Deadly Friend: Kyouso No Musume

HOLY TOLEDO, Kyouso No Musume is one of the most GRIPPING psychological dramas I’ve seen in YEARS!!! The story of a high school whose foundation gets shaken when a mysterious transfer student arrives and begins doling out her own brand of psychotic justice upon those she deems corrupt had me on the EDGE of my SEAT from its first MINUTES and never let go!!!

As the show begins, we see a young girl named Ichika (Hana Toyoshima) being brutally bullied  by a girl named Miyu (Yui Oguri), wringing a rag full of dirty water onto her and slicing off her hair as she demands money from her.

Her weak willed brother Kazuma (Taiyu Fujiwara) is even witnessing the bullying, but is too much of a coward to do anything about it.

As he’s about to flee from his shame of inadequacy to protect his sister, he bumps into a haunting girl who has been watching it all.  He doesn’t know it yet, but she will soon be completely involved in the life of him and his family’s matters!

Heading to class, he is shocked to find the girl is his newest classmate! Her name is Sara Kiritani (Mizuki Kayashima), a new transfer student, and, choosing a seat next to Kazuma, gives him a knowing smile as if to acknowledge the secret they have between them.

In the meantime, the bullying of Ichika has continued and increased. And with no one to turn to, she is contemplating suicide. But just as she’s about to take the leap off the roof of the school building, she is stopped by the sombre Sara, who manages to talk her down, telling her not to worry and that she will stop the bullying.

Confronting the bully, Sara at first offers to trade places with Ichika, and bully Miyu has no problem shifting the torment to her. But this is all part of Sara's plan, and soon Miyu finds out just how crafty and tricky Sara can be!

By recording all the bullying, Sara has begun blackmailing Miyu's family  with the videos and in the end, Miyu and her family have no choice but to move away in disgrace! Thus Sara has solved the problem, and Ichika (and Kazuma) are both grateful...

But there is something very sinister about Sara's methods, and as she begins ingratiating herself into their lives, they find that there is something diabolical lying beneath that good samaritan outlook of hers!

When a suspicious student named Aki (Riko) pries into Sara's past, we see just how truly cold-hearted she can be when faced with adversaries of any kind.

Ichika and Kazuma must choose between believing in this girl who has single-handedly saved them from despair...or accepting the blackness that is suddenly engulfing the school and all those connected to it! And all the while Sara is getting closer to their family, for secret reasons of her own...

MAN, Mizuki Kayashima is absolutely MESMERIZING as the dark and brooding Sara Kiritani, and I cannot help but CHEER her on, even as her "good deeds" get blacker and blacker. Yes, this drama is painting Sara in a negative light as she extracts revenge on the baddies, but in this day and age, to see someone ready to DO something about the problems while others merely look on or pretend to not see, is something to applaud!!

GOTTA see MORE of this one!!!!

Chekhov’s Swimming Pool

Chekhov’s Gun is the foreshadowing theory that if a gun appears early in a story or scene, said gun MUST be used later in the story. And no better example of this is the EXTREMELY overused trope in J-dramas of the “Swimming Pool at a Fancy Dress Dinner” where as SOON as you see the swimming pool, you KNOW that at some point someone is gonna FALL right INTO it!

And such it was in the recent Black Cinderella where Kamiya (Riko) is invited to a snooty outdoor party by her affluent classmates. The FIRST thing you see when the scene opens is the pool, and I immediately said to myself, “Huh, guess Manaha’s going to fall into the pool”...And of course, that’s EXACTLY what happened!!

Luckily for Kamiya, her supposed romantic interest Keigo Tachibana happens to be on hand to ceremoniously carry her out of the pool...which, now that I think about it,  is also part of this cliche!

Chekhov's Swimming Pool, a trusted trope of the teenage j-drama series!!!

Black Cinderella

 

 Ever since she was a little girl, Manaha Kamiya (Riko) has dreamed of becoming a Beauty Pageant Queen, but as she grew into adolescence, her clumsy and awkward demeanor made her give up on such fantasies.

There are some who are naturally dazzling, like Keigo Tachibana (Fuju Kamio) and Yuri Kasumi (Murakami Erica) , the “star’ couple of her school whom everyone expects to excel in all their endeavours:

Manaha, however,  knows she isn’t one of those sparkling  types! With best friend Himari Yoshimura (Miu Suzuki), she laments being such a mundane person!

Suddenly, however, two things happen that turns her world topsy turvy-
One, due to a chance meeting at a bus stop, she crosses paths with the suave Keigo and he quickly becomes friends with her.

And two, when they announce the upcoming Miss Seiran Beauty Pageant, Yuri, the most popular girl in class, nominates MANAHA as a contestant!!! Manaha can’t believe it and feels totally out of her class, but Yuri warmly says she’ll help her every step of the way!

"I nominate...Mahana!"

? ? ? ? ? ? 

! ! ! ! !

"wh-who??? ME???"

"I'll help, don't worry!"

Things seem to good to be true, but despite warnings from her family (especially her worrying mother (Risa Sudo), Manaha decides to give her old childhood dream one more chance to come true!

But things aren’t quite as they seem on the surface, and when Manaha is seriously injured on the set of the pageant, she will find that beneath the cool kids bright exteriors lay something more sinister, false friendships and ulterior motives.

When her injuries result in a horrific scar on her face, a distraught Manaha even considers ending it all…

Indeed, she is ready to make good on her jump, when she is abruptly stopped by a lad named Sora (Mizuki Itagaki). He is able to talk her quite literally off the edge and even manages to cheer her up.

Her naive thoughts put behind her, Manaha gets a new resolve to life things her own way.

And from there, we'll see where this one goes!

Side Note: Just like Mirei Kiritani, Haru, Emi Takei and even Yuko Araki all started their careers playing such similar “bad  schoolgirl” roles, I predict great things for young actress Rea Nagami, who steals all her scenes as Kyoko, the lead “rotten chick” of the bunch!

PPS: Back in the day when i was watching Risa Sudo and Akiko Hinagata as mere teeangers, i never dreamed I would one day see them playing MOTHERS of the main characters, but we all grow up!!