In the first part of this re-imagination of The L Word in a Jdrama universe, we saw my dreamcast.
I’m still a little unsure on one of my main details, though, and that’s whether I want Meisa Kuroki as Carmen — the hot Latina who sizzled people’s screens and made Shane go Loco (I’m sorry for the cheesy bad writing, but The L Word deserves this cheese)… or whether she should play Molly — the no-longer-straight law student who wouldn’t fall for Shane’s game, so I’m hoping to be able to make a reasonable mish-mash of the both of them.
Because I only have this one series [1][2].
So Sekai no Kizuna begins, obviously, with the arrival of Yu Aoi’s Jenny. I can tell this no-names characters is going to be all confusing now.
Her Jenny comes from a southern city — I’m guessing Fukuoka Prefecture, since Yu-chan is from there — but I’m trying to pick a smaller town. It has to be a small town, obviously. She hasn’t had much, if any, exposure to anything to do with the gay scene, so when she comes to Tokyo to live with her now-fiancé, Moriyama’s Tim, and gets to be neighbors with Chris’ Shane, it’s the first time she actually see a lesbian in the flesh.
Moriyama’s Tim is a sorta promising salary man, he’s obviously working hard to afford a decent apartment in Tokyo, and he isn’t close friends with Chris’ Shane, because… why would he? I don’t think people in big cities are anything but courteous neighbors, so he wouldn’t be introducing his fiancée to his neighbor to hang out with.
The reason why Jenny meets Shane would be that Jenny’s bored at home, like any person who’s been stuck at home for long enough, and decides to peek out the window. So Aoi’s Jenny see’s Chris’ Shane being a little too friendly with a ladyfriend.
No, there’s no Nakatani’s Bette around.
I never understood how Bette and Tina would be friends with Shane. I don’t understand how Tim or Shane could afford to be neighbors with them either. This is why I’m making Ichikawa’s Tina a bit younger than Nakatani’s Bette, plus making Tina the only connection between Bette and the rest.
In here, Tina would still be working at a film production company — no quitting or planning to get a baby because… I’m not sure that fits Japan, but feel free to enlighten me. In any case, that’s where Tina and Shane know each other from — and that’s where Shane should meet Carmen/Molly, who should be NOT-a-gaffer. She should be a high-level assistant or something, trying to escalate in the production company.
ANYWAY~
Ichikawa’s Tina is struggling in her relationship with Nakatani’s Bette because both are working — and I love Nakatani’s on-screen presence, and she can deliver in power and intensity for her Bette to want things her way. There’s the affair storyline, of course. But don’t worry, we should have a happy ending there.
Miki Nakatani’s Bette is also going through her own family problems since she comes from a “renown” family, that’s why she works as an art curator, is pretty loaded and all. Her sexual orientation is a hush-hush thing in the family as things tend to be in this kind of families… especially with such older sister as Kimiko Yo’s Kit.
Yo’s Kit is the only family Nakatani’s Bette really has, though she’s not entirely happy with that. Nakatani’s Bette obviously appreciates order and tradition — if she weren’t gay, she’d probably be a “worthy” heir under her father’s view… but Bette loves Kit, all her crazy and all.
Yo’s Kit used to be a singer — I’d love her to be an Enka singer who’s lost her way xD — recuperating her track, she works at a coffee shop (or whatever would suit the show best) that happens to be owned by Hyori’s Marina. A Korean ex-pat living in Tokyo… who obviously meets Aoi’s Jenny after Chris’ Shane brings her over on the first episode ;P
And finally~ There’s Mizukawa’s Alice with Toda’s Dana.
They’re, of course, besties. But I’m making Toda’s Dana a sous-chef (see what I did there), instead of a tennis player… because it’s more realistic given Toda Erika’s body-built. I didn’t pick her because she looks like a tennis player, I picked her because I like her in comedy roles that aren’t really straight-forward comedies, matching Erin Daniel’s dry/silly humor.
It would go great with Asami Mizukawa’s great comedy talent. She’s got a great aura, free spirit that would match Alice perfectly. They both would play great against each other when having Toda’s Dana not out and deep in the closet self.
And… as you can see, almost EVERYONE is linked to Shane.
Including Eita’s Mark who is going to be Chris’ Shane’s newest roommate because she obviously wouldn’t be able to afford a Tokyo apartment that easily.
I think I covered everything I needed to cover…
am I missing something?
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Part of the 2012 LGBT Blogathon.
