Good Morning Call (2016)

I didn't read the manga before I watched this one so I really enjoyed watching it. The actors were so good comparing them to other Japanese actors. I love all the characters' personalities and the actors were able to portray it well. Although it was about a not so smart girl and a cold, smart and handsome boy, I enjoyed it a lot. I loved their chemistry and the flow of the story was so smooth and interesting.It wasn't that cliche (although there are some). I was also able to finish this drama for only one day. Every end of the episode would make you watch the next episode.

The thing that I disliked a bit about this drama is that I hoped there were more romantic scenes. Well it is quite understandable that there are not much of skinship scenes and such because the characters are only high school students, but I hope that they were more sweet to each other. Like they would kiss for real because their kiss scenes were like their lips just touched. I hope they would take it to the next level. BUT I think it was also made like that because they have this innocent relationship.

There are also some cringe moments where the female lead would imagine things and she wasn't aware of the things around her like she is embarrassing herself or something. It was somewhat childish of Yoshikawa so I really cringed. There were also scenes where some of the characters, over acted a bit so it was quite off.

BUT STILL! This drama is recommendable especially if you have nothing much to do or if you are bored. I enjoyed watching this drama and I hope that you'll enjoy it as well.

Leia Mais

I don't know if it's that I keep stumbling onto this format of romantic dramas, if josei and shojo manga these days all have the same premise or if the manga they choose to make dramas out of are all with the same formula. No matter the reason, this is the 3rd drama of 2016 I watch with the same premise and this wasn't the best or the worst. It was barely ok. This has the same formula: "troubled jerk" male lead and "sweet and innocent" (and sometimes annoying) female lead get themselves in a situation that throws them together against their will, insert "nice guy" who likes her and dislikes the way "troubled jerk" treats the girl, but who she doesn't notice (in this one you have two of those). Add some other characters to make the triangle more of a square or a pentagram and you have your show. You've seen it pretty much everywhere and this year, specifically, in Please Love the Useless Me, Happy Marriage and A Girl & Three Sweethearts, at least.

As it sounds, it's filled with expected situations: misunderstandings, girls hating the lead because two of the guys who are into her are from a "top 3 most handsome" in the whole school, the male lead hurting her because he "doesn't know how to express his feelings" and "he wants to protect her", the female lead losing a lot of her character once she starts having feelings for him. You know, that questionably somewhat toxic relationship dynamic that, if you're anything like me, makes you wonder why you're doing this to yourself again. There's also a situation between Uehara, the male lead, and his brother and said brother's girlfriend, much like in Please Love the Useless Me, but here it goes around in circles rather than really helping the development of the character. Actually, a lot of the things that happen go around in circles, the same situations happening over and over and the amount of episodes seeming too long for this story. But, like I said, it's not the worst I've seen, not even this year, so there's that.

The bunch of friends Nao, the female lead, acquires and has by her side make the story a bit more worthwhile: her unconditional friend Marina (played by Arai Moe), who is more upset about her friend not trusting her than about boy competitions and is openly interested in both boys and girls without batting an eyelash about it, the well-intentioned yet pretty clumsy Jun (played by Nagasawa Koya) who is rejected by girls on a daily basis yet doesn't become enraged or vengeful at all for it, and my favorite character, Nozomi Kitaura (played by Tezuka Mai), a "Girl Prince" type who isn't really there to become part of the love pentacle situation and offers a tough female perspective to the whole thing, giving a short but extremely memorable speech to Uehara at one point in defense of Nao's situation as a girl and calls him out for thinking that, as a man, he understands her position. Those characters are worth me giving this drama a higher score than I gave to Happy Marriage, although they aren't as prominent in the show for me to give it a higher score than the one I gave to Please Love The Useless Me. All in all, it's passable yet annoying at times, the performances are generally good and it is visually nice looking, plus, it's on Netflix.

Leia Mais

This is not good

Holy shit, this is not good, it fails in almost every single aspect what the hell. Trust me in this one: If you're really interested in this just read the damn manga, this drama is NOT worth it.

First, what bothers me the most, is the acting.

The female lead does a horrible job in acting, she tries so hard to copy the aspects of how the female lead acts in the manga that she forgets that this is not a manga, it's a television show and she's a human, not a cartoon character. The same can be said for the other actors, most of them fall for this trap to try and act like their manga counterparts and end up making of the silliest and most awkward acting I've seen in a while. They tried making as faithful as possible to the manga not remembering that there are things that ONLY WORK IN THEIR RESPECTIVE MEDIAS.

The romance is quite rushed with stupid silly plotlines (TOO SILLY EVEN), you can't take the "villains" seriously 'cause is just too silly, maybe this is a country aspect but I just could NOT take those girls seriously at all. They're fighting this one Sasuke-inspired kid and keep saying that "he's for everyone" as if he was an object, and trying to ruin some girl's life because she apparently is his friend, like??????

This show was filmed in 2017, a time when we already had plenty of very beautiful dramas and movies with smaller budgets even, this show looks like it was filmed in the early 2000s. It looks like someone took their mother's camera and everything she had was this one that she gained on her birthday in the '80s and they were like "sure ok no one's gonna notice" GUESS WHAT, I NOTICED.

It has this VERY desaturated filter throughout the whole thing, quite yellowish too (I watched it on Netflix), really ugly.

In short: Read the manga, don't waste your time with this piece of crap

Leia Mais

-This was my first Japanese drama, and it is THE PERFECT PICK FOR NEWBIES
-Amazing friendships (seriously the best part-even if you're not into friendship dramas) - There is no shortage of dynamic, complex characters that make you fall in love with each and every one of them (I personally love shows with a lot of characters-especially agreeable, lovable, complex ones) and when you're finished your heart just feels so full
-ISSEI IS MY FAVORITE HUMAN BEING
-Amazing romance (another one that will make your heart feel all the feelings and go on a romance roller coaster- After I finished, I felt like I went on an adventure and grew alongside the characters because there is SOO much development in this)
-Just in general a fantastic story... Good Morning Call takes you on this group of students contemporary adventures and travels, trials and heartbreaks and it's adorablelelelelelele
-SOOOOO CUTTTEEEE ANDD FUNNNYY
-The cast to suuper good, like I said before, they really make you feel all the feels (happy, sad/heartbreak-y, angry [in a good way], second-hand cringe, hysterical, proud of your little grown up fetuses, jealous, and any other emotion you could ever think of)
-Lots of giggly moments
-Low key might be re-watching it while writing this review right now (speaking of which, if anyone knows where I can find/buy a hard copy of this (DVD), please let me know!)
-9.5 RECOMMEND to anyone, EsPeCiAlLy noobs, and lovers of romance and friendship dramas, and people who enjoy following many characters

Leia Mais

Oh my gosh!!! This series is the best japanese series so far... I watched several japanese movies and yet I realy like the manga series... you see I have compared asian series and I really like the japanese version... because the pacing of their speech made me understand more while reading the subtitles. ..
Anyway, I have seen the season 1&2 and it was AMAZING... I see myself in the girl's character , the submissive one. And the boy is so much of my husband... you see i really believe that serious man are more affectionate in the sense that they are not showy to girls but deep in their heart they are the emotional one.. they are more sensisitive and easily get jealous though they just said that they arent but they do... hahahaha.... I love the characters they are so pretty and handsome... good job ..oh wel they need to cast these kids because it is a NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES...my gosh this is BIG TIME... hahaha... anyway COONGRATS!!!

Leia Mais

Before I start my review, I'd like to mention that this is one of the first foreign television shows that I've watched. Alongside that, I haven't read any of the shojo manga that this was based on, so I cannot pull any similarities between the two for comparison. That being said, let's start my review.

Good Morning Call has a somewhat overused story line. Timid girl meets boy and, by some odd happenstance, both are forced to spend excessive amounts of time together to hide their deepest secret: living together while attending school.

Now, tropes are not inherently awful and having a classic story-line like this certainly doesn't sully the show itself. Admittedly, they did a pretty good job at filling in that trope with meaningful characters, story progression, and evolving relationships. However, it still leaves a lot to be desired and that's why my score is average.

My first gripe has to be with the acting chops on most of these characters. Nao Yoshikawa does a tremendous job working through the serious parts in the show. The emotions seem sincere and don't feel awkward when watching, but some of the more lovable and goofy moments appear forced and almost annoying.

I found that some moments seem to drag on far too long, making it uncomfortable to watch. Many of her goofy scenes - mostly the ones that require her to hide that she has any feelings for a certain someone - seem very over-acted and drawn out. Sometimes forcing me to fast-forward through some bits just so I can catch my breath.

Uehara is a more frustrating character. He's a very brooding and bleak character (understandably so, after you learn more about his past), but hoping for any sort of character evolution seemed like a lost cause. Even though you knew his underlying feelings and that he was hiding his affection for Nao most of the show, he never once outwardly showed that side of him, which was unfortunate to say the least.

All of the other characters seemed really well acted. I enjoyed the relationships with Marina and was visibly excited every-time she came onto the screen. Her story with Mitsuishi is almost better than the main story and I was really glad that she appeared frequently throughout the entire show.

My second gripe has to be with fillers. Some episodes seemed to persist longer than I would have liked and didn't really add to the story all that much. While there weren't very many that I could find, I did sometimes find myself wanting to fast forward to some of the better bits. Which, to give the show credit, it did have plenty of those 'better bits' between those fillers.

Lastly, my praise for the show.

I think it did a lot of things right. It took an overused trope and placed it into a good story. It was inevitable that something like this would have a couple of hurdles to jump over, but it really was an entertaining and engaging story that fell just short only a couple times - which is more than I can say for most American shows!

If you're considering watching this, I would absolutely recommend it. Also, if you're not a complete stickler for story like I am, then you'll probably disregard most of the complaints that I had with the show. Many users praise this show and I can see why, so go ahead and watch it!

Leia Mais

Overall I think that if you have free time and like to see a storyline that was meant for a female audience, watch it. I, as a male, enjoyed it and will be watching the second season.

Story:
The drama had a good story overall. I really liked that the main conflict of the drama from early on was resolved around halfway and by the middle of the story, there were new conflicts to deal with. One of the final conflicts felt completely random thought as it just happened Monday and there wasn't even much explanation; still enjoyable though.

Acting/Cast
Personally, I really liked the cast. I had already seen the leads in other works and that's what motivated me to watch it. The acting was done in a way to show the shoujo side of the manga, and it felt at times that I was watching a manga, so that was good.

Music
I think the music was played in good places and the music flowed well the scenes. I really enjoyed the ending theme song by Caspa

Leia Mais

I watched Good Morning Call kind of on a whim as I haven’t really been that into Japanese dramas lately and I’m really glad I did. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still all the things that irk me about j-doramas: cliché, silly, over-the-top, over-acted and unrealistic at times. However, it manages to be so stinking cute I just can’t help but love it. Also, it feels somewhat reminisce of Itazura na Kiss so I have those good nostalgia feels. As the characters become familiar and the story settles down, everything smooths out and it was really fun to watch. While Season 1 is quite long (compared to other Japanese dramas) it still breezes by.

Leia Mais

Another mindless heroine

This is one of those series that you know will degrade your brain cells but watch for romance anyway.

The story is a store-bought story where heroine was not so smart but warm hearted and who by drama fate can't help but fall in love or have a relationship with the manly but have a lot of issues hero.

Nao was a typical Candy who, once she decided she likes the hero, can't seem to remove her blinkers to see that he was actually bad for her. Meanwhile, Uehara is a typical hero who is popular and don't seem to care for other people but actually have a heart of gold. His 'fans' bully Nao and he saves her by announcing that she is his girlfriend, yes that trope from the OG 'Boys over flowers' which can never happen in real life. This cycle of bullying goes on and on whenever there are rumors that they are breaking up, until the leaders of the fans finally woke up in the last episode to realize they had no chance with Uehara.

There are only two saving graces of this show. One is Daichi, Nao's childhood friend, the kind older brother type second lead who only wants Nao to be happy. Another is Issei, the son of the owner in a ramen restaurant where Nao works part time. A gruff-talker with a secret crush type second lead who kept helping Nao after Daichi graduated from high school.

Truthfully, I felt that Nao had the best chemistry with Daichi, then with Issei, then with Uehara. Maybe its just the gentle way that Sakurada Dori stares, at Nao particularly, but it gives you that melty, fluttery feeling that makes you want to be loved and hugged by this guy *puddles*.

My main problem in the drama is the inequality in the relationship of Nao and Uehara. That Nao was way below Uehara in the relationship scale. I feel like Nao just keeps on waiting and waiting until Uehara says that he likes her, and when he does finally, it was like forced from him by Yuri. And there wasn't even anything that special about him, other guys who likes Nao have better specs, face, and personality. When asked why she is choosing Uehara, Nao's reasons were that he treats her well by bringing her a cake when she was sick and being with her during a blackout, I wanted to shake her and say that it was Daichi who originally went and bought that cake while Uehara was being his petty self and not even checking up on her until Daichi told him that she was sick, Daichi was already there during the blackout before Uehara but kept from going inside because he knows that he was not who Nao was waiting for. I admit that I really can't get on board on this OTP ship but have SLS instead. Have noticed that there is a season 2. I hope that it will be better than this one or at least it will give me an acceptable reason for why Nao must choose Uehara.

Leia Mais