Skip to main content

J-Drama "Switched"

Switched is a J-drama consisting of merely 6 episodes, based on Shiki Kawabata's 2014-2015 manga series Sora wo Kakeru Yodaka. This short series premiered on Netflix August 1st 2018.

I've always stuck with Korean dramas and never really given other countries' dramas a chance because I'm so used to K-dramas and am afraid of having too high expectations and being let down if I go out of my comfort zone... and that's exactly what happened with Switched.

 
The plot of this drama revolves around how depressed high-school student Zenko Umine (actress: Miu Tomita) commits suicide, with fellow student Ayumi (actress: Kaya Kiyohara) seeing her fall from the school roof top to her death and then passes out herself. When Ayumi wakes up, she finds herself in Umine's body, while Umine is in Ayumi's body. The story follows the twists and turns of the character Umine and the reasons why she committed suicide, while social anxiety and depression are underlying themes throughout the series.

Like I mentioned, I've only watched K-dramas so when I saw this J-drama on Netflix, I thought to myself, "Why not give it a try? It could be really good!". I'm going to be brutally honest... I was severely disappointed from the first moment, and that disappointment stayed until the last episode. I disliked almost everything and, as I'm writing this and looking back on it, I honestly cannot come up with things I liked about it nor reasons why I would watch it again (or recommend it to anyone, for that matter). It was basically a very cliché drama with many flaws, such as poor sound effects, stereotypical characters and bad music & soundtrack. I've read a few reviews about it, and I did not see one single person who agreed with me that this is a poorly made drama. Many people love Switched, but unfortunately, I cannot tell why or how.
 
Again, I am sorry for being so brutally honest; if you enjoyed the series, good for you. Ofcourse I'll respect and accept opinions different from mine. But if I were to give it an overall rating, it'd be a strong 2/10.
I'm sure there are great Japanese dramas out there: Switched just wasn't my cup of tea. But I will keep searching for masterpieces!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bongcheon Dong Ghost

Bongcheon-Dong Ghost is a short, South Korean horror webtoon (a type of digital comic) created by Horang August 23rd 2011. In July 2011, artist Horang published the short webtoon " Ok-su Station Ghost " on Naver Webtoon (a webtoon portal). This webtoon included 3D-like effects, including in a scene in which a ghost´s hand appears to jump out of the screen as if to grab the viewer. Horang followed this webcomic up with "Bongcheon-Dong Ghost" later that month. An English fan translation and video dub were created in August, as the webcomic quickly went viral internationally. Some people also recorded themselves reading the story and putting it up on YouTube for people to see their reactions. If you are too scared to read the story on your own, I recommend searching up PewDiePie's video of reading Bongcheon Dong Ghost. SPOILER. Set in Bongcheon-dong, Seoul, the webcomic shows a student walking home from school late at night meeting a female ghost who wa
Post a Comment
Read more

80's J-Pop: Miki Matsubara

Album cover for Miki Matsubara's "Stay With Me". Miki Matsubara , or Suzie Matsubara [as she also went by], was a composer, lyricist and singer from Japan. She was known for her 80's J-Pop love songs, but really became famous after her debut single, " Stay With Me ", was released in November 1979. I'm sure many of you have heard this song, and I'm a fan of this talented woman myself, thus I decided to write about her. Early Life Miki Matsubara was born 28th of November 1959 in Osaka ( Kishiwada ), Japan. She grew up with a father, mother and younger sister in Hiraoka Town . Miki quickly became familiar with jazz music, as her mother was a jazz singer. She started playing piano at an outstandingly young age of 3 and simply embraced music in general, not only jazz but also rock. She went to ordinary schools her whole childhood and was praised as being a great and hardworking student who would enroll into university, but Miki had already dreams of beco
Post a Comment
Read more

UMAI Clothing - Info & Review

" Started in 2019, Umai is an artist-owned anime clothing brand inspired by japanese streetwear, which designs and sells anime hoodies, shirts, posters, iPhone cases and more! Umai, meaning (うまい - Wonderful or Good) has the goal to make people feel good through creating the best anime clothing possible. Whether you are wearing a piece of our specialty anime apparel or uses some anime accessories, we hope you find as much joy wearing or using it as we did creating it. All designs are uniquely created by @dhjs_0010, one of the owners of Umai Clothing, which ensures exclusive designs that only Umai can offer! " ... is what it says on Umai's official website! --- Umai Clothing is a clothing brand that I am a huge fan of. You always have to be cautious with E-shops, but when I saw an ad on Instagram... their clothes had me lovestruck, haha. In fact, I am even wearing one of their T-Shirts as I'm writing this! Umai clearly focuses on quality over quantity, even though they
Post a Comment
Read more