I was a fan of Masakazu Katsura's Video Girl Ai manga back in the day. While its not my favourite Katsura manga, that honour belongs to I's, the tale of a girl appearing out of the tv due a videotape actually predated the classic horror movie Ringu and was a classic tale of shonen wish fulfillment.
Truth to told, I don't remember much about the manga except for panty shots, lots of sexy situations and panty shots. And the hero rescuing Ai from the video world or something and the old man from the video shop.
Video Girl Ai 2018 is actually set 25 years after the original with a new cast of characters and some returning old ones. This allows the to story for Ai to be this ideal girl from the past out of time in the present. She does make interesting observations about society today and there are some jokes but that is not the focus of Video Girl Ai 2018.
The focus is your classic triangle between two guys and a girl who belong to the high school anime club. They have a lot of meetings, talk a lot about ideals and stuff especially from the director but I have yet to see a single frame of animation from them.
The anime club angle feels like your typical advertising agency jobs from your usual classic jdoramas. The writer can't be bothered with figuring out the nitty gritty of the job so the job's existence is just to forward the story without any regard to details.
While Video Girl Ai 2018 does no wrong in concentrating on the triangle relationship and in episode 5 the relationships expand into new angles and we are introduced to some potentially dark plot directions although I am 100% certain it won't even be as sukebe as Masakazu Matsura's mangas.
I think the casting of the idoru as Ai is a mistake because this show is too tame. I would have been happier with a lower budget for more fanservice. There are some shots but hint at Katsura's sukebeness but they are only hints. In the end, I don't feel like continuing cause I can't find something to hook me after 5 episodes. Meh.
I'm actually surprised that you managed watching this drama until ep 5. I was barely made it watching ep 1. The video girl's bad acting was meh for me.
ReplyDeleteAnyway have you seen Unnatural? It got Ishihara Satomi and Iura Arata. I think it's pretty good.
Unnatural: AND Mikako Ichikawa (as different from her role in The Third Murder as could be) AND Yutaka Matsushita with short grey hair (so unlike his do in Solitary Gourmet)
ReplyDeleteAgain, you got further than me. I think I stopped at episode three. I wanted to like it, but same as Anon up there -- the girl's acting was meh. I'll be short on time for a while so I'm being picky about what I watch.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Yami no Bansosha season 2?
She is not a real girl so the bad acting doesn't matter!
ReplyDeleteI think they did a decent job adapting this. It's watchable.
Sounds like you just watched to see fan service...but it's not that kinda show.
@Anon - I'll give Unnatural a shot for Arata.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with your review, and it was hard for me to complete this show.... On antoher note, have you been watching "the confidence man JP" ? It is really surprisig, funny and full of excitement. I never knew Masami Nagasawa was so awesome....
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