en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/7/3/23d9ad0cf33c5c35becec73147fc1ad9.html
The standout performance, imo, is Miho Kanno who plays a cynical lawyer. Her character is strong and forms the foundation and the drive to sue the school after learning that her daughter had died. She initially blames the incident on school bullying and turns up an investigation to determine what really occurred. But her act as a lawyer vigillante is more an act of motherly protection as she sees herself attempting to redeem her step daughter's dismissal. Overall her character is extremely powerful, manipulative, intelligent, shrewd and caring simultaneously. An exceptionally complex character who you can both relate to and jeer as she antagonizes people in the story in order to get down to the truth.

The other characters are very well played. Familiar faces from Densha Otoko include the PE teacher and Chinese teacher. The PE teacher makes a great balancing point to the other teachers, especially as his character grows into one who cares more about the situation than initially let on.

Let us not forget the children too. Tomomi and Yamada-san play extremely complex characters. Tomomi is a girl who is haunted by a secret while Yamada-san is a creepy little girl who utilizes her goth image on the side to attempt to attract attention to her own problems.

What is brilliant is that the show illuminates many faucets of everyone in their faults and strengths and how sometimes their strengths become their faults or vice versa. For instance, Yahata's character is one who wishes to become like his idol Kimpachi sensei. However, he later becomes cynical and corrupt from the nature of his school.

Surrounding the strong characters though is the central theme of bullying in Japanese schools. The key piece is how a lot of the story focuses around middle school, an age where kids are beginning to go through puberty, just experiencing sexual frustrations, more mature ways of thinking and yet exhibiting the innocence of youth. This combination makes the story complex because at times you want to villanize some of the kids like Kaneyoshi. But the truth is that no one is truly good nor evil here. It depicts people as is, with their problems that complicates their lives and causes misunderstanding between each other.

The real tragic point isn't the death of the student Asuka. The tragic point is like the novel Lord of the Flies how children are forced to lose their innocence as they move into adolescence. The teachers are completed alienated from the lives of the students. For instance, Itoh-san's character cannot directly relate with his students so easily and many resent him. This alienation is a result of the difference in age groups and mentality. As adults it's difficult to relate back to their lives, thinking that their problems are minor compared to our own. However, to them their lives at that precious age is the world and things seem bigger than they can imagine. Hence, the perpetual division of understanding.

There's definitely more to write about concretely. This drama attempts to tackle so many issues on different levels.]]> Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:26:39 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/7/3/23d9ad0cf33c5c35becec73147fc1ad9.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/9/16/5fd8530126a2318cf56b7180b1e355f6.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:39:40 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/9/16/5fd8530126a2318cf56b7180b1e355f6.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/6/6dda1192c7e4188f897cdd351734baf2.html
I came to a conclusion that at least in Japan, there's what I call "The Rule." "The Rule" is what I refer to as how often you'll see these pairings of women, typically fat and skinny or beautiful and ugly. I think this dialectic exists as a psychological offset. It makes the skinny girl look skinnier and the beautiful girl look even better. I've heard other theories on this, but mostly this is the gist. I know this is partly true since I met a woman who said to me she liked dating fat guys since it made her look thin. Nevertheless, the next time you walk around Tokyo, see if you can notice this pattern. Certainly, there are a fair number of groups where this does not occur, but I've seen this situation happen more than once.

Perhaps, another reading into this situation is how the ugly or fat girl might hang around the pretty or skinny girl to get the "rub". Heck, I try to hang around what I might call "cool" guys on occasion to learn a bit about their lifestyle and absorb their knowledge. Not to mention there's always a chance that cuter girls might be around :)

That said, two weekends ago in coming home on Korean Airlines, I noticed "The Rule" again. This time there was this tiny doll of a girl and a mountainous woman. The mountain woman was so huge that I thought she had to buy up the entire row. Sadly enough, the tiny girl was paired up with the mountain woman since they were friends. I think the tiny girl even had the window seat. I can't imagine for one second how the tiny girl managed to survive for 11 1/2 hours of flight time being squashed next to this planetoid. Of course, if the airplane crashed, the tiny girl would probably be the only survivor since the mountain woman would absorb the impact (and the tiny girl at the same time). Also, I think the tiny girl might've had a slight advantage of having a full body pillow riding all the way to Narita.

Despite all this now I have one name for one of these pairings.]]> Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:09:14 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/10/6/6dda1192c7e4188f897cdd351734baf2.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/4/f1c22feea27dbbe450503b724cd1176b.html youtube videos or peruse numerous news articles. While the production value of the new wave of media is no way near the level of what Hollywood and big budget companies can produce, I love the things being put out by independent people, using sheer creativity over the traditional boardroom writing of Hollywood. If not that then I go for the plethora of news out there, which even as enormous as it is, I find still limited in quantity.

Sometimes, I wonder though if my viewing habits are far worse than my parents' or my friends who are addicted to TV. While the information I glean is more useful to me or vested in what I find interesting, the amount of time I spend consuming information far exceeds the amount my mom does. I was thinking of how TV shows are not on demand, but scheduled. So you can pattern your sleeping habits or viewing habits based on what's on (unless you use devices like TiVo). Internet technology though is completely on demand, which means an infinite amount of consumption.

But truthfully, the stuff on the net is the best stuff out there. It's raw and unimposing, just waiting to be grabbed by active viewers who search for these bits of data.]]> Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:18:47 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/4/f1c22feea27dbbe450503b724cd1176b.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/10/f0c7d82ead4798f9d68f847855d2f262.html

• Will Truman. The name is extremely fitting. He's not called "William" nor "Bill" but just "Will," representing his stubborn, headstrong demeanor. His last name "Truman" is ironic and a statement that despite being gay, he's more manly than some men (because he is, indeed, a true-man). Kind of the prototypical symbol for virility, minus the sexual desire for women. In addition, the name "Truman" can be interpreted as his more compassionate side, where as the anti-lawyer type, he goes after causes rather than pure money. Combined he's a perpetual idealist, someone stubbornly devoted to causes because it's what he believes in.
• Grace Adler. The name is paradoxical that dives into the character's split personality of being the eminent feminine character yet plagued by her Jewish heritage. At times, Grace can be exotic, nurturing, exceptionally feminine and stylistic. On the other hand, you can see her delve into this more disgusting pig of a person, one who snorts while she laughs, has a voracious appetite, a lack of mannerisms and etiquette at tables and even tact in social situations (for instance, venomously squirting water from her ruptured bra after being dumped by a materialistic high school crush). The Adler name represents, of course, the vicious snake as depicted by her sometimes antagonistic, self-serving, highly reactionary behavior towards Will. The fact that her name is derived from her Jewish heritage makes one wonder if the type of codependent relationship would exist between her and Will if she were born from a different heritage.
• Jack McFarland. The name Jack instantly reminds one of the notion of the "Jack-of-All-Trades" character. Indeed, Jack goes through multiple job changes, never holding a stable position and certainly has the attention span of a sand grain. McFarland, on the one hand, imparts his heritage of being part Scottish, but the Farland part is more indicative of the fact that Jack is idealistic, often in his own world, distant from the realities of others like Will and Grace. Jack is more apt to skip towards a new relationship, which, in his mind, serves as the flavor of the second, than stick with someone perpetually, except for his friend Karen.
• Karen Walker. Innocuously, Karen's name seems the most "normal" of the group and might reveal little about the character. Her typically abrasive behavior seems to never fit the mold of her name, especially as a cold hearted, sometimes calculating, slave driving empress with the fortunes of her husband guiding her ego. But this belies the true inner character that at times is revealed. Karen is perhaps one of the most complex characters on the show because her true feelings are eternally hidden because of her pride as a rich woman. The name "Karen" can be compared to the word "care" or even "caring" and those moments certainly can be seen in private moments such as the time when she gave $500 to a homeless woman during a X-Mas special or her constant exuberant treatment of the Kato-like character of Jack. The "Walker" portion of the name is probably the most difficult to examine. One would think of Walker akin to her favorite tonic of Vodka in sound, indicating her love of being in a drunken stupor. But Walker also might symbolize some of the punchlines she has where her harsh execution and abrupt stage right exit illustrate the mixed joke that derives a lot of the humor for her character. Another more deeper reading into the character's name is how she's the type to "walk away" from her problems. In other words, rather than confront many of the issues, she drowns her problems in her alcoholism, until one of the characters manage to convince her to handle them.

Well, that was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've been able to use some literary analysis on anything. Maybe I'll return to this with another book or movie.]]> Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:33:58 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/10/f0c7d82ead4798f9d68f847855d2f262.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/21/b53cc211f38065ead13b3b8d4c9318c0.html earlier article, many large companies are starting to pair up with smaller startups, giving them seed money to avoid a YouTube/Google dominated media online monopoly. Rupert Murdoch was probably one of the smartest in this by buying Myspace. He understood that he could simply start his own internet company up. Instead, he went after a company with a huge market share to broadcast his TV. And it makes tons of sense because it's all about advertisement dollars that News Corp can control without catering to Google, Yahoo, or other online advertisement markets.

I took a brief look at Myspace's TV section and noticed that I couldn't watch a thing. Well, unfortunately being in Japan prevents you from seeing such things. But I did spot numerous TV shows both new and old. And NBC recently announced how old episodes of the A-Team (and another show I can't remember) will be viewable online.

You see the thing is that old video footage is great. It honestly cost nothing to produce compared to say making another version of James Cameron's Titanic. The only things you have to do is transfer it to a digital medium, get advertisers, splice in the commercials at appropriate moments (where they traditionally were) and broadcast them via one of these smaller companies. Then people can watch it on demand and the companies can earn their share of the profit from advertisement in unavoidable commercials (AOL Video does this).

What has this to do with Japan? Well, Japan is notoriously slow when it comes to, well, almost anything. The ultra conservative culture has cost them the inability to take control of the web. Now, companies from the US and other markets are setting up camps out here and importing their form of internet here. TV is no different, if not worse.

Japan's TV market, from what I understand, is a little different from the US market (I don't know any other markets for that matter). Here, as I've been told, the TV broadcasters are the producers of their own content, unlike cable networks in the states, which often would license content out. This gives the broadcasters an immense amount of power in retaining their rights and quite often these people are extremely reluctant to part with their content. Also, when it comes to DVDs or obtaining old shows, you'll see ridiculous numbers such as 10000-en (around $100) for a crap video. My favorite TV series, Densha Otoko, which was only 15 episodes goes for I believe almost 30000-en (a little under $300)! Ask any Japanese and they'll tell you that they won't waste a dime on these shows.

Japanese broadcasters also license a good deal of international and especially Hollywood content out frequently. You can see American TV shows and movies out here on TV stations. Quite often you might even here of frequent visits by stars here. My friends are more willing to pick up copies of 24, for example, compared to watching any TV drama out here.

However, interestingly enough, Japanese TV broadcasters make ZERO profit from their websites. While there exist some little flash tidbits and ads on their websites to inform people of upcoming shows, these websites serve little purpose outside of being purely informational. Compare that to companies like CNN or NBC who are licensing their content or partnering up with sites and making some additional cash through revenue sharing.

That's not to say that TV isn't completely ignored here. But there's something missing that the broadcasters aren't seeing. I think it's going to take a massive move where other companies like NBC, TIme-Warner/AOL, CBS, etc. can demonstrate huge profits and success online before Japanese companies make a move.

However, I see a far more vast problem. Despite calls for the removal of copyrighted video on sites like YouTube, many TV shows, anime and whatnot are still uploaded quite frequently to these sites. It's very likely that YouTube/Google may move ahead into the realm of TV out here since there are no threats like Veoh, AOL Video, Myspace, etc. that these Japanese broadcasters can turn to. Add to the fact that Apple's iTunes is highly popular and selling videos from all major movie and TV distributors, it'll only be a matter of time before they'll localize their content for the Japanese market. Then only two major players would exist out here, leaving the Japanese companies, once again, twiddling their thumbs.

Yes, I am calling out the Japanese broadcasters. Matter of fact, I'm calling them stupid for not reacting and not treating the internet more seriously. Go to YouTube, for instance, and check out some Japanese videos. Many of the videos are simply copied from TV and uploaded unceremoniously. More than that, they become extremely popular with the international market, something clearly that Japan desperately needs to count on in terms of expanding growth of their TV and movie sectors. The West has fetishized the Japanese market so long, praising their idols, music, anime and variety shows without the Japanese market really realizing what an effect that could potentially have in the west. Take this blog from Asami Yuma as an example. In it, she herself just realizes that someone had uploaded an old video of her. She calls YouTube amazing in being able to find any kind of content.

The thing people in Japan (at least in terms of newspapers and broadcasters) seem to be oblivious of is that the old media is going to die in the next 5-10 years. Completely. Newspapers make little sense because it's a waste of paper and their news is ancient. Magazines have little relevancy outside of pictures. And TV will slowly move away from the crap that these companies produce and move into privatized sectors as more people realize that they can create their own content with just a webcam/camcorder and an internet connection to YouTube. Look at this video for example. Here's a Japanese blogger who has received an incredible amount of hits for putting up what I would call a novel, mediocre video blog.

Reality TV is slowly becoming excerpts of people's lives through viral injection. It's far easier to watch 1-5 minutes clips than wasting time, being stranded/enslaved to a 20+ minutes of commercials during a 1 hour period. Why would people require broadcasters any longer when they can find content that follows non-linear, non-formulaic formats that intrigue and compel rather than dull and insult our intelligence?

They say that Video Killed the Radio Star. Well, Internet and online video will kill broadcasters if they don't react. The US market has quickly started to smarten up. But I don't think Japan realizes that they need to smarten up far faster before their demise at the hands of independent creators.]]> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:20:05 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/21/b53cc211f38065ead13b3b8d4c9318c0.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/421398a352e197310c4a14b90e0a1faa.html Daisuki!", staring model-gone-actress Karina. The show is about a mentally handicapped woman, who possesses the mind of an 8 year old, and is trying to rear a child after her husband is killed in an accident. The drama often switches between comedy and melodrama as Karina, her child and the family face numerous challenges.

Currently, Karina's performance has earned her heaps of praise as she attempts to dismiss the image of being "just another pretty face" to someone who is capable of handling more difficult roles. Despite this praise, I find the show and her act extremely disappointing. First, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but she's supposedly playing a retarded woman. Or perhaps even someone with autism. I've had some difficulty discerning what type of mental disorder she has in the show. However, in the first two cases, my biggest complaint is that no retard or autistic person is EVER that gorgeous. It's just not realistic.

Next, her character seems far too intelligent for either case. I mean, she can read and perform some levels of deduction. I've worked with autistic kids in the past and found that most cannot logically formulate anything continuous. Again, the problem I have is not truly understanding what sort of mental disorder she has. I presume (according to the translations) that she's retarded in the show, but her retardation is a far cry from the people I've either worked with or seen.

Instead, what her performance amounts to is what I think is a typical Japanese girl trying to grow up. She's stupid like most average teenagers here, constantly cries (which seems to be a pre-requisite of "good" acting in Japan for women) and formulates logical conclusions on massive leaps in logic, like someone trying to go to point D from A but skipping B and C in the process and instead hitting point X.

Most of the show attempts to garner sympathy for the family and character and to make retardation/mental disability seem humane. I don't mind the purpose, but the execution is terrible and far too forced. They want to portray her as being noble through her innocence and ignorance. That's fine but at some level my conspiracy theory tells me it's another way to validate people's inherent stupidity. For instance, there's a scene where she admonishes her child for tossing their pet turtle. She tells her kid that because her father and her caught the pet turtle, the pet turtle thus is her father. In the background, her family cracks up and it's an acknowledgment that her innocence is a treasured thing. However, I look at this as like watching Beavis and Butthead, where Butthead makes some odd conclusion through his limited reasoning capability.

One of my friends was talking about Japanese dramas and their formulaic nature. I do see this with this show, trying to use her challenges as obstacles she must overcome by the end of the episode as each episode builds towards the character facing her biggest challenge yet, not unlike a Japanese video game. I guess, unlike most dramas though, there isn't an "end" to her situation, just a gradual acceptance of her growth as her kid matures and the family finds ways to deal with this situation.]]> Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:41:31 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/421398a352e197310c4a14b90e0a1faa.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/6fe5d0f4867da94a01151a9fd11eb7bf.html Have's and Have-Not's. This issue has been around forever and has been a leading subject of political discourse. Two well known philosophers, John Locke and Carl Marx had differing but yet similar intents in describing the notion of capital, property, one's rights.

On the one hand, John Locke essentially felt that when one creates something, they therefore own it (link to Wikipedia's entry) This is the basis of intellectual property in that ownership is an effect of one's work. I think part of his writings were due to the environment of him living in a period where kings essentially owned their peasants. So if a peasant grew a fruit, the king, as owner of the land, had all the rights to it. In response, Locke came up with a way of repudiating monarchy through his theory on intellectual property (or just ownership).

While Marx's philosophy is socialist and his views on ownership differ, I think the intent for his writings is not too dissimilar. One key point in Marx's writing was the notion of how capital and production works. Essentially, the means of production are what enables people to have control. (link to Wikipedia's entry) The book Dune paraphrases this idea with saying, "He who controls the spice, controls the universe." The similarity in intent goes to the fact that people want and need control and want to do away with the middle man to live a prosperous life.

This is the biggest point of contention in society now with regards to media labels and file sharers. The media people, in Marx's words, are the ones who keep control over the means of production. They are NOT the people who are the laborers creating the objects as John Locke would state, but they end up being owners because they have the power to back themselves up. They are the middlemen who have fields of corn, rice, and other pieces of food that we think we need. They stand in between the artists and the consumer, reaping the rewards, controlling what can be released and how much they can get in return.

Obviously, the biggest threat to these big media companies are the threat of removing them as a middle man through these new manners of distribution (which is something that Locke nor Marx had failed to address in their writings). The media industry essentially at this point are parasites, living off like the monarchs of old, enslaving labor and threatening neighbors for picking up fruits that fell to the ground. These industries, along with other middle men distributors like retailers, are not the creators and in truth do not own, in Locke's view and from a spiritual point of view, the true intellectual property of the artists. The media companies only own the legal rights because of the contracts that artists, desperate for money, end up signing.

Naturally, TV and movies get more complex because the means of production are far more complex compared with recording music. You have more people involved in the labor, giving them a certain amount of rights as entitled to the writers, actors/actresses, directors and whatnot. Then you get the investment money for production and this is where probably the studios hold the most power and are able to legally bind people.

At any rate, as I've said continuously, the world is constantly reverting towards medieval monarchism or oligarchies. The people on top want as few people to join them to retain control and maintain the slave mentality so that they can enjoy their materialistic lives. Sometimes I consider that the only recourse is the same philosophy that you'd see at the end of the movie The Godfather, by replacing the old to create a new wave of thought.]]> Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:27:34 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/6fe5d0f4867da94a01151a9fd11eb7bf.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/015af273718e6e542d28855bae2c4912.html
Digital goods are worthless.

There I said. With the internet, digital goods cannot be commoditized because the supply of digital goods are, in theory, infinite. Back when I worked in Ticketmaster, I learned that people were not able to price tickets properly, therefore secondary markets were created in the form of auctions of exchanges. You had scalpers essentially acting as middlemen for other middlemen. But the key concept in why tickets and events have value but the music itself no longer has value is because tickets and events are finite in number. Rolling Stones are some of the biggest sellers because they are legends and you don't know when one of them is going to pass away from an overdose.

Software now is worthless because companies like Google or trends like Open Source Software have made supply infinite. You can't compete with the cost of zero. It's like trying to force people to pay for air (now that's a scary thought for colonies on Mars or the moon!)

Traditional companies like media companies must realize that to commodify goods like video, tv, or music they must start examining the approach of the tech industry. Companies like Oracle, WebLogic, etc. sell to large players with deep pocket books not because they have great features, but because they offer support contracts that large companies can afford. However, if you look at the trends going on with the software industry, those situations are more of the exception than the norm these days. People are more and more moving towards ad based models or service/support based models in software to make a profit. JBoss, for instance, makes great money because their service/support contracts are expensive. IBM has moved much of their business from the hardware based aspects to a support role.

If these situations hold true, then how should the big media companies attempt to handle piracy?

• Ad based models. It's worked with radio and TV, it'll work online. Just don't geotag so that everyone can equally view TV.
• Movies need to focus on theaters as being a social event, not as the chief form of making a profit from blockbusters. In America, at least, people are moving towards home theaters, so working with electronics manufacturers, online video stores, and ISPs to deliver high quality rental movies to home's large plasmas and whatnot should be the goal.
• Musicians should focus on events as being their chief form of revenue generation. The good thing about this is that it'll kill off wannabe musicians who are produced (i.e. Milli Vanilis, etc.) and focus on people who have true talent, thus being worthy of receiving money from playing at venues.
• The cost of digital media must go down MASSIVELY. I've written about this before and have shown a better pricing model than the one existing.

The big thing is that big media companies should stop making enemies. Why do you want to insult the intelligence of your consumers? Why do you want to treat them like mindless slaves? Why do you want to treat them like a foreign invader? Consumers are your obvious best friends and you need to do MORE for them. It's a large part of the reason why the airline industry is dying in America. You need to service the consumer. People expect good service for what they pay. If you examine closely to what I'm saying about software, the two key components of the success in recent models for the software industry are support and service focus. Remember AOL's debacle with their customer sales rep trying to retain a customer using a script? Do you know why I refuse to fly any American based airlines anymore and go mainly with asian airlines?

The key is the service people!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that the media industries are controlled primarily by a certain group. I won't say which to offend them, but they know whom they are. The thing is that you can't keep ripping people off and expect to have loyalty. This is not a war, but if you want to make it a war, the consumers will fight back slowly and surely.]]> Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:18:21 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/015af273718e6e542d28855bae2c4912.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/8/cdaa6eeb5a386228a9fb7bd9c4400111.html
The show itself has many micro-stories, numerous intersections that eventually lead up to a major confrontation. Each slice from people's lives form small strands of stories that slowly build up. The interest point is that each story is incredibly small and forces the viewer to await the next episode. With a fair number of characters, the viewer is entrapped into the lives of each person. You constantly want more as more questions are asked.

I won't go into more of a synopsis since there's a huge amount of material written on the general content. However, I have two huge buggers in this series: 1) BAD Japanese; 2) almost everyone is stupid.

The Japanese in the story is god awful. The portrayal of everyone is horrid. Hiro plays the innocent, sweet, hopeful Japanese guy. He's somewhat of an otaku character and that's fine. But everyone else in the supporting cast.....ugh!!!! The Korean guy playing Hiro's buddy, Ando, jesus christ! This is basically the Lone Ranger and Tanto. And they should've bequeathed the name "Baka" onto Ando instead. My native Japanese speaking friends say that the Japanese spoken is an abomination. Okay, maybe not that horrid, but it's nearly incomprehensible. Even I can tell how bad the pronunciation is just laughable. Stupid Hollywood.

Speaking of stupid, why is everyone an idiot? Is the pre-requisite to becoming a hero to be absolutely clueless? I think there's only two somewhat half brained characters in the story in the form of Jessica and Noah Bennett. The rest of the cast are complete fools:

• Peter - Major powers, major idiot. Hot headed, can't control himself.
  
• Hiro Nakamura - Good hearted and hopeful. Far too honest for his own good.
• Suresh - Academically intelligent, doesn't know shit about people because he's far too deep in his goddamn research.
• Ando - Please shoot this guy in the head....like 100,000,000 times!!!!
• Nathan - Almost smart. Apparently cares too much and listens to his stupid mother too much.
• Claire Bennett - Typical idiot, blond teenage girl who really belongs in a horror cliche.
• Micah Sanders - He and Hiro should butt fuck because they are about the same in personality.
• Matt Parkman - Average donut eating cop stereotype. Can read minds but can't use his own. A retarded child has more intelligence and sense than a hundred of these guys.
• Isaac Mendez - Of all the "main" characters, his powers suck and is the most boring. Thank god he was killed off. His dick spoke more than his brain.
• Ted Sprague - Probably the only character who deserves to be considered a "hot head." But high blood pressure terminated him (partly...)
• Maya - Radiated mud has more brain cells than her. I can take an arrow, poke it through her ear, and not damage anything.

There's no Wolverine or Magneto characters who can think their way out of a paperbag and be somewhat cool. Heck, give me the Joker any day of the week and he can snag the entire group.

Next you get the show constantly reiterating the word "hero" in the script. Yes, we get it. But I guess the producers feel that the audience is equally as dumb as the majority of the characters that they need to reiterate this word every episode. Using it once in an emphatic manner for self-discovery is great. Using it more than once for cheesy branding makes you look worse than a Poptart commercial.

That said, I do enjoy watching the series, even though it can get irritating as hell. Just checking in to see what happens next is kinda fun.

However, I have the best character proposal yet. I'm thinking of a character (whom I play) with the power of negative emotions. When he's provoked, he can amplify negative emotions in people, whether its fear, hate, confusion, depression, jealousy, etc. Anything listed on the seven deadly sins and then some. I thought he would play a natural antogonist to Hiro. This character would (like me) be incredibly intelligent. His utter cynicism, lack of trust and alienated demeanor would foil Hiro's more positive demeanor. I'd also see a character like this joining up with Sylar. He manipulates Sylar's more physically mean personality and forges it into his defense shield.

I think that a great season four would be about a monstrous global suicide that the character plots. Getting to the character is nearly impossible because of his utter distrust for anyone, not to mention how he's able to manipulate people into becoming his shield or tools. The way they would discover/catch him is through numerous clues about his history and what formulated his personality. Helping him avoid an event (such as a heartbreak, being traumatized as a child from a movie, his friends/family leaving him, etc.) removes one of his powers. That would be an awesome story. The character himself is trying to leave clues for someone to change what he's going to do. However, as an added point of interest, there could be a supplementary character who can amplify the base powers of people. And as another point of conflict, other events that re-write history could backfire and engender new negative emotions that allow him to have different powers.

How's that Hollywood for a story? :)]]> Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:19:33 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/11/8/cdaa6eeb5a386228a9fb7bd9c4400111.html