@eternalord I don't think it's that. He says people look down upon him, but people don't look down upon him as an idol producer right? It seems to me he criticizes his own screenwriter abilities and that he says AKB48 dramas are not popular enough to get a better timeslot. TV Tokyo probably thought they got all they could from this concept already.
If better time slot means prime time, pre-watershed etc. then I doubt this show will ever be getting it. The violence alone probably works against it; while it may not be the most realistic fighting or polished choreography ever committed to film, it's pretty brutal at times. And an hour would be too long for each episode, unless they're going for the full works with backstory, story, intrigue and character development. I must be pretty easygoing with my standards since this show is what got me into 48G. Probably not a common case though.
I'm sorry if my words were misunderstood. I was talking about the aesthetic appearance of the characters. Previous seasons had very graphic characters, sometimes stereotyped (in a good way). After, you have probably right, I may have spoken too quickly, and I'd really like to be surprised. I'm just saying that from a superficial point of view, I find that the characters lack a bit of presence but that is only my opinion. I saw after that there would be 6 characters mysteries, so I really hope that they will prove me I was wrong to say that.
Just finished the 1st season. I like it a lot~~~~~~ Mukuchi is so interesting i rly wanted to have more of her... Gekikara's fight with Acchan is rly awesome and actually scared me a little bit, not because the girls were scary, but the violence was kinda too much (especially when Atsuko punched Gekikara who were lying on the floor several times, idk it felt painful) Then I wonder if Sakura will have some episodes like that? She's really cute, i hope she will pull it off!
^oh god please no more Gekikara, that character was so scary her laugh was outright nightmare inducing^^
Would love to see another gekikara-level performance from one of the newbies in MG4. Maybe not a carbon-copy of Rena's character but of the same level of intensity. I like to think that Rena earned a lot of attention and gained a number of fans due to her great gekikara portrayal.
I'm imagining this to be Kobii (Milky's character). I dunno, but from the trailer it looks like she's that kind of psycho who will torture while smiling and laughing. Even if it's not her, I agree with you, I hope there's one like Gekikara who will turn the scene into a gorefest whenever she shows up.
I actually found Gekikara's laugh annoying sometimes, but after a while it became her trademark loll What i like about this character is the atmostphere she can bring up, not her fight. I also wish that the humor in the new season would be natural, the 1st ep of season 2 was so cringe-worthy (but i still like Mukuchi )
That's exactly the point though. And it's what made her convincing. I was also kinda freaked out but her in Season 1, but when we got her background story a little in season 2, it was when I just fell in love with the character. Exactly. Gekikara was/is my favourite character of MG. And I was one of those people who became a fan of Rena's through her portrayal. It was completely unexpected; but she made especially MG2 worth watching for me. I agree, at this point, unless there's a secret weapon among the 6 unrevealed members, Kobii is definitely the one that is closest to Gekikara atm. It won't be a carbon copy cause Gekikara was more on the laughing whereas Kobii would be more on creepy smiling while hurting others. But Antonio and Kobii just look really intimidating and badass in general, I'm really looking forward to Sayanee and Milky's performance for that. In terms of aura, Antonio kinda has a bit of that intimidating aura that Mariko pulled out as Sado in MG1, it gives me the shivers lol. Yeah, it's definitely not so much about the fighting when it comes to Gekikara. You have to give it to Rena because it's really entirely her acting that made her portrayal convincing. Not just the atmosphere but in Season 2, the way they fleshed out Gekikara's character more and the way Rena interpreted it was reaally really good, and in terms of character development, it's something I really enjoyed. As for the humour, Yui did say she would be pulling off tsukkomis with her Kansai-bens so I'm assuming they'll be people who will be boke towards her. Kawaei might be one, as she is one of the other queens, and she is Bakamono XD Sayanee also mentioned she'll be speaking probably entirely in Kansai-ben, I assume the same will go to Milky. There's that as well as the late inclusion of Maachun who will definitely bring some comedic relief to the show, so I'm looking forward to it
My ramblings: I still go back to my original idea.....give each group their own show. build up storylines for a year. maybe even have each team as a gang. you learn something on each character, not just the main leader of each group. then you can have fights between different schools and groups, to keep it fresh. kenkyussei promoted can be new students in their school. so it would be interesting if team N invades team S, or H fights BII. The same way foreign wrestling promotions invade another territory. this way you can have multiple stories continuing - who's the best in each group, each school, overall. That, or just do another muchiburi dodgeball.
that would be awesome lol. but imagine what an epic effort that would take. HKT has been perform smaller skits at their tour with the Majisuka theme though, maybe they could one day have another Majisuka themed AKB concert and have the entire 48family play skits there? would be a little easier to organize but still cool
Why can't I stop picturing Maachun as the 2nd Daruma. hahaha I hope she'll get a memorable character. And I am excited for those Kansai-ben in the show!
If this is half as good as MG1 and as good as MG2 it would be well worth a watch......... Really did not like MG3 but they are going back to the setting of MG 1 and 2 which makes me pretty excited for this drama ^^
I just rewatched previous Majisuka 1-3 (not all episodes) this weekend out of nostalgic feeling, and it makes me remember that basically all the fights there were minimum or without choreography at all. It looked like they simply taking turns in punching and kicking where almost 80% of the hits landed perfectly. Even the bloodiest fight Atsuko vs Gekikara was a bit funny because Rena was always laughing whenever she got hit. They forgot how to evade or block, until in Majijo 2 Nezumi demonstrated that a lot, but simply because that character was not strong in offense. Not to mention sometimes there were unrealistic block as well (blocking a baseball bat swing with an arm). Majijo 3 didn't deviate much from this style. This is where the expectation is rising. If you look closely in the brief cuts of fighting in Majijo 4 trailer (not the Salt one, because Rappappa President will always have that one-hit-KO move) it looks like they are improving the fighting choreography. At least from what we got in the cuts of Sakura vs Team Hinabe, they demonstrated some good evasion. One character even showed us one-two punch (I dunno who, possibly Uonome). Rapid attacks in succession+combined attack like the one they showed in the cut of Sakura vs Kamisori & Zombie also didn't exist in previous Majijo. Yes, we can't conclude anything from just a one minute trailer, and I'm not trying to. I'm just being honest that I'm excited for this, and I'm really hoping that this dorama will not fail to entertain us, with improvements here and there Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, this is just my two cents
The fights in all the seasons were choreographed. You just can't throw anybody in there and tell them to start throwing fake punches and kicks, without hurting each other and themselves. Take it from someone who was/is a trained fighter. Besides you can see them learning the choreo in some of the extras and specials that have been done, such as the MechaIke Sp they did on Paruru. They went around questioning the costars of MG3 on set, and in some of the b-roll you see Paruru and other members doing the choreo as they planned camera blocking and fight sequences. And this is not the only example. The fighting without lots of defense is, again, a stylistic choice. The character looks tougher and more badass if they can take a beating and still come out on top. Or like Gekikara, still laugh maniacally. Though if you fought like that for real you would end up punch-drunk or worse real fast. You can only take so many shots, medically speaking, before serious damage is done
Ah yes, pardon my choice of word in the beginning, I mean it's choreographed but very minimal. I originally didn't mean that in a fight scene two girls are just thrown on set, knowing nothing, and then being told by the director, 'Okay, just fight all the way you want. Don't forget, try to make every hit looks real.' Of course they need to learn the moves beforehand, knowing for sure the timing to punch or kick, and making adjustments with camera works. Yes, I agree we could conclude that lack of defense could be for the character style, for instance Gekikara or Sado who needs to be shown as badasses with high endurance. But if we look closely, somehow 'that style' is used too in almost every fight, including the fight of the weaker characters (e.g. Shaku vs Janken in MJ2). It gave the impression that the directing generally goes as follows, 'Okay, you've learned the stage combat. Now you, A and B taking turn in punching each other, each hit makes you downed to the ground. Angered, you get up, and hit back. Keep doing that until A/B lose or draw.' That's why I'm hoping that MJ4 will have a lot of improvement in this area. again CMIIW
I really think the 'no defense' thing is purely a yankee movie style. If you watch Crows for example, you won't see a lot of defense or 'clean' styles. It's mainly brawling and all-out offense to look badass! And it's really the difference between yankees and martial arts movies. I like it this way, they're not supposed to be accomplished fighters but gutsy brawlers.
