manga: Love Attack Vol 1-6

A violent high schooler, Chiemi gets into one too many fights, and is given an ultimatum: get Hirata, an even more violent classmate, to be less violent, and she won’t be expelled. Chiemi goes about this by kicking him in the face. He falls in love. Being a person of similar sensibilities, Chiemi quickly falls in love, too.

Strip away the violence, and Hirata and Chiemi are a fairly normal nice guy/spaz shoujo pairing. There’s the typical plotlines like Hirata proving himself to Chiemi’s father and Hirata’s childhood friend trying to still him from Chiemi, as well as a stalled non-romance between their best friends. It’s just all with about 50 times as much insanity as usual.

I hover between being vastly entertained and rather annoyed by the series. I actually dislike most of the subplots (a particularly annoying one lasts at least three volumes) and tend to find myself simultaneously laughing and growling with annoyance. I’m also not really fond of how the violence is depicted. Some of it is the typical slapstick approach, but some of it is also lasting, and acknowledged as maybe not being healthy, and yet, it’s never taken seriously. I’ve never been quite comfortable with the dismissive approach to violence (girls spazzing and beating up guys over accidents/misunderstandings and guys beating up groups of other guys for jokes/picking on the girl/etc.) that crops up in a lot of manga but can usually go with it as a visual gag. Here, though, I keep thinking there needs to be a plotline where both Chiemi and Hirata (and probably Hirata’s friend, Ohno) realize they’re in serious need of anger management.

Despite the problems, though, most of the characters are likable and entertaining, and the series is pretty fun, even if there are better shoujo fluff and/or comedy series out there.

rec me period dramas

By which I mostly mean English language dramas, though other languages are fine. Preferably legally available, and preferably on Netflix.

I've finished Foyle's War, House of Elliot, and Upstairs, Downstairs (with the first disc of the sequel spinoff, Thomas and Sarah, arriving tomorrow), leaving me somewhat bereft of historical dramas, as those were long enough to keep me happy for ages.  I still have the rest of Marple, but, while I enjoyed the first series and look forward to watching the rest, it didn't grab me the way other period mystery series have.  Also, I am irritated far more than I should be that it's "Marple," and not "Miss Marple."

So, rec me some period dramas?  Anything from a TV (or theatrical, I'm just mostly thinking of TV  dramas now) movie to five seasons and 60+ episodes is fine, and I'm not worried about whether its 40 years old, or brand new.

Standard Me guidelines: Male or female protagonists are fine, but it isn't likely to hold my attention without major female characters.  A romance I'd like is a nice bonus, but optional.  Great Tales of Men are probably out, especially if it's many men talking and/or being heroic while women patiently wait for them on the sides. Action and battles are spiffy (especially if swords are involved) but so are politics and day-to-day life.

I'm fine with adaptations, remakes, original stories/characters, and dramas based on historical figures.

I either have seen or plan to see most Jane Austen adaptations (despite having yet to actually read one of her books) and the original Forsyte Saga is on my list, but I plan to save it for after I've read the book, which might be a while.

 

( partial list of period dramas I've seen )

Off the top of my head, the only period dramas I've seen and completely bounced off of were The Blackheath Poisonings and the recent version of The Mill on the Floss.

ETA:  More things I've seeen added as I remember them.