my shoujo, my hiro

Oh, Fuji TV. Sometimes you bring me AWESOME (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Nodame Cantabile, Barai no nai Hanaya) and sometimes you bring me fail (Propose Daisakusen, and there's more, but let's just put Prodai on top for me) and you're like NBC in the 90s, with your must watch TV but....the shojo manga adaptations - this is my lame, let me show you it: I don't know how to feel about this particular announcement. (as always, thanks to Tokyograph)

Fuji TV is adapting Yuu Watase's shojo manga "Zettai Kareshi" (also known as "Absolute Boyfriend") as a live-action drama series, starring Mocomichi Hayami and Saki Aibu. The six-volume manga was originally serialized in Shojo Comic and has sold more than 1.6 million books.

Aibu plays a temp worker in search of a boyfriend, and she ends up in possession of a "robot" known as Night Tenjo (Hayami), who is programmed to be the perfect boyfriend. However, this creates a love triangle with a distinguished young man at Aibu's company (played by Hiro Mizushima) who has feelings for her.

The series will air on Tuesdays at 9:00pm, starting on April 8.

First off: It'll be nice to see Moko on a series again, it was like he disappeared off the face of the planet.

Secondly, HIRO. <3 Even though he's playing the second guy.

However - I'm not a fan of Yuu Watase's work, and Absolute Boyfriend was anthologized in Shojo Beat here, so I knew what went on - but.....eh.

I have no real opinion on Aibu, she was always the best friend/other girl in all the dramas I've watched, though I know she had a starring turn with Nagase in Utahime last season. Perhaps that's what launched this?

It'll have to be down to chemistry and who the supporting players are, to see if this works - because you can have a super popular source material all you want, it doesn't mean people will necessarily tune in for the live adaptation. See: Honey & Clover, One Pound Gospel.

what's sad is that I could feasibly play this game for *hours*

Just FYI: on jdrama news, I c + p from Tokyograph, and their sources are from the original Japanese, and as far as I'm aware, they only post confirmed things. So Absolute Boyfriend is not a rumor, it's really happening.

The Last Friends website on Fuji TV is up.

So. Six degrees of Idol Japan, shall we? (Or: the same people often tend to show up on the same network quite a lot)

From the newly announced cast of Absolute Boyfriend:

Aibu Saki worked with Hayami Mokomichi previously in Regatta who worked with Matsuda Shota (also Regatta). Shota will be working with Maki Horikita in Atsuhime. Maki worked with Hiro Mizushima, who worked with Tomoka Kurokawa in Kanojo to no Tadashii Asobikata, who costarred with Oguri Shun in Detective Conan.

Shun is a universe unto himself, a Kevin Bacon for the J-set. You could draw a line from him to the Johnnies and branch out ...but yeah, it's a small (seeming) industry, and everyone's worked with everyone, or will in the future.