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Old 11-24-2014, 12:12 AM   #1
Talon87
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Rebound


Rebound (リバウンド) is a Japanese television series that aired Wednesday nights at 10pm during the Spring 2011 broadcast season. A ten-episode romantic comedy, Rebound tells the story of Ooba Nobuko, a rookie journalist for a fashion magazine who has been assigned to write a piece on a particular bakery's cakes. It just so happens that Nobuko has history with this bakery -- as well as a lifelong battle with weight gain.

Kaisa and I were watching another Japanese television program when suddenly they made a reference to this drama. I was curious enough that, when I saw the first episode was on YouTube, I decided to watch for a few minutes. I reported what I'd found to Kaisa. And the next thing I knew, we had both watched the first episode. Kaisa's since watched the second episode as well; I'm halfway through it myself.

It isn't magnificent television like Karei Naru Ichizoku or Three Kingdoms, but it's cute, typical J-romcom fare. If you've ever seen a Japanese live-action series like Nodame Cantabile or Mop Girl before, then I'd say that you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the script, from the way the actors deliver their lines, etc.
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Old 11-24-2014, 06:58 AM   #2
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Wrapping up episode 3 at the moment, and I gotta say that I worry about these main characters. ^_^;

Spoiler: show
All the yo-yoing with their weights is really bad for one's health. Not to mention stuff like stretch marks, loose skin, inevitable rebounding and all the other side effects real humans would get from the constant weight loss and gain.

Doesn't come as a surprise to anyone: the ex comes back again, and now he's totally not in the mood for dating because the lady's slim again. Why can't the men in this show (apart from Nobuko's dad) get their head straight about whether they prefer girls skinny or fat?

EXTREME YO-YOING CONTINUES! D:


On to episode 4!
Spoiler: show
PILLS! GYM! RESTRICTIVE DIETING! This is such a disastrous relationship for both parties' bodies. D: And cultural norms strike again: can Nobuko still go to work after marriage? It's strange to watch, since in the western world this (as far as I know) wouldn't even be an issue in the first place. (And speaking of work, Nobuko's boss (Prada Lady, as Talon affectionately calls her) is still the worst.)

Speaking of western things, MOOMIN LANGUAGE STILL GOING STRONG! :'D

This is show is getting better and better at reminding me of exactly how problematic life becomes all around if you have problems with food/eating/dieting.

CREEPY EX IS GETTING MORE AND MORE 119-WORTHY EVERY TIME HE APPEARS ON-SCREEN! HOW IS HE DOING THAT?! o_O
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Old 11-24-2014, 08:48 AM   #3
Talon87
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Just finished Episode 02.

Spoiler: show
In Episode 01, I wondered briefly if they would entertain the plot twist that Taichi also struggles with weight gain. But when they introduced the matter of his poor vision, I figured that that was the approach they were going for instead: Nobuko and Taichi each have their physical faults, but where Nobuko's is how easily she gains weight, Taichi's is his poor vision.

So at the end of Episode 02 when they reveal that, sure enough, Taichi has become fat ... yeah, I have to admit that I was caught by surprise! Nothing up through now had suggested that Taichi is ever fat or has ever struggled with becoming fat. And Lord knows that he had plenty of opportunities to put on the pounds between when Nobuko first met him and when he called her two weeks prior to the end of Episode 02 (i.e. at the end of the first two-week window of time she requested of him)! So yes, I am a little surprised. I had considered the window for this plot twist to have already been closed a while ago, so for it to come along now was a cute surprise.

Unfortunately, the sneak peek for Episode 03 fills me with trepidation. Rather than becoming a d'aww couple where each understands the Heaven and Hell associated with eating cake, the sneak peek for Episode 03 indicates that Nobuko is grossed out by Fat Taichi and that she doesn't want to date him. He's shown leaning in for a kiss at one point and she shoves him away. Taichi, the same person she was just fantasizing about being proposed to by only a few days ago! In another scene, Fat Taichi meets Nobuko's friend Hitomi ... and Nobuko seems to be super, super embarrassed about it whereas Taichi is perfectly fine. And finally, we have that one thin asshole, Kensaku, the guy who Nobuko should have gotten over ages ago, the one who dumped her for being fat. His continued presence worries me since it seems like the writers are setting Nobuko up for being in love with both men at once. And that's just ridiculous. Yeah, Taichi may be verbally abusive and violent and prone to fits of rage (uhh ... what a catch? ^^; ) but deep down he's a nice guy. Whereas Kensaku is just an asshole.

I feel dumb though for not realizing until now that his very name was a dead giveaway -- Taichi, a.k.a. 太一, a.k.a. "No.1 Fatty" if you want to read it that way.
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Old 11-24-2014, 10:26 AM   #4
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Episode 03 thoughts below, but first a fair warning: if you watch the upload on YouTube by user Satoshi Tsumabuki B+, then note that his upload of Episode 03 starts off one-third of the way into the episode and then loops back around. I didn't realize this until the loop. I don't want anyone else to have to suffer as I did, so if you do watch his upload, be sure to start at 31m00s. (I've started you a few seconds into the episode. Don't try to be clever and scroll back to when it sharply starts, because the start of the episode and the end of the sneak peek for Episode 04 are directly adjacent, and the sneak peek for 04 will ruin a lot of the magic of 03 for you if you see it first. So just start at 31m00s as directed! )

Okay, now for thoughts on the episode:

Spoiler: show
I enjoyed it, but there are some concerns that I have.

First up, Nobuko's rejection of Taichi when he became fat. While I dislike it, it's an honest exploration of something that I think a lot of people in life have: an intolerance for their significant other having some vice that they themselves have. Whether it's "I don't date women who smoke" while being a smoker, whether it's "I don't date ugly women" while being mega ugly, whether it's "I don't date fat women" while being fat, whatever it is, there are a lot of cases where a guy's criteria for the women he will date would exclude him himself were he a girl. We've already seen this with Taichi (how he told Nobuko that the one woman he wouldn't date is a fat woman, and now we know that he feels this way despite his own history with obesity), and I guess it's only fair of the writers to mirror this attitude in Nobuko as well, having her secretly have a preference for slim guys. But still. :\ It makes me disappointed in Nobuko that she feels this way.

Second, Kensaku. I'm really confused here. Everything we have seen of Kensaku outside of the flashback has indicated that he's a nice guy. I know I called him an asshole in my previous post, but that was mostly based on my impressions of him from the flashback. At the time I wrote that post, we'd only seen Kensaku a few other times and it was easy to write off his 180° opposite behavior there as weird writing. But Episode 03 makes it impossible for me to ignore the truth any longer: Kensaku liked Nobuko when she was fat. Which then begs the questions:
  • Why did he break up with her at all?
  • Why did he imply that he was breaking up with her because she was fat?
  • Why did he tell Nobuko that his preference is for slender girls?
It's so weird. Nothing we have seen of Kensaku in the present has jived with the flashback at all. Kensaku in the present seems to be a chubby chaser, begging Nobuko to put back on the pounds that she's worked so hard to lose. Kensaku in the flashback says he prefers slim girls. Kensaku in the present tells Nobuko that he fell for her when he saw what a good-hearted person she was. Kensaku in the flashback broke up with this very same good-hearted person and blamed it on her looks. Kensaku in the present wants to get back together with Nobuko (and not because she's skinny now either). Kensaku in the flashback is the one who called off the relationship. It ... none of it makes any sense! >_< I'm so, so confused by the way they've written the Kensaku character.

Okay, negatives out of the way, time for positives!

I'm happy that Nobuko and Taichi end up together (as expected) -- and that they have done so already. (Unexpected! ) I was expecting the show's writers to drag out this cat-and-mouse game between Nobuko and Taichi all the way until like Episode 09 or 10. But no! End of Episode 03 and they've already said they love each other, kissed, and even slept together. They are 100% a couple now. It's generally enjoyable when a love story does this sort of thing since they don't insult the audience's intelligence -- "Yes, yes, we know that you all knew that Nobuko and Taichi would wind up together in the end. So why drag things out? Let's have them hook up and then let's take things in a different direction."

While I'm surprised by the different direction we're going in -- suddenly this story is about black-market diet pills? O_o -- it does look like it will be interesting.

One last negative: I'm angry with Nobuko for ignoring the doctor's orders to only take one pill a day lest she suffer side effects (possibly irreversible ones! ) but this series is so light-hearted that in the end I'm okay since I know the writers won't have anything terrible befall Nobuko permanently. Seriously, though, kids: don't fuck around with trial drugs. If the doctor tells you "Only one pill a day or else side effects," you take only one pill a day.

The tsundere boss of Nobuko's is clearly tsundere. Kaisa said she's basically the The Devil Wears Prada boss character. I wonder if her icy exterior was pretend too? I will be very surprised if this series ends with Nobuko's boss still being officially icy cold. She's bound to have her soft side fully revealed.

Kensaku's constant sweating seems like it's setting up for another plot twist. Was Kensaku also formerly fat? Is he also on some sort of trial drug that helps him to remain thin? Is it something else? We'll see. I don't think it can be "He's sweating because he's nervous and he's nervous because he's in love with Nobuko and there she is," and I say this because Kensaku is in love with the fat Nobuko and seems to be turned off by the thin one. So like, it wouldn't make sense for him to be sweating all the time now that she's thin. At least not for an attraction-based reason.

When they showed that Hitomi had gained weight I was like, "Whoa! Unexpected!" ... And then she reveals that she's wearing the fat suit Nobuko borrowed from the doctor. Whoopsie.
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Old 11-24-2014, 12:55 PM   #5
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Caught up now. Though I bet by the time I get home you'll be way ahead of me. haha

Episode 04:

Spoiler: show
Darn. :\ After I finished praising the show for not dragging things out, Episode 04 comes along and artificially elongates the pre-marriage period by having Yuki turn villainous and pursue Taichi and having Kensaku turn creepy stalker and pursue Nobuko.

Episode 04 was good for highlighting how badly Taichi was rushing their relationship. Like, you two only met about two to three months ago and have spent one month of that apart from one another. And you're seriously considering marriage already? Don't you think that's a little fast? Personally I think two years minimum makes sense. Many modern couples go for as little as one year. But you're getting married only three months after meeting!? You hardly even know one another yet -- as this episode more than proved. Way too fast, Taichi. Way too fast.

Was disappointed with the plot development where Nobuko turns in her letter of resignation and her boss was mean about it. While I liked that they showed Nobuko willing to sacrifice her career for Taichi, I would've preferred it had Taichi then shown up at her workplace and told her that he had the same thoughts on his own end and that he didn't want her to quit after all -- that he'd rather make some personal sacrifices if it meant that his bride-to-be could both have her cake and eat it too. Would've been more romantic that way, and it also wouldn't have needlessly drawn out the subplots with Nobuko's boss or the lovebirds' wedding plans. All this stated, I guess it was inevitable though given that the writers decided on dragging things out with Evil Yuki and Creepy Kensaku subplots.

I really disliked Taichi going for a shotgun marriage, so of course I then liked it when it was revealed that he didn't really intend for them to get married that day and in such a way and that he was only doing this to try and force Nobuko to be more honest about her feelings.

I keep worrying that Nobuko is going to lose that wedding ring. She'd better not!

I don't understand why Nobuko didn't go home to Gifu for the week. She wouldn't have had to tell anybody in Tokyo. In fact, I had thought that this was her plan all along. So why in the blue blazes didn't she do it!? Why did she end up going home with Kensaku of all people!? Strange.
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Old 11-25-2014, 09:22 AM   #6
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Watched Episode 05. So much happened!

Spoiler: show
There was so much that happened in this episode that it'd be too much to list it all off. I'll just focus on what to me were the best parts.

I really enjoyed the cake-eating scene with the EDEN staff. It was great seeing the Henshuuchou stuff her face with cake, desperately struggling to keep it down. It was equally great to see Nobuko attempt to come to their rescue. But of course best of all was getting to see that, yes indeed , Henshuuchou has a soft side that she covers up with her icy exterior. It was good enough that she allowed Nobuko to return, but the revelation that she had never turned in Nobuko's letter of resignation was icing on the cake.

Nobuko's scene at the clinic was also good. While I somewhat don't like the doctor telling her that she can never again be skinny -- she did after all manage to become skinny originally without the help of any drugs -- I also like it, both because it affirms the negative side effects of the drug as well as because I'd like to see Nobuko and Taichi making progress on the learning-to-love-the-other-person-despite-his/her-weight front.

Since I think Nobuko's baby talk Tough Fat Woman scenes are embarrassingly silly, I loved it when Taichi told Nobuko this episode to shut it and she did. Funny little bit of fourth wall humor, there.

Kensaku is crazy to be spending this much money on a girl he might not even wind up with. Seriously, one hotel for ten nights? That's like $700 to $1,500 right there! Then all of the room service ...!

Yuki's pretty nasty. Not sure how the writers will resolve her subplot though. Will Taichi become fat again and she'll lose interest? Will Yuki become fat and Thin Taichi and Thin Nobuko will laugh her away? Will Yuki scheme too much and her scheming will come to light? Will she wind up with Kensaku or perhaps with Thin Nobuko's admirer?

Hitomi is tsundere friendship-wise. :p :) Thinking of the final scene where Nobuko cries with happiness at how good of a friend Hitomi is and Hitomi just tries to act like nothing is happening.
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Old 11-25-2014, 04:50 PM   #7
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Episode 06:

Spoiler: show
This episode teases the troubling possibility of Hitomi x Taichi, then shelves it for most of the episode ... only to revisit it in a big way at the very end. I'm not sure how to feel about this development. Approaching Rebound irl as a writing critic, I feel like it's a bit too fantastic to be believed. Approaching it irl as a lover of good drama, well, it certainly is dramatic! ^^; And finally approaching it with sympathy towards the in-universe characters in mind, it's just a really regrettable clusterfuck of a group of nice people falling in love with one another and consequently hurting one another as one person opens a door before the other person's closed it -- or, in this case, when the other person has decided to re-open it.

Hitomi seems like a nice person. She genuinely cares about Nobuko. This has been demonstrated numerous times throughout the series, and again is demonstrated in Episode 06. So even if she has developed a crush on Taichi, I would expect her to not pursue it. Sure enough, the sneak peek for Episode 07 indicates that she tells Taichi she would never desire to lay claim to a man Nobuko was involved with. But the sneak peek also suggests that Taichi and Hitomi go on a dinner date together, so ...

Taichi, for his part, looks like he was ready to patch things up with Nobuko or else go ask Yuki out on a date, either/or. Most likely the former, especially since it's long been hinted that the woman he loves is his muse for making cakes and no one save Nobuko has been able to fulfill that role for him. So if he was about to go and fix things with Nobuko, then -- despite the regrettable misunderstanding at Ange that night when Episode 06 ends -- I fail to see why he wouldn't have tried the next morning. Explained to Nobuko what happened, explain that he was only trying to be a gentleman towards Hitomi when she asked if it was okay to cry into his chest, etc. Why is he going on a dinner date with his (ex-)fiancée's best friend? It just seems so out of character.

I wasn't really sure how to feel about the drama with Nobuko's parents either. I really didn't like the revelation that Nobuko's mother characterizes Nobuko's father as a man who fell in love with her and not a man with whom she was already in love. The reason being, it paints the Oobas' relationship as being very similar to what would happen if Nobuko were to pick Kensaku over Taichi -- that is to say, if she were to pick the man who is in love with her (Kensaku) over the man with whom she herself is in love (Taichi). It sends a really weird, conflicting message imo. Either we're supposed to believe that Nobuko's mom married in error, we're supposed to believe that Nobuko should pick Kensaku, or else we're supposed to believe that it ultimately doesn't matter who you marry so long as they're nice and you will eventually learn to love them. The first two make me sad and the third message feels really old-fashioned. Like, pre-20th century old-fashioned. ^^;

All of this stated, I really loved this episode. (I don't think that came across well in my post for last episode so either, so I'll take this time to say that I really enjoyed Episode 05 as well! )

I loved all of Nobuko's scenes with Henshuuchou.

I also loved Nobuko's scene with the clinician. His disbelief at her ability to lose the weight through natural means was great to behold, as was the fact that she was able to do it. (Hooray for no permanent damage! Maybe! ^^; ) Though, as I noted last post, you might guess that I'm also a little disappointed by her easy weight loss, for all of the reasons I brought up previously explaining why I was glad to see the threat of her being stuck in her fat body forever.

Kaisa has noted that the yo-yoing Nobuko goes through is unhealthy. At first I was willing to ignore it for the sake of television, but at this point in the show it really is unignorably ridiculous. ^^; Nobuko has gained and then lost again her ~30 kilos I want to say something like five times already. I think it's still only been about four months max in universe since Nobuko and Taichi met. That's a weight swing of approximately 66 pounds once every week and a half to two weeks. (Because 66 up and then 66 down once every month or just under, so divide that by two for the single-direction weight swing.) It does seem like it'd be wildly unhealthy on a vast array of organs. C'mon, writers. ^^; I know you're writing a romcom in the vein of Mrs. Doubtfire but gaining and losing 30 kilograms of body fat isn't the same thing as putting on a costume and faking a mild Scottish accent.
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Old 11-25-2014, 05:58 PM   #8
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So I ended up binging this series. ;w;

Episode 6!

Spoiler: show
Yuki and Kensaku just keep escalating. Yuki's basically asking for a proposal from Taichi and Kensaku continues his attempt at getting Nobuko back - and reporting every last move to the Internet.

Nobuko's parents, the seemingly only happy couple in this show, have a fight. Mama escapes Papa's "annoyingness" to Nobuko's place, leading to a shouting match between Mama and Papa, then Mama and Papa and Nobuko. Nobuko completely overreacts to the situation and then collapses after not having eaten properly for at least three days. I have to say that I'm really disliking Nobuko's childish attitude over the Mama-Papa-fight: I actually have reacted much in the same way...when I was about eight years old and terrified of my parents breaking up (this was an unfounded fear). Seeing the same sort of reacting from a grown woman feels just...really, really sad. ^_^; And then, naturally, Nobuko goes on to write in her column about being a grown-up and doing things. Our expert on maturity! @.@

BAM! SUDDENLY WEIGHT LOSS! The doctor being baffled over the weight-loss was weird, depressed people losing their appetite and hence some weight is a pretty known and understood thing in the western world.

Speaking of depressing...Hitomi's backstory and her parents. Good CHRIST if this isn't a cliché: creative kid wants to be an artist, parents say "grow up and get a REAL job already". Even more cliché: NOBUKO'S CINDERELLA SHOE. ^_^;;



Episode 7!

Spoiler: show
Yuki reveals her true colors: everything's a competition to her, she just wants to be "better" than Nobuko. So I wasn't very sad when Prada Boss wanted her fired for not being appealing as a model anymore. ^^;; Or when Taichi laid it out that Yuki's a total bitch.

Speaking of bitchy: Nobuko snaps right when Taichi is about to propose to her...because it turns out that Hitomi likes Taichi too!

Hitomi doesn't want to steal Nobuko's man - despite liking Taichi. CAT FIGHT! -ding ding ding- Or well...Hitomi yelling at Nobuko for being a doormat and thinking too much about everyone else's feelings. Fat Nobuko yells back, Hitomi moves out. Ouchie.

Oh, and Kensaku's still 119-worthy.



Episode 8!

Spoiler: show
Nobuko tries to make up with Hitomi and Taichi tries to get Nobuko back. ENTER KENSAKU, READY TO RUB IT IN THAT NOBUKO'S NO LONGER TAICHI'S GIRL. Jesus christ this guy is good at this meddling business. :'D

Prada Lady gets fired after Yuki grabs her modelling job at EDEN back (somewhat blatantly through flirting/sleeping with a higher-up). Maybe Yuki and Kensaku should become a couple and totally go around ruining people's day for the hell of it?



Episode 9!

Spoiler: show
Noooooooooo Prada Lady actually leaves! ;~; DAMMIT YUKI!

Kensaku still trying to get together with Nobuko...this time with the offer of "even" taking over the tonkatsu shop from Nobuko's father, who's just had a scare in the form of heart problems. I was more than happy to see Nobuko laying it out for Kensaku that he's a weakling who just wants a woman he can step all over and have as his yes-woman. WHY DIDN'T SHE SLAP HIM THOUGH?!

Nobuko makes up with Hitomi and then declars she'll take over the tonkatsu shop all by herself go to hell Kensaku.



Episode 10!

Spoiler: show
...AND KENSAKU'S BACK, having become an employee at Nobuko's dad's tonkatsu shop. He's still trying for marriage with Nobuko, but at he refusal simply sticks around to work in the shop, with his family having disowned him for leaving his cozy office job. What fine parents. >.>;;

Tonkatsu doesn't go over too well - Nobuko's totally not in the mindset to be making heavenly tonkatsu.

As predictable as it is, Taichi is brought over to stop Kensaku from proposing to Nobuko for the umpteenth time in this series. Suddenly TONKATSU CAKE! WHY NOT! :'D Nobuko and Taichi get back together and start running ANGE, whilst Kensaku takes over the tonkatsu shop (and utterly fails at hitting on Hitomi, thank god).

MY HONEY! Oh god, the diet doctor getting together with a fat woman was just...wow! :'D Maybe not totally unpredictable, but I didn't exactly expect him to be around even after Nobuko stopped dieting. And speaking of side-characters I haven't really noticed...the new guy at the store who's been talking with his mom on the phone through the entire series has a name that shortens to Tenshi. Why not.

And then the little girl actually turns out to be an angel. o.O'' O-o-okay?

So we get a happy ending with everyone eating cake and tonkatsu and Nobuko being back to her former fat self, while Taichi remains skinny.


The episode comments are short as hell, I know, but it's hard to write stuff about episodes you binged and suddenly can't remember every detail of. ;; But despite that, I think Rebound is a good show. I personally wasn't comfortable with the constant yo-yo dieting and weight gain/loss at a most unrealistic pace, but if you can look past that it's a sweet, fluffy rom-com.

Like those darn cakes. ;w;
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Old 11-26-2014, 01:13 PM   #9
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Episode 07:

Spoiler: show
Oh man. >.< This episode was edge-of-your-seat drama for the first four fifths for one reason and for the final fifth for another. For the first four fifths, the drama is watching Nobuko lose her mind and/or destroy her relationship with Taichi because of her paranoia justified fear that Hitomi is in love with Taichi and that Taichi might be attracted to Hitomi as well. While it is true that Hitomi has developed feelings for Taichi, the viewer knows that Hitomi would never lay hands on a guy Nobuko was interested in, much less dating. And as for Taichi, he's just being an ordinary guy: there's some sexual tension when Hitomi looks into his eyes a certain way or when her hand touches his, but he always pulls back from it, uncomfortable with another woman possibly making advances towards him when he's happily in a relationship with Nobuko. For the final fifth of the episode, on the other hand, we have the drama of Nobuko and Hitomi having a falling out after they exchange angry but heartfelt words with one another.

While I found the episode generally entertaining, the show is going in a really strange direction. I feel like the writers didn't have a script that supported a ten-episode format and resorted to some desperate ways to stretch the story out. But as a consequence, we have this really weird ... thing. I suppose it happens on occasion in real life, but it just seems so weird to have the love web we have right now involving Nobuko, Taichi, Kensaku, Yuki, and Hitomi. Like, subtract Hitomi from the equation and it's still an outlandish thing to have happen IRL but it probably does happen in 1-5% of relationships (if not quite as comically dramatic as here). But with the addition of Hitomi to the mix, it's just really ... weird. I'm not used to seeing love stories do this. Either it's usually a Nobuko-Taichi-Hitomi setup or it's a Nobuko-Taichi-Yuki-Kensaku setup. I guess the best way I can explain it would be to say that one might make an equilateral triangle, one might make a rectangle, but now we have this really weird, misshapen, asymmetric pentagon (if in 2-D space) or quadrilateral pyramid (if in 3-D space). It's just weird. ^^;

Nobuko's request that Taichi make a cake about her was one specific example of the (if it's alright for me to call it this) "forced writing" of the second half of this show. Just as Taichi's character says, he's already made a cake about Nobuko. Several, technically! But specifically the third cake he ever made -- the two-kinds-of-chocolate chocolate cake that symbolized Fat Nobuko and Thin Nobuko and how he loved all sides of her. Why didn't she see that? I get why the writers wanted her to not see it -- they wanted drama -- but I'm asking why we're supposed to believe that, even with all of her paranoia about Hitomi x Taichi, Nobuko couldn't see that Cake #3 was already symbolic of her.

It felt pretty childish of the other EDEN staff members to turn on Nobuko like that. Again, it feels like the writers wanted to justify an angle of "The whole world has gotten fed up with Nobuko the Eternal Peacemaker" for the sake of the story and so they forced this scene. I could believe some of the employees resenting EDEN. (Especially any that Yuki had poisoned against Nobuko.) But all of them? Are they seriously so quick to forget that Nobuko was fired several months ago and under separate circumstances was forced to tender her resignation one month ago? Are they seriously so selfish that they can't spare a little happiness for the woman who was in their very position four months ago but who has finally achieved the dream that they all hope to achieve themselves some day -- to be respected by Henshuuchou?

Yuki proves to be more and more villainous with each passing episode. Taichi offers her some pretty decent reasons for why he'd never go back to her when he's since found Nobuko, but I doubt that Yuki is going to accept these.

Kensaku honestly isn't nearly as creepy as Kaisa had led me to believe he'd become by Episode 07. That stated, he is kinda creepy, I guess. I dunno. Maybe rather than "creepy" I'd go for "sickly desperate" or "sickly obsessed"? While his reliance on the Internet to win Nobuko over is meant to be scorned here, I have a hard time doing that when it's the very same thing we celebrated in Densha Otoko. Like, Kensaku isn't nearly as bad as Densha was. One thing is clear: it's difficult to root for Kensaku winding up with Nobuko. This is not a Hana Yori Dango situation where we have two good guys and it's a question of which man we'd rather the heroine wind up with. No, Kensaku is clearly a no-go as far as the audience is concerned, myself included. But really, that's 99.9% (for me at least) because he's chasing after someone else's girl when he knows full well that they're practically engaged to be married.

The series claims this episode that Nobuko has only rebounded twice. Um, what? I'm too lazy to go back through Episodes 01-06 just to prove the show wrong, but I am fairly confident that even if my own count of five times is incorrect that she's done it at least three separate times.
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Old 11-26-2014, 04:55 PM   #10
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Episode 08:

Spoiler: show
This episode was so good right up until the final three minutes + sneak peek for Episode 09. Then it kinda pissed me off. :\ ^^; But let's start with the good ...

This was basically "the Henshuuchou episode." Whether it's anime or live action, most audience members have got a soft spot for tsunderes, for those kings and queens of icy exteriors belying soft, warm interiors. This episode sees Nobuko's boss, Morinaka Ran, fired by the higher-ups from her position as EDEN's editor-in-chief after she refuses to cave in to pressures to place Yuki on the cover of the magazine. In both the lead up to and the aftermath from the Henshuuchou's firing, we come to learn why she hates cake so much, why she is the way she is at work, and so on. In the end, she declines Nobuko's request to return to being EDEN's editor-in-chief ... but gives the girl hope when she affirms that she isn't retiring just yet from the world of fashion magazines, and that she plans to start a new magazine to try and accomplish what, in the end, EDEN sadly could not.

The episode also provided a good exploration of the falling out between Nobuko and Hitomi. We see that neither girl really wants it but there's a fundamental disagreement between Nobuko -- who ends up deciding that she should be true to herself, i.e. that she shouldn't try to change -- and Hitomi -- who would still like to see Nobuko change some things about her and who wants to change some things about herself as well. Where each woman will land is anyone's guess with this writing team.

One thing I do like about Rebound is how well they demonstrate why Hitomi would fall for Taichi as hard as she has. The scene with the lecherous art gallery owner highlighted this point: that no one except for Taichi has ever complimented Hitomi's artwork and meant it, without any expectation of reward in return for their kind words. With the whole world telling her that she can't cut it as an artist, Hitomi finds inspiration in Taichi's sincere enthusiasm for her drawings.

Okay, so ... the final few minutes. ^^; First off, I really disliked Nobuko's answer to Taichi when he asked her what she thought about Hitomi's confession. "I think you should date her"? Seriously? C'mon, Nobuko. This is an obvious repeat of the test Taichi gave you earlier in the series when he whisked you off to the church for a shotgun wedding. He has no intentions of dating Hitomi -- but he also has no intentions of proposing to you if you're not going to fight for him. So fight for him, girl! What sort of wife can you be if you're going to let any woman who is a friend of yours keep Taichi for themselves just because they tell you that they like him?

Second, I really dislike where the sneak peek is taking us. Papa dies? Kensaku makes his move to marry Nobuko and inherit the tonkatsu restaurant? Hitomi appears to maybe possibly indeed start dating Taichi? WHAT!? Granted, the sneak peek for Episode 07 faked me out with all of the Hitomi-Taichi dinner date footage (that ended up being all in Nobuko's head), so maybe there's some of that going on here as well? I dunno. All I can say is, based on the sneak peek I'm both surprised and bothered by the writers' apparent decision to pursue Nobuko x Kensaku and Hitomi x Taichi. I have mentioned that I don't think Kensaku is quite as bad as Kaisa did, but he's still clearly not the one for Nobuko. And she tells him as much when she lets him down this episode, saying that he should never come back, that she doesn't want to date him ever, etc. He seemed to take the hint and seemed to leave her apartment with the full understanding that it was Game Over for him and Nobuko. So why is he back in Episode 09? It's all so weird.

Episodes 09 and 10 will have to wait until later tonight at the soonest. Gotta hit the road! Several hours late as it is ... ¬¬;
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Old 11-28-2014, 03:54 PM   #11
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Episode 09:

Spoiler: show
This series has gone in a really strange direction. In the latest episode, we have Nobuko declaring that working at EDEN is her dream job; Nobuko later declaring that inheriting the family restaurant is her happiness; Nobuko telling Taichi she loves him but doesn't even want to try to discuss how they can make things work; Kensaku telling Nobuko he loves her; Nobuko telling Kensaku all of Kaisa's theories about Kensaku (e.g. that he's possessive, that he just wants her to be fat so that he can lord over her, etc.) and that he's too reliant on the Internet; Kensaku, despite being told all of this, going through with quitting his prestigious job, moving to Gifu, helping out with the Oobas' restaurant, and ditching his iPad; Hitomi quitting her career as an artist; and Taichi asking Hitomi to marry him. So like ... with all of this that has happened, we only have two possible outcomes:
1. They keep everything that has just happened. And thus we keep our bizarro and unexpected ending.

2. They upend some/all of what's just happened in order to gift us Nobuko x Taichi. And thus we've every right to complain with them needlessly complexifying the plot in order to delay the originally-predicted ending for as long as possible.
Either one is bad. But at this point in the story, I'd rather they gave us 1 over 2. Because 1 at least has going for it that it's 1) unexpected and 2) something that was built up to (bizarre as it is and poorly built up to as it may be). 2, on the other hand, is just dumb aside from giving me the romcom satisfaction of Main Girl winding up with Main Guy as originally expected. Of all the couples in the series, I still like Nobuko x Taichi best (as delivered. Nobuko x Kensaku could've easily been the best pair in a differently-presented story, one where Kensaku is never made to seem creepy or acting for bad reasons, one where he's portrayed as the knight who really does love Nobuko for who she is and is rescuing her from her abusive boyfriend Taichi who only likes Nobuko while she's thin). But the thing is, even if I like Nobuko x Taichi best, it just feels so stupid to wind up there now with 1) the introduction of Hitomi having feelings for Taichi too, 2) Nobuko stepping aside for Hitomi, and 3) Taichi asking Hitomi to marry him. As ridiculous as I may think the story has become by the end of Episode 09, it could only become more ridiculous by forcing the original ending at this point.

Hooray for Papa not dying.

Hooray for Kensaku, by the end of Episode 09, seeming to be 100% awesome. Even if he doesn't wind up with Nobuko, he seems like he's become a really great guy.

Hooray for Henshuuchou's decision to not use Yuki for the cover being proven correct by Yuki's latest photo shoot.

Just one more episode to go!
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Old 11-30-2014, 01:12 PM   #12
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Episode 10:

Spoiler: show
Ehhhhhhhhhhh. ^^; Forced ending is forced.

I don't really buy that a tonkatsu cake would work. Making it a quiche or anything decidedly non-cake feels like cheating (and feels like forcing the ending even more so), while having it be a sweet cake (which in the end it was -- they went with a pound cake, Nobuko says) just doesn't seem like it'd be something you'd want with tonkatsu. Like, tonkatsu separately? Good. Pound cake separately? Good. Having both in the same meal? Fine. Having both in the same bite? Ehhhhh ...

I don't really buy the writers' idea of a "mwahaha, happiwy evuh aftwuh " ending either. Like, earlier episodes (and the start of Episode 10 too) introduce the dilemma that Nobuko faces: either she chooses a future with Taichi in Tokyo making cakes or she chooses one in Gifu making tonkatsu. Even had they gone with the much more sane ending of Nobuko deciding to inherit the tonkatsu restaurant but relocating it to Tokyo (and building it near Ange) such that she could be with Taichi, she still would have been burdened with the guilt of stripping the people of Gifu of her father's tonkatsu. But this ending that we inherited just feels super silly convenient -- Ange and Tontontei are going to merge into one super-restaurant, and there will be a Gifu branch (built out of Tontontei) and a Tokyo branch (built out of Ange). Why? How? The idea with Ange is that only Taichi can make those cakes (with Nobuko's inspirational assistance), that you can't find those cakes anywhere else. Why should we accept that the Gifu branch would succeed on the cake side of things? And as for Tontontei, while the Gifu branch seems like it'd do okay for itself (given that it's the original site, that it still looks like a tonkatsu restaurant, that the locals all already know it and love it, etc.), the Tokyo branch is just one woman in the kitchen of a bakery supplying some fried pork for 10% of her husband's cakes. It isn't like she genuinely inherited Tontontei in the end. We don't see people coming to Ange and ordering a plate of just tonkatsu. I dunno, I just ... I felt like this ending was way too silly-forced to be enjoyed.

And speaking of silly! What the hell was up with Ai-chan being an angel!? SUDDENLY SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS IN MY Rebound! So weird. So silly.

I don't think "NOAH" is a very good name for a fashion magazine. ^^; Yes, a 600-year old bearded man who built an enormous boat: that's the association we want for our women's fashion magazine. EDEN worked. And I understand that the writers were going for an "Aha! The next step!" idea in selecting the name NOAH. But ... no. ^^; They should've gone for something feminine taken from Exodus (e.g. SEPHORA) or a later book in the Old Testament. Or heck, I don't mind, they could've still stuck with Genesis if they really wanted to. But name it something that suits a women's fashion magazine! Not NOAH!

One thing I'm really disappointed in the series for never revisiting was Taichi's own weight gain. It happened as a throwaway plot device in Episode 03 (debuting at the end of Episode 02) and then that was it. Once Taichi lost his weight, he never regained it. Why? They both quit taking the dangerous diet pills. And in Nobuko's case, it was explained that she didn't regain her weight as a combination of factors: acute depression, which facilitated beginning her strict diet once again; and then her diet, which once she was back on it it wasn't too tough for her to keep following it. But what about Taichi? Even if we accept that he had the exact same factors going for his being thin while Nobuko was thin, why did he never become fat again? He had to taste test so many cakes all by himself in the second half of the series. Are we really supposed to believe that the first time he had to do this (Episode 02) he put on the pounds but that all the other times he had to do it he was a-okay? C'mon, man. Unbelievable. I wanted to see Taichi gain weight again. And I wanted to see the writers confront the elephant in the room as far as Nobuko's and Taichi's initial repulsion by fat members of the opposite sex was concerned.

Related, I expected at least one character besides Nobuko to go from being thin to being fat by the end of the series. My top contenders were Taichi, Kensaku, Yuki, and Henshuuchou. Far in the distance next came Hitomi. And then that was about it. Well, the writers do end up giving us a surprise fatty at the very end ... but it's a character who never existed up until now. Meet the health clinician's new girlfriend! Ha ha, yes, it's funny that this guy who made such a big deal about women being thin would now be happily dating an obese woman. But is that really all you have for me? ^^; A never-before-seen character who ties in to one of the least important characters in the series? Meh.

In the end, Rebound was a cute little J-drama. Final score-thoughts. (Using the MyAnimeList 10-point scale where 5 means average, 6 means fair, 7 means good, 4 means bad, etc.)

Plot: 6/10 It was an okay little story. Slightly above average for J-dramas but nothing too spectacular. There are several episodes which feature rather forced writing (either for the sake of generating drama or else for the sake of resolving it) and that detracts from my ability to enjoy it.

Characters: 6/10 They were fine. It's a small cast, and the characters exist somewhere between deep and shallow. So yeah, I'd say they were fine. No one is unbearably annoying in my opinion. No one is really stellar either. I never had any characters where I just adored seeing them on camera.

Acting: 5/10 Pretty darn par for the J-drama course. Most Japanese dramas of Rebound's nature feature this distinct over-the-top comic way of acting, full of energy and over-the-top reactions. By Western standards, it's unprofessional; and by my own standards, it's embarrassingly silly ; but by Japanese standards, it's like half of all J-dramas on television for the past ten years. Can't really complain about it other than to say, "It isn't my preferred style." As for how well they acted, they acted pretty decently. Aibu Saki (Nobuko) really has you believing that she is Nobuko and not an actress playing Nobuko on TV. Hayami Mokomichi (Taichi) is the opposite in maybe about 20% of his on-camera time, but the rest of the time he's the same as Saki. For the most part, the cast doesn't consist of Oscar-level actors but they're not Kickboxer 4-level either.

Cinematography: 7/10 It was fine-good. I thought it was awkward for Aibu Saki the way that they decided to do the scale scenes (where the camera is looking up at her underwear-clothed crotch), but aside from that nothing felt inappropriate to me.

Music: 5/10 It was fine. But it was also perfectly average for a J-drama, hence the score that reflects this. There wasn't a single song I felt like listening to on YouTube.

Replay Value: Medium-Low I mean, if you really loved it then okay. But for me personally, this is the kind of series that I wouldn't beg to be freed from having to rewatch with friends or family but otherwise I would never probably watch it again. Too many better series, old and new alike, to spend my time with.

OVERALL: 6/10 It was pretty much your average J-drama (5/10) but with a little spritz of unique flavor and fun that pushes it just over the edge for me into "6/10 - Fair" territory.
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Old 11-30-2014, 02:51 PM   #13
Talon87
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So, I just found out that Rebound is apparently on CrunchyRoll. O_o So if you'd prefer to watch it on CrunchyRoll, by all means go for it. (If you have a good ad blocker for your browser of choice, then CrunchyRoll's files should play relatively seamlessly without any significant interruptions by commercial advertisements.)
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