Oh My, Eunsol!!!

Well, it took me long enough, but I’ve finally been introduced to the insanely sexy antics of K-pop Dance Performance Girl Eunsol and her group BAMBINO. Who are Bambino and what are Dance Performance artists, you ask? Well, there is kind of this thing in Korea, where girl acts dance to popular tunes, and some of them (like WAVEYA, whom I got to know through their energetic KARA covers) become famous in their own right, even releasing songs of their own! But up until last week, I’d never heard of this Bambino.

 Just this week Bambino’s newfangled 360˚ Interactive Rotating Music Video (works with Google Chrome and mobile phone) for their song “Oppa Oppa” came out with its innovative feature of being able to view whichever girl you wanted…and from whichever ANGLE you wanted, wink wink) that they became known to me, and liking what I heard/saw, I ventured into their other videos on youtube, and HOLY TOLEDO...! 

Once I was introduced to their super sexually-charged live performances, Bambino and their supremely naughty member Eunsol exploded into my fanboy conciousness!! Man, when you talk about "fan service", this is quite BEYOND the pale!

Funny, as a big fan of K-pop, there are a few fancammers who are famous and highly regarded for their crisp, hi-def videos of acts performing, (my personal fave fancammer drigk’s videos of Crayon Pop and Dal Shabet are a big reason why I got into them) but these cammers treat dance acts with the same importance as “real” artists, and fancammer Pharkil (he that legendary cammer who shot the EXID video of Hani that shot them to startdom) has made an entire drool-inducing library of Bambino videos, most of them focusing on Eunsol and her (infamous) hypnotic booty-shaking!

Sexual gimmicks aside, Bambino’s song “Oppa Oppa” is actually REALLY GOOD! It’s just that sometimes ya gotta find effective ways to GET people to listen, ya know? Some Netizens have been taking Bambino to task for their obvious ways to get noticed, but...Well, it worked, didn't it? LOL

PS: Yes, I know that ALL four members of Bambino are rocking sexy, but DAMN, that Eunsol… There’s this certain type of girl look who my friends say “looks like I drew them”, because I always draw my comic girls with these decidedly dreamy, doe-eyed anime features…MAN, does Eunsol fit that description!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Crush Of The Day: Gouriki Ayame

Well, I just finished watching Mirai Nikki in its entirety, and though there were patches that were convoluted and situations that seemed like they were written solely for the sake of taking characters from point A to point B, I have to say that it must have been a pretty good drama because when the show ended, it left me feeling melancholy and lonely when I thought about it later, and that only happens when I’m watching a show with characters I care about and have invested time with!

 Of course, the MAIN thingh I got out of this was my re-introduction to Ayame Gouriki at her absolute cutest- her portrayal of Yuna Furusaki as the cloying, super overly-attached girlfriend of Masaki Okada’s character Arata just melted my heart with every scene she was in, and as they expanded the story and fleshed out her story, I got to see her more emotional side, and subsequently loved her even more! 

I’ve loved Ayame ever since first getting floored by her sexy character in “W No Higeki”, and this was shortly followed by a stint in Asuko March as the extreme and troubled Momo.

One thing I noted while going through the older dramas was realizing that years before Yu Kashi and Sei Ashina were "Putting The Moves" on Ayame in Kurokouchi...

...Ayame herself was doing the exact same thing in Asuko March to poor Emi Takei! 

And it's pretty funny that in both of these dramas, not only is Ayame the same sexy adversary to the main character, in both Asuko March AND W No Higeki, the beleaguered heroine is Emi Takei! 

 So my introduction to Ayame was decidedly on the slutty side, but it’s surely her sweeter role like Yuno that really made me fall for her.  There’s something about her that reminds me of the classic 80’s idols- maybe it’s that poofy shag hairstyle, or (more probably) that Hikaru-Nishida-ish beauty spot on her cheek. In any case, she's a true idol type for MY tastes!

Funny thing about Ayame- I remember when Mirai Nikki had just come out, she was being heralded as the next big thing, or at least in the forums I visited…but there suddenly seemed to be this backlash of animosity thrown towards her, which I just couldn’t understand. And in fact, I think that even today, though she’s certainly successful, she still has that aura of an “Indie” actress more than a "Superstar" actress, y'know?

No matter, I still really love her, though I have mentioned already how she isn’t doing too many of these “cutesy” roles anymore, and as in shows like Kurokouchi and Tenshi To Akuma, she’s been doing more eccentric (re: weird and tomboyish) characters. Though both suit her well, it’s these girly roles that really do it for me! Sure wish I could see ‘em more!

PS, Yes, I'm just as surprised as you all are that it has taken this long for Ayame to become a "Crush Of The Day"...but think about it, if my J-drama folder hadn't been deleted in 2012, I would have finished watching the show then and would have SURELY fallen for her then! So let's just call this one a DELAYED Crush, LOLOL!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

And, Oh Yeah, Mayuko Fukuda, Too

You may recall that besides the magic of the wonderful Gouriki Ayame, another big reason I had to tune into Sci-Fi drama Mirai Nikki was to see how actress Mayuko Fukuda has been doing. Been a fan of hers since her early child-actress roles in dramas like Byakuyako and Enka No Joou and have enjoyed watching her blossom into this beautiful teen actress in recent years!

 Watching the first episode of Mirai Nikki, I thought she was going to be a character that appeared only in that episode, or, at best, was going to be a minor supporting cast member, I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that she was in fact one of the main characters in the show, and along with actor Hongo Kanata, joined main actors Gouriki Ayame and Okada Masaki as the 4 teens against the evil DEUS.

I don't know if it's because Mayuko has such intense features (what they hilariously call in slang terms as a "B*tch-Face", LOL), but she always seems to play these cold, depressed characters. Thinking about it, the only "genki" role I think I've seen her play was as the young Rena Tanaka in the movie "10 Promises I Made To My Dog". We need to see more of these bright characters! But looking over at her dramawiki stats, looks like Mayuko hasn't done much SINCE Mirai Nikki...What in the world is she up to?

Edit: Going onto her Agency site FLaMme, seems Mayuko's recently been in a movie called "Flare" where she received a pretty high billing. So she's still active! I was worried she may have dropped out of the showbiz scene! PS: MAN, Looking at that Site, so many of my favorite actresses are from her agency: Erika Toda, Michiko Kichise, Ryoko Hirosue, Koyuki, my recent love Sayaka Yamaguchi, and even recent sensation Kasumi Arimasu ALL hail from FlaMme! 
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

f(x) Girls on Running Man

Luna on Kwangsoo with Sulli on Jaesuk in far back

  You all know how I’ve been praying that SM artists f(x) will have all five members in attendance when they comeback in a month or so, but there’s always been one OTHER place where they’ve fallen short of a member, and that was in guest appearances on the SBS show RUNNING MAN. 
 f(x) Leader Victoria was one of the show’s very first guests (Episode 8) and in later episodes Luna, Krystal and Sulli would all appear (Sulli has appeared on the show so many times as to be an honorary Running Man Member, LOL), but the one member who has never appeared on the show was f(x)’s resident rapper Amber… that is, til NOW!

Victoria (Episode 8)

Sulli (Episodes 55, 75, 129, 153 )

Luna (Episode 55)

Krystal (Episodes 93.94, 214)

and finally, Amber! (Episode 248)

Yes, after Two Hundred and Forty-Eight Shows in the can, Running Man has finally brought the group’s “Tuff Tomboy”  to play, and sure enough, she was one of the most impressively athletic guests, showing off her skills when they had to swim across the Han River! WHOA!
We can now check f(x) off the list of “Full Course” completion, and in a few episodes, we will also be crossing Girls Generation off that list when Tiffany and Sooyoung, both of whom have never been on the show, appear along with the rest of SNSD (minus my beloved Sica)! Can’t wait to see how they all fare!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

More Running Man Notes: It's Uee!!!

So I’ve got this Page in the sidebar where I try to keep track of all the “Babes and Beauties” who’ve appeared on Running Man, and to commemorate each appearance, what I do is take a screencap of the guest so I can easily keep track of who they are and how they looked on the show.
   Sometimes, however, (as witnessed by some of my running Man past articles like the one about Han Yeseul, and others),  there will be a guest on the show that is so beautiful and dazzling, I can’t take just ONE screencap, and end up with a whole FOLDER full of them!
 And so it was in the latest (for me, anyway) episode of Running Man when Afterschool’s pretty Uee appeared. Holy cow, she was so freaking beautiful I found myself capping over and over and over again, thinking, ‘Ooh, I’ll use that one for the Running Man Page…NO I’ll use THAT one!” Well, you can’t just let those caps go to waste, and so it is time to bask in the wonder of Miss “Honey Thighs” Herself!

 Uee’s been on the show many, many times and it’s always a fun ridewith her, but this epsidoe went up just a little higher, she was so animated and giggly, and having a heck of a time! And for pure LOLs, there was this one scene where just before the contestants were going to wrestle, Jaesuk said, “Before the fight, we have a special guest to entertain us!” Then Afterschool’s “Diva” started, and Jaesuk shoued "...UEE!", to which a  stunned and cracking up Uee stepped up and performed her debut AS song, to much laughter! 

Awwww, she’s still got the MOVES!

Earlier this past year, Uee has been hinting that she wanted to pursue an acting career full-time and put Afterschool on the back burner (i.e.: "Graduate", like Jooyoon did) and while an Uee-less AS makes me sad, at least I know that if she's an actress, we'll still get to see her on shows like this doing her thing! And that's a good thing!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com