This was a very entertaining drama to watch. Unlike other gender benders however, Tempest is a serious drama, taking place during the last days of the Ryukyu dynasty. ( Ryukyu is now modern day Okinawa.)

Though I did enjoy the drama, there are quite a few reasons that I felt I couldn't rate it higher than 7.5. The first being the ever recurring annoyance of Japanese dramas, which is the seemingly lower budget presentation. While the costumes and locations were beautiful, the rest of the production had a sort of 'cheap' feel, such as cheesy special effects and sometimes shoddy cinemetography. Also, when the Japanese actors had to speak English, you could barely understand them. Add to that the terrible overacting of the Western actors, especially the guy that played Admiral Nelson. He was especially awful!

I much preferred the second half of the drama as opposed to ths first. The first half had more unreal, fantasy elements, plus I feel the acting was more awkward. By the second half, the true history of Ryukyu took center stage with the magical elements making less of an appearance. The actors seemed more comfortable in thier roles and the story just felt more solid.

I would also like to add that I see this as a more mature drama. Meaning, geared more for adults. While there are no graphic scenes at all, there is one in particular during the first half that is extremely suggestive. In fact, it made me widen my eyes considering this was a historial J drama and not a movie.

Special mention about GACKT's role in this. His character is super creepy. Like, icky, skin crawling creepy. Which is pretty cool as he plays it so well.

I would recommend this drama to any adult viewer that enjoys Japanese history. It's interesting and has some wonderful moments.

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I just finished this drama and all I can say is wow! I don't think I have seen a more beautiful drama. Everything about it can be summed up by that one word: beautiful. It was visually stunning, the music was superb, and the acting was brilliant. I rarely enjoy a drama this much, but I really enjoyed this one to bits. I thought the story was original and the balance of humor and drama was just right. The romance was beautiful. For a fantasy story, it was done very realistically. Nothing seemed rushed and everything just fell into place. I don't get at all how some people thought it was boring. I was hooked from the first episode. This is one I would definitely recommend to those that appreciate really good drama.

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I just finished watching this drama. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it since the first few episodes didn't really seem to hook me in. However, I kept watching and it did pick up, especially in the later episodes. The only complaint I have with it is that the storyline isn't original at all. I know it was based on a Japanese show, which itself was based on a manga, but I haven't seen or read those versions. To me, there was A LOT of recycled plot points from You're Beautiful. In fact, I noticed quite a few lines you could compare word for word with YB. I am not sure if You're Beautiful was based on the original version of this or not, but I haven't heard of anything like that. I know the plots are extremely similar anyway, but still feel this one could have come across as more original had it not copied so much from You're Beautiful.

All in all, though, it wasn't bad. It was cute and funny, but I just can't help but compare it to You're Beautiful, and in so doing, it just ends up as lacking.

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I chose this drama because the plot seemed entertaining. I was expecting the usual Japanese school drama. You know the fluffy, silly comedy. What I got was so much better. This is a story about a teacher who comes to a high school by the seashore and shakes up the daily routine of the students and faculty there. Yeah, I know. That plot has been done before, numerous times. What makes this drama different and special though, is the way the story is told. We get to know and care about each individual student. We watch each one face obstacles and also learn about thier hopes and dreams. We see them gradually start opening thier hearts and minds to Sakurai Sensei, and to the world around them. Ultimately, we watch them grow up, experience joy and grief.

What is really interesting, also, is that this drama shows how the education system is warped in Japan. How many schools focus only on teaching what is on the exams for the sole purpose of getting the most students into prestigious universities while neglecting to teach other educational material, such as history and physical education for example. This no doubt creates enormous pressure on students to devote themselves to studying, ignoring everything else.

Out of all the high school themed dramas I have watched so far, Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu is by far one of the most realistically portrayed dramas. I highly, highly reccommend this to anyone looking for heartwarming, coming of age drama without all the over the top silliness.

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This drama had all the potential to be utterly amazing, given that it was the live action adaption of one of the greatest mangas ever written. Unfortunately, due to the ineptitude of the drama writers, it was mediocre at best. This, in my opinion, is due solely to their arrogance in feeling overconfident in thier talent and biting off more than they could chew. I really want to stress that even though I am a big Death Note fan, my opinions are not due to them changing the source material. It is because those changes they made happen to be detrimental to the story, and the changes made ended up not making sense, contridicted the story or just came across as weak and shallow. The original story is nothing less than brilliant. This adaption is like Death Note For Dummies. Even if you have never read the manga or seen the anime, it is hard to miss all the gaping plot holes scattered throughout.

With all that said, I ended up rating this drama pretty high, considering. That was because of the acting. Kubota Masataka was simply phenomenal as Yagami Light. When I started watching the first episode, I admit to not really expecting much. However, after a while, I became deeply impressed by him, particularly during the last half of the drama. His descent into madness was expertly portrayed, and as I watched him on my screen, he was the mirror image of the Light Yagami from the anime and manga. The one change that was made that I ended up liking was him and his personality. Instead of the sociopathic Light from the original, they made him be a normal kid. He was friendly and good at the start, but his possession of the Death Note and his obsession with creating a new world pushed him down into a spiral of madness. It does make one think. If you found a Death Note, could the same thing happen to you?

Yamakazi Kento's L, in contrast to Kubota's performance, was rather underwhelming. In fact, he was very unlikable at the start. Fortunately, as time went on, he improved. Much of that improvement is thanks to the inclusion of some of L's most poignant mannerisms. At first, none were really there. It was hard for me to see this character as the legendary L. Eventually, though, Yamazaki begin to adopt simple little things into his acting, such as L's famous slouchy posture and his wide eyed stare. Those may seem like very small things, but to me, they made a world of difference. I started to recognize the character and like him.

All of the actors did a decent job. I especially liked this version's Misa. She wasn't as weak.

My final thoughts are about Near. I have absolutely no dang clue what was up with that character at all. I am still unsure if he was still supposed to be a boy, just played by a girl ir if they changed him into a girl and the translation was messed up. I also have no idea what was going through thier heads when they made all the changes to that character. They were all stupid and pointless.

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I don't get why most people are so harsh on this drama. I found it extremely cute and enjoyable. Sure, there were a lot of cheesy moments and many cliches, but underneath all of that, there is a heartwarming and unique story.

The acting was decent, and the lead girl pulled off looking and acting like a boy pretty well. Much better than some other actresses have done in the same type of role. There were many funny moments as well as couple of rather serious moments, too but I found everything fit really well.

All in all, I would recommend this drama to anyone looking for a light hearted, fun drama.

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First off, when I heard that Matsuyama Kenichi was going to be in this, I was really excited. I really love him as an actor. As I was waiting for it to be subbed, I went to the library and checked out the book, having heard that it was one of the most acclaimed Japanese novels. I should have known then. The book was really nothing but the thoughts of a harmonal young man. However, even though I hated the book, I still gave the movie a chance.

I got all the way to last twenty minutes and then gave up. To be fair, at least the movie is a tad bit better than the book, I'll give it that. Still, though, at it's core, the story is pretty much just about a horny guy who is also emo, as are most of the other characters. I felt no chemistry between any of the characters, and most of them just seemed rather confused the whole time.

Seriously, though, I really feel it fails as a deep, moving drama, which it was meant to be, and instead comes across as a pretentious, whiney teenage melodrama.

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This was my first BL experience and it was extremely disappointing. I think what little actual video was shot with an iPhone, but I could be wrong about that. The big issue here is that only a tiny bit of footage was actual video. The rest was just pictures with the actors voices in the background. It was really weird. Storywise, it was very simple, about two boys who are friends, and are attracted to each other. A female friend that likes one of them is thrown into the mix, as is a former friend, in flashbacks. I thought it was rather boring. The whole thing is only around 20min long, so at least it wasn't a lot of wasted time.

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