On: VIKINGS (and serious fangirling)

Over the first part of 2016, I picked up a number of new television series, mostly out of boredom. I know, I know, I should have picked up Fairy Tail again or another anime series. But like, I really wanted to watch these shows ok? And along with Shadowhunters, I started to watch this amazing gem that I can't get enough of: Vikings. 

Vikings is produced by the History channel, but unlike other History channel shows, Vikings plays out like a drama, bringing to life the legendary tales surrounding Ragnor Lothbrok, the farmer-turned-king. At the beginning of the first season, we meet a young farmer named Ragnor who is an amazing warrior that has sworn fealty to Earl Harldson, for whom himself and his brother Rollo raid. But Ragnor is not satisfied raiding lands that he says, are often just as poor as them - he wants to travel West, a journey no viking has ever successfully completed. Undeterred by the Earl's dismissal of his attempts to sail West, Ragnor asks his good friend Floki to build him a ship. And using the knowledge he gained from a wanderer on how to sail West using the position of the sun, Ragnor sets sail on his own with a crew of men. The success of his raid will set him onto a path of power and politics as two languages and cultures - those of Christians and pagans - clash. 

Tatakau! Shoten Girl [Fight! Bookstore Girl]

In my last j-drama blog post where I reviewed the drama Sunao ni Narenakute, I mentioned that I was watching 3 dramas. Tatakau! Shoten Girl [Fight! Bookstore Girl] is the second of the three that I have completed. To be quite honest, I finished this drama a while ago - about two weeks ago? Yeah, that sounds about right. However, I was unable to find the time to write about it. But luckily I found some time this week, so lets get on with it! 

Aki Kitamura [played by Watanabe Mayu] has just begun to work at the Pegasus bookstore where Nishioka Riko [played by Inamori Izumi] works as the vice-manager of the store. Aki comes from a wealthy family and rumors immediately begin to swirl around her, however, what really surprises the staff about Aki is her fervent love of books and her desire to make sure each and every customer is satisfied. Nishioka shares the same goal as her subordinate but Aki's ideas to attract and satisfy more customers often causes burdens on the other workers of the bookstore. Their different approaches to obtaining the same goal, has the two women often butting heads. 

Sunao Ni Narenakute [Hard to Say I Love you]

As I mentioned in my post about the j-drama Majisuka Gakuen, once in a while, I will pick up a drama or television series, usually so that I break-up the cycle of watching anime most days. I haven't actually watched any anime in well over a month! There was a total of 3 j-dramas that really caught my attention and in addition to them, I have been watching a British tv show as well (more on this will come in a post at a later time). One of the j-dramas I picked up and just finished is called Sunao ni Narenakute. To be completely honest, I started watching it because one of the actors is a singer that I quite like - Jaejoong, from the Korean group JYJ. I remember that back in 2010, when this drama first aired, I was determined to watch it, but never did. So, coming across it again about 3 weeks ago, I decided that I should watch it once and for all.

Sunao ni Narenakute follows 5 individuals whose lives intertwine due to social media. In this case, 4 of the 5 have a Twitter and follow each other. One of the five who goes by "Linda" online, suggests that they should all meet up in real life. At first he tells everyone that they should wear a red flower in order to be identified but then says, "Just kidding!" The first person to arrive is "Doctor" a young man from Korea who works at a hospital in Tokyo. He is wearing a red rose when Linda finds him and Linda explains, while laughing, that he was only joking about the red rose. Doctor looks very confused at first but eventually figures it out. I think I can count about 5 instances in which Doctor didn't quite know what was going on, since his first language is Korean, but for the most part he understood and connected well with everyone.

The next to arrive is "Haru", a woman in her early twenties who is a provisional teacher at a local high school (she failed the exam to obtain her certification in teaching). Haru brings her best friend with her. While she doesn't use Twitter, she does eventually join and follows all the members from the meet-up; she goes by the name "Peach." Finally, "Nakaji" arrives. Nakaji is a photographer who often posts the images he takes on Twitter. All 5 strike up a friendship and decide that whenever they're together, they should be as honest with each other as possible. As a group of young twenty-somethings, many things happen that cause twists and turns in their lives. As they each open up with each other, they all learn that each one of them holds secrets and pain hidden away.

Majisuka Gakuen 4

Between seasons of American and British tv shows, I oftentimes pick up a Japanese drama or two.  Way back in late 2010/early 2011, when I first started following the Japanese pop group AKB48, I read tons of online recommendations urging people new to the group to watch the drama Majisuka Gakuen. I decided to give it a try and boy was I blown away! At the time, I was used to seeing idol groups play innocent, princess-like characters. In Majisuka Gakuen, the girls of AKB48 portrayed "yankee" high school students, a term which in Japan refers to a delinquent. The all-girls high school named Majisuka houses some of the roughest and toughest yankee students in the area. And while they often fight territory wars against other high schools, there is nothing more interesting than the fight for the top within the school itself. 

The first Majisuka Gakuen featured many of the most prominent girls in the group back in 2010. Its sequel, Majisuka Gakuen 2, had many of these members return with new girls, (who were being touted as the "future" of the group) also being introduced. Majisuka Gakuen 3 took place in a prison and diverted completely from the storyline that had been introduced in the school setting. Majisuka Gakuen 3 wasn't too popular so for the 4th installment, the producers decided to move the setting back to the school and have the girls play student delinquents once again (instead of just you know, delinquents).

The Bletchley Circle

One of my many hobbies that I haven't written about in this blog yet is my love for British tv shows. I watch quite a lot of American television series as well, but some of my favorites are British, such as Sherlock and Doctor Who. I recently came across The Bletchley Circle while scrolling through Netflix and thought I would at least watch the first episode to see if I liked it. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that there are only 7 episodes in the entire series as it was canceled after the second series (first series has 3 episodes, the second series has 4). Nevertheless, I decided to watch the rest of the episodes because I was greatly intrigued by the series from the first episode alone.

The Bletchley Circle is a tale of four women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War II. All staff were made to sign the Official Secrets Act which prevented them  from speaking about what they did during the war. Susan, the main character, constantly refers to having done, "clerical work" during the war, as a clear reference to her inability to speak about being a codebreaker. At the end of the war, the four women each continued their lives in their own ways. Seven years later, Susan, a woman who is not only extremely intelligent but very adept at determining and predicting patterns, thinks that she knows how to find the culprit of a recent string of kidnappings and murders in London. She reaches out to her former colleagues: Millie, the spunky one who is fiercely independent and is Susan's best friend; Lucy, the youngest of the group with a photographic memory and Jean, who still has many connections from her time supervising the girls at Bletchley Park and uses these to gather more information to help their investigation.