I just finished watching the Live Action series of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. They kind of jammed everything, from the "first meeting" to well Kyohei's return to his home, in a 10-episode run, which was surprisingly, ENOUGH. They kind of geared towards a more romantic direction with it though, putting more focus on Sunako and Kyohei. Ah, lots of good romantic stuff for me!
The Live Action also featured Takeru, a character absent from the manga and the anime. He is the son of Obachan and kind of serves as the tranquilizer of the group when they get into their crazy moody fits and fights. He also provides an outlet for Sunako's caring and motherly tendencies and a foil to Kyohei's unstable childish character.
The manga and anime lean towards a more mature audience but Takeru and a considerable amount of comic side-punches and dialogue make the series something recommendable to family and friends.
The live action also succeeds in getting across its point about accepting the things you hate about yourself. It shines enough light on each of the complexes of the different characters and works each of them out smoothly, although Sunako's and Kyohei's are given the most attention. I also like the fact that at the end, they made Kyohei and Sunako realize their feelings for each other, a point the manga hasn't reached yet and something the anime doesn't explicitly imply. I'm not really sure I liked the way they did it though.
A candid-camera set-up? Seriously! Maybe in a sense it was effective but I thought it was not original nor creative. I loved the ending, though I would've loved to see more sweetness from Kyohei. But I guess it would be extremely OOC if he suddenly acted marhsmallow-ey to Sunako. And besides, it's what makes their love story unique.
All in all, this series got to me enough to make me want to update my blog haha. I've not recovered from my writing blocks yet but I'll probably ease out of it soon. Now, I just can't stop thinking of Kyohei (Kame) and Sunako (Oomasa Aya). :-)
Will end this post with a wonderful quote from the ever-cute feminine Tegoshi, who plays Yukinojo:
"The fear of love is like going to the pool for the first time in summer. At first, it's really cold and will only get colder as you put your whole leg in. The only way you can really shake the cold off is to dive completely in the water"
