meat on his bones. (Although I still maintain he looks a lot healthier in OPG, surely he put on weight for the role?)

Anyway, the second moment is when Sister Angela comes to the gym to oversee his training, and he's zooming through his situps grinning dorkily at her the entire time because she's there to watch him and he's so excited he just might wet himself.



How the good Sister is able to resist that face I will NEVER know.

Also, random plug: have you watched more than one Asian drama ever? If so, you've probably noticed that those crazy Asians love their cliches, and can't help but put a few token scenes in everything they produce. Things like confessions in the rain, hugs from behind, awkward kisses with open eyes and no facial movement...sound familiar? If so, join drama_hunt, your one-stop community for all your drama cliche needs. We've been having heaps of fun identifying and capping cliches, and I was even able to throw in a OPG one here. YAY KAME!

I was flicking through my drama folder today to see what I should watch next, and randomly picked out One Pound Gospel, which has been sitting there looking at me for about six months. I'd been intrigued when it was airing because as we all know, I love Kame more than...well, most people on my flist *still bitter over those poll results* and Kuroki Meisa is smokin' fine. I'd been able to resist that initial feeling of interest since then because it was about boxing and I honestly thought it wouldn't be that good.

HOLY CRAP, I WAS WRONG.

Seriously, I've only watched the first two eps so far but it's fantastic. It's everything a humorous jdrama should be and so rarely is, and I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoyed things like My Boss, My Hero and Nodame. Kame is perfect in this, he's got great timing and amazing expressions and my love for him grew beyond all boundaries when his manager told him something exciting and he did THIS FACE:



I NEED A .GIF OF THAT SCENE LIKE...SOMETHING I REALLY NEED. Is there such a thing?! If not, can someone teach me how to make a .gif?! I want that as my default 'I AM SO EXCITED I'M ABOUT TO PEE MY PANTS' icon, and while it's fabulous as a still image, the moving picture made me want to cling to my monitor and never let it go.

Unfortunately I have to go to bed now, so no more episodes, but I'll be watching as many as I can tomorrow. Consider this a series rec - if you haven't already, go and watch One Pound Gospel RIGHT NOW. It's got something for everybody - if you already love Kame, you'll enjoy looking at him, and if you hate Kame, it's about boxing, so every episode has him being punched in the face.

WIN/WIN!!!

Dear everyone who pushed Arashi at me,

I hate you.

No, really. Six months ago I was normal, and today I realised just how far I've fallen when naru_mei came in to say hello before I opened the store this morning, and I had my ipod on over the speakers. I have a playlist called 'azn' and it went from Big Bang's 'Emotion' to Arashi's 'Oh Yeah!' and naru_mei commented that she'd decided recently that she really liked 'I Want Somebody'. I went, "OOOH ME TOO, I'm making a top twenty list of Arashi songs for livejournal and that's definitely on it, I like it because it's, like, the only Arashi song in which Matsujun can sing, which is good because he does the main vocals on that song and--" and then I paused because she was looking at me strangely. After an awkward silence she said, "Um, how do you know it's Jun singing?" and I had to reply that I could tell all their voices apart because I'd been downloading their entire discography and listening to particular songs on repeat.

I repeat, hate.

Anyway, in an unrelated coincidence that has nothing to do with my burgeoning obsession, I downloaded a concert vid of 'Cry For You', which is fast becoming my favourite Arashi song, and have watched it repeatedly because a) I love the song, b) Ohno does MULTIPLE HANDSPRINGS and c) their hideous outfits compel me to. Did I mention Ohno does GYMNASTICS ON STAGE?! Generally in concert performances I watch everything Ohno does and then rewatch it to give the other guys a cursory once-over, but as I'm now on my tenth runthrough of this particular one, I was able to confirm something aliaspiral told me a while ago - Aiba is a very faily dancer.

He's pretty much always doing the wrong things at wrong times. It's not a constant thing, and he's great when his timing is right, but every so often he goes off into his own little world. I find Aiba a bit like a puppy who isn't housebroken, and while I would never dare to tap him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, I find myself unable to stop myself from capping his mistakes and pointing them out to the world.



( Doin' it Aibastyle )

P.S. I don't really want to download the early albums because tiny Arashi scares me, but are there any must-listen songs from the first three albums/early singles? I still prefer the boppy songs over the ballad-y ones, but I'd love to hear everyone's top ten/twenty/hundred.

I interrupt your regularly scheduled Hana Kimi responses for a very important announcement: HI I NEED THIS ANSWERED. uisceros recently finished Nobuta wo Produce and we've been talking about the two male leads, and she finds Yamapi attractive (which I do not) and I find Kame attractive (which she does not). This confuses both of us as we're usually on the same page re: skinny Asian idols.

I know quite a few of you hate Kame's weird little face and scrawny body, but surely I can't be alone in finding Yamapi's big eyes and pouting lips entirely unfulfilling?

Poll #1419171 because I cannot sleep without knowing
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Kame or Yamapi

*heart in mouth*

I apologise in advance for how disjointed this recap might seem - my computer does this annoying thing where it turns itself off without warning, and in the time it's taken me to watch episode 11 and start typing this up, it's turned off THREE TIMES. I managed to finish watching before the second time, but after three I threw my hands up in the air and watched episode one of Kimi wa Petto on the 360 instead, and I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Matsujun is adorable.

(I started my quarterly reread of the manga yesterday and partway through volume three I had the uncontrollable urge to rewatch the jdrama. I remember it ending slightly awkwardly, so I'll have to finish the jdrama before I go back to the manga; at least that ends awesomely, even if it does have WTF TIME TRAVEL out of nowhere).

Anyway, less Jun, more Shun!



( SPOILER: men with pom-poms ahead. )

And I just slashed my finger, dammit! I only have one ethernet cable so when I move from the pc to the 360 I have to unplug my connection and plug it into the next thing, and when I was putting it back in the pc I pushed through a thin bit of metal and cut my finger. Ow!

This is quite possibly the best episode so far. *nods*



( SPOILER: Nakatsu's life is going down the toilet. )

I don't have time to watch and respond to another ep tonight, so I'll continue with my snail's-pace rewatch of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which is now up to episode...three. But hey, at least I'm appreciating the little things, like Mamoru's smirk when he looks Usagi up and down after she tells him she's not a model, or Ami using polite Japanese to talk to a PLUSHIE that she hadn't been introduced to, or Usagi wanting to be Ami's friend with no ulterior motive, even though she's an awful student and could do with a smart homework-buddy. Rei next, yay!

I have a thing for bad teachers: I can't stand them. The Order of the Phoenix is one of the most difficult HP books for me to read because of Umbridge, and I feel physically sick when I think of a teacher abusing a child - not necessarily physically (although of course that is horrible), but picking on them, treating them unfairly, anything that makes their school life unbearable.

That said, I've always hated this arc in Hana Kimi. I know that it marks the beginning of the end, but I've always been uncomfortable with how it plays out, and I was so unhappy knowing this was the focus of the next episode that instead of watching more Hana Kimi last night, I watched all ten episodes of Hotaru no Hikari instead. (I really liked HnH, by the way - when I've finished my HK replay I'll do a post using the screencaps I took of Shibue Jyoji's minor role. Also the storyline was good!)

I promised I'd rewatch the whole thing, however, and I can't run away forever, so...episode 9.



( SPOILER: Sano's icy exterior is melting! )

All in all, a lot less painful than I remember, but still ever-so-squicky because of the teacher thing.

And right back into the thick of things!



( Spoiler: Three boys in this series are questioning their sexuality because of someone from dorm 2! )

*sigh*

And then straight into ep 8!




( SPOILER: This episode is very SHOCKing! )

MOAR.

I only got through one ep tonight; for some reason when I got home from work I felt like reading manga, so I finished Midnight Secretary instead. It spiralled into a Mills and Boon with vampires towards the end (especially considering the 'twist'!), but I was thoroughly entertained the entire time and Kyohei was nice to look at in a huge, xbox-shoulders sort of way.

Then I made icons for about two hours and came to the realisation that Toma = Japanese Michael Cera. Y/Y?!



( SPOILER: things have started to go downhill :( )

I have tomorrow off, so I'll try and finish the series then, if I can. I want to rewatch Zettai Kareshi, among other things. Hiro~!