Drama
These Are My イケメン (Ikemen). ROOKIES Pimping Included.
Many of you might not be familiar with イケメン (ikemen), unless you had the luxury of watching the JDrama Hanakimi which I believe made this term mainstream. I’m not a Japanese expert like bangin-sensei, but I’ll try my best to explain this.
From what I gather, イケメン is derived from the root words いけてる(iketeru), which roughly translates to “hawt”, or “cool” (yeah, what a strange irony), an alternative for the more familiar term kakkoi, and めん(面), meaning “face” or looks. Whether this ‘men’ comes from the literal English word “men” would also be a point of contention, but in the end it still retains the essence of this lingo. Now put these two together and you get, イケメン, which refers to “hawt guys”.
Let’s cut the lingo crap and get to the point of this post. A few days ago I ordered two magazines from HMV. They’re ROOKIES and イケメン-filled magazines +___+ They were delivered to my office so my officemates and I shared the joy of drooling staring at the Japanese hotties in the said magz. I had some free time today so I scanned pics from the Koi-Men ‘08 Spring magazine, filled with photo gravures of the bishies of Spring! I loved the other magazine I got as well, +act mini vol.01, a must-have for ROOKIES fans. It’s like a ROOKIES fanbook of some sort, filled with pictures and interview of the main cast. The photos in this magazine weren’t as good as the first magazine I got, so I didn’t bother scanning them anymore.
Scans overload down below, for the fangurls (and fanboys?) out there who want to share my joy! 
If RL bishies scare you away, or you’re someone who couldn’t care any less about these guys, feel free to skip my random raves and go straight to my ROOKIES pimping.
Yusuke Yamamoto
Taiki~~ <3 The first time I saw Yusuke Yamamoto casted as Taiki for the HanaKimi jdrama, I was turned off by his pouty lips lol. That's all thanks to the not-so-good Hanakimi picture I saw back then, because after the JDrama aired, I've come to love this guy. Oh and he's also in Gokusen 3, btw.
Hiro Mizushima
Minami Nanba of the Hanakimi JDrama, and Soshi of Zettai Kareshi. A certified IKEMEN~ And I’m glad he’s finally becoming less skinny than he was in Hanakimi 
Haruma Miura
I didn’t know who this guy was until I got this magazine. He’s part of the Gokusen 3 cast, as well as the Koizora and Akihabara@DEEP movie.
Yuu Shirota
OMGZ Yuu Shirota makes me faint. He’s the hawtest guy in HanaKimi and ROOKIES, and one of the shallow reasons why I decided to watch these two JDramas. Too bad he didn’t have much of a screentime and HanaKimi, and ugh… they made him gay too. I’m just glad ROOKIES made up for that, made him more GAR than ever.
Yuichi Nakamura
It’s a TRAP!! This trap coincidentally has the same name as one of my favorite seiyuus, and their biggest difference is well, the trappyness factor ^^;
I’m biased for these guys, so their pics are the only ones I scanned lol
…last but not the least, the guys of the awesome JDrama ROOKIES. If you’re not watching this JDrama, go do so, NOW! I have long been thinking about evangelizing about this show like Os and Blissmo, but that didn’t quite happen. So now I’m taking this chance to preach about the PURE AWESOMENESS of ROOKIES. As Os aptly describes, this is a a GTO x baseball kind of jdrama, except that it has a lot more SOUL than GTO. Never have I seen a drama with this much SOUL. It’s baseball with so much GAR and HEART. The best sports drama I’ve seen so far.
Kawato, the teacher / coach in this JDrama, reminds me so much of Kamina from TTGL, from the way he gives his inspiring GAR talk about not giving up on dreams, and how he puts so much faith in his students despite how notorious bad guys they are. In just about every episode, he gives out a Kamina-esque speech ala “Believe in me who believes in you!”, and he certainly lives by his word. Prepare to be moved with each episode of ROOKIES, down to the deepest depths of your being. Every episode of this never fails to give me goosebumps of excitement and move me to tears. GAR manly friendships and bonds between men FTW!!
It’s amazing how they brought this manga to life. Simply amazing! I’m out of words, so I’ll just say it one more time. GO WATCH ROOKIES!!
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filed under: Drama, Japano-files tags: fangurl rave, ikemen, Nihongo tidbits, ROOKIES, spending ventures Discussion
13 comments for “These Are My イケメン (Ikemen). ROOKIES Pimping Included.”
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You know, I brought up the idea a LONG time ago but it never came to fruition: I always wanted a Drama Blogosphere community. Sorta like a branch out of the anime community. I’ve seen so many dramas, k and j and a one or two tw-dramas, I’m always glad to see people who do both drama and anime with the same passion. Lately, I’ve been more into dramas than anime, no thanks to the weak shows.
Either way, Yes. Rookies is pretty damn good. I eagerly look forward to a new subbed episode. For the record, I’m a straight guy, so I do not watch this show for the bishies or in your case, the ikimen (I was wondering what it meant when I got the HanaKimi OST). The story is just good and indeed full of soul.
I would always love to talk dramas with someone if you ever want to hit me up via instant messaging or something.
The last jdrama I’ve watched was HanaKimi xD…
You made my day with those Yuu Shirota and Yusuke Yamamoto scans
Is the drama version of gokusen good? It’s on my “to watch after finals” list. I’m reading the manga, but i would like to know is the drama is worth watching
those guys are sexii i want them except 4 the hiro i dont really like guys wit long hair
Damnit, I really thought it was the OTHER Nakamura Yuichi *grumbles*
A drama blogosphere would totally alienate the likes of me (2D 4tw!!!). Blissmo (and probably you jen XD) will kill me when she finds out I only watched 17 minutes of ROOKIES raw (not because I was bored/couldn’t understand, thank the bloody internet here and high maintenance Chinese video sites).
@Os: if we were to cultivate a Drama blogosphere community we’d have to either convert more people to watch more jdramas, or we lure the other jdrama fans into our blogs, either as lurkers, commentators, or writers!
would love to talk to you about jdramas (though I’m still in the process of being converted, since I watch only a puny little number of dramas)!
@rukomi: The first Gokusen was really good, there were some inconsistencies with the last few episodes, but overall it was a great. I don’t have opinions on the 2nd and 3rd sequels because I haven’t watched it.
@Tam Tam: aw but Hiro is <333 D: oh well to each her own bishie preference
@issa: lol, if this Yuichi is the same seiyuu Yuichi, my ohhh my, I’d love him even more
And that’s a shame that you haven’t experienced the pure awesomeness of ROOKIES, I hope you can join the ROOKIES fanclub, soon! 
OH YAY! I stumbled across another ROOKIES fan!!
It’s a shame that hardly any bloggers watch jdramas, and thanks for the pics! I also watched HanaKimi, but I don’t think I ever finished it. I just skipped to the end and watched the first 7 or so episodes.
@blissmo: actually, I never got to finish Hanakimi too nyahaha. It wasn’t really a good drama, it’s just all for the lulz =/ such a shame, really. So long as we keep on preaching about jdramas, perhaps we’ll see more people getting interested in watching ‘em? They will be converted, eventually
Ikemens!!!!
I love them. (No surprise there.
)
Hana Kimi was the one which converted me to Jdrama, which is also the drama which started me on my raging hormonal crush on Ikuta Toma, which is also how I got to know about Yamashita Tomohisa, which are the two guys who got me really started on the whole Jdrama thing.
So… how can you not finish Hana Kimi? Trust me, the best is at the later parts. Ikuta Toma = yummy.
When I first watched Hana Kimi, I thought Yusuke Yamamoto looked like L (Death Note). I’ve since deciphered the difference, but I don’t know, I think I like L better.
Thanks for the scans! The ones with Hiro Mizushima (skinny but wow, really fine features) and Yuichi Nakamura (ok, I don’t know who he is, but you’ve convinced me to find out… asap) are particular drool worthy.
@Briar: ohh yes, we watch JDrama for the wrong reasons, which just becomes right the moment we immerse ourselves into it (though still retaining the ’shallow reason’ of watching it)
and yes, I’m gonna finish the rest of the HanaKimi eps, for the love of Ikuta Touma. That said, I’m not sure if the summer drama Ikuta Touma is in will be good… I mean, it’s a really serious suspense mystery drama I think
Or did you watch that already? 
but the guy i like the most is Yuu he is sooo hot is he really gay ??
@ Usagijen:
How well you know me. Yes, I’ve watched the first episode on the day it came out online. 
Toma is yummy, so how can I not support him?
Maou is a re-creation of the Korean drama of the same name (taking into account the difference in languages), I think. I didn’t watch the Korean original, but so far the Jap version is intense. After the rather everyday-boy Toma acted as in Honey and Clover, Maou’s implusive-cop-with-a-dark-past is a good change. It’s still too early to tell whether it’ll be good or not (and I’m not a fan of serious suspense mystery drama as a rule), but I can say that Toma is an awesome actor in this.
@Tam Tam: Yuu is hawt, and he’s not gay. From his interviews it’s clear that he digs girls. He’s straight until proven otherwise
@Briar: ohh… sounds mightily interesting
I want to watch it for Ikuta Touma, but I might pass on it if it becomes too heavy for me. Work is gonna be stressful for me in the coming weeks, and I think I’d rather watch something lighthearted and amusing to help me unwind >_<
hellz yeah im sooo happy i will win his heart !! lmfao