A list of dramas, movies and tanpatsu for personal reference, or if you really want to know what I watch. I don't know if I want to do this for anime, because my school's anime club usually follows one or two series per term and shows parts of other series to fill in the rest. (Also, I think growing up Asian-American kind of required me to watch anime, so I can't pinpoint - earlier than Sailor Moon, anyway - when I started watching anime.

( Cut for length )

A similar master list of fanworks I've done will be up soon.

So I was watching ASAP in a half-asleep daze and I heard something about "Boys Over Flowers." Now, my mom heard it too, so I don't think I was imagining things. And I just have one thing to say about it:

...NO.

Also: DO NOT WANT, DO NOT FUCKING WANT!!!! >____< The only teleserye I really liked was "Lovers in Paris," only because I have a personal investment in it - ordinarily I've given up on other shows, because Filipino soap operas are mind-meltingly cheesy. Yes, all soap operas are trashy, but ours are just so... eurgh. Trying to take on a remake of a foreign drama is hard enough; trying to take on the mother of Asian dramas (in this millennium, anyway) is an epic task and a nigh-impossible one for our resources.

Even if this turns out to be just a rumour now, I just have to rant because I know that even if it doesn't happen in the immediate future and with the rumoured cast (Kamio-sensei has lain down a moratorium on any more remakes until 2011), the Philippines will get around to it someday.

I am as proud a Filipino as you will ever meet, but this just makes me facepalm like hell. People are always telling us to love what's "sariling atin," but this story is not original or solely ours at all. It belongs to Yoko Kamio, a Japanese mangaka, then was handed down to us through the Taiwanese filter of "Meteor Garden," and has just been recycled and handed to us again by the Koreans. And how is our remake going to be different from all the other rich-boy, poor-girl, evil-rich-family, funny-poor-family, love-dodecahedron and other romantic high jinks that's already on every fucking teleserye? And who the hell can pull this off?

Sarah Geronimo is apparently going to be the lead, and I don't like her at all, so strike one. Makino/Shan Cai/Jan Di/Mimi (as she apparently is going to be named) has to be likeable, lol. Kim Chiu was suggested on some forums, and I think she'd be good. She was an OK actress when I watched "Tayong Dalawa" with my mother (she has a thing for PMA cadets, haha) and she looks a little bit like Mao Inoue, who in turn looks like she just stepped out of the manga.

The F4 will be played by a bunch of new faces, which could be good or bad depending on the guys. Pro: they won't be the same tired-ass faces; Con: I haven't seen the guys in anything so I can't judge them, plus they may be in over their heads. Also, how the hell does one get "Tobi" from "Sojiro?" lol. I kind of want to watch it just for that guy because that's my best friend's name XD. (Conversely, I can see how Andrei and Leo can be derived from Akira and Rui, although I think Louie is just fine for a Filipino guy and much more faithful to Rui). Domyouji to Dominic is actually a pretty good translation - Dominic is a stately, traditional name (wonder what his last name will be - probably something really aristocratic and Spanish). And of course, of the four, Domyouji/Dao Ming Si/Goo Jun Pyo concerns me most (although the choice of Rui is also crucial to the success of an HYD adaptation) - there is no way sweet little Nico Ibaviosa will match Jun Matsumoto's Domyouji. Oh hellllllllll naw. Matsujun eats noobs like him for breakfast (and still somehow keeps that fabulous figure). Domyouji is the role of his life, as far as you, I, Nico, Jun, Jerry Yan, Lee Min Ho, Tanihara Shosuke, or anyone who's ever seen anything of the series is concerned, and although he is not the original, he is by far the best. And this is not my inner Jun fangirl talking, but the HYD aficionado and fellow performer. Just... no.

Ok, rant over. Have to sleep.

This week is Arashi Challenge Week, where our boys appear on at least three NTV shows a day (and each one hosts a short segment on News Zero - although I don't know what they'll do for Sho, who goes last, as he is a regular presenter anyway). It's pretty epic, seeing Arashi crash a TV station for an entire week. I remember when I was a kid and some bands got free rein of MTV for an extended period of time (e.g. Backstreet TV was an entire weekend, if I recall, the week "Millennium" came out) but other than Michael Jackson's death I don't remember anything like this happening recently. (Then again I haven't watched MTV for a good year or so.) A day, definitely, a weekend, sure - but a whole week (well, a block of several hours a night for one week, anyway)? For a non-music channel? Arashi's got some serious sway, tenth anniversary or no.

Most of them are cute little appearances, and of course they have their normal shows like News Zero (for Sho) and Shukudai, but the best one was definitely Himitsu no Arashi-Chan. Arashi, attacking unsuspecting karaoke-box-goers who choose their songs? Best idea for a TV show EVER. Imagine - here you are, cheerfully butchering your favourite Hana Yori Dango theme (it's always a Hana Yori Dango theme) when fucking Matsujun walks through the door and proceeds to sing worse than you? Just the idea of a karaoke throwdown with Jun Matsumoto is hilarious enough, so the idea of all of Arashi crashing your Ara-oke party is fifty times funnier. I think they shouldn't have announced that they were coming a split second before they walked in, though - it would have been funnier if they just walked in singing like it was no big deal. In any case, the reactions were priceless.

There's a lot more high jinks in store, though, and some literally high - all week they've been advertising Arashi's "floating stage," in which they perform on a giant flat balloon above their normal stage, and this random experiment where they catapult Jun from a giant rolling chair-frame-thing. Also, they are going to try to broadcast a 3-D concert, where viewers are encouraged to make their own 3-D glasses (and the illustration for this is hilarious, with a boy - Jun? Sho? Gohan? - popping out of the TV and towards a freaked-out little girl with 3-D glasses on).

... where the hell does Arashi come up with all these cracktastic ideas? It can't all be Aiba, now (although A no Arashi, with all its insane and classic experiments, was).