Buzzer Beat – Mid Season Thoughts

Abs, Biceps, and Balls.

No, not that kind of balls; I mean basketballs.

Naoki Kamiya is a up and coming professional basketball player in an small, average basketball team that’s struggling to get its mark in league. Shirakawa Riko is a struggling violinist prodigy waiting for her star to shine. One day these two unlikely individuals meet at a park and then fate kicks in.

… Or so we think.

Buzzer Beat is you’re a-typical FujiTV Prime Time drama. You got your Johnny lead, your latest hot female lead, a pretty decent supporting cast, and a whole shitload of drama it even puts shows like The Hills to shame.

The only one getting any action is this guy over here

And that’s exactly what Buzzer Beat is, a clusterfuck of sex, lies, and love that makes your head spin, your mind scream, and your body wanting more like Whitney Houston needing another hit. You’d think a drama called Buzzer Beat would be about basketball, considering its title and the association of the term to basketball but that’s just a backdrop setting for our unfortunate characters who pretty much suck with love and their love lives seem better suited to be disputed on an episode of Steve Wilkos.

But it’s that drama fest that unfortunately kept me watching in a one-day marathon. When I first watched Buzzer Beat, it had just premiered and I needed a show that would kill time on my flight to Baltimore for Otakon weekend. I was bored, pissed off being stuck in a window seat next to a really fat woman on a Southwest flight, and already having a distain for Tomohisa Yamashita and Aibu Sasaki really didn’t help in getting me in the right mind set for liking this drama. I didn’t make it past the thirty-minute mark before switching it to Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q!’s Spring Special.

WISCONSIN!!!

Anyway.

During Otakon weekend my friend mentioned to me that it got juicy at the end. Apparently this happy go lucky lovey dovey relationship between Yamashita and Sasaki wasn’t so clean cut as I thought it was. Unfortunately, I didn’t care enough to finish watching it… Until recently when I decided I needed something to watch. Since I had already knocked out Orthros no Inu, Buzzer Beat would just be the topping on the cake. If I have to go out, I might as well go out with a bang.

And what a bang it was.

Hey Guys! I'm a Bitch and a Slut!

Much to my surprise, I blazed through 9 episodes of sex, lies, love, and hate with a feeling I hadn’t had since Last Friends back in 2008.  I sat on the edge of my seat with each passing episode, cursing characters, cheering on characters, and all the while suffering with the realization that not only did I enjoy this drama but it was a Yamapi drama.

Yamapi, one of the few talents of J&A that seem to be the bane of my mere existence.

Buzzer Beat doesn’t really have anything going for it beyond the juicy, vain, and sinful storyline that does nothing but gives us inner sadists the pleasure in watching our favorite actors fail at life when it comes to love. The acting is average, the characters are a-typical, and the music is modest at best. But there’s something about that storyline that kept me watching.

Maybe it was how easy it was for our heroes to fall into such shitty situations or how simple it was for our characters to magically fall in love or maybe it was so shocking about how much of a cunt Aibu Sasaki’s character really is in this drama. I haven’t seen such cattiness in a character since Tokyo Prom Queen – and that’s some catty drama.

O NOMNOMNONOMNOM

Or maybe! It could be about how risqué the romance in this drama is. When you watch Japanese dramas, the typical fair is that it’s all implied. The kisses are pecks, the sex scenes are implied, and hugging and holding hands is more than enough to send a girl doki-doki-ing for the entire episode. But in Buzzer Beat, it’s a whole different ballpark. Want sex? You got sex. Want face eating make out sessions. You got your face eating make out sessions.

Buzzer Beat is so drama llama you just feel slaved to it. There’s nothing amazing about it, but its so juicy, it comes off as another Last Friends: You’re not watching it because it has a strong story and great acting, you’re only watching it because its down right dirty and juicy. You don’t question Shirakawa running half way across Japan to see Kamiya because he’s crying over the phone, you want that to happen because its so romantic. You don’t question why Nanami just told Kamiya he basically sucks as a boyfriend; you want her to do that because that means they’ll break up.

Anyone who says they’re watching this drama for the great acting and story are flat out liars. Dramas like this exist to make us go crazy over the cheap gimmicks and ridiculous situations these guys get into. It’s the same formula as Last Friends; no one really figured out why Sousuke beat the shit out of Michiru or even bothered to question it, we just wanted more of it because without it Last Friends would be one boring show.

Buzzer Beat has two more episodes of prolonged clusterfuck drama before it ends. With Naoki and Riko finally in love and damn near consummating their relationship, Natsuki realizes she misses the person who’s manhood she stomped into the ground without much regard and is doing everything in her power to push Riko out of the picture. When you think things are going great, think again. It’s FujiTV and its drama – it never comes out right. Let’s just hope none of them gets ran over by truck at the end of the series…

Boku wa shinimasen! Anata ga suki dakaraaaaaa!!!!!!!!

…. Ahem. Anyway. If you’re a woman and you like drama then watch this. I’m not promising anything great but damn is it a guilty pleasure.

Oh yeah, Yamapi walks around shirtless for like 50% of the drama too.

And... if you're a dude, well, there's cheerleaders.