28 April 2013

Sprout mid-season impressions

After taking my time with getting back to this drama I am finally working my way though it. If only because I hate to leave things unfinished.

I still cannot say I am actually enjoying this drama series. If there is anything keeping me from dropping it midway it is that I do like the members of the cast. And I like them enough to try to get through all twelve episodes of this.



There are not many romantic tropes I hate more than the whole idea that there is one true destined one for someone in the whole world. Not because I do not believe that love cannot last a lifetime but rather because with this trope the only reason for a couple to be together it that they are destined to be. And because the trope relies on this it usually fails to build on why the couple work well together as a couple leaving "because I said so" as the answer to that. To me that does not work and I do not see why Ikenouchi Miku and Narahashi Sohei should be together, outside of them being so boring it would better they be boring together than to be boring with other people.

Of course what is a romance series without love triangles, though it looks like the series is going to make it even more complex by adding others into the equation. But for now it is settled with Sohei with Ozawa Miyuki (Kojima Fujiko) and Miku with Katagiri Hayato (Jesse). While Miyuki and Hayato are no great personalities I do find them slightly less boring than Sohei and Miku at least. If only because they do more than just think about things and will actually act on their thoughts.

It is probably a bad thing that I am much more interested in Miku's friends than her and her romantic troubles. They just seem more interesting even though there is so little of them shown. But I imagine a series about them would be a lot of fun as I can see them getting into all kinds of hi-jinks  because there is no way anyone's life could be as boring as Miku's.

While Jinguji Yuta is cute in this, that is about all. Though there is not much to his character, Katagiri Wataru, other than being a plot device. Which probably makes it a good thing that he is not in many scenes in this drama so far.

Every little moment that Takigawa Naoharu (Hashimoto Ryosuke) is on the screen I find a reason not to close the video file.


Watching this series reminds me why I am not a big fan of high school romance series. Especially when they come from shoujo manga. Everything moves at a snails pace and you can usually tell who the main character will end up with from the first chapter. Though to give Sprout some credit at least the guy is not a jerk that treats the main character terribly.

I still cannot believe that this story manages to stretch itself out over six more episodes. Why? Just why?

No comments: