TV / Radio Mexican Drama: L.I.K.E.

Interesting. I agree next to these 5'8 blond models Tano would maybe look more like a Maya girl than the mysterious Japanese exchange student lol. Someone like Kato Rena would indeed fit in but I think whoever agrees to go over will be someone with few prospects in AKB and not a senbatsu member, since putting your career on hold in your country for a year is risky. Maybe someone like Nattsun? I still can see Tano since she is pretty and she has the acting experience.
Anyway who knows, ultimately itll be whoever the producers like and is willing to go be an actress in Mexico for a year.

 

i just realized this is probably the first time i wont have to worry about subtitles!

 

Now that I think about it...

 

@aquaticdragons You know, I completely forgot about Amigas y Rivales and Sonadoras. They were my favorite novelas when I was growing up, lol. I didn't think the project could go that route too.

 

Another thing about mexican dramas (telenovelas)
They are aired DAILY.
I mean, one new episode each day. (mon-fri)
So, saying i gave like 5 episodes to a show is saying "i will give it a week"

 

Well I almost have no life so I might as well make the tiny bit of it that I have all about AKB48

 

Hopefully they send a member I don't like.

 

Not a big fan of telenovelas, but if a girl I like gets chosen, I might give it a chance I do wonder if she'll have to speak in Spanish... That would be quite funny.

Anyways, I feel like it could be a good opportunity for the right girl who is maybe not getting success in Japan. I agree Tano Yuka would be good but she might be a bit short, and I do wonder if someone like Kato Rena who is reasonably successful would be willing to take that risk and leave Japan for 1 year... What about someone like Fujita Nana or Mogi Shinobu? They are both 20 and they are tall by Japanese standards, and especially Nana has really nothing to lose. I was also thinking about Kitazawa Saki and Shinozaki Ayana, they are 20 and 21 years old, really pretty, not having much success in Japan, although they might be a bit short by Mexican standards. Then again, I'm not an expert on Mexican beauty standards

By the way, I'm originally from Europe and Mexican & South American telenovelas are really popular in my home country, especially Rebelde was a hit among young people. They even had several sold out concerts, and it's really difficult to sell out concerts at my country since it's one of the smaller ones in Europe If this new telenovela can replicate Rebelde's success, that will be a great opportunity for that girl and can open many doors for her.

 

I may think that yes, actually a lot of people here are quite lazy to read subtitles and eventually get annoyed my them (but not everyone tho), so probably making her speak just japanese won't be the best idea.

I would say that yeah, probably there will be quite some dialogues in japanese but since she may be part of the main characters, even if her spanish sound funny, they will go with that because maybe they will just drop the girl in the show like the "new foregin classmate".

 

I mean, unless there is some girl who has been secretly learning Spanish for years that we don't know about, they'll probably just start from beginners and you can't learn to speak a language well within weeks or months. Which means she'll probably do her best speaking the Spanish lines they give her but sound kinda funny anyways. So they're going to need some exchange student/just moved to Mexico/etc. storyline for it to make sense. You can't just pretend she's been in Mexico for years when she can clearly not speak Spanish at a basic level

 

I suggested that the girl be at least 5 feet because most actresses in the lead roles tend to be between 5'2” to 5'7” yes there are actress who are 5 feet and shorter but I'm not aware of any that has played a lead role character. A lot of these actresses actually look short, but that's because the male actors are tall, they tend to be between 5'7” to over 6'.

Gosh I'm being really petty here, but I honestly want the girl who goes, to be a beauty and somewhat talented/fast learner because she's not only going to represent AKB48 but the Japanese talent as well, and I want the Mexican audience to have the first best impression and like it.

Of course, beauty is subjective so everyone is going to have different opinions on what girls are pretty.

So when I made my criteria, which I mentioned in my previous post, I considered all the girls (in AKB48 only) not just the girls who have become stagnant in the group.

Anyways...whether the drama is an original, a remake, or mix of several dramas, I hope the drama takes elements from the characters of hit dramas for the lead characters in this drama.

My sisters and I really liked this novela called "Agujetas de Color de Rosa" [Pink Shoe Laces] produced by Luis De Llano, in which the young female lead character does ice skating. So I would absolutely love it if one of the girls is an ice skater. It'd be nice if the "foreign exchange student" is the ice skater. I'm suggesting that because ice sports are not really big in Mexico. In fact, I kind of think that the production decided to include ice skating because of the incident with Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigon, and at that point ice skating had become really popular. Ever since this novela, I don't think there has been a drama that includes a character who does ice skating, they mainly do acting, dancing, or singing.

If one of the characters does turn out to be the greedy type, I hope they make her character similar to "Rubi" or "Teresa" both produced by Jose Alberto Castro. In these two dramas the lead character is the villain; she is poor but smart, ambitious, and easily manipulates others. So I wouldn't mind if one of the characters is like this throughout the story, but of course has a redemption arc because if its about youngsters then she can't stay evil the whole time. The actress who played Rubi, Barbara Mori, is a quarter Japanese.

I also would love it if one of the characters is the mischievious type and cross dresses like in the novelas "Mi Pequeña Traviesa" [My Little Troublemaker] and "Niña de mi Corazon" [Girl of my Heart] (I haven't watched the remake) both produced by Pedro Damian. In both dramas the lead female is poor and cross dresses as a boy to get a job to support her family. Yes I wouldn't mind if one the girls cross dresses as a boy for the drama. Although I am tired of reading manga with cross dressing female characters, I don't mind watching a drama, just as long as it's not Hana Kimi.

I did think that maybe the girls could be part of the school soccer team with the world cup coming up, like in the drama "El Juego de la Vida" [The Game of Life] produce by Roberto Gomez Fernandez. However, I remember that drama being somewhat boring...so if there are some characters that will be soccer players, then that can be left to one of the male characters.

I wouldn't mind if the drama also included other elements like bullying in school, or students going through depression and other mental problems. I don't remember really well, but the novella “Locura de Amor” [Crazy Love], also produced by Roberto Gomez Fernandez, showcased these type of problems with the characters. Other things that were also part of the story was that the lead female student had a romantic love interest with the school psychologist, who is the male lead (gosh when I was younger, I was ok with that, but now that I'm older, I think that's an absolute no, no). The setting for this one was an all girls school.

Here are the intros to the dramas mentioned:

Agujetas de Color de Rosa (1994):
if the video does not show watch the video here

Rubi (2004):

if the video does not show watch the video here

Teresa (2010):

if the video does not show watch the video here

Mi Pequeña Traviesa (1997):
if the video does not show watch the video here

Niña de mi Corazon (2010):
if the video does not show watch the video here

El juego de la Vida (2001): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAsWEHfm5TU

Locura de Amor (2000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTrSOeGoNaA

Which ever way the story turns out I hope the characters have depth, actual problems, and development. I watched some of Rebelde and Miss XV and while they're both entertaining, the characters don't really face problems. All the small problems just feel like fluff compare to Pedro Damian's previous work, Clase 406, and other earlier teen dramas by other producers.

Hmmmm.... maybe I should just write my own novela lol

 

Spanish isn't the hardest language(I believe it's one of the easiest to learn), I've actually used my Spanish to learn Japanese so it might be easier for the girls to learn it ESPECIALLY if the girl is serious and immerses themselves in the culture and the language

 

The accent might bring some problems at the beginning but the pronunciation of everything is actually pretty straight forward. Someone who has Spanish as a native language might find Japanese easier to speak in the sense that sounds can get pretty similar. I was often praised for my accent when I was studying in Japan since it was actually really easy for me. I think the Mexican accent is actually quite similar to Japanese so that could make things easier for the girl. However, merely speaking it is different from knowing what you are speaking, and since Spanish is one of those languages that are essentially gendered (every noun you can think of is either male or female so you need to learn, in addition to the word, the pronoun that comes with it), that would increase the difficulty level IMO.

 

Yeah, actually in my opinion I think that spanish is one of the easiest languages that a Japanese can learn, since they can just try to read it as it looks. Probably one of the major problems will be the pronunciaton if the "l" since it doesn't exist there.

But anyway, It's really probable that they don't expect the girl to speak a really fluid spanish at the begining, since it will be pretty obvious that she doesn't look Mexican and they may add her a a foregin student.

Also, it'll be cool to see the development she got with the language from the begining to the end of the series. So I really hope they choose a girl that actually is interested in it

 

Spanish and Japanese have many grammatical similarities.
But since most people compare it against English, that's why may look harder to learn.

 

Well, I go to uni in Japan and have a lot of Spanish (not Mexican) friends who also study here. Some of them are very fluent in Japanese, but many of them have a thick accent. Like, you immediately can tell they are Spanish, not like some Northern Europeans or Asians (again, it depends on nationality and person, not all Northern Europeans and Asians have a good pronunciation either). So I don't think it's universal rule that Japanese is easy for Spanish speakers, at least accent-wise.

I do know several Japanese people who are pretty good at Spanish though, but they've been learning for years. So, what I'm trying to say is not that it's impossible for a Japanese person to be good at Spanish, but since the chosen girl will likely only have a few months of preparation time before filming, her pronunciation will probably still not be too good. That being said, I hope they get her a good teacher who will work with her to improve her Spanish, particularly pronunciation. Not like Macharin in AKB who was pretty much left to study Japanese on her own from what I heard (and it shows in her accent, even though her Japanese has been improving a lot lately).

 

They could make the prozess of her learning spanish part of the story

 

I hope Kato Rena goes for this but I'm afraid she might think she has enough of a career in Japan already. Like she's not exactly flopping.

 

Yes, Oscar/Parukii/MyOshi, Renacchi rocks, but no, she won't.

 

Does Renacchi only have like one fan here lmfao.