Koishite Akuma – A Devil in Love – Episode 8

When I first reviewed Koishite Akuma a month and a half ago, I pretty much railed the drama and ripped it a new asshole. The weak plot, the weak acting, and obviously weak and convincing characters made it seem as if I had wasted an hour of my life that could have been spent doing something more productive….

So when news broke out that the now, suddenly famous (thanks quiz show!), Yokoyama Yuu of Kanjani8 was to guest star in episode 8 of this drama I had to watch it. If you haven’t figured it out already, I am a big Kanjani8 fan – Maruyama Ryuhei and Yokoyama Yuu being my two favorite members from the seven-member boyband. So whatever they do, I watch.  So it’s times likes these where I question myself with the big one, “ Why do I force myself to watch such shitty shows? “

Episode 8 of Koishite Akuma is basically the climax point of the entire series. So between episode 1 and episode 8, I could pretty much tell that nothing substantial happened in the storyline if it took 8 episodes for Rosa Kato’s character, Makoto, to figure out that her favorite student (and favorite is pretty much an understatement in this scenario) was a vampire. Of course it looked like she had a few hints here and there, but she was in denial because its not possible that her darling love from TEN YEARS AGO is still alive and at her school.

Right. This is so Byronic it makes my head spin.

To get back to the plot, Yokoyama Yuu’s character of Kobayakawa is a vampire killing random schoolgirls. He finds Kuromiya, kicks his ass, and decides that it’d just be great to go to his school and teach him a good ol’ lesson about how much life sucks to be a vampire. Matchy rages in all his ragefulness, Rosa Kato acts clueless in all her cluelessness, Nakyama is actually gone for 95% of the episode, and Yokoyama preys on little high school girls with his evil stare.

EVIL STARE.

The acting in this episode had not improved much at all, just tolerable enough that I could just watch it without the need of having to switch to another window (hey, I’m on a macbook now I don’t know how to alt tab on this expensive piece of shit) but its still earth shattering bad that I had to facepalm several times throughout the episode (like the one scene where the kid’s glasses conveniently break). It kept reminding me that this was another one of those jousei koukou targeted dramas, but I still couldn’t get over the fact that the acting was almost on par with those 1980s straight to vhs High School drama movies.

Yokoyama Yuu’s only strong point as an entertainer is acting, since he can’t sing or dance in the group he’s primarily paid to be apart of, and so I was a little disappointed in his acting in this role. He was either putting too much into the role or none at all. I know it was a guest role, but Yokoyama has shined in small roles and I had expected that out of this one. If there was supposed to be a sparkling hope in this episode, the only one who slightly delivered it was Matchy.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back in this episode for me was the final scene. Suddenly Kuromiya awakes, saves his girl, and Kobayakawa finally sees the light stops his crusade of taking over the school and stealing Kuromiya’s girl. By the end I had already stopped paying attention to the drama and was counting down for when this episode was about to end, but I did like how make up did Yoko’s bleeding eye.

My major problem with this drama is the glamorization of a May/December relationship in the context that it is portrayed in this drama. A 26 year old having a romantic relationship with a 15 year old just isn’t pretty at all – in fact, it disgusts me in a way. People say that age is nothing but a number and you can’t put a number on love, but in this situation you can. Also, with the countless reports of young high school girls being assaulted by adults on trains, in the streets, and sometimes being kidnapped and murdered in Japan; I don’t see how and why dramas like this persist to be aired on television without much repercussion? Even Yokoyama’s relentless pursue of high school girls to feed his hunger and toy with their hearts to his advantage bothered me in several ways.

In the end, Koishite Akuma sucks. There is nothing else that this drama could do that would make me want to sit down and continue watching it. It sucked in episode one and it continued to suck throughout episode eight. So I suggest that you save yourself a headache and find something better and more worthwhile to watch than something as shitty as Koishite Akuma. Unless you believe in cruel and unusual punishment.