rdturbo

chugakusei nikki has had a positive impact on her life. She already had a lot of cm deals. (i guess she was the actress with most cm's but was beaten by mai shiraishi and aragaki yui last year.)
She is on the cover for some famous magazine as well for the jan issue.

i think arimura is one of the better actors in her age group 90's-95's. nikaido fumi could have been good too but these days she focuses only on movies. Takahata Mitsuki is another contender but after kahogo no kahoko she is sticking to that character's image.

yes jdramas are very daring but not the primetime ones. they used to but for primetime dramas they have played it safe for the last 10 yrs or so. but chugakusei nikki took a risk

if the ending is bad i know i wont be able to watch it again properly so I'll watch everything before ep11. hopefully the ending doesn't disappoint

tbs posted a small video with recap till episode 10 with the theme song playing in the background. watching all the scenes from ep1 to now almost made me cry. I never expected myself to become like this because of one show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_HXZV0ntBE

Since the subs for ep 11 will come after the semester ends, I'll probably start again from ep1 before going to ep11. 11hrs of pure awesomeness. will be able to relive all the feels again

I think what's bothering people while watching this drama is that common Korean drama tropes or cliches are being used in this drama but the way they are being used and results of those cliches end up in a way that we don't expect them to.
K-drama fans have watched so many dramas by now that when they watch a show that doesn't go the way they expect it to they get turned off or get irritated. It happened to me while watching some shows the previous year.
But this year all the kdramas I have loved have gone against the norm and did something different which made me appreciate them even more. Miss Hammarubi and My id is gagnam beauty are prime examples of this. They have got low to average ratings on mdl but people who love these shows love them tremendously.
While watching episodes of encounter I subconsciously predict a particular ending for the episode but every time the ending is completely different from what I expected.
Like in ep 5 when csh said that she is going to hold back on her feelings I totally expected her to but what happened next made me squeal with delight.
Luckily encounter is getting a lot more love in Korea and critics there are raving about the performance by Song Hye Kyo in ep 5.

Looking at the negative comments below I am a bit surprised as to how my taste in dramas can be so different from other people.
This drama is slow paced, low on chemistry for sure. But I am loving it because of it.
Honestly when the announcement for this drama came in I wanted the story to go something like this. It met my expectations perfectly. I guess people wanted something different.
I actually like it when there are less dialogues and the story is being told more through the expressions on the characters faces. Like when Kim Jin hyuk uses his smile as a defence mechanism to pretend that everything is all right or when cha soo Hyun has a cold expression when she thinks about holding back her feelings and enduring the pressure from the people around her.
Anyways just putting it out there that I love it for what it is.

finally watched ep 9 with subs. I could hear my heartbeat during the ending scene. This is the first time in my life that I have gotten so over the top excited for a drama. game of thrones and all that stuff makes me excited too but chugakusei nikki is on a whole another level for me.

now that the ending is so close I wonder if any other show is going to top this one in my heart for the rest of my life. like i know better shows are out there and will probably come in the future too. But I really wonder if they will be able to make feel the emotions I have felt for the last two months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaKrD8Mg4dw
https://jpopsingles.eu/single-uru-prologue/

Ep9 subs are up on aoihachi.livejournal.com

Yui aragaki won't take such risks in her career. She has become the kind of the no1. fan favourite right now. She is in a safe space at the moment with all her CM deals. Hence her recent shows and movies have been safe too.

I actually give a lot of credit to Arimura. Think about it for a second. This could have gone horribly wrong for her if chugaksei Nikki didn't turn out well. She took a massive risk with this role.

ep9 subs are going to be released today. ep 10 next week probably but could be sooner depending on raws

the mangaka has given free license to screenwriter to write the ending she wants

in the perfect world she should. its one of those scenarios wife finds out husband is cheating. wife goes and hits the mistress. makes no sense but love makes you do it.
hope i was able to get across with my answers. these are the most difficult questions to answer because actions taken while in love with someone are harder to fathom than calculus, at least for me.

jdramas were much bolder back then. sex and full on kissing doesn't fly anymore on prime time dramas.
i think there was not much backlash because the youth of that gen was much more rebellious than today. like they were of a different breed in japan. also romance was the prime focus of dramas back then. not so much anymore except here in nikki.
surprisingly majo no joken even won the top award back then. before nikki aired people were bashing it left and right due to controversial subject matter.
same country and people but two very different generations.

dont know i watched as the show was airing. but whenever the subtitles were released it didnt matter what else i was doing, i just had to watch the episode first.
if you are able to not give in to the temptation of watching the next episode then you can try watching one or two ep a day i guess.
the final ep airs next week. if you really like the show then complete by next tuesday. so you wont be tempted to read spoilers of the ending which may or may not ruin the experience

interesting experience

i think the trend of older women/younger men relationships in drama and in real life is increasing in many parts of the world especially in korea and japan where such relationships are more out of the norm than anywhere else.

recently we had a big debate session on equality for men and women in university. there were some interesting points raised on this topic. also these points are not from western perspective. i live in an asian country its different out here.

decreasing gap between income levels hence women less dependent on men. the need for an older stable partner decreases.

increasing equality in social life. therefore desire for more power in relationships. usually older person has more power in relationships. (not really agree on this but it is a valid point)

me too movement. i think a lot of fantasies regarding older men were destroyed with this movement for college girls who haven't really experienced what the older gen has. not saying that all older dudes are bad. but girls have become more cautious now when older dudes approach them.

1. i wish i could explain no1. better but i think hijiri herself would find it tough. what i think akira made hijiri feel accepted. when she was getting bullied everyday by students, her parents telling her to quit her job, shotaro wanting her to be with him in osaka despite her wanting to teach made her feel less valued you could say. in all of this only akira made her feel happy first as a teacher then as an object of someone's affection. i think she could feel that akira likes her for exactly who she is and what she wants to be. not what someone else wants her to be. uhh this is getting complicated. love is complicated. sometimes it takes very little to fall in love. but once you do it is harder to get out.

3. writer got lazy i guess.

4. when someone you love is in love with someone else it hurts regardless of relationship status. it didnt matter to iwasaki if hijiri liked akira or not, what mattered was akira liking hijiri and not iwasaki. so she just wanted it to stop. jealousy, pain, everything counts.

5. even she felt it was ridiculous. but she knew that akira liked hijiri. being a single mother she is more protective of akira. she just wanted to check out the situation for herself. it becomes clearer in ep4 and ep 5

1. its pretty clear at the end of ep3. she confesses to chizuru that she has feelings for kuroiwa that are deeper than that of teacher/student. and she realizes that she has to stop.

2. to maintain status quo. he is pretending to ignore everything so as to not create problems in the relationship. his logic.

3. even i don't know what was up with the school. students at my school would be suspended for that behavior.

friend