Many of you might not be familiar with ???? (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, ???? is derived from the root words ????(iketeru), which roughly translates to “hawt”, or “cool” (yeah, what a strange irony), an alternative for the more familiar term kakkoi, and ??(?), 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, ????, which refers to “hawt guys”.

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I don’t expect anyone else to be excited about this except old-school animu fans, but anyways.

I saw this news in akiba-station of the upcoming JDrama adaptation of the classic shoujo manga/anime Here is Greenwood, which, according to my antique precious little diary, was something I watched way back year 2000! High school years, VHS times and all that age of antiquity. Amazingly enough, despite having watched this 6-episode OAV only once, the impact it had on my still immature-animu-fan self back then is evident in how I could remember much of its details — the hijinx inside the Greenwood dormitory, the TRAP of the show, and the sweet romance between a tsundere girl and a tsundere guy which brought me to tears despite not understanding how the girl got to realize who she loves orz. It had this poignancy which made it really memorable, and throughout these years I had this lingering thought of rewatching the show. The news of this upcoming live action series reawakened those thoughts, made it all vivid again, and perhaps this time around, I’ll finally be able to get my lazy butt to watch it, so I can finally understand it once and for all, demmit!

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I haven’t been much of a jdrama fan, until last year, though I was mostly into manga-based jdramas, especially those I’m already familiar with. There’s Hana Yori Dango (it’s 2005, but I just watched it last year), and Nodame Cantabile, for example. If we’re going to include movies then add Lovely Complex and Honey and Clover to my “watched jdramas list”.

There’s nothing special with mangas being turned into jdramas, as it’s been done so in the past, though the number of these adaptations are considerably less compared to manga turned animes.

Other notable adaptations in 2006 include Kurosagi, Iryu, Teppan Shoujo Akane, and Sapuri. Upon further checking, I discovered that there are a total of 13 manga-based jdramas in that same year, though most of the titles it was based on is something I have yet to come across with.

Things changed in 2007, particularly during Spring and onwards, where the influx of manga-based jdramas became evident. There’s a total of 30 of these adaptations in this year alone, more than twice as much as last year’s. The year started off with only two(2) manga to jdrama adaptations for the Winter 2007, before the influx kicked in: Spring (9), Summer(11), and Fall(8).

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Hanazakari no Kimitachi, a popular shoujo manga by Nakajo Hisaya was adapted to a live action drama by Fuji TV and aired starting last July 03, 2007. It ran for 12 episodes and stars Horikita Maki, Oguri Shun, and Ikuta Toma. It won Best Drama and two other awards in the 54th Television Drama Academy Awards held last October 24, 2007.

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Laughter, tears, guys cosplaying in meido outfits and a whole bucket load of WTF moments only here in this 2 hour finale of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e ~ikemen paradise~.

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Dr. Umeda has found out that Mizuki is a girl. Will this be the end of our heroine’s cross-dressing adventure or will she become the next Mr. Osaka High?

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The post for the first episode of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Hana-Kimi) Japanese live action adaptation is finally here at Scrumptious, screen-captured especially for your viewing pleasure. We even threw in a brief summary, just for you. Take a look at Mizuki Ashiya�s first day at Osaka Gakuen, an all-boys school. What�s the catch? Well, Mizuki is a girl.

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Just hours away before HanaKimi finally hits the airwaves, the rabid fangirl chefs (Seleria and usagijen) decided to cook up this little treat for fellow fangirls and fanboys alike. Get to know the manga characters behind the beautiful (and not so beautiful) faces of the HanaKimi live action cast. A little character introduction to wet your appetites and some servings of the HanaKimi commercial.

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Hana-Kimi Trio : Nakatsu, Sano, and Mizuki

Fuji TV has announced the Japanese live-action adaptation of the famous shoujo manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e ??????????? from mangaka Hisaya Nakajo. The Hana-Kimi J-drama is set to start hitting the airwaves on July 3, 2007 (Tuesday) at 9PM. Horikita Maki (Nobuta wa Produce, Kurosagi), Oguri Shun (Hana Yori Dango, Detective Conan, Densha Otaku, Gokusen) and Ikuta Toma (Hana Yori Dango 2, Akihabara@deep, Asuka e, Soshite Mada Minu Ko e) will play the leading roles.

Popularity: 32% [?]