Hottie Paradise

That's one translation of the title of a smash hit on Japanese tv. Hanazakari no Kimitachi e is apparently already popular internationally, as witness this clip from the first episode subbed en espanol:



For more, go to Veoh.com, search for the Japanese title, and look for the episodes fansubbed in English (the Full Metal Archivist and I are in the middle of the fifth).

What's the show's hook? More ikemen per frame than any other J-drama. "Hottie" would be one translation of ikemen, but "teen idol" works better for me. The show is a naked ratings grab--meant to appeal to everyone from the teenage audience it represents to moms and grandmas who like a little eye candy. In case you couldn't tell from the clip, it's adapted from a popular manga series. But here's what makes it interesting to me: rather than a parody of daytime drama conventions or a sitcom like, say, Bosom Buddies, it's really a pure melodrama. That is, all the ridiculous exaggerations of setting, plot, characterization, and acting--all the self-consciously artificial/meta aspects of the show--completely fail to subvert the emotional impact of the core relationships among the main characters, even on me. The show combines ironic distance and emotional intimacy in a way I've never seen before. The closest I can come to it is Daria (the Beavis and Butt-head spin-off I got hooked on way back when), although I suppose if I had gotten into Beverly Hills 90210 instead of hating it with a passion from afar, I might not have to stretch so far to find a comparison. Although so far it doesn't seem like any romantic comedy I've ever seen, maybe the best comparison is to a movie like Tootsie?

Uncharacteristically, I complained to the tsuma between episodes that the entire premise of the show is completely unrealistic--really, how could a barely teenage Japanese girl living in America be so moved by the struggles of a Japanese high school high jumper (who gave up the sport after sustaining an injury that she holds herself responsible for) that she would run away from home, apply to an all-male high school in Japan that selects its student body by appearance only, and successfully cross-dress her way into his social circle so she could motivate him to return to his sport?! She replied that it was psychologically realistic: many Japanese girls, she claims, develop intense, idealized crushes on boys or men they want to save, not least because this is a popular narrative in Japanese popular culture. I won't report the trump card she dropped to convince me of this here, but suffice to say it worked.

So I'm curious about reactions to this show from Blogoramaville. Did you like it? What does it remind you of from American tv? Could you see yourself getting addicted to it? Why or why not? Could it become massively popular in the U.S. the way it is in Japan? Or could it at best only become a cult classic? What do you think it reveals about gendering in Japan? And, by your response to it, in your home country?