あぶない放課後 ▫️1999 ▫️Episodes

I guess this would be considered Nino’s first lead role. He’s (again) cast as a grumpy and somewhat pathetic teenager. I enjoy watching him suffer from his mistakes to a degree, and he plays the character well, but sometimes it’s hard for me to watch the roles where he’s rather unlikable or dim. Nino has so much charm and power in his acting it’s almost a waste to use it on such characters. Perhaps when Nino was younger he didn’t yet have the presence and got typecast because of his ability to make such exaggerated and powerful facial expressions.

His costar is fellow Jr. member Shibutani Subaru and I did enjoy their playful energy in this. It can come off as Shibutani slightly bullying poor Nino but honestly sometimes I didn’t feel too bad because Nino’s character wasn’t being the best person either. Shibutani isn’t someone I know much about except that he always had amazing outfits on the Jr. shows.

There is of course a love triangle, or even love square at some points, and I’m a sucker for friends fighting over one girl. In this case I felt Nino’s actions were overly ignorant, but I suppose when you are young it can be hard to make sense of your feelings or know how to navigate relationships. It’s hard for me to connect to that feeling now because I’m in a stable romance, but I do think it’s realistic to struggle to express affection.

One of the strengths of the show is covering difficult topics, like teen pregnancy, and I appreciate that these early Arashi shows tackle important issues! I guess because I see Johnny’s as an entertainment company I expected them to be more strict with what topics are allowed in the shows of their stars. Even if it is likely filtered by them, I appreciate that their filter is broad and approaches the young audience with compassion. That’s probably to their benefit overall since a fan is more likely to spend money when they feel connected and understood by their idols.

Although I don’t give the overall show a high rating, I still think it is worth a watch. Sometimes when I break down the ratings I can feel the aspects weren’t really great, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t entertained. It is an enjoyable show that could have been executed a little better and I’m not complaining too much because Nino’s facial expressions were priceless. Also V6 theme song is crazy good!!